Sony WF-C500 review: A little bit of everything

Sony has been pumping out headphones for years. It’s particularly recognized for its big-ticket conventional headphones however the firm the earbuds market fairly nicely cornered, too, with its premium WF-1000XM4 buds. The extra modestly priced Sony WF-C500 true wi-fi earbuds won’t have the title recognition of their siblings, however they nonetheless promise good sound high quality, lengthy battery life, and even options like spatial audio. We spent over per week with the WF-C500 to search out out if they’ve what it takes to face out from the group.

Who is the Sony WF-C500 for?

• Casual listeners searching for a well-rounded pair of earbuds will discover the sound high quality, characteristic set, and cozy really feel of the Sony WF-C500 match nicely into their day by day lives.
• Gym buffs gained’t thoughts the shortage of energetic noise-cancelling (ANC) and can make good use of the earbuds’ IPX4 score.
• Anyone searching for new earbuds who need a pair which have a style of issues present in dearer fashions at an inexpensive worth.

Upon first look, you’ll most likely discover that the Sony WF-C500 don’t look too completely different from different true wi-fi earbuds available on the market. After all, they’re made of plastic, have a reasonably typical form, and fairly mundane look. But regardless of the unassuming look, they do have an IPX4 score that helps defend them from splashes, sweat, and drips. As a outcome, a drizzly commute or a stint on the health club shouldn’t be an enormous concern.

Like most different pairs of earbuds on the market, you get three silicone ear tip sizes to select from: small, medium, and huge. These strike a contented medium between squishy sufficient to be snug and agency sufficient to carry the earbuds in place. The buds are small and light-weight, too. The earbuds’ spherical ends relaxation contained in the cartilage of your ears, which helps additional anchor them in place with no need ear stays or hooks. We discovered that whereas they might lose their seal barely after some time, they shouldn’t tumble out, which means you possibly can go away them in and go about your day.

One space the place these earbuds betray their budget-friendly worth is their case. The Sony WF-C500 earbuds are available in a easy, utilitarian plastic charging case. It’s not essentially the most premium-feeling case round and the magnets holding the buds in place aren’t the strongest, but it surely will get the job carried out. The buds have “L” and “R” markings on them, and “R” is purple to additional assist distinguish the 2 buds. However, the case isn’t marked. Instead, for those who attempt to insert the buds in a swapped orientation, they merely is not going to match.

There are not any surprises or new gimmicks in the case of controlling the Sony WF-C500. You’ll discover clearly-delineated fingertip-shaped areas on every earbud the place you’ll goal for faucet controls. By default, the appropriate bud handles media, and the left offers with quantity. If a name is available in, some of these controls will change. Here’s what the controls are out of the field:

Unfortunately, in aiming for simplicity, the WF-C500 sacrifice customization. The Sony Headphones Connect app (on each Android and iOS) incorporates a tutorial on the faucet controls however you possibly can’t change them in any method. We weren’t anticipating loads of choices on condition that these are primary buds, however not be capable to tweak something is lower than splendid. This is very odd as a result of Sony usually helps you to tinker with heaps of issues on its different earbuds and headphones.

Thankfully, the controls you do get are those most individuals will probably use day by day. If you like to be extra hands-off, you should use a voice assistant, like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Your chosen assistant may be activated with a press-and-hold of the appropriate bud.

The controls are typically delicate sufficient to register faucets once you imply it, whereas avoiding triggering instructions for those who’re simply attempting to regulate the slot in your ear. Some unintended faucets would possibly happen, however not more than some other pair of respectable earbuds.

As with many different units of buds, the most important cause to obtain the WF-C500’s companion app is that it’s crucial to put in firmware updates. As for everything else, Sony’s Headphones Connect app makes an attempt to strike the identical steadiness between ease-of-use and sufficient notable options because the buds’ bodily design and controls.

The app’s ear scanning operate is used each for spatial audio — dubbed 360 Reality Audio — and to customise the WF-C500 to your ears. Unlike another manufacturers, Sony’s spatial audio implementation works on any gadget, so long as you’ve appropriate content material from providers equivalent to Amazon Music Unlimited (although notably not Spotify). While the help continues to be slim, having an open commonplace is a refreshing change from Apple or Samsung, as an example, which lock down their spatial audio implementations to solely work with their respective units.

Perhaps essentially the most notable factor concerning the app is you get each equalizer presets and a customizable EQ. That’s uncommon for earbuds within the Sony WF-C500’s worth vary, and even some dearer flagship fashions don’t supply a customized EQ in any respect ( you, Samsung). The app will even present you the Bluetooth codec and battery standing proper up entrance, which is good for those who simply want a fast peek at how the buds are doing.

The Sony WF-C500 solely helps Bluetooth 5.0 and the AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs. Oddly for Sony earbuds, they don’t help LDAC, regardless that it’s Sony’s personal codec.

That means iPhone customers get a dependable possibility, however some Android units might expertise latency. In the app’s settings menu, you’ll discover an possibility for modes that put “Priority on Sound Quality” and “Priority on Stable Connection,” however not one for low latency, sadly. Still, this isn’t uncommon for different earbuds priced equally to the WF-C500 — even the vanilla AirPods solely offer you SBC and AAC, in any case.

Another level for the buds’ general ease of use is the truth that the Sony WF-C500 will routinely enter pairing mode as soon as you’re taking them out of their case. They don’t have Bluetooth multipoint help, so that they’ll solely join to 1 gadget. But if you wish to use one earbud at a time, both the left or proper bud helps you to try this. Overall, Sony doesn’t make it too sophisticated to get the WF-C500 figuring out of the field.

Not being loaded with too many additional options and omitting ANC has a constructive knock-on impact for battery life. Indeed, in line with our testing, the Sony WF-C500 lasted 9 hours, 46 minutes. That’s simply quick of Sony’s declare of ten hours, but it surely’s nonetheless a fantastic outcome. A low battery warning will sound as soon as the earbuds dip beneath 50% battery, whereas one other warning comes simply earlier than a bud dies utterly. Because every bud has its personal battery, you would possibly hear these warnings greater than as soon as. While that slight quirk is annoying, it’s not a deal breaker in our expertise, and it’s helpful to get an alert even for those who’ve solely acquired one bud in.

To make it easier to see how a lot juice the buds have left, a small orange LED on every earbud will illuminate once they’re within the charging case. Meanwhile, the case has an orange LED to point its remaining battery life. According to Sony, the case offers 20 hours of complete battery life. Plus, quick USB-C charging nets you as much as an hour of battery life after solely ten minutes within the case. If you’re an on-the-go kind of particular person, this must be loads of battery and backup energy to get you thru the day.

As talked about, you don’t get energetic noise-cancellation (ANC) with the Sony WF-C500, so that you’ll want a very good seal from the ear tricks to block out undesirable sounds. We discovered the ear ideas made that fairly simple, as their not-too-soft but not-too-stiff silicone materials struck a fantastic steadiness, which is on-brand for these buds. As anticipated, passive isolation blocks out excessive notes higher than low notes, as seen within the chart above.

Low-frequency noises will nonetheless be louder than highs with out ANC, however the WF-C500 do a good job of blocking out noise general. In reality, they do higher than many different non-ANC earbuds, additional emphasizing that whereas these might not be Sony’s flagship true wi-fi earbuds, they’re not an afterthought for the legendary audio model both. In our expertise, low and mid-range noises will nonetheless be round one-quarter to half as loud as they’d be in any other case, which is a good outcome.

Cheap earbuds are inclined to ratchet up bass notes in failed makes an attempt to sound extra spectacular, however fortunately the Sony WF-C500 don’t do that. In reality, the Sony WF-C500 largely persist with our sister website SoundGuys’ home curve, as proven above. That means the bulk of individuals will like the best way they sound. You might discover that center notes sound barely quieter than the bass and highs, however probably provided that you cease and listen. The drop-off within the excessive notes seen on the far proper of the chart means there’s extra to the story.

As we’ve come to anticipate for these crowd-pleasing earbuds, the pleasant frequency response curve of the WF-C500 makes pop and nation jams like Summertime by Orville Peck sound fairly good, with the strings simple to tell apart from the vocals.

Regarding that drop-off within the excessive notes seen within the chart above, the Headphones Connect app consists of one thing Sony calls the Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE). According to Sony, this restores “high-frequency sound and fine fade-out sound … to the track for a more authentic listening experience.” Basically, it bumps up excessive notes a little for those who select to allow it. The impact is delicate however noticeable in Summertime when it makes the cymbals at the start barely louder. Because it’s such a minor distinction, you could not even detect this in noisy conditions or when simply casually listening. And as a result of the Sony Headphones Connect app has a customized EQ, you would at all times nudge up the highs barely there and get an analogous outcome.

On the entire, the Sony WF-C500 will sound good to on a regular basis music listeners, commuters, and health club buffs alike. They do a very good job touchdown in a center floor the place now we have no main complaints, plus you possibly can EQ them for those who occur to note one thing you don’t like.

Can you utilize the Sony WF-C500 for telephone calls?

An omnidirectional mic on every earbud helps you to use the Sony WF-C500 for telephone calls. Once a name is available in, the appropriate earbud will allow you to reply it by tapping as soon as. During the decision, you possibly can faucet once more to hold up. There is not any contact command to put a name straight, however you possibly can ask your voice assistant to do it, leaving you with little must fish your telephone out of your pocket.

We weren’t shocked or impressed with the standard of the mic. In normal, calls will likely be intelligible in quiet settings. But in an workplace or in windy circumstances, the opposite celebration will hear keyboards “clacking” and different types of noise. You can hearken to pattern recordings from the Sony WF-C500 beneath and inform us the way you assume it sounds.

Our sister website SoundGuys’ ballot discovered that 79% of respondents rated the WF-C500 between “okay” and “good”. That is about common for true wi-fi earbuds like this.

The Sony WF-C500 are a very good match for individuals who need inexpensive, easy-to-use earbuds that don’t have too many frustrations. While they might not have the whiz-bang options or the marquee sights of flagship fashions, they nonetheless sound good and stay snug even after prolonged use. These just-so earbuds match the invoice if you’d like a pair that may do a bit of everything and with loads of battery life. And for those who’re the sort of individual that simply can’t appear to determine what sort of earbuds would give you the results you want, the WF-C500 lie in a pleasant Goldilocks zone.

There are drawbacks, although. The WF-C500 solely help the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs, which may imply latency points on some Android units. This is an particularly odd omission on condition that LDAC is Sony’s invention. We want they allow you to customise their contact controls extra, too. Finally, they don’t have ANC, however their isolation continues to be strong.

There are many rivals to the Sony WF-C500, although few that supply as a lot for the worth. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 ($149) have roughly equal options however they solely have an IPX2 score and value a a little additional. They additionally offer you ANC, although you’ll miss out on spatial audio except you utilize them with a Samsung telephone.

The Jabra Elite 3 ($79) boast a extra rugged IP55 score for wetter climate or more durable exercises together with aptX Bluetooth codec help. However, if you’d like ANC, multipoint, and different bells and whistles the WF-C500 don’t have, be ready to pay extra for one thing just like the Jabra Elite Active 75t ($165).

If you need a pair of rugged earbuds that sustain together with your health club routine, you possibly can attempt the Bose Sport Earbuds ($179). Their app isn’t fairly as detailed because the WF-C500’s Sony Headphones Connect app, however the Bose buds’ snug and safe design will likely be helpful throughout even essentially the most grueling exercises.

The Beats Studio Buds ($149) are nice for customers which may need to incessantly swap between Apple and Android platforms. You get ANC, a cross-platform app, and an IPX4 score. The workout-minded can attempt the Beats Fit Pro ($179).