T3 Awards 2020: stop that noise and pay attention, Sony’s superb WH-1000XM3 just won TWO prizes

T3 Awards 2020: Sony WH-1000XM3 is our #1 noise cancelling headphones

(Image credit: Sony)

published 10 June 2020

We’ve been saying it for a while now: the finest headphones with noise cancelling in the world are Sony’s WH-1000XM3. We've been saying it for at least two years in fact, as they have now won this award at the T3 Awards 2020 and the same event last year. Real quality doesn't date, even in the world of tech.

As well as winning the T3 Award for Best noise cancelling headphones, Sony also scoops the prize for Best headphones. Which is logical, given that noise cancelling headphones are the current pinnacle of audio technology that doesn't cost thousands.

• In the USA right now they're also on sale at Amazon with a cool, $71 price cut, too.

If you're in the UK or elsewhere, the current best price is in this handy graphical interface box… thing, right below.

Yep, Sony WH-1000XM3 still delivers best-in-class noise cancelling and arguably the best sound quality of any wireless headphones you can buy.

They’re also extremely comfortable even on long flights and the battery life is tremendous. The design is perhaps not that exciting looking, but it looks built to last – and it is, which is why it keeps coming back and winning T3 Awards every year.

This is the third generation of Sony’s noise cancelling tech, and they really nailed it here. It's said that a fourth generation will be with us soon, but much of the chatter around them has focussed on improved smart functionality rather than on noise cancelling – and it's hard to see how they could significantly improve it over this.

The wonderfully effective noise-quelling means there’s plenty of audio headroom to fully appreciate the detailed and exciting sound the Sonys produce. Even the newer Bose NC700 and Bowers & Wilkins PX7 haven't quite been able to match this old stager when it comes to truly enthralling – and noise-free – listening.

Like we said in our WH-1000XM3 review, 'if premium noise cancelling headphones are the Champion's League of portable audio, these are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City and Juventus rolled into one.'

• T3 Awards 2020 – all the announcements so far.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).