The longer I've had these, the more I do find myself returning to them over other choices.
Even though the Shure Aonic 50 sounds overall more pleasing to me, work vastly better with multipoint, and supports Low Latency-AptX when I'm gaming, they're also larger, heavier, a little more uncomfortable, and when my AptX transmitter fails (as it is
apt to do
) my set seems to have an issue with wired mode creating a buzzy sound sometimes (and uses the annoying non-standard smaller headphone jack).
Although the XM4s pack up into a much smaller package for travel, some might like the more in-your-face bass more, and I still love the blue color, they have an annoying creakiness when walking with them, and definitely don't sound as clean.
My first pair of wireless over-ears, the Bose Soundlink AE2s, only support SBC and while they do still sound pretty good all things considered (and reasonably comfortable with fresh replacement earcups), it's a pretty notable step down, especially in terms of bass.
The black finish on the XM5s is awful, they truly look like a greasy mess and it's impossible to not touch them since they require touch controls. But they've also proven to be reasonably durable and survived some (gentle) trips in my bag without their case. The multipoint does not work with LDAC enabled, so I have to manually activate them when I switch devices (often). The seal on the earcups isn't perfect; I notice the noise cancellation failing me if I happen to be chewing/eating.
And yet they're great. They sound overall excellent. I wasn't sure at first about the comfort level, but after some time, I find I *notice* other headphones more, and these just melt away (for me). Call quality is *awesome* - and by that I mean I can have a lengthy conversation on the phone and the other person will have no idea I'm not using the native phone microphone. For the ergonomic aspect of not holding my phone to my ear and/or craning my neck for an hour at a time, these are worth it just for phone calls, if you make them regularly. I wouldn't record a podcast or lay down a vocal track with them or anything, but for actual phone calls, they're great.
I would never argue these are the best in any single category - for substantially higher music quality listening or versatile features? For the not-small price? They're clearly not. There's tons of room for improvement. But as a sum of all their parts, they are pretty great.
