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For years Sony tried to create the perfect true wireless headphones. He started his efforts with the divisive Sony WF-1000X and followed it up with the sport-focused Sony WF-SP700N. Neither of them was at the top of their class, and neither held a candle to the Apple AirPods.
But things have been improving. Last year we got the near-perfect Sony WF-1000XM3 with active noise cancellation, and now that it’s hitting the shelves the most affordable Sony WF-XB700 that seems to offer a comfortable fit, powerful and powerful sound, and an IPX4 rating with a It combines 18 hours of battery life between the yolks and the case.
We haven’t spent much time with it yet, but so far Sony’s latest true wireless headphones feel like a marked improvement on the original WF-1000X and WF-SP700N, and they might be our second favorite Sony true wireless headphones.
Release date and price
The Sony WF-XB700 is the latest addition to Sony’s Extra Bass headphone and headphone series and was released in April 2020. The headphones were announced alongside the Sony WH-CH710N noise canceling headphones, and also on the shelves at the same time.
In terms of price, the Sony WF-XB700 is one of the cheapest true wireless headphones from Sony and is priced at $ 129 (£ 130, around AU $ 200). It’s a considerable savings compared to the $ 199 Sony WF-1000XM3 (£ 169, AU $ 319), but remember that the latter has active noise cancellation while the former does not.
Compared to other true wireless headphones, the Sony WF-XB700 is half the pack, and it’s actually slightly cheaper than the $ 139 (£ 159, AU $ 239) Apple AirPods that dominate the form factor at sales terms. Without spending more time with Sony’s friends, it’s hard to compare them, but saving $ 10 is a good early advantage in the competition.
Design
The way Sony created these headphones makes them feel a little bit older than other true wireless headphones it has produced in the past and instead tried to be stylish and sporty. This is because Sony has generally opted for rounded, oblong buttons, and although the WF-XB700 has an oblong inner piece that sits in your ear, the outside is a near-satellite circular disk that houses two buttons.
What exactly these buttons do is not so intuitive at first, but on the left earphone you have the volume up / down and on the right you have play / pause and skip. You can also use them to activate your voice assistant and accept calls, but it’s not immediately clear how to do all of that.
If you narrow them down to your nuts and bolts, there are three important parts to these headphones: the tip that fits into the ear canal, the center section that houses the drivers and sits inside the ear, and the outer shell that houses the battery. This three-tier design isn’t exactly space efficient, and it’s likely to be incredibly polarizing for people who just want slim, sleek buds, but it does have a few advantages.
The first and most important of these advantages is that, due to their size, they should actually completely fill the ear canal and the outer ear where they rest. That sense of security plus their low weight makes them surprisingly comfortable and easy to wear for long periods, and the airtight seal helps them sound great. Sony also includes several tips inside the box if the default tips don’t fit properly, which is a nice touch.
The other advantage of their design is that they can fit a slightly larger than average battery within the buds. According to Sony, the battery life is about nine hours on a single charge, plus an additional nine hours with the charging case, bringing the total to 18 hours. That is almost the best on the market. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus They offer 11 hours of playtime out of their case, while the similarly priced Apple AirPods only offer about five hours of music playback before they need to go back to their case.
Speaking of cases, the plastic case included with the Sony WF-XB700 is quite slim and uses a translucent cover that allows you to see the charge status of the headphones in the case. Starting the charging process is as easy as snapping the buttons on your mini-jacks and waiting for the red LED to light up. To recharge both the case and the yolks, simply connect them to an open USB port on your computer with the supplied USB-to-USB C cable.
Performance
So how do they sound? Well, being part of the Extra Bass series, we were concerned that they sounded bloated, muddy and confined. Fortunately, they are anything but.
The first thing you’ll notice when listening to them is the bass, it’s definitely present, but it’s done in a way that feels tight and forceful rather than muddy and bloated. The result is music that’s pretty fun to listen to … even if it’s not exactly the sound the artist intended.
The downside is that the midrange is affected here: listening to YouTube videos is noticeably quieter across the board than listening to music, and the less powerful midrange is definitely to blame.
That doesn’t mean YouTube or Netflix are impossible to listen to, they are not, but it would be nice if there was a way to change the EQ based on the type of content being played, for example through the Sony headphone app .
Right now, there is not so much luck.
Of course, Sony seems to want these to focus on music and double as a good gym buddy, that’s why they are IPX4 sweat and water resistant. They also seem to have a relatively stable connection based on our short time with them: walking around our house with our phone in one room, we don’t experience any sign of neglect, but they’re not canceling out the noise, so be prepared to listen to most of the conversations that happen nearby.
The good news is that its built-in microphones are pretty good. Over the course of a few hours, we took a few phone calls with the outbreaks, and for the most part, the people we spoke to said they sounded good. It’s a relief as some people have had problems in the past with other built-in microphones from Sony headphones, but we will continue to use them and report any abnormalities.
Last but not least, battery life has been kept up to nine hours per charge so far, thanks in large part to the ability of the headphones to go into low power mode when removed from the ear. . Automatic shutdown is a great energy saver, so it’s great to see it used here.
Early verdict
While it’s easy to focus on some of the negatives like polarizing design, lackluster midrange, and lack of noise cancellation, these headphones have a lot for them. Honestly, these are decent competitors to Apple AirPods – they are priced right, they sound right, and they even have better battery life.
We want to keep listening to them for days to come, but so far, the Sony WF-XB700 is online to be our second favorite true wireless headphones from Sony.
