Sony YY2953 identified as Sony WF-L900

I wrote about Sony's YY2953 back in late August when is appeared on Korea's FCC. Back then we had no FCC listing but 3 days ago it finally appeared as a listing. Likewise the device appeared on Canada's certification website. So time to dive into the certifications to see what they reveal.

Looking at the Canadian certification first, not much is revealed. The description of the model reveals noise cancellation and "Wireless Local Area Network Device" for type of radio equipment. Does this mean the new headset will feature WiFi? The only other devices with WLAN in the radio equipment were the F-Series and Z-Series Walkmans and of course the recent A and ZX Walkmans. But I do not believe we will see WiFi on this headset. more on that with the FCC filing.

While searching for more information on the headset, I stumbled upon an import/export site which had the YY2953 model name in a search result and to my surprise, the real model name was revealed. the Sony WF-L900.

Sony WF-L900

 

It appears 2 colours were sent to India for testing, W (white) and H (possibly Gray). Both devices came from Malaysia meaning they are probably manufactured there which could indicate this is a higher end premium device. The model might be positioned under the WF-1000XM4, but for the time being I do not have that information.

The FCC filing from 3 days ago reveals a bit more. The label photo shows a different design for the charging case, more like a square akin to the older WF-SP700N case (see photo below). The filing reveals a monopole antenna design like the WF-1000XM4 and that testing only took place in the 2.4Ghz bands, meaning no WLAN, since all modern day WLAN are testing on dual band now a days, so this is why I do not believe there will be any WLAN.

With the case design similar to the WF-SP700N, perhaps this will be a sport oriented model, with higher water and dust protection and might replace the WF-SP800N.

Sony WF-SP700B charging case

In recent Sony FCC filings, the Bluetooth chipsets were revealed but not this time, with only a generic name as shown below. So either Sony has learned from their past mistakes and left out the chipset name from the software or the software is called Earbuds BT Test.

The short term confidentiality ends on April 22nd 2022, so we could possibly see a reveal at CES 2022, or shortly after that in the spring with a regular press release.

So to summarize, we are looking at a new wireless noise cancellation headset, made in Malaysia with a model name of WF-L900. The model might be sport oriented replacing the WF-SP800N. The Bluetooth chipset is unknown. Finally to the sites speculating this was the WF-1000XM5, nope. I suspect Sony might want to wait for full LE Audio spec before either releasing a new WF-1000X model or will upgrade the WF-1000XM4 to LE Audio once full specs come out.