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- Effective ANC
- Comfortable and ergonomic
- Great audio options and convenience features
- No LDAC support
- Case feels a little cheap
- Restrictive control customisation
Apple may be the number one brand by units sold, but in terms of critical acclaim, Sony has been the dominant force in the world of wireless earbuds over the past few years. However, its vice-like grip has started to loosen of late, with Technics and Nothing stealing its thunder in the premium and sub-£100 categories.
The new Sony WF-C710N are here to wrestle back the initiative in the latter category and, as you’ll read below, they do so very successfully.
What do you get for the money?
The WF-C710N replace the WF-C700 as Sony’s cheapest noise-cancelling wireless earbuds and come with the same £99 price tag as their predecessors. They have a similar set of features, too, but Sony has made tweaks in important areas.
Let’s start with the design. You’ve got a choice of four colourways at launch: black, white, pink and the “Glass Blue” I’m reviewing here, which gives off strong Nothing Ear (2024) vibes with the way it shows off the device’s interior circuitry. The general shape remains the same, but the earbuds and charging case are slightly chunkier to facilitate various upgrades, including 30-hour total battery life, a twofold increase on the WF-C700N.
Sony has squeezed a second microphone into each earbud, and this “Dual Sensor Noise Technology” results in a significant improvement to noise-cancelling performance. Call performance is superior thanks to the use of AI-powered Precise Voice Pickup technology, while depressible buttons have been ditched in favour of touch controls. That move will divide opinion, but one indisputably positive addition is that of wear detection, a frustrating omission from the WF-C700N’s feature set.
Like the WF-C700N, the WF-C710N support Sony’s Adaptive Sound Control technology, which makes automatic adjustments to noise cancelling based on your actions and location, the brand’s DSEE (Digital Signal Enhancement Engine) upmixing tech, and its spatial audio format, 360 Reality Audio.
One thing that is sadly lacking, however, is high-resolution codec support. The WF-C710N operate wirelessly over a newer version of Bluetooth than their predecessors (5.3 vs 5.2) but remain limited to SBC and AAC. If you’re after Sony’s higher-quality LDAC format, you’ll need to splash out on its pricier flagship buds, the WF-1000XM4 or WF-1000XM5.
READ NEXT: What are Bluetooth codecs?
What do they do well?
The WF-C710N perform strongly in every area that matters. I found them very comfortable to wear, supremely secure in my ears, and able to passively block out a reasonable amount of noise.
That’s a solid foundation for budget noise cancellers, and I was very impressed by the WF-C710N’s attenuation after switching ANC on. I’m writing this on a train journey across Poland, and, a very annoying high-pitched whistle and the occasional tannoy announcement aside, the buds created a calm and quiet environment for me to work in.
They’re undoubtedly among the best buds for noise cancellation I’ve tested under £100, and have the added advantage of Sony’s Adaptive Control. The convenience of having my earbuds automatically adjust settings based on where I am or what I’m doing is something I deeply appreciate. And when I needed to increase my awareness of my surroundings manually, I found that the Ambient Sound mode did a great job of piping in relevant external noise in a natural manner.
The WF-C710N deliver an impressive sonic performance too, particularly if you enjoy up-tempo music and hard-hitting bass. The default tuning is warm, but not uncomfortably so. The bassline on David Guetta and Zara Larsson’s This One’s For You was reproduced with plenty of body but no shortage of control. The thumping drums were deep and clean, while the female vocals possessed plenty of higher-frequency sparkle.
Dynamics have long been a strength of Sony’s pricier earbuds, and the WF-C710N handle changes in loudness very capably. The buds shifted seamlessly from the more sedate build-up to the crashing break on Rudimental’s Waiting All Night, and the balance across various components of the track was nicely judged.
The buds handle less energetic tracks with delicacy, too. Every vocal note of Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love was straight-edged and crisp and the levels of detail retrieval enabled me to pick up on the more subtle percussive elements of the arrangement.
Sony offers plenty of ways in which you can customise your audio experience to further sweeten the sonic deal. Compatibility with Sony’s Sound Connect mobile app gives you access to EQ presets, a personalisable graphic equaliser, and a “Find Your Equaliser” option that does the tuning work for you, making achieving a satisfying sound profile a breeze.
Microphone quality is also up to snuff. We’re not talking Technics EAH-AZ100 levels of clarity or background noise reduction, but my voice was picked up intelligibly in outdoor environments, which isn’t a given with earbuds in this price bracket. There were no complaints or requests for repetition from those I spoke to while using the WF-C710N on calls, so they get a solid thumbs up in the communications department.
Touch controls are divisive in the headphones world, but I prefer them to buttons you need to press in, so I was pleased to see Sony make the switch here. Having assigned NC/Ambient Sound switching to a single tap on the left bud and playback controls to the different actions on the right, they worked consistently well, and their sensitivity to commands proved just right. You also get one-touch access to Spotify Tap and Amazon Music Play Now, which is great news if either is your streaming platform of choice.
Wear detection is equally well-implemented; audio paused as soon as either bud was removed, and resumed almost instantly upon reinsertion. These are pretty basic functions that rankle when done badly, but Sony has nailed them here.
READ NEXT: Sony WH-1000XM6 review
What could they do better?
You could argue that the WF-C710N sound good enough for the money to not require high-resolution codec support. It could also be argued that many of those buying £100 earbuds aren’t necessarily going to bemoan their absence.
However, given you can find LDAC (Sony’s high-res codec) on budget-friendly buds like the Nothing Ear (a), it’s a shame it’s not supported here. Not that this is particularly surprising: Sony wants to avoid the WF-C710N pulling consumers away from its more expensive flagship 1000-series buds.
While I rate the WF-C710N’s touch controls highly for consistent activation and responsiveness, I’d have preferred a neater solution to adjusting volume than repeatedly pressing the left or right earbud multiple times. I’ve always advocated for using upwards and downwards swipes for increasing and decreasing volume, and such controls would have worked very nicely here.
The other area I’d seek to improve is the build quality of the charging case. I’m a big fan of how the Glass Blue colourway looks, but the plastic lid feels flimsy; I could easily see it cracking or shattering if dropped. I’m also not convinced its hinge will stand the test of time. Although I had no issues with it during testing, I found the way it clicked when opened slightly unsettling.
Finally, it would be remiss not to mention a slightly worrying (but resolved) issue I had when trying to charge the earbuds in their case. On a flight to Germany to see the new Panasonic TV lineup, I received a low battery warning and promptly put the buds back in their case, which had 70% charge remaining.
Fishing them out of my bag on the continent, I expected to find them fully charged, but received the same low-battery voice prompt after they’d connected. I double-checked that the buds were in the case correctly, that the case had charge, and tried again. A couple of hours later, there was still no juice in the buds; fortunately, putting the buds in the case and fully charging the case via USB-C kicked things back into action. I’ve not had any trouble topping up the buds in the case since, so I’m putting it down to a random gremlin rather than anything more sinister.
Should you buy the Sony WF-C710N?
The Sony WF-C700N were our noise-cancelling earbuds of choice under £100 for quite some time before being ousted by the Nothing Ear (a). Those buds have the edge if you’re after an option that supports high-resolution streaming, but Sony’s entry-level noise cancellers wrestle the budget ANC crown back with improved attenuation, a great fit and engaging, customisable sound.
The Japanese manufacturer’s WF-1000XM5 may no longer rule the premium earbuds roost following the arrival of the Technics EAH-AZ100, but it’s back to being top dog in this particular price bracket. For now, at least.
