Huge, physical buttons for everything
After the Ult functionality, the controls on these headphones are probably my favorite thing about these headphones. I love the huge, dedicated button for everything on the left cup. The power button can be long-pressed to do its job and short-pressed to give you a battery status update, and the long button next to it cycles between ANC and ambient modes. The Ult button is strategically placed at a distance so you don’t run into missteps.
Like the flagship Sony XM5, the Ult Wear also handles all playback via a touch interface on the exterior of its right cup. You can double-tap it to play/pause and swipe up/down to raise/lower the volume. For small talk, when you don’t want to pause your music, you can cover the right earcup with your hand to instantly reduce volume (another XM5 spec). Wear detection technology on the Ult Wear ensures your music is paused as soon as you take it off and resumes when you put it back on, which also helps with battery life.
