Sony WF-C700N Review: Budget Airpods Alternative with ANC

Worth When Reviewed

$119.99

Greatest Costs At the moment: Sony WF-C700N actually wi-fi noise-cancelling earbuds

$99.99

$119.99

Dell Residence Residence Workplace

$119.99

With the Sony WF-C700N, Sony launched new wi-fi in-ear headphones in mid-2023, bridging the hole between the even cheaper entry-level mannequin, the Sony WF-C500, and the high-end Sony WF-1000XM4.

In case you search the web for options to the Airpods and dig via best-of lists, you’ll discover that if Sony isn’t in first place, it’s in second. You haven’t come throughout a conspiracy – it’s simply that Sony produces good all-round headphones.

Particularly the place its prime fashions are involved, Sony has had immense success: the producer’s wi-fi over-ears have occupied prime positions a minimum of for the reason that Sony WH-1000XM3 – since then, we’ve reached the WH-1000XM5 – the true wi-fi in-ears have been wonderful since a minimum of the WF-1000XM3.

The extra reasonably priced fashions are additionally spectacular. Moreover a number of sports activities headphones and the admittedly considerably unusual Linkbuds collection, Sony additionally has wi-fi in-ear headphones in its vary: the WF-C500 with out ANC, and the newer WF-C700N with ANC. And it’s the WF-C700N that we’re reviewing right here.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Within the field

• ANC for $/£/€100
• Environmentally-friendly packaging

For round $/£/€100, the Sony WF-C700N depart little to be desired. For the primary time on this value section, Sony is providing good lively noise cancellation (ANC), after a longtime headphone model, Sennheiser, entered this market in 2021 with the Sennheiser CX Plus True Wi-fi.

Along with the headphones themselves and the charging cradle, there may be additionally a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging, two extra silicone attachments and a guide within the field. The packaging is exemplary and product of paper or cardboard and thus a renewable uncooked materials: the outer field, the cardboard – even the cable is sure with a bit of paper.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Design

• Enticing colors
• Button as an alternative of contact discipline
• Mild

Visually, the Sony WF-C700N are virtually an identical to the cheaper WF-C500 from 2021. The obvious variations are the colors – the WF-C700N can be found in black, white (reviewed right here), sage inexperienced and lavender, the WF-C500 in black, white, inexperienced and orange – and the metallic grilles for the extra ANC microphones.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Not like the Airpods, the Sony WF-C700N come and not using a stem, however have a button design and due to this fact sit fully within the ear cup with none elements hanging from the ear. The largest drawback is for folks with small ears: in case your ears are significantly small, headphones just like the Sony WF-C700N could merely not have room – the heads of the Airpods are a lot smaller.

As with the cheaper mannequin, Sony depends on a button reasonably than a contact floor for management. Whereas low-cost true-wireless headphones with a button usually have a really arduous stress level and the headphones are pushed into the ear with each press of the button, the buttons of the Sony WF-C700N are pleasantly gentle, however don’t lose the haptic suggestions of the clearly noticeable click on.

In all probability the largest drawback of that is that at times you’ll unintentionally press the buttons when inserting or locking the in-ears.

One other characteristic the mid-range in-ears need to do with out are sensors that may mechanically pause or play music whenever you take the headphones out and put them again in. We hope it’s solely a matter of time earlier than this characteristic strikes into this value vary, identical to ANC.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Development-wise, Sony has one way or the other managed to take care of a battery lifetime of as much as 10 hours with out ANC and as much as 7.5 hours with ANC, whereas nonetheless decreasing the burden of the person earbuds by 15 per cent, from 5.4 to 4.6g. Within the true-wireless headphone market, the WF-C700N are light-weight and due to this fact sit comfortably within the ears for hours. When the batteries have been fully drained, a full cost cycle takes about an hour and a half, whereas 10 minutes is sufficient for a full hour of listening pleasure.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

The case seems like an outsized capsule, is pleasantly mild and feels great within the hand. Virtually too properly, as a result of it invitations you to mess around with it in your trouser or jacket pocket. The battery inside supplies a full cost for the earphones, giving a complete runtime of as much as 15 hours with ANC and 20 hours with out.

On the again is the USB-C port for charging, plus a button to place the headphones into pairing mode or reset them to manufacturing facility settings.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Sound

• Balanced sound from the manufacturing facility
• Very excessive bass potential
• 5-band equaliser plus clear bass

Though the Sony WF-C700N are a sort of hyperlink between the cheaper WF-C500 and the dearer WF-1000XM4, by way of sound they’re much nearer to the previous. That’s not a nasty factor, although, as a result of even Sony’s least expensive headphones sound fairly darn good, even when they’re usually a bit bass-heavy.

Whereas the mids and highs sound very clear and balanced, the best potential of the Sony WF-C700N lies within the bass. Even with Clear Increase set to degree 4, bass tracks in historically much less bass-heavy genres reminiscent of rock and metallic change into clearly audible, though they’re removed from being overbearing. Slightly, they transfer from the background a little bit to the entrance and don’t impose themselves due to their surprisingly heat sound.

Whereas there may be an excessive amount of of a great factor in these genres past degree 4, the enjoyable is simply starting with trendy hip-hop and digital music. The soiled synth bass in virtually all songs of “Run the Jewels” will get even dirtier, crunchy bass drums in drum’n’bass tracks get a bit richer and hotter – though the sound is after all a matter of style.

On this respect, the Sony WF-C700N are extra appropriate for the latter genres than the previous, however this needs to be understood extra as an evaluation than as a criterion for exclusion, because the sound can be adjusted with a 5-band equaliser. On the one hand, there are the everyday presets for pop, rock, speech, and so on., alternatively, you may as well make and save your personal settings.

5 frequency bands are fairly enough in our opinion, in any case, the Sony WF-C700N shouldn’t be a hi-fi product anyway; nevertheless, we might have objected to 3 bands.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Software program

• Good, however not best-in-class ANC
• Unusual gesture management
• 3D audio solely with Sony account

ANC

One of many greatest technical variations between the cheaper WF-C500 and the WF-C700N is the lively noise cancellation. This was beforehand reserved for dearer fashions, however now it’s additionally out there for a relatively small value.

Within the app, you possibly can set which modes to modify between on the contact of a button: between all three or solely between two of three. On/Transparency is configured by default, which might be the commonest use case for most individuals. Together with the deactivation of noise cancellation within the rotation helps at greatest to increase the battery life when wanted.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Whereas the ANC does a great job on the entire, it doesn’t come near the efficiency of the Sony WF-1000XM4: when switched on, not all frequencies are filtered to the identical extent, and in transparency mode there are additionally issues with some frequencies. Whereas monotonous machine noises (engines, compressors, and so on.) could be heard properly – a particular benefit in street site visitors – some frequencies are generally swallowed up a lot, particularly with voices, that you simply generally need to take the headphones out of your ears on the money register so as to perceive the particular person reverse correctly.

The distinction in high quality might be because of the truth that the Sony WF-C700N have fewer microphones than the high-end mannequin and due to this fact decide up ambient noise much less successfully.

If you wish to partially automate the switching on and off, you may give the Sony app permissions in order that the headphones mechanically swap noise cancellation or transparency mode on and off primarily based on location and actions.

Nonetheless, this didn’t work properly sufficient in our check section for us to wish to use it completely in on a regular basis life. Maybe we might even have wanted extra time to coach the underlying algorithm. The one benefit the perform had for us on this context was to liberate one of many two buttons for different capabilities – an odd design resolution by Sony.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Gesture management

Completely different approaches to gesture management have emerged for true-wireless headphones: There are producers, reminiscent of Sennheiser, who depart the whole button task open: if you’d like, you possibly can put play/pause on the opposite aspect, double assign it, even put it on all inputs when you completely need to; single, lengthy, double, triple button press – any perform could be placed on any gesture. On this method, homeowners can completely adapt the management to their preferences.

Then once more, there are producers who permit virtually no changes. Play/Pause is on the left aspect by default whenever you merely faucet, ANC is on the opposite earpiece, and so forth. This has the benefit that you simply don’t need to get used to a brand new enter scheme and all headphones (of this producer or kind) are operated in the identical method.

After which there may be Sony: Right here they’ve opted for an odd center method, the place you possibly can assign particular person enter teams to the left and the proper earpiece. For instance, when you put playback capabilities (play/pause, earlier/subsequent monitor) on the left earpiece and ANC management on the proper, you possibly can solely change the amount in your smartphone. It’s because ANC not solely occupies this single gesture with its single enter, however in a way additionally blocks the lengthy key press and a number of presses – these then merely haven’t any additional perform.

Why that is, we could by no means know. Nonetheless, the cheaper WF-C500 and the dearer WF-1000XM4 even have the issue, although it’s not as extreme within the former as ANC is omitted anyway.

Different app options

Moreover the essential options – ANC, equaliser and button mapping – there are a couple of different attention-grabbing, if not important, capabilities. For instance, you possibly can set whether or not or to not use DSEE within the app. Sony’s proprietary know-how can intelligently scale low-resolution audio upwards and thus reproduce an virtually high-resolution sound. It’s usually really helpful to modify on this setting.

Moreover, there’s a swap within the app with which you’ll prioritise sound high quality or connection stability. Throughout our check time, this setting was completely set to “High quality” and together with an iPhone 14 (often within the pocket), there was not a single connection interruption.

If this occurs recurrently, it is strongly recommended to prioritise stability. Within the background, this setting forces the AAC codec to high quality mode, whereas a extra steady connection is achieved by the much less demanding SBC codec.

Like many different producers, Sony additionally has its personal answer for digital encompass sound; in Apple jargon that is known as “3D audio”, at Sony it’s known as “360 Actuality Audio”. As with the Airpods, it’s a must to {photograph} your ears for this, which is an odd endeavor, as a result of with out exterior enable you don’t know whether or not you might have photographed your ear appropriately, as a result of you possibly can’t {photograph} your ear and have a look at the smartphone show on the identical time.

Anyway, this perform could be very, very restricted with Sony: 360 Actuality Audio is barely appropriate with 4 streaming companies: Amazon Music Limitless, nugs.internet, Peer Tracks and Tidal. Furthermore, a Sony account is necessary for this.

In all probability essentially the most superfluous characteristic of the app is a collection of challenges that you would be able to earn the extra usually you utilize your headphones and full sure duties with them. You then get rewards for this within the type of badges.

Foundry / Eugen Wegmann

Worth and availability

The Sony WF-C700N are extensively out there within the US and now at nearer to $100 than the MSRP of $119.99. You will get them from Greatest Purchase and Walmart amongst different retailers however on the time of writing, Greatest Purchase has extra color choices.

Within the UK, you should buy from Currys, Argos and John Lewis – which have all the color choices for £99 or £99.99

Verdict

In case you’re on the lookout for wi-fi in-ear headphones with noise-cancelling and don’t wish to dig too deep into your pocket, you possibly can’t go mistaken with the Sony WF-C700N. They sound nice, particularly when you like digital music and hip-hop or would love a bit extra thump within the depths of your metallic playlist.

The important thing benefit, over each the common Airpods and the Airpods Professional, is that they provide an unimaginable quantity of options for his or her value – you possibly can’t even get the discontinued Airpods 2 for that, and people sit open within the ears and don’t have ANC. Plus, the Sony WF-C700N come in additional colors different than simply white – though sadly we may solely check the white variant.

Particularly with regard to higher-class fashions with noise-cancelling – be it the Sony WF-1000XM4 or the Airpods Professional 2 – it’s a must to make concessions: The lively noise cancellation doesn’t work fairly as properly as there and different sensible options are lacking, reminiscent of computerized pause and play when eradicating and inserting the headphones.

All in all, nevertheless, the Sony WF-C700N are a minimum of an attention-grabbing, really an excellent various to the Airpods, a minimum of to the common ones. For extra shopping for choices and recommendation, take a look at our round-up of the most effective headphones and greatest true wi-fi earbuds.

This evaluation initially appeared in Macwelt and has been translated for publication right here.