The Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw is an all-in-one color laser printer. It has a four-toner cartridge system and is compatible with Canon's 069 and 069H high-yield toner cartridges. The scanner has an ADF and extendable lid hinges, and it supports single-pass duplex scanning and optical character recognition. In addition to printing directly from a USB Flash drive, connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and Ethernet, as well as support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print services. It's compatible with the Canon Print Business app, which allows you to print, scan, or copy, perform maintenance tasks remotely, and more.
This printer has a variant, the Canon Color imageCLASS MF751Cdw; it offers identical performance but slightly different features. See the Differences Between Variants section below for more details.
Our Verdict
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw is good for family use as long as you don't need to print photos. It produces incredibly sharp documents, but like most laser printers, it isn't ideal for photo printing, as printed pictures look grainy and muted. The scanner produces outstanding scans with sharp text and lots of fine details, but the colors look washed out, so it isn't the best for digitizing photos. As for maintenance costs, the toner cartridges last a long time; however, color printing can still get very expensive due to the high cost of color cartridges. However, with this printer's many connectivity options, every household member can easily access it.
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Produces high-quality documents.
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High page yields.
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Wide connectivity options.
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Low maintenance.
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Photos look grainy and lacking in detail.
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Can't print on glossy paper.
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Expensive color cartridges.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw is excellent for small or home offices. It produces high-quality black and color documents, and it yields a large number of prints, which helps reduce maintenance. It's a little slow to warm up and get a single page out, but it prints very quickly once it gets going. The scanner has an automatic feeder with single-pass duplex scanning, making it easy to process multi-page and double-sided documents. You can connect to the printer via Wi-Fi, USB, or Ethernet and print directly off a USB flash drive.
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Produces high-quality documents.
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Fast printing speed and automatic duplex printing.
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High page yields.
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Automatic feeder with duplex scanning.
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Wide connectivity options.
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Low maintenance.
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Slow to warm up.
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Expensive color cartridges.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw is great for student use. The scanner has an automatic feeder with single-pass duplex scanning, and its lid hinges can extend to accommodate thicker items like textbooks. Printing-wise, it produces sharp documents, and while it takes a while to warm up, it prints very quickly once it gets going. The toner cartridges last a long time, but color printing can still get expensive due to the high cost of color cartridges. It has tons of connectivity options, allowing you or your roommates to connect and print from various devices.
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Produces high-quality documents.
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Fast printing speed and automatic duplex printing.
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High page yields.
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Wide connectivity options.
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Low maintenance.
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Slow to warm up.
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Expensive color cartridges.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw is excellent for printing black-and-white documents. It produces incredibly sharp documents, and while it takes a while to warm up, it prints very quickly at up to 23 pages per minute. Its black toner cartridge lasts a long time, making it easier and cheaper to maintain, and its large input tray capacity is great for big print jobs, as you won't need to interrupt the printing as often to refill the tray. The scanner has an automatic feeder with single-pass duplex scanning, making it easy to process multi-page and double-sided documents.
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Produces high-quality documents.
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Fast printing speed and automatic duplex printing.
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High page yields.
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Automatic feeder with duplex scanning.
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Low maintenance.
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Slow to warm up.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw is bad for photo printing. Like most laser printers, it produces photos that look muted and lacking in detail. Also, it can't print on glossy paper. The toner cartridges last a long time but are expensive, especially the color cartridges, so you may have to spend a lot on replacement toner if you print regularly.
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High page yields.
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Low maintenance.
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Photos look grainy and lacking in detail.
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Can't print on glossy paper.
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Expensive color cartridges.
Like most laser printers, the color gamut is very narrow on the Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw. It can't produce bright, saturated colors and struggles with darker shades of green and yellow. Color transitions aren't smooth, as you can easily see the graininess and printing pattern. As for color accuracy, most colors aren't too inaccurate, but some, like blues and cyans, are visible inaccurately. It's good enough to add a splash of color to text documents but unsuitable for professional work.
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Narrow color gamut and not color accurate enough for professional work.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw produces outstanding black-and-white documents. Text looks sharp, and all the fine elements are present. The one caveat is that this printer has trouble converting yellow to grayscale, resulting in a slight loss of detail.
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Produces high-quality documents.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw's scanner is feature-rich and produces excellent-quality scans. Its ADF supports single-pass duplex scanning, making it easy to process multi-page and double-sided documents. Just know the scan speed is a little slow and much slower than advertised. The flatbed scanner also has adjustable hinges, which are great for accommodating thicker items like textbooks or magazines. Scans are outstanding, The text looks clear, and fine elements are present.
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Automatic feeder with duplex scanning.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw prints quickly. It outputs 35 color pages per minute, gets the first page out in 22 seconds, and can print a 4" x 6" photo in just 16 seconds. The black-and-white document printing speed is also fast but doesn't quite reach the advertised 35 pages per minute, as the printer tends to pause during printing, resulting in print speeds of 23 pages per minute.
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Fast printing speed and automatic duplex printing.
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Slow to warm up.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw's recurring costs depend heavily on your printing needs and habits. If you primarily print black-and-white documents, recurring costs are quite low as the black toner yields many prints but is costly to replace. By contrast, color printing incurs high recurring costs as the toner cartridges are expensive.
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High page yields.
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Expensive color cartridges.
- 7.9 Family
- 8.8 Small/Home Office
- 8.2 Student
- 8.6 Black & White
- 4.9 Photo
Performance Usages
- 5.6 Color Quality
- 9.5 Document Quality
- 9.5 Scanner
- 8.2 Speed
- 7.4 Recurring Costs
Changelog
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Updated Feb 14, 2025:
We've rewritten the Introduction, verdict boxes, and the 'Compared To Other Printers' box to bring them in line with our current standards for printer reviews.
- Updated May 03, 2024: Added mention of the Lexmark MC3462i as an alternative with faster scan speed in the Scanner Features section.
- Updated Dec 19, 2023: We've added a link to the Brother MFC-L3780CDW/MFC-L3720CDW in the 'Cost-Per-Print' section of the review to provide an alternative that doesn't use cartridges integrated with drum units.
- Updated Aug 03, 2023: We've added a link to the Canon Color imageCLASS MF656Cdw/MF654Cdw in the 'Cost-Per-Print' section of the review to provide an alternative that incurs lower costs of ownership.
- Updated Aug 01, 2023: We've uploaded a new photo in the Scan Quality section because the previous sample was in the A4 format instead of Letter.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw. It only has one variant, the Canon imageCLASS MF751Cdw, which lacks duplex scanning.
| Model | Duplex Scanning |
|---|---|
| Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw | Y |
| Canon imageCLASS MF751Cdw | N |
See our unit's label label.
Compared To Other Printers
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw is an excellent color laser printer that's ideal for small office use. It stands out for its sturdy build, wide range of features, and outstanding print quality. There are a few quirks, including lower than advertised printing and scnaning speeds, and recurring costs can vary dramatically depending on your use case. As a result, there are cheaper printers that offer comparable or better performance, like this printer's smaller sibling, the Canon Color imageCLASS MF656Cdw/MF654Cdw.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best printers, the best laser printers, and the best office printers.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a slightly better overall printer than the Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw, though the differences between the two aren't especially huge. The Brother's scanner processes documents faster, and it incurs lower ownership costs thanks to its less expensive toner cartridges. That said, the Canon has an easier-to-use display interface, and it has a faster max printing speed.
The Canon Color imageCLASS MF656Cdw/MF654Cdw represents a better value than the Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw, though the two printers are similar overall. The MF656Cdw/MF654Cdw takes up a little less room and has a similar range of scanner features, though the MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw offers slightly better print quality. The biggest differences come in the form of their toner cartridges: the 067 cartridges used by the MF65XCdw lineup have a substantially higher yield than the 069 cartridges found in MF75XCdw models, resulting in a considerably lower cost-per-print.
The Brother MFC-L8905CDW is better for most uses than the Canon Color imageCLASS MF756Cdw/MF754Cdw. The Brother has an ADF with a higher sheet capacity, scans documents more quickly, has faster printing speeds, and has lower cost-per-print. If you need to scan thick items frequently, the Canon printer's scanner lid has a wider height adjustment range, so it can more easily accommodate thicker books and documents.
The Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw and the Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw are identical feature-wise; however, there are a few differences in performance. The MF743Cdw yields more prints and is cheaper to maintain over time. On the other hand, the MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw scans faster through its automatic feeder, and it produces slightly higher-quality color documents. As for printing speed, the MF743Cdw prints black-and-white documents faster but is slower with color documents.
The Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw and the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw are nearly identical in features. The Canon's scanner has extendable lid hinges, making it easier to close the lid over thicker items like textbooks and magazines. It also produces higher-quality scans and can process double-sided sheets automatically in a single pass, whereas the HP can only scan double-sided sheets through software. However, the HP scans much faster through its automatic feeder. The Canon yields more black and color prints, but its cartridges are more expensive, resulting in a slightly higher cost per print.
The Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw and the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw/4301fdn are both high-end color laser printers with near-identical features. The real differences come down to the usage. If your workload involves a lot of scanning, go with the Canon. Its scanner produces higher-quality scans and has extendable lid hinges to accommodate thicker items like textbooks and magazines; however, its ADF processes sheets more slowly than the HP. By contrast, the HP is better if you have very high print loads. It takes less time to warm up and prints faster than the Canon.
The Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw and the Brother MFC-L3770CDW Laser are very similar. The Canon is slightly better, as it produces higher-quality color documents and prints a little faster overall. Regarding page yield, the Canon yields more black prints, but the Brother yields more color prints. The Brother's cartridges are cheaper, resulting in a lower cost per print; however, remember that you need to replace the drum separately, whereas the Canon has the drum built into the cartridges. As for the scanner, while the Brother model processes sheets faster, the scan quality isn't as good as the Canon printer's.
The Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw and the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw are nearly identical feature-wise. The only difference is that the Canon's scanner has extendable lid hinges to accommodate thicker items like textbooks and magazines, which the HP lacks. The Canon's scanner produces higher-quality scans but is slower to process sheets through its automatic feeder than the HP. As for printing speed, although the HP takes less time to warm up than the Canon, it doesn't print as quickly overall. The HP yields more prints and is cheaper to maintain over time.
The Lexmark MC3426i and the Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw are all-in-one color laser printers that perform similarly overall. While the Lexmark offers better cost per print performance, gets the first page out faster, and has an ADF scanner that is twice as fast as the Canon, the Canon has significantly better scan quality out of the box, features a much better display, and prints a third more color pages per minute. Which printer is right for you will depend on the features or performance you value more.
Test Results
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw's build quality is outstanding. It's mostly plastic with some metal parts. Except for a few smaller, more fragile moving pieces on the front manual input tray, the rest of the printer feels very sturdy. The power cord plugs securely into the printer and is removable, making it easy to replace if damaged. The scanner's lid stays open on its own, meaning you don't need to hold it open, and there's a dampener to prevent the lid from slamming down hard. You can easily access the toner cartridges from the front and paper jams via a panel on the back. Although there's tilt adjustment on the display to improve visibility, you can't push the display to the side or retract it in any way, which makes carrying the printer a little awkward.
This printer requires very little maintenance. Unlike inkjet models, there's no risk of clogging if you don't use the printer for an extended period. If you experience print quality issues, there are many functions built-in that can help resolve them, like Auto Adjust Gradation, Correct Print Color Mismatch, and Adjust Print Position. There are also cleaning functions like Clean Fixing Assembly, Clean ITB (transfer belt), and Clean Feeder. The toner cartridges last a long time, which helps reduce maintenance, and the drum is built into the cartridges, meaning you won't have to replace the drum separately. The main input tray holds 250 sheets of paper, which is a pretty good amount, so you likely won't need to refill it regularly unless you print a lot. You can access the toner cartridges by opening the front cover and pulling out the drawer. Paper jams are accessible through a large panel on the back of the printer or by removing the input trays (the green button releases the panel covering the sheet rollers).
You can see the user manual here.
The display is outstanding. It's large and relatively easy to see whether you're sitting, standing, or off to the side. You can tilt the screen to improve visibility, although the range is very limited. The main issue is that it doesn't get very bright, so you may have trouble seeing it in very well-lit settings. The display is very responsive to touch input, and the user interface is easy to navigate.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw yields a large number of prints from a single set of toner, which means you won't have to replace the cartridges often. It's worth noting that you can get significantly more black prints than our result shows, albeit with a slight loss in print quality. We stopped counting the pages when the print quality started to degrade, but know that this is when printing black pages with black toner covering 80% of the paper. The print quality degradation isn't as noticeable when printing regular documents, as you can see in this sample printed after printing 91 pages (of 80% coverage). This is the print quality after printing 210 pages. The quality is noticeably worse, but it might still be acceptable, depending on what kind of document it is. The printer warns you with a beeping sound when the toner is low. It also warns you when the toner is almost empty, with a message explaining that the print quality may be affected, but you can continue printing beyond this point.
When printing a long document or in high volume, the print quality of the first pages is significantly better than the last ones. To maintain consistent print quality, it's best to break it up into smaller print jobs instead of printing it in one go because the printer refreshes the toner between print jobs.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw has a feature-rich scanner. Its automatic feeder supports single-pass duplex scanning, making it easy to process multi-page and double-sided documents. The scan speed is a little slow, though, much slower than the advertised 20 PPM (when scanning at a resolution of 300 x 600). The speed changes depending on where you save the files. The posted result is the speed when saving the scans directly to a PC via USB or Wi-Fi. The scanner can reach the advertised speed when scanning directly to a USB flash drive. Its optical character recognition feature lets you scan documents into .TXT files for quick keyword searches; however, you need to install the Scanner MF Utility application to use it since it's software-based. The OCR works well; it only makes mistakes when there are special characters. The Canon imageCLASS MF751Cdw variant doesn't support duplex scanning. If you need a printer with a larger flatbed scanner to scan legal-size sheets, check out the Brother MFC-L8905CDW. Alternatively, if you're looking for a printer with a much faster ADF scanner, consider the Lexmark MC3426i.
The scan quality is outstanding. Although the scan resolution isn't as high as other printers on the market, it's good enough for scanning text documents. The text looks clear, and all of the finer elements are present. The colors look a tad washed out, but it's not too bad.
- Documentation
- Driver and utility CD-ROM
- Power cord
- Phone cable
- Canon 069 starter toner cartridges:
- 1x Black
- 1x Cyan
- 1x Magenta
- 1x Yellow
The print quality for black and white documents is outstanding. Text looks sharp, and all the fine elements are present. The printer has trouble converting yellow to grayscale, although that's typical for most printers.
The print quality for color documents is outstanding. Text looks clear, and the colors look vibrant. Fine details are present but not as clearly as when printing in black and white.
The cost-per-print is decent. Black-only printing is relatively cheap, but color printing can get very expensive if you print a lot due to the high cost of color toner cartridges. The cartridges contain the drum, meaning you don't need to spend extra to replace the drum separately. An integrated drum is good if you print a lot, but if you have a lighter print load, you might end up paying more than a model with a separate drum unit; check out the Brother MFC-L3780CDW/MFC-L3720CDW if that's something you want. Alternatively, if you're looking for a similarly-designed color laser printer that incurs lower ownership costs, check out the Canon Color imageCLASS MF656Cdw/MF654Cdw, which uses 067 cartridges with a greater page yield.
The overall printing speed is great. Although it's slow to warm up, it prints very quickly once it gets going. The black-and-white document printing speed is fast but doesn't quite reach the advertised 35 PPM, as the printer tends to pause during printing. The 300-sheet input tray capacity is the total number of sheets the printer can hold with its main input and multi-purpose trays. The main input tray holds 250 sheets, while the multi-purpose tray holds 50.
The Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw has a poor color gamut. It can't produce bright, saturated colors and struggles with darker shades of green and yellow. Color transitions aren't smooth, as you can easily see the graininess and printing pattern.
The color accuracy is okay. Most colors are only slightly off; it's mainly blues and cyan that are visibly inaccurate. It's good enough to add a splash of color to text documents. It isn't bad for photos; however, if you need to print photos, you're still better off with an inkjet printer, as you'll get significantly better print quality.
This printer is bad at producing small details. Like most laser printers, the print resolution is low, and the printing pattern is very noticeable, obscuring finer elements.
This printer can print from a USB flash drive. There are two USB ports, one on the back, which you can see in the photo above, and another on the front left side of the printer.
The Canon PRINT Business mobile app is outstanding. You can use it to print, copy, and scan (with the printer or your smartphone's camera). You can also operate the printer remotely and perform maintenance tasks. However, there are a couple of limitations when printing photos and web pages. For photos, you can't access them from the app on Android devices. You need to access 'My Files' first, then open the photo with the Canon PRINT Business app to print. For webpages, you can't print HTML files directly from the app, but you can get around this limitation on iOS devices with the 'Print from Web' function, which will let you access any website and print.
You don't need to install drivers or apps to use the printer on Chrome OS and macOS devices, but you do on Windows devices. You can find the drivers here.
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Comments
Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw/MF751Cdw: Main Discussion
Let us know why you want us to review the product here, or encourage others to vote for this product.
- 21010
Wow, what a great and thorough review! Can you share how the Bose QC Ultra compare to the Bower & Wilkins PX8? I am unable to decide between the two! Thanks and hope youv'e had a good new year!
I dont have the Px8, but from what I have researched, the Px8 seem to have the best sound quality for anc wireless headphones, those and Focal Bathys, the QC Ultra Sound good, but not as good as Px8.
besides that, ANC, Transparency mode and mic quality is superior on Bose QC Ultra, the same thing here, Px8 ANC isnt bad, but is not on Bose level, build quality is superior on Px8, they feel and see more luxurious.
Depending on your preferences one will fit more to you than the other
- 21010
I love all my 3 headphones and also like the XM4, though they all have their strenghts and weaknesses, and every headphone its unic in their own way, I would say I like my Sennheiser most, due their sound, battery, looks and build and case, followed by the XM5 and followed by QC Ultra, I cant tell about the XM4 because they arent mine, but I like them pretty much too! Sennheiser Momentum 4 : Sound Quality (Better Overall), Battery Life, Design, Case, Build Quality Bose QC Ultra : Sound Quality (Cleaner and less bassy), Transparency, Mic Quality, ANC, Case, Build Quality Sony XM5 : Sound Quality (Bassy but with good clarity), Design, Transparency, Mic Quality, ANC, Features Sony XM4 : Sound Quality (Bassier with decent clarity), Case, ANC, Features Thats it boys! hope I could help with this review! If you have any of these 4 you already have a Top ANC quality headphone, maybe with their strenghts and weaknesses, just like every other pair! Cya and happy holidays yall ! :)
Wow, what a great and thorough review! Can you share how the Bose QC Ultra compare to the Bower & Wilkins PX8? I am unable to decide between the two! Thanks and hope youv'e had a good new year!
- 65450
Hi there, I have owned my XM5 since Saturday and already got the chance to try them deeply in every of their aspects, I do also own the Bose QC Ultra and Sennheiser Momentum 4, plus my dad have the XM4 so he let me do some comparisons too, and this is what I got when comparing them!
-Build Quality The XM5 are fully made of plastic, and seem to be more fragile than the other 3, while the XM4 are mostly plastic they do have their details on the headband adjustment, while the QC Ultra have aluminum in their low headband part that attaches to the earcups, while the Momentum 4 have a fabric headband and a metal logo, for me the Sennheiser takes the win here, tho none of the 4 headphones are build quality focused like Airpods Max or B&W Px8
Winner : Sennheiser Momentum 4
-Comfort Both the Sony and Bose headphones weight about 250g, while the Sennheiser weights about 290g, so they are heavier indeed, but their earpads feel SOOO COMFY, they have by far the comfiest earpads for me atleast, while also having a good spacious earcups, I feel the XM4 and XM5 quite the same, with more narrow space and comfy earpads, but the Bose do have the more spacious earcups + a good comfy earpads, so I feel better with the QC Ultra in long periods, while in the XM5 after some time get a little uncomfortable due their narrow headband and the Sennheiser feeling a little bit heavy.
Winner : Bose QC Ultra (Subjective)
-Microphone The XM4 have by far the worst mic of this list, they are decent in silent places, tho they are not as good as you would expect for this type of headphones, but in loud and crowded places they just flop, they are just bad, the Momentum 4 are a little better both in quiet places and crowded places, and while the QC Ultra and XM5 perform pretty good, the QC Ultra are better in quiet conditions, but the XM5 arent bad at all, and the XM5 are better on crowded places and noisy conditions, while the QC Ultra are still good, but not that good.
Winner : Sony WH-1000XM5
-App and features I would say that Bose have the worst app here, while not being bad at all, they do fall behind comparing them to these 3, with a 3 band eq and their basic features like head sensor, immersive audio and personalized modes, the Sennheiser app do have a 5 band eq + bass boost and podcast mode, with more features, like “sound zones” where you cand adjust anc and the eq depnding on where you are, auto off when returning them to the case and auto on when getting them out of the case and “comfort call” with a more natural feeling when making a call, but Sony clears here, 5 band eq + clear bass, “speak to chat”, the charts of how much time you have used their headphones, auto play, adaptative sound control, adjusting the anc and transparency depending if you are walking, sitting or in a vehicle, they just win by far here.
Winner : Sony WH-1000XM5 / Sony WH-1000XM4
-Battery life Sennheiser claims to have a 60h battery when anc on, Sony claims that both have 30h battery with anc on and 38h-40h when anc off and Bose claims to have 18h when immersive audio on and 24h when immersive audio off, with my testings, at high volume, ANC at max (85% at the Momentum 4) and AAC on all of them except on the XM5 (LDAC) and heres what I got… XM5 (LDAC) : 16h-20h XM5 (AAC) : 20h-24h QC Ultra (AAC) : 18h-22h XM4 (AAC) : 20h-24h XM4 (LDAC) : 14h-18h Momentum 4 (AAC) : 30h-35h The Sennheiser were far better, while the rest of them at my type of settings got all really close.
Winner : Sennheiser Momentum 4
-Sound Quality All of them are bass heavy headphones (at their own way) so you will find a public focused sound and not an audiophile and full balanced focused sound tuning, for me, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 take the lead here, whithout touching eq they have something like xm5 bass, a little less maybe, less than xm4 and more than qc ultra, but right away you can say they are clearer than Sony headphones and with a better and more spacious and clean soundstage, now, with the bass boost on the app their bass hits even harder than the xm4 without loosing that much the mids and highs presence, they just sound top class, the XM4 and XM5 are pretty similar, with both heavy bass tuning (the XM4 have a little more bass) they have a decent soundstage and spaciousness, tho if you take their bass up you might find them to get muddy, the XM5 have a little better clarity due their little less bass, and the QC Ultra have a more flat sound among these 4, though not flat at all, their bass is more tight and not that present, their mids and highs are top, tho I bring their mids a little down in the eq, but their soundstage and separation is too good, above Sony I would say, overall I enjoy Sennheiser when listening most of the music, but while hearing spanish rock I like it more in the QC Ultra, but in hip-hop I take the XM4 and M4, and with 80s pop I take XM5 and M4, so it depends on your preferences and what you like to hear.
Winner : Sennheiser Momentum 4 (Subjective)
-ANC I didnt test the Sennheiser that much A/B because they do fall behind, but they arent bad at ANC, they are decent, just nowhere near Sony and Bose level, now, with the xm4, xm5 and qc ultra I made some tests in real life and while reproducing different scenarios in my TV and this is what I got…
-Test 1 (Airplane cabin simulation) When reproducing this sound on my TV, on the QC Ultra after waiting some seconds and getting that adaptive NC magic I couldnt hear the plane engine at all, while in the XM5 and XM4 I could still hear it, but like a 10%-15%, tho I didnt feel a difference between both of them, so thats a tie for Sony and a clear win for Bose
-Test 2 (Coffee shop simulation) Things got closer here, tho the QC Ultra still outperforms Sony, it does by a very slight difference, here I could tell the XM5 were better than the XM4, cancelling more of those high frecuency noises, so the Bose was better, slightly above of the XM5, and finally the XM4 by a small difference.
-Test 3 (Mall simulation) Here, the QC Ultra and XM5 was almost the same, the QC Ultra being a little better, the XM5 was almost the same, while the XM4 was also there, it was half of a step behind the Bose and XM5, QC Ultra and XM5 were pretty much the same level
-Test 4 (Office simulation) Bose QC Ultra were quietter than both of the Sony headphones, while the XM5 was by a small difference worst they are pretty awesome, followed by the XM4 by also a small difference, Bose wins here again.
-Test 5 (Mall in real life) Here is where Bose shines, I only could understand my dad voice that was in front of me, while all the background noise was cancelled by a 95% and that kids screaming and dogs barking cancelled by a 85%, it was trully impressive, followed by the XM5 making a incredible performance too! just probably worst than Bose by a 5%-10% difference, I cant tell about the XM4 due I havent tried them irl situations, Bose wins.
-Test 6 (Inside a car in real life) I couldnt say if the XM5 were better than the QC Ultra or all the way aroung, they both cancelled the music that the car was reproducing so good (maybe QC Ultra slightly better) and both cancelled the engine noise too good (maybe the XM5 a little better), but its a tie I would say here
Take in mind that Bose have a very slight white noise while ANC on, so that could make you feel they cancell better than the XM5, because the XM5 are dead silent without any white noise, but irl feeling talking, I felt the Bose were better than Sony tbh. (The XM4 also have a small white noise)
Winner : Bose QC Ultra
Transparency / Aware Mode The XM4 are the worst here, just like their Mic quality, they do lack and fall behind in this aspect, followed by M4 / XM5, both are pretty good tbh, I maybe would take XM5, and finally the QC Ultra, their aware mode is pretty damn good, I wouldnt say at APM level, but it isnt pretty far.
Winner : Bose QC Ultra
-Case The best case are for the XM4, being the second smallest, having a small place inside for charging cables, airplane adapter and that 3.5mm cable with a hard surface that protects your headphones 100% and a pocket outside the case to put some papers (something that Bose dont have), followed by the QC Ultra with almost the smallest size case, a pocket for their cables, and a hard case too, followed by the Sennheiser Momentum 4, that are quite bigger (not that much), because they dont fold, but I like how they have a small pocket, and a specific place for their charging cable, airplane adapter and 3.5mm cable, if it wasnt for the size, they would be top 1, finally the XM5, similar size of Sennheiser (a little bigger), a magnetic part for that charging cable and the 3.5m cable, and a hard case that compacts when the headphones are out of their case, so it reduces depth mostly.
Winner : Sony WH-1000XM4
I love all my 3 headphones and also like the XM4, though they all have their strenghts and weaknesses, and every headphone its unic in their own way, I would say I like my Sennheiser most, due their sound, battery, looks and build and case, followed by the XM5 and followed by QC Ultra, I cant tell about the XM4 because they arent mine, but I like them pretty much too! Sennheiser Momentum 4 : Sound Quality (Better Overall), Battery Life, Design, Case, Build Quality Bose QC Ultra : Sound Quality (Cleaner and less bassy), Transparency, Mic Quality, ANC, Case, Build Quality Sony XM5 : Sound Quality (Bassy but with good clarity), Design, Transparency, Mic Quality, ANC, Features Sony XM4 : Sound Quality (Bassier with decent clarity), Case, ANC, Features
Thats it boys! hope I could help with this review! If you have any of these 4 you already have a Top ANC quality headphone, maybe with their strenghts and weaknesses, just like every other pair!
Cya and happy holidays yall ! :)
- 21010
I immensely enjoyed the review of the Bose QC Ultras and did try them on for awhile in my military exchange. Your review didn’t mention this, so I don’t know if true, but some are saying as great as the ANC is on these headphones, you cannot completely turn ANC off like other headphones. If so, that could be bothersome for those of us who have issues with constant ANC in our ears, and the pressure some experience. Could you confirm if it can be shut off, or just lowered? Thanks so much.
Hi BobFoss
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Wireless do not have the option to turn off their Noise Isolation. In order to test their passive Isolation, we had to turn off the headphones.
We will update and make it clearer in our review. Thank you for reaching for pointing this out.
Cheers, Dagobiet.
- 21010
I immensely enjoyed the review of the Bose QC Ultras and did try them on for awhile in my military exchange. Your review didn’t mention this, so I don’t know if true, but some are saying as great as the ANC is on these headphones, you cannot completely turn ANC off like other headphones. If so, that could be bothersome for those of us who have issues with constant ANC in our ears, and the pressure some experience. Could you confirm if it can be shut off, or just lowered? Thanks so much.