Sennheiser has quietly announced the Momentum 5 wireless headphones, the successor to 2022’s Momentum 4, and the official press release doesn’t seem to be focussing on the headline features.
Yes, the ANC is better. Yes, the audio has been upgraded. But the three features that actually set the headphones apart from the competition are buried deep in the spec sheet, and at least one of them won’t even work when the headphones ship.
What makes the Momentum 5 genuinely different?
For me, the most important upgrade on the Momentum 5 is the replaceable battery. The headphones ship with a 700 mAh cell (lasts up to 57 hours, three hours less than Momentum 4) that you can actually replace yourself using a small Phillips-head screwdriver.
Last week, Marshall also released the Milton ANC headphones with a user-replaceable battery, and now Sennheiser follows with the Momentum 5. The development deserves more credit than it’s currently getting, as it would make these headphones last beyond the point where the sealed battery degrades into uselessness.
Anyway, the Momentum 5 provide up to three hours of playback from five minutes of charging. Another highlight is that the headphones feature Snapdragon Sound with aptX Lossless support, meaning they’re capable of lossless wireless audio.
However, you’d have to pair them with Sennheiser’s BTD 700 dongle to unlock that functionality. The device will also get Bluetooth v6.0 via a firmware update in the future.
So what’s the catch?
One of the marquee announcements, Dolby Atmos with head tracking, won’t be available when the headphones ship on June 16, 2026. Instead, it will arrive as a day-one firmware update; you’ll have to install it before you can enable head tracking on the Momentum 5.
To me, leading with a feature that isn’t ready sounds like a strange choice, but it doesn’t matter if Sennheiser ships the OTA update on time. On the hardware front, the Momentum 5 sport four microphones per ear cup, promising up to three times better noise cancellation.
You also get an 8-band EQ in the Smart Control Plus app. The price has gone up from $350 to $400 this time, a $50 hike which might not be a problem for the brand’s customer base after all. The headphones will be available in three colors: black, white, and blue.