Panasonic RB-M600: Two-minute review
Japanese everything-maker Panasonic may release most of its best headphones and earbuds under its Technics brand, but now and then it keeps its own name in play for audio gadgets.
Meet the Panasonic RB-M600… or the RB-M600B, or the RB-M600BE-K, depending on where in the world you live. These are the company’s latest attempt to find a space in our rankings of the best cheap headphones, and were launched towards the end of 2024 alongside the RZ-S500W earbuds.
These embody the traits I like to see in low cost headphones: they’re cheap and cheery. Panasonic isn’t trying to fool anyone into thinking these are the best noise-cancelling headphones ever made; instead, they’re affordable enough for the average buyer, and offer one really useful feature.
This feature is the battery life. The RB-M600 can last for 65 hours between charges, a lovely long amount of time that makes them suitable for long trips or forgetful chargers. It’s not best-in-class, but it’s still really good.
Beyond that… these are budget headphones, and hit the goal of being good value. You’re not getting class-leading audio, or many features (there’s not even a phone app) or a carry case, but it’s totally fine for people who haven’t become accustomed to the best headphones on the market.
One real annoyance though is the lack of mobility in the headphones’ design. They don’t fold down for portability and the cups only swivel and tilt around a fairly limited range. It makes it slightly hard to wear the headphones if you have a certain-sized head, and impossible to wear them around your neck comfortably.
Plus the headphones don’t have any water resistance or IP rating, which makes them feel a little fragile.
So they’re not perfect, and I’d probably steer people mainly to the Earfun Wave Pro or the Sony WH-C720N. But they’re decent for the price and nothing to turn your nose up at.
Panasonic RB-M600: Price and release date
- Released in September 2024
- Sold under slightly-different names
- Cost around £79.99 / AU$140 (around $100)
The Panasonic RB-M600 were put on sale in September 2024, although at time of writing six months later, the headphones aren’t on sale in all regions that Panasonic sells its audio gear. Making things more confusing, the brand sometimes tweaks the name between regions.
You can buy the cans for £79.99 in the UK under the name RB-M600B (and sometimes sans the latter ‘B’) and for AU$140 in Australia as the RB-M600BE-K). I couldn’t find them on sale in the US although the RB-M500 and RB-M700 are. For context, that price converts to around $100.
That price cements these as relatively affordable headphones – you can find cheaper of course, but I’d advise buying anything that costs much less than that.
I should flag that at the time of writing I’ve found a few sales on the headphones: in the UK they’re £20 cheaper and in Australia they’re $30 off, and it didn’t seem to be a temporary price cut either. So you could easily pick these up for less than the official price if you shop around.
Panasonic RB-M600 review: Specs
| Drivers | 30mm |
| ANC | Yes |
| Battery life | 65 hours |
| Weight | 256g |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Waterproofing | NA |
Panasonic RB-M600: Features
- Impressive 65-hour battery life
- ANC is fine, but sits well alongside passive noise blocking
- No phone app or smart features
The killer feature on the Panasonic RB-M600 is its battery life, and this aspect alone will be enough to convince certain users to buy it.
With noise cancellation turned off, the headphones will last for a whopping 65 hours between charges – as Panasonic makes sure to point out in its marketing material, that’s longer than it’d take to fly around the world. A great figure, especially for people who do go on long-haul flights (or trips) a lot.
The brand doesn’t provide an official quote for battery life with ANC turned on, but I’d estimate it to be at least 40 hours based on relative battery drain on other headphones I’ve tested. That’s far longer than the premium Sony WH-1000MX5 headphones, to give you an example of why I’m impressed by it. If you want to save charge, the natural padding of the RB-M600 will cancel out some noise passively anyway.
Noise cancellation was pretty solid for this reason – the pads alone cut out a fair amount of noise. There’s active noise cancellation (ANC), and this is okay at reducing the potency of intrusive sounds to an extent, though no more than other headphones I’ve tested at this price. There’s also an ambient mode which is supposed to let certain sounds through, but I didn’t find it particularly effective at doing so – everything still felt suppressed.
There’s no app to download on your phone to enhance the RB-M600 with more features, so don’t expect any ‘find my headphones’ or gaming latency modes – given the price of these cans, I can easily forgive the lack of certain features.
And for what it’s worth, the Bluetooth pairing was quick and reliable (both for the initial and subsequent connections), and the connection was always reliable.
Panasonic RB-M600 review: Design
- Lots of controls on right cup
- No waterproofing
- Limited cup mobility
The Panasonic RB-M600 are pretty standard-looking headphones, with perhaps the most distinctive design feature being that the cups are more perfectly rounded than most other headphones I’ve tested.
The right cup is the important one, as it has a USB-C port for charging and a 3.5mm port for wired connections, two LED indicators, a volume rocker with central power button, a noise-cancellation toggle and a bass-boosting button. Finding the right button by touch is pretty hard until you’re used to the headphones, which is exacerbated by how they don’t stick out from the body much.
I found the RB-M600 to have a fairly limited design. The extendable head band can be stretched far enough, but the cups only swivel around 90 degrees and tilt over an even limited angle, so you’ll have to hope they fit your head comfortably or you’re out of luck. You can’t fold them down to transport them either.
When I’m not listening to headphones, I like to wear them around my neck with the cups pointed inwards below my collar bone – it’s a pretty normal way to wear them, I’d say. Unfortunately the RB-M600 cups can only rotate over a right angle in the opposite direction, making this impossible.
At least the headphones are comfortable to wear: they’re lightweight at just 256g (according to my scales; Panasonic doesn’t list its own figure), and they don’t squeeze your head too much when you’re wearing them. I didn’t have trouble wearing them for long periods of time, which helps that ‘long-haul flight’ use case.
You can pick them up in black or beige, the latter of which is what I used, but both are identical beyond the color. There’s no waterproofing or IP rating to speak of though, so you’d better avoid getting these things wet…
Panasonic RB-M600 review: Design
- Hits expectations for price
- Nice and bassy, but missing mid
- Limited max volume
You probably have certain expectations of the Panasonic RB-M600’s sound quality based on the price. You’d probably be right, as long as your expectations aren’t too low. They’re fine for the price, but nothing special.
The cans tote a 30mm driver, which isn’t as big as on some similar-priced rivals, and it’s most telling in the volume department. The Panasonics go fairly loud, but not to the energetic extremes that some might like in their cans. I often wished they went just one or two ‘volume up buttons’ higher to give songs an extra dose of oomph.
I’d characterise the audio as being V-shaped, with treble and bass sitting distinctively apart in the mix but with mids left by the wayside. The audio spread isn’t fantastic beyond that – guitars are guitars instead of six-string harmonies – but it’s acceptable for the price. I wish the sound didn’t get as tinny as soon as you started getting to the higher volumes, but it’s not awful.
Panasonic’s marketing material is quick to tell you that the cans offer XBS Deep (or Extra Bass System Deep), which is a system that allows for deep bass playback. The brand offers it on a range of products from its priciest cans to its cheapest wired headsets. Here, it’s activated using a button on the cup.
I toggled this non-stop to see whether it worked, and it returns some ropey results. On some songs, the extra bass its palpable, adding some warmth and fire to songs. On others, I couldn’t notice a difference. It varies quite a bit.
Happily, the RB-M600 have pretty distinct and clear bass by default, so I never felt like the sound quality was poor when XBS Deep was turned off.
Panasonic RB-M600 review: Value
The Panasonic RB-M600 are a mixed bag, but it’s pretty easy to overlook many of their flaws when you consider the value-for-money proposition here.
The headphones don’t sound amazing, but they’re audibly better than the super-cheap options right at the far end of the market, plus they come with loads of features and a longer battery life than you often find in Amazon‘s bargain basement.
So they do offer good value, but the only thing to query is whether they offer better value for money than some close rivals at this same point in the market.
Should I buy the Panasonic RB-M600?
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Features | It may not have many features, but its battery life saves the day in this department. | 3.5/5 |
| Design | The limited angles and tilt of the cups do get annoying, even if the headphones are comfortable to wear. | 3/5 |
| Sound quality | The audio is fine but it won’t please audiophiles, or people who like loud music. | 3/5 |
| Value | They justify themselves against cheaper alternatives very well. | 4/5 |
Buy them if…
Don’t buy them if…
Sony LinkBuds Speaker review: Also consider
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Panasonic RB-M600 | Sony WH-CH720N | Earfun Wave Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drivers | 30mm | 30mm | 40mm |
| ANC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Battery life | 65 hours | 35 hours (ANC on) | 80 hours |
| Weight | 256g | 192g | 268g |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C, 3.5mm jack | Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C, 3.5mm jack | Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, 3.5mm jack |
| Waterproofing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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tom.bedford@futurenet.com (Tom Bedford)
