Sony's The ColleXion premium headphones leak with some impressive design upgrades – an interesting take on the award-winning 1000X series

Sony is preparing to launch a premium pair of over-ear headphones, with a design similar to the Sony WH-1000XM6. The new headphones are thought to be called The ColleXion, suggesting an exclusive take on the 1000X.

This isn't the first time that we've seen these headphones, as they've been previously spotted on the head of Damson Idris, star of the recent F1 movie.

In that instance the new headphones appeared in almost-perfect images, modelled by a star, with a distinct feeling of planted leak.

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Now we have full renders, thanks to Android Headlines, showing the headphones in black and white colour options. There's a distinctly different headband, with a hinge that looks a lot more substantial - although these headphones are not thought to be a folding model.

There's also a shift from the plastics that have been used on recent 1000X models, perhaps with a vegan leather finish instead, more like the original model that launched in 2014.

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The shape of the cups, however, appears to be very close to the that last couple of generations of 1000X.

The renders also include the USB-C, but what we can't see are any control buttons, something that the 1000X is known for to manage ANC modes.

In our previous report about these headphones, we highlighted that it's 10 years of Sony's 1000X family, which might be the inspiration of the X in ColleXion. It might also be that these headphones carry the WH-1000XX name, something of a special edition.

Beyond that, we've heard that they will be powered by the MediaTek MT2855 and use Sony's DSEE tech, while it's been said that the battery life will run to 24 hours with ANC, rather than the 30 hours that the 1000XM6 already offer.

That puts them in an interesting position: the move away from folding and the shorter battery life might indicate that these headphones aren't designed to be the ultimate in portability, with the XM6 retaining that position. It's thought that the new model will cost €629.

What we don't know is how the sound profile might change, what the ANC performance is going to be like, and whether they will end up lighter or heavier thanks to material and battery changes.

With a number of leaks appearing, it's likely that we'll soon be learning everything about The ColleXion headphones.