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WH-1000XM4C. $300. Fall 2026. Same fold, new EQ, three hours less battery. Lavender is the new color.
Sony put the WH-1000XM4 back on the price list as the WH-1000XM4C. M4 2nd Gen in some US copy. Original landed in 2020, left the catalog in 2025, returns this fall at $299.99 / about £219. Pre-order windows in early September pointed at deliveries around 23–24 September. Tinctures: Black, Platinum Silver, Lavender. Lavender is Sony and Amazon only in the first wave.
Same compact fold. Same 40 mm drivers. Same QN1 processor and four-mic ANC array as the 2020 pair. Bluetooth 6.0 instead of 5.0. Sound Connect app now carries a 10-band EQ and a gaming preset, not the old five-band. Claimed battery with ANC on: 27 hours. Original XM4: 30. Without ANC: 34 against the old 38. Weight about 253 g. Carry case still in the box. LDAC, DSEE Extreme, multipoint, touch plate, Speak-to-Chat / Quick Attention still on the spec sheet. European briefings add a user-replaceable battery for the incoming EU rule.
It is not a WH-1000XM6. XM6 launched near $450 with QN3 and a twelve-mic array and a different, less pocketable hinge. XM4C is the folding cup people kept taking to the airport after they owned something newer.
Signal. What happened: Sony revived the XM4 as XM4C for fall 2026. Exact product: WH-1000XM4C, $300, three colors. When and where: Sony and Amazon, deliveries late September in the first pre-order wave. Source: Sony product page and September 2026 brief. Why it matters: the fold people missed is back under the flagship, not above it. Earlier DRIFT: none on XM4C.
Black. Lavender. Platinum silver. Same fold, three shells.
fold
XM5 and XM6 stretched the headband and stopped folding into a brick. That was the complaint in every departure-lounge thread for five years. XM4C answers with the old geometry. Cups collapse. Case stays small. 253 grams is a few grams of modern battery law, not a new chassis.
Headband still has that slightly thick Sony join. Early hands-on notes call it clunky next to the slimmer flagship band. Pads are the familiar protein-leather cups. Clamp is the 2020 clamp. If an original XM4 left a hotspot after a long-haul film, this one will too. If it disappeared on your head, this one will.
Lavender is the photograph. Silver is the travel default. Black is the pair that vanishes in a dark cabin. Gold SONY type on the outer cup is the same jewelry the first XM4 wore.
Touch panel is still the right cup. Swipe, tap, cover for Quick Attention. Speak-to-Chat still pauses music when you talk. People who hated those gestures can kill them in Sound Connect. Multipoint still holds a phone and a laptop. Calls are described as adequate, not flagship. Four mics on a 2020 processor will not beat XM6 on a windy corner.
The replaceable cell is the quiet EU sentence. You can open the pack later. That is new relative to the sealed 2020 brick. It is also why the hour count dropped. Chemistry and a service hatch cost runtime.
straddle
Forty millimeters. Same hardware as the record. Sony says the DSP curve moved toward current 1000X taste. Thicker XM4 bass was the old complaint against XM5. XM4C is supposed to sound less dated without swapping the driver. 10-band EQ is the real lever. Five bands was a toy. Ten bands is how you stop arguing with the house tune.
LDAC is still the hi-res pipe on Android. DSEE Extreme still upscales junk files. A gaming preset is new on this chassis. Whether that preset is a low-latency trick or a loudness curve is an app screenshot away.
ANC is QN1 and four mics. Hands-on from subway and sidewalk tests puts it under XM6 and above Ult Wear. Enough for a carriage. Not enough if you live next to XM6 numbers. Wind and irregular low rumble are where the old chip shows. Most people who loved XM4 ANC will recognize this one. People who upgraded for XM6 silence will hear the gap.
27 hours with ANC is the number Sony printed. Three hours less than 2020. 34 hours ANC off. Fast charge behavior should follow the family: minutes on a cable for hours in the air. Confirm the exact quick-charge line on the box. For a transatlantic, 27 is still a full film plus the return. It is not the spec that wins a spreadsheet against the original used pair you already own.
Bluetooth 6 is the radio bump. Pairing should be cleaner on new phones. NFC quick-pair looks dropped in pre-release shots. If that bothers you, the app still does the work.
stance
$300 is $50 under the 2020 launch ticket and $150 under XM6. Used XM4s sold cheaper than that before they vanished. Sony is not matching the secondary market. Sony is selling a new fold with a warranty, a lavender shell, and an EQ the old app never had.
Who this is for: the person who hated the XM5/XM6 hinge, wants a case that fits the old backpack pocket, and does not need the newest mic array. Who this is not for: the person buying silence as a flex. That person is still on XM6 or waiting for XM7.
fin
CH730N and CH530 landed in the same Sony press wave as cheaper wireless options. XM4C is not those. It is the mid-stack fold with a famous name. Do not confuse the C with a budget CH model at the register.
Fall 2026. Black, silver, lavender. 27 hours on paper. The cups still kiss in the case. That is the whole pitch. The rest is EQ sliders and a battery door Europe asked for.
