Hailed as being Sennheiser’s most “advanced true wireless earbuds yet”, what’s new with the Momentum True Wireless 5 compared to 2024’s True Wireless 4 pair?
Considering the Momentum True Wireless 4 has a five-star rating and spot on our coveted best noise-cancelling earbuds list, is it worth upgrading to the new pair? Or is last year’s option still perfectly sufficient for most users?
Ahead of our Momentum True Wireless 5 review, we’ve compared its specs to the Momentum True Wireless 4 and noted the key updates below.
Price and Availability
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 buds will launch officially on September 3rd, and come in a choice between five colours: Graphite, Cream, Copper, Denim and Lavender. The buds will have a MSRP of £249.99/$299.95.
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Naturally as it’s over two years old, the Moment True Wireless 4 has a slightly cheaper RRP of £229.99. Having said that, we have seen the buds drop in price over the past year. The buds also come in a choice between four colours including Black Graphite, White Silver, Black Copper and Gold.
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5’s ANC has been redesigned
We praised the Momentum True Wireless 4 buds’ ANC as excellent, with the amount of noise suppressed being genuinely impressive. So, how do the True Wireless 5 buds look set to compare?
According to Sennheiser, the buds sport a revised adaptive hybrid active noise cancellation system and an automatic anti-wind mode too. The latter is especially noteworthy as, although the True Wireless 4 buds’ Anti-Wind mode does a good job of getting rid of blustery wind conditions, it comes at the expense of a stronger noise-cancelling performance. With this in mind, we hope the True Wireless 5 manages to bridge the gap between stopping wind coming through while maintaining solid noise-cancelling.
In addition, the 5s sport a dedicated four-microphone array to both maximise noise cancelling while delivering the series’ “most natural-sounding” transparency mode. We were seriously impressed with the 4s’ transparency mode, as it sounded so clear that it didn’t feel like we were sporting earphones. As our AV Editor Kob Monney stated that he doesn’t “think you can achieve much better than that”, we’re keen to see how the 5s really fare.
Finally, the buds also promise to provide pristine voice capture, thanks to a combination of microphones and two bone-conduction voice accelerometers with an AI speech extraction algorithm that promises to isolate your voice. That should be a welcome and much needed improvement from its predecessor, as we found the 4s didn’t quite nail voice pick-up.
Momentum True Wireless 5 sport a new design
The 5 buds now feature a new “aerodynamic silhouette” which was modeled using data from thousands of unique ear models, resulting in a so-called “barely there fit”. This, Sennheiser claims, has been rated more comfortable as the 4s by a whopping 73% of testers.
That’s not to say the True Wireless 4 buds are uncomfortable by any means, as we concluded they slip in with no fuss and without any discomfort either.
Even the charging case has had a revamp, with Sennheiser explaining it now has a more narrow aspect ratio and a low-friction finish. That should, in theory, make it easier to slip in and out of pockets.
Otherwise, both buds are equipped with an IP54 rating which means they can withstand the odd splash of rain, water or sweat.
Momentum True Wireless 5 focus on repairability
One of the key areas of the True Wireless 5 buds is with repairability and longevity. Much like the Momentum 5 headphones, the True Wireless 5 include a replaceable battery system in both the buds themselves and the charging case. If the thought of tinkering with your expensive electronics fills you with fear then worry not, as Sennheiser states this can be done using only a compact screwdriver.
Momentum True Wireless 5 support Bluetooth 6
While the True Wireless 4 supports Bluetooth 5.4, and we never experienced any drop-outs or connection issues, the True Wireless 5 benefits from Bluetooth 6 instead.
Bluetooth 6 is the newer iteration of Bluetooth and includes more accurate distance tracking, lower latency and improved reliability among other improvements. In addition, the Momentum True Wireless 5 have native support for Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair and multipoint switching.
Momentum True Wireless 5 offer up to 40 hours of battery life
The True Wireless 4 promises up to 30 hours of battery and offers an hour’s worth of battery from a quick eight-minute charge. That’s pretty impressive, however Sennheiser have improved this with the True Wireless 5, with the buds promised to see up to 40 hours of life between charges.
We’ll have to wait until we review the buds to see whether they match Sennheiser’s claims.
Early Verdict
With a promise of improved ANC, longer battery life and a new and repairable design, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 buds look set to be a promising upgrade over the Momentum True Wireless 4. Having said that, we should mention again that we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the True Wireless 4 pair and concluded the buds to be the “finest earbuds Sennheiser has created”.
With that in mind, we’ll have to wait and see how the Momentum True Wireless 5 really compares.
