Sennheiser Momentum 5: 57 Hours of Battery Is the Feature, the Swappable Cell Is the Bonus

The Momentum 5 is a strong pick for long trips. The battery is the reason.

Sennheiser launched the Momentum 5 Wireless at $399 in the United States. It is rated for 57 hours of battery, against 30 hours for the Sony WH-1000XM6 and 20 for the AirPods Max 2, and it costs less than its direct rivals from Sony and Bose.

Fifty-seven hours means a vacation, a long-haul flight and the trip back without looking for a charger. For anyone who travels, that is a real function and not a line on a brochure.

The battery is also replaceable. It is a 700 mAh cell that comes out with a small Phillips screwdriver, and Sennheiser sells replacements separately. The app can also cap charging at 80% to slow the wear. That means a worn battery does not turn the whole headset into waste, which is the opposite of what most brands do in the name of design. I will be honest about how much it matters: it is a specific feature. Most people will not need it day to day. It becomes useful if you go camping or do anything that takes several days away from a socket.

Now the part I always ask: what did they remove? I looked, and I did not find a function that was dropped to make this work. The Momentum 5 keeps the same chassis as the Momentum 4, so it is not thicker either. Two things to keep in mind. The Momentum 4 was rated for 60 hours, so 57 is not a step up from Sennheiser’s own previous model. And the weak point of the Momentum 4 was noise cancellation, which Sennheiser tried to fix by doubling the microphones from four to eight. I have not tested the Momentum 5, so I cannot tell you whether that fix works.

The rest of the upgrade list is shorter than the battery story. Bluetooth moves from 5.2 to 5.4, there is aptX Lossless support for lossless audio over Bluetooth, and Dolby Atmos virtual surround is new. Reviewers describe the whole package as a marginal upgrade over the Momentum 4, which fits my read: this is about the battery.

My verdict: worth it if you travel or spend days away from power, and a fair price against Sony and Bose. Check the reviews on noise cancellation before you pay. The sources are linked below.