Sony just released its “smallest ever earbuds,” the WF-C510. I thought Sony’s habit of giving products uninspiring names was over when it launched the ULT Series, but I guess I was wrong. These new earbuds promise a compact design, a comfortable body, and a stable fit. Oh, and they only costs $60.
While I’m happy for Sony, its 4.6-gram earbuds aren’t that revolutionary. The budget earbud space is plenty crowded with some decent lightweight options. I recently checked out the OnePlus Nord Buds Pro 3, weighing 4.4g. Even though my ear canals are better suited for on-ear buds, I found the in-ear design on the Nords extremely snug and comfortable to wear for extended periods. The OnePlus Buds 3 also featured an inconspicuous design at 4.8g. The CMF by Nothing Buds Pro 2, which I reviewed earlier, thoroughly disappointed me, but those provided a decent fit, too, at 4.9g. You get the point.
Sony touts the WF-C510’s compactness simply because it dramatically decreased from its premium predecessors, such as the 5.9g WF-1000XM5. But that’s because the XM5s were hefty, not because the C510s are unusually light.
Also, the weight of the earbud largely depends on the driver’s size inside. Typically, that is 10 to 12mm: 12.4mm on the Nord buds, 11mm on the CMFs. The driver size on the WF-C510s is 6mm. That’s, of course, going to shave some weight off it. Driver size translates to better-sounding high and low-end (tweeter driver for high-end and woofer driver for bass). So, I’m also unsure how the considerably small drivers on the C510s will translate in terms of audio quality.
The weight of earbuds also depends on their material and build quality. If I’m using the lightest buds in the world, but they feel extremely flimsy and cheap, that’s no longer impressive. I’m holding off on my reaction to Sony’s latest buds to see how well they balance build quality and comfort.
The rest of these buds’ features are standard for in-ear peripherals. Some of these features include using ear data to design the shape of the bud, an 11-hour battery life, an IPX4 water resistance rating, multi-point connectivity for up to two devices, an ambient mode, fast pairing, and mono listening. A feature that stood out to me was Voice Focus, which allows these buds to suppress ambient noise and emphasize human voices in ambient mode.
The WF-C510s are available to pre-order today for $60.
