I bought these in October and the first time I plugged them in to charge was almost mid-November. I do not commute by plane, but I do wear headphones four to six hours a day at my desk, and the Momentum 4 simply outlasted the chunk of my life I expected to spend thinking about its battery. Roughly 56 hours with ANC on, which is nearly double a Sony XM5 and almost three times an AirPods Max. After a few weeks you stop checking the battery indicator the way you stop checking the gas gauge on a hybrid.
The sound is the other reason to buy these. Sennheiser has been tuning headphones for longer than most of its competitors have existed, and the Momentum 4 hits the preference curve so close to dead-on that I have not touched the EQ in the app since the first week. There is a small lift in the sub-bass and a polite emphasis on the treble that gives string instruments some air without crossing into sibilance. On a podcast the voice is right in front of you. On a Radiohead record the bass guitar is where the bass guitar belongs. It is the most boring kind of compliment I can give a headphone, and the kind that I trust most.
The codec support is correct. Aptx Adaptive over Bluetooth, multipoint that holds two devices at once without drama, USB-C audio that gets you a clean wired path on a laptop, and a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm cable for emergencies. The pads are plush and the clamping force is gentler than the AirPods Max, which means I can wear these all day without the temple pressure that ends most of my Bose sessions early.
The place these fall short is the noise cancellation. It is good. It is not class-leading. On a podcast at a coffee shop it does its job and I forget about it. On a flight I notice that low engine rumble is reduced rather than removed, and the Sony XM5 has a measurable edge on the deepest bands. If you are a frequent flyer or you sit next to an air handler at the office, the five-percent ANC gap is meaningful. If you are a desk worker in a normal room, you will never think about it.
The microphone is the bigger compromise. In a quiet office on a video call it is fine. On a sidewalk or a noisy café the noise rejection gives up faster than I expected, and the other side starts hearing every passing car. I have switched to my phone mid-call more than once. If half your day is mobile calls from coffee shops, this is the wrong headphone.
Build is honest plastic. There is no IP rating, the chassis flexes a little if you twist it, and the case is the same dense soft-shell case Sennheiser has shipped since the Momentum 3. The durability score reflects this, and after a year of bag-bound abuse I would expect a hairline crack somewhere. But the headphone is also $50 cheaper than the Sony XM5 and $100 cheaper than the AirPods Max, and the savings buy you a lot of replacement pads.
The Momentum 4 is the all-rounder I would hand to someone who asked me what to get and did not have a specific reason to want something else.
Verdict: Buy these if you mostly listen at a desk or on a couch and you want a pair you can stop thinking about. If you fly weekly or take calls from sidewalks, the Sony XM5 earns the extra money.