Sony WF-C500 review

Sony WF-C500 is a good companion for commuters and workouts thanks to its comfortable fit, touch operation and sound quality. With a pair of these TWS earphones, it is the most affordable option among them.

The Sony WF-C500 is a comfortable companion and workout companion. You may miss ANC in noisy environments, but the good isolation helps, while the lightweight design is easy to wear all day. Sony makes a wide range of over-ear and on-ear headphones and earbuds, so the Sony WF-C500 sits on the shoulders of giants. These earphones offer long battery life, high-tech sound features, excellent sound, and more, but the in-ear headphone market is crowded with many similar offerings.

Sony’s WF-C500 wireless earbuds are reasonably priced, very light and comfortable, and have a number of control options that all work well. Battery life isn’t particularly impressive at 20 hours, but 10 hours with just the earbuds isn’t bad. And their fast, detailed and thoroughly immersive sound has some areas where they are true experts. For that reason, these earbuds can’t compete with high-end models, but they’re our best choice for monster wireless earbuds, and our best choice for wireless earbuds because they are fantastic value for money.

The Sony WF-C500 are very reasonably priced earphones with a very neutral sound profile. However, there is a slight discrepancy between the left and right earbuds on our unit, with the right ear having more bass. Sound can be adjusted with a graphic equalizer and presets in the accompanying app, which also lets you set up 360 Reality Audio, a surround sound feature, though you’ll need to pay for a compatible streaming service to make it work. Battery life is about 14 hours. Operation is via large buttons on the outside of the headphones, which unfortunately are not very intuitive at first and can hurt your ears when pressed.

Design

The round, spherical design of the Sony WF-C500 is strongly reminiscent of its more expensive counterparts and is sleek and simple, yet sophisticated. It comes in black or white. If you’re a bit more adventurous, you can also buy them in coral orange or ice green. The earbuds look discreet, helped by the fact that there is no dangling stem protruding into the ear cups. For charging, the earphones come in a matching pill-shaped case with a clear plastic lid that has the Sony logo printed on the top. Neither the earphones nor the case feel particularly premium, as they are made of plastic, but both are sturdy and seem built to last.

Included are three sizes of silicone ear tips so you can find the right fit. To insert the earplugs, all you have to do is push them into your ears and twist them tight. Weighing about 5.4g each, they are very comfortable, even more comfortable than most other wireless earplugs. They stayed securely in our ears even when we were exercising with them. With an IPX4 rating, the Sony WF-C500 are waterproof, so you can wear them in light rain and sweat at the gym, though you’ll have to be careful not to drop them in a body of water that they might not survive.

Comfort

The WF-C500 headphones are packaged in a small, capsule-shaped box that you can easily carry in your pocket. A clear lid that forms half of this capsule flips open to reveal the round earphones inside the case. The small case has a flat side so it won’t wobble when you place it on a table, and a USB Type-C port on the back for charging. Take out the WF-C500 and you’ll see two round earbuds with in-ear extensions that are angled at one point. This looks pretty refreshing considering how many earbuds we see on the market with long stems sticking out.

The simple, round design is also extremely ergonomic and fits perfectly in your ears. When you wear the WF-C500, the in-ear attachments fit into your ear canal, and the dome-shaped earbuds sit inside the ear cup. These buds are comfortable to wear. The wearing comfort is also likely due to the negligible weight. Contrary to what it seems at first glance, each of the earbuds weighs about 5.4 grams and feels very light when you put them in.

Connectivity

The WF-C500 uses Bluetooth 5 for wireless connectivity, and once your digital audio is on board, it’s reproduced by a pair of 6mm wideband drivers. Thanks to IPX4, they are moisture and splash resistant, and the choice of four colors is also welcome. Add in “Quick Pair” connectivity with Android devices and “Quick Pair” with Windows 10 PCs, and you have a very well-specified product.

Of course, it’s pretty obvious where Sony has made the necessary compromises to bring the WF-C500 to market for under €100. There’s no active noise cancellation, there’s no wireless charging, the charging case itself is nothing special, but as long as Sony’s got it where it counts, that’s all perfectly fine.

Noise Cancelling

The Sony WF-C500s have decent noise isolation. They do not have active noise cancellation (ANC) and do not block out very many sounds in the bass range, such as rumbling bus and airplane engines. However, higher-frequency sounds like conversations and humming air conditioners are well isolated. Each bud has a large round button on the outside. They are easy to press, but the commands are not very intuitive, and sometimes the buttons feel too sensitive, so you have to press them twice when you really only wanted to press them once.

They’re also not very click-friendly, but on the other hand, there are voice prompts or beeps for most functions. The best noise-canceling headphones use an “active” combination of hardware and firmware to suppress external noise or sounds when you’re listening to your favorite music or podcasts with headphones or earbuds, for example. Unlike passive noise cancellation, which simply muffles these sounds through the ear cups or in-ear attachments of the headphones, active noise cancellation listens for background noise and uses clever audio tricks to “cancel” these potentially annoying sounds.

Audio Performance

The Sony WF-C500 earphones are quite capable of handling large MQA-powered TIDAL Masters digital audio files – so a listening test of The Magnetic Fields’ You Must Be Out Of Your Mind seems like a good place to start. It’s certainly not too much of a challenge for the Sonys. Talking about stereo focus and separation may seem redundant when it comes to headphones but there are enough models that can’t properly describe the construction of a soundstage to show that these things aren’t a given.

The WF-C500, on the other hand, has no problem explaining what’s what, even though the song is packed with instruments that all occupy more or less the same part of the frequency range, and while the Sony doesn’t have the pronounced scale of some of its competitors, it’s easy to follow individual elements.

The low frequencies lack ultimate extension, but they are nicely shaped and informative. The Sony WF-C500 isn’t sticky or intrusive in the mids, either, which means rhythms and tempos are properly expressed here. The other end of frequency range is pulled back a bit, probably courtesy, but it still has enough bite and sparkle to keep things interesting.

Call Performance

The call quality of most Sony wireless earphones is not good, and the WF-C500 won’t change your mind either. It is fine for indoor calls, although callers often told me that my voice sounded muffled. This intensified during outdoor calls, as the microphones picked up a lot of ambient noise and hindered clarity. At least Bluetooth 5.2 delivers what it promises.

The wireless range of up to 80 feet is something you don’t get from many wireless earbuds under $100; moving back and forth from the living room to the gazebo resulted in stutter-free streaming. The WF-C500 connects quickly with new and familiar devices. Google Fast Pair speeds up the process on Android smartphones with the touch of a button. We are not upset about the lack of multipoint technology, but the lack of NFC for tap-to-pair functionality is annoying, especially since it is a Sony feature.

Battery and Charging

The good news is that you can listen to music for 10 hours on a full charge. That’s twice as long as the AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro (5 hours) and among the best in this category. With moderate use (about 2.5 hours per day), 4 days without charging was pretty respectable. The charging case holds up to 20 hours of charge, which is equivalent to 2 additional charges of the earphones. A 10-minute quick charge mode provides 1 hour of listening time, which is pretty handy.

Although the Sony offers respectable battery life overall, the case does not support wireless charging. For comparison, an AirPods case offers about 24 hours of additional charging time, and the latest versions feature wireless charging with MagSafe. According to Sony, you can listen to music for 10 hours on a full charge, and 9 hours with high volume and special features. That’s a fantastic amount of playtime to have available, and twice as long as the AirPods Pro with ANC enabled (4.5 hours). I was satisfied with the four days of moderate use of these headphones.

Final Words

We hope you like and understand this article on Sony WF-C500 review. There are many reasons to like the Sony WF-C500: the low price, the good sound quality, the comprehensive mobile app, and the sturdy case. All of this adds up to a very solid listening and user experience, and at a price of just $99, it really is a bargain.

If you’re on a budget and don’t need all the high-end features, you have found your new headphones. However, if you want a little flair to your listening experience or just need headphones to drown out a noisy environment, you may want to look elsewhere. The Sony WF-C500 lacks features that may be necessary, such as noise reduction and transparency mode, which some users simply cannot do without.

John Brister
John Brister
Meet John Brister, the prolific content writer renowned for his perceptive comparison articles on Bollyinside. Specializing in topics ranging from TVs to headphones and other accessories, John's knack for breaking down intricate details into reader-friendly insights has garnered him a dedicated following. Beyond his literary pursuits, John is an avid swimmer and equally passionate about tracking, often exploring new trails and routes, feeding his sense of adventure.

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The Sony WF-C500 is a comfortable companion and workout companion. These earbuds offer long battery life, high-tech sound features, great sound, and more, but the in-ear headphone market is crowded with many similar offerings.Sony WF-C500 review