When it comes to Sony and the best headphones, you tend to think of the company’s premium pairs.
And that’s not an accident, because the WH-1000MX5 over-ears and WF-1000MX5 in-ears are excellent. But Sony does a lot of great budget headphones, too. And it’s just refreshed 2023’s WF-C700N with the $120/£100/€120 WF-C710N. Yes, still typically Sony with the not-so-nappy names.
Appearance-wise, the biggest change is the addition of a zeitgeisty clear blue pair but otherwise they’re similar to their predecessors but with much boosted specs yet at the same price.
So what’s changed? Firstly, the active noise cancellation (ANC) has been given a power-up with dual-mics on each earbud rather than just one. The company is also deploying AI to further reduce background noise during calls. Wear detection is also present for auto-pause when the earphones are removed.
Battery life is also better, with 8.5 hours with ANC on (an improvement of an hour). There’s up to 30 hours in all with the case (or 40 if you turn ANC off). Quick Charge will now juice up the headphones in five minutes to give you an hour’s playback.
One thing I’m not sure about – pending the arrival of my review pair – is the new touch controls. Touch controls rather than physical buttons is always something I’m not personally keen on since they have a habit of being hard to be precise with. But our Sony spokesperson interestingly justified this by saying that pressing physical controls can affect fit, which I guess is a fair point.
As well as glass blue, the earphones are also available in black, white and pink.
