Polished Sony WF-1000XM5 leaked photos show off a sleek new design

Audio lovers have been waiting for the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds to be released for quite some time, and it looks like things are getting a little more concrete as new official-looking photos have cropped up, showing off Sony’s new and streamlined XM5 earbud design.

The Sony WF-1000XM4s of a couple of years ago were affectionately referred to as the “truffles.” The hi-res earbuds took on a huge mushroom-like shape that looked a little funny but was backed up with some incredible sound. In fact, the XM4s are still regarded as one of the best-sounding wireless earbuds you can still buy, even though they’ve witnessed many other earbuds come and go.

But as with most devices, the next generation is almost always around the corner – at least, we hope. In a recent leak, new images of the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds have surfaced. The photos show off both the case and pair of earbuds in two different colorways: Silver and Black.

It looks as though the company is sticking with the “Silver” title, though the finish looks more like a pearl white. Even still, the color options don’t look bad in the least, with Sony opting to keep the small gold accent that was apparent on the previous generation.

Rather than that famed mushroom shape, Sony has slimmed things down and gone for more of a bubble, which sounds worse than it is. The pre-production Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds are definitely still large, which just means that there is likely to be a lot of good tech stuffed inside. In previous leaks, we’ve had a pretty good look at what’s going on under the plastic shell.

According to WinFuture, the new Sony XM5 earbuds come with a 24-hour battery life while using the case for top-ups. On a single charge, it’s still unclear how long each earbud can last. The only thing known at this time is that three minutes of charging in the case can get you an extra hour of listening time, which is huge.