Sony WF-C500 review

Our Verdict

Yes, fashioning the WF-C500 so affordable has led to compromises - but Sony's unbroken them to a minimum, and delivered a very chirpy deep from very comfortable earbuds. They'ray utmost from your only choice, mind you, with lots of competing budget wireless earbuds on the commercialize.

For

Informative, organized and lively sound
Neat and comfy
Proper control condition app

Against

Barrage life is nix exceptional
Could sound both deeper and wider
Not curt of rivals

TechRadar Finding of fact

Yes, devising the WF-C500 so affordable has led to compromises - but Sony's kept them to a lower limit, and delivered a very perky sound from very well-off earbuds. They're far from your only choice, mind you, with slews of competing budget radio receiver earbuds connected the market.

Pros

+ Educational, configured and lively sound
+ Neat and cozy
+ Proper mastery app
+

Cons

- Stamp battery life is nothing special
- Could sound both deeper and wider
- Not short of rivals
-

One-minute review

A companion needs to be either very resolute operating theater very confident to move in the budget wireless earbuds market. Can buoy you guess which nonpareil Sony is?

The Sony WF-C500 are sensibly specified, very light and comfortable, and have a choice of manipulate methodologies that all make for easily. At 20 hours, the all-in battery life ISN't that impressive - but 10 hours from the buds alone ISN't inferior at whol. And their sound - rapid, detailed and exhaustively engaging - has some areas of real expertize.

Simply the WF-C500 are non short of proper competition from equally brave and self-confident companies - and their relative miss of bass extension, acceptably battery life and rather confined soundstage has left the door open, just a crack, for those competitors. For once, Sony doesn't get the true radiocommunication in-ear action wholly its own means.

the sony wf-c500 true wireless earbuds in their case — (Image credit: TechRadar)

Sony WF-C500 monetary value and release date

$79 / £89 / AU$149.95
Available instantly

The Sony WF-C500 dead on target radio in-auricle headphones are on sale now, and they're priced at an extremely competitive $79 / £89 / AU$149.95.

The proliferation of very worthy genuine wireless in-ear headphones below the $100/ £100 / AU$150 mark patently hasn't at large Sony, and the company fancies a piece of the sizable sue. But while it has the seal, and some much more pricey true wireless models with which to sprinkle some reflected glory over the WF-C500, Sony is pitting itself against some passing capable opposition.

The likes of Cambridge Sound, Jabra, Panasonic, Samsung and Sennheiser (to cite just a couple of) all have similarly priced and very decent veracious wireless earbuds to deal out you - and, in writing at to the lowest degree, close to of these models have some advantages o'er the WF-C500. Nothing's ever straightforward, is IT?

the sony wf-c500 true wireless earbuds in their charging case — (Image credit: TechRadar)

Design and features

20-time of day battery life
Bluetooth 5
Light, comfortable build

Information technology's not oft we develop to criticize Sony for the way its products are designed and built - and we're not about to showtime now. The WF-C500 are extremely tidy earbuds, compact and light (just 5.4g per earbud) and are impressible to position comfortably atomic number 102 matter the specific size and shape of your ear. A choice of trio sizes of eartip only makes getting comfortable easier.

Disdain their tiddly dimensions, Sony has found room for a relatively large physiologic control surface on each WF-C500 earbud - it's a 'push/push' button and covers 'play/intermission', 'skip forwards/backwards', 'volume upward/down', 'answer/end/reject call' and 'wake up phonation assistant'. In that location's as wel a mic opening on each earbud for interpreter assistant fundamental interaction and telephony - both Google Help and Siri are available.

If you prefer, controller is as wel getable via Sony's exemplary 'Headphones Connect' app. Likewise as dealing with all the broad functions, this is where you privy adjust Equivalent settings, set your Bluetooth priorities, let the app have a good deal the shape of your ears (the WF-C500 are congruous with Sony's '360 Reality Audio frequency' spacial audio algorithm) and toggle the Digital Heavy Enhancement Locomotive on or soured. DSEE is supposed to 'upscale' standard audio files until they're 'almost' of drunk-resolving standard. The ability to switch over it on Oregon soured in the app allows you to make up one's mind on its effectuality (or want thereof) yourself.

the sony headphones connect app — (Image credit: TechRadar)

Battery life is an unremarkable 20 hours dead - although the 10 hours stored in the earbuds themselves isn't repentant at all. A quick 10-minute blast of mogul will deliver other hour of playback - there's a short USB-C to USB-A cable in the (easily and fully recyclable) packaging for this purpose. The WF-C500 use Bluetooth 5 for wireless connectivity, and once your digital audio frequency information is connected board, information technology's delivered by a pair of 6mm full-range drivers.

IPX4 makes them nicely resistant to wet and water-splashes, and a choice of four colors (properly vibrant green or orange are available too atomic number 3 humdrum old black or white) is welcome too. Supply in 'fast duet' connectivity with Android devices and 'swift geminate' with Windows 10 PCs, and you've a very pleasingly specified cartesian product.

Of course, IT's beautiful obvious where Sony has made the compromises necessary to bring the WF-C500 certain subordinate $100 / £100 / Gold$150. In that location's no active noise-cancelling, there's no wireless charging, the charging case itself (while perfectly well made) is nothing particular… but as long as the Sonys have it where it counts, course, that's all completely fair sufficiency.

the sony heapdhones connect app — (Image credit: TechRadar)

Audio performance

Peppy, well-organized sound
Good story of detail
Not the most expansive listen in

The WF-C500 are utterly capable of dealing with big MQA-hopped-up Recurrent event Masters digital audio frequency files - so a listen to The Magnetic Fields' You Must Be Out Of Your Mind seems as upright a place every bit any to start. Certainly, the Sonys Don't find it altogether that much of a challenge.

Talk approximately stereo system focus and separation mightiness seem redundant where headphones are obsessed - but there are plenty designs around that can't properly describe the layout of a soundstage to demonstrate that these things aren't a given. The WF-C500 have no problem explaining what's what, though - although the strain is jammed with instruments every last occupying more-or-less the same part of the frequency range, and although the Sony don't have the out-and-out scale of some rivals, undermentioned individual elements is elongate.

Low frequency sounds are slightly short of ultimate wing, but they're nicely shaped and informative. And they don't lurk or crowd the midrange, either, which means there's proper expression of rhythms and tempos here - the WF-C500 are pleasingly straight-edged on their way into and KO'd of basso notes. The opposite end of the frequency chain is rolled off just a little, presumably in the name of politeness, but information technology still musters just enough bite and shine to keep things stimulating.

a closeup of one sony wf-c500 earbud — (Image credit: TechRadar)

In between, the midrange is pretty deft where vocalists are concerned. Stephin Merritt's baritone voice fluctuates between bass and midrange, but it's loaded with detail of his vocal fag, and therefore is chock-full of quality. Information technology's contained in a neat little pocket of space, too, which makes it complete the to a greater extent immediate and communicative.

Change over to the Sir Thomas More wide-ranging, if rather less satisfying, sound of Kanye Westward's Jail and the WF-C500 are more healthy to describe the kinetics of the recording. They do good work out in making the silences and spaces in the song as as significant as the actual sounds, overly - and they show off a discriminating clean haphazardness-deck spell they're at it.

All of this assumes an EQ that's set flat the whole way crossways the board, it should be said. You've any numeral of opportunities to skewed the sound to your personal taste in the app - but, for our money, 'flat' is where the Sony sound trump. And by entirely means, investigate the 'discharge bass' setting - but live assured there's zilch 'clear' roughly IT.