Sony's Most Affordable ANC Earbuds Yet!..But, Are They Good? ( WF-C710N Review )
So look here, a brand new pair of Sony ANC earbuds just entered the chat. They're the most affordable to date, and they're called the Sony WF-710N. But they do have Sony's legendary noise-cancelling and Ambient pass-through feature. Which is certainly a big deal at the sub £99 price point.
Now you might be thinking that you could get decent sound quality & ANC for less money from a lesser-known brand on Amazon or Temu or something, and that may be true. But truthfully speaking, if you want value for money. My advice is you go with a brand known for quality audio products in general. There's just less chance you'll make a mistake and waste your money and end up like this guy.
Anyway, I guess you want to know if these earbuds are any good. And as someone who has lost count of how many earbuds I've tested now. I'm gonna tell you. Full transparency, Sony did not pay me for this review, but they did send me the earbuds. But that won't affect my opinions in this review.
Price & Colours
Let's get into it. There are 4 colours black, white, pink and clearly the best colour of them all is glass blue. It might be worth pointing out they're not actually made of glass…that would be cool though, and probably a little dangerous too.
The white, black and pink are solid colours if you were wondering. Anyway, the price on all colour options of the 710N at launch is £99. Placing them above the WF-510 and below the Sony Linkbuds Fit.
Case Design
My first impression of the case design is really nice. It feels premium, strong. The lid has a good amount of resistance, so if you do drop it by accident, your buds will be less likely to fly across the room. The USB charging port is on the back as well as the BT pairing button, there's a pairing slash power indicator LED around the front and a little Branding on top.
The base is flat, so it won't roll around on a table, and the other edges are rounded and curved enough so that it can slide nicely into any pocket. And yes it passes the pocket watch pocket test. And if you look through the base of the case, you'll see two things: there are no Qi wireless charging coils here, however, there is a decent-sized battery cell here which holds 21.5 hours of audio playback power with ANC on.
Buds Design
And the Buds can each hold 8.5 hours. So that's 30 hrs total, and total recharge takes around 3.5 hours. The Buds’ Design, like the case, also feels nice and premium, solid and well built. Their weight is 5.2 grams per bud, and if you look closely, somewhere inside of them is a BT 5.3 chip. The buds are shaped to sit comfortably in your ears, and with the amount of research Sony has done in this area, it would be basically impossible for them to get this wrong.
The silicon tips aren't just the box standard ones. They are made up of two materials, which should help with passive noise-cancelling performance and overall comfort. And for me, these earbuds sit very comfortably and firmly in my ears. And I have no fear that they might fall out. Even if I were to sneeze or dare I say it….go for a run. And they are IPX4 rated, so they are splash proof, sweat resistant and rain proof. If you're into working out in the rain or maybe even singing in the rain.
There are Wear detect sensors on each earbud, and a capacitive touch sensor which can be remapped in the app. And 2 ANC mics behind these grills and two voice pickup mics, one on each side. And it's one thing to show you them, but let me show you how the mics sound so you can judge for yourself.
Mic performance
For the mic performance, please watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVC9gq-UBI0
Noise Cancelling
Now, as I mentioned in the intro. Sony's noise cancelling expertise is really right at the top of the game. So let's see how good this is versus the Sony Linkbuds Fit which are one up from the 710N's.
App Features
Another feather in the cap for these earbuds is Sony's software. They recently refreshed the app and rebranded it. It's called Sony Sound Connect now. Here, you get a lot of control. On the top-level menu, you can see the essentials. The Ambient sound controls, which can be manually adjusted or left on auto, so the ANC kicks on only when it's noisy.
You got your EQ, which has a bunch of presets. Excited seems to be the best preset if you like more punchy bass. And if you want to, you can use a processor of elimination to create your own EQ using the ‘Find your equaliser feature’. You can also see the Adaptive sound control here. Which if enabled can adapt the audio settings and anc for based on your movements and even locations. If you give it permission.
And if you dive one level deeper, you get access to even more features and settings. 2 of which I switched on right away. Prioritise sound quality & DSEE auto. That way, the 710Ns will default to the best audio codec and if the source audio is lower quality, the DSEE will improve it. You can also dial in custom EQs here and scan your ears for a more personalized 360 reality audio experience. And of course, remap the controls if needed and even set up shortcuts to Spotify or Amazon Music if you want.
Sound Quality
Now let's get into what some might say is the most important quality. The Sound. So when I heard that the WF 710N launched at a 99 price point, my expectations weren't extremely high. And honestly, these have blown my expectations out of the water. Particularly when it comes to the sound stage and bass levels. And how bassy these can get once you start playing with the EQ. The clarity and upgraded sound separation is nice, but this is the one area where the more expensive Linkbuds Fit outshines the audio performance. This could be due to the LDAC support, amongst other things. The WF 710Ns use the same codecs as the AirPods Pro AAC and SBC. So if you are coming over from AirPods, you'll get similar sound quality but with more bass. That's just my opinion. If you do like to prioritise clarity, the sound can be very crisp and sharp if you choose to use bright EQ.
It's surprisingly good. The mid-range performance can sound fantastic as long as you don't overdo the bass. And if you are comparing these to AirPods, for example. What you get here for less money is high-quality sound, a ton more customisation features, a unique look and very impressive noise-cancelling levels…there's an argument to be made about them having better sound. I can say the bass is noticeably better. And all at a more affordable price. So, yeah, £99 for these. That's a sound investment, in my opinion for anyone who wants a premium sounding setoff earbuds with premium level ANC without the premium price tag. And if you like what you heard in this video but maybe you don't mind spending a little more….then send us money. And maybe you might want to check out the Linkbuds Fit, or current Flagship XM5s.
