Is the Sony WF-1000XM5 worth the upgrade from the Beats Powerbeats Pro?

Verdict

Meaningful upgrade

The Sony WF-1000XM5 scores 6.0 points above the Beats Powerbeats Pro. That's a real improvement, though not the kind you'd notice on every track. The gains are concentrated in sound (8.0 to 9.0) and calls (7.5 to 8.0). You do give up ground on battery (9.0 to 8.0). On paper: battery life 9 h to 12 h, active noise cancelling and codecs SBC, AAC to SBC, AAC, LDAC, LC3. Worth checking: driver size goes 12 mm to 8.4 mm. One caution: this steps down a line tier (Powerbeats Pro to WF-1000XM5), and base models usually trade away tier features - check the codec and ANC rows above before trusting the score gap alone. That costs $69 more, or about $12 per point of score - reasonable value for the jump. Worth doing if you're replacing anyway; harder to justify as a pure upgrade if what you have still works.