- Sony earbuds to replace the budget-belter WF-C700N have launched
- The new WF-C710N buds bring wearer detection and improved battery life
- …Oh, and a stunning ‘glass blue’ transparent colorway
It’s unlikely you’ll have missed the excellent Sony WF-C700N earbuds. They sat atop TechRadar’s best budget earbuds list for over a year following their release in April 2023, until the Nothing Ear (a) swept in a whole 13 months later and after much deliberation – including a Nothing Ear (a) versus Sony WF-C700N feature – we agreed Nothing’s option should take their spot.
But as of today, there’s a new Sony kid in town: Sony WF-C710N – so, er, 10 more than the older model (it is difficult to understand Sony’s monikers; I find it best to nod slightly, as we did with the cheap and very-good-but-devoid-of-ANC Sony WF-C510, and move on). The point is, they’re here to supersede the Sony WF-C700N, and that ‘N’ definitely means ‘noise cancellation’.
Before we get into the specs though, let’s talk about that all-new ‘Blue Glass’ colorway in addition to black, white, and pink finishes. It is transparent like sea glass and for anyone who remembers Nothing laboring the point of its mostly-transparent stems and driver housing, this seems oh-so effortless…
Sony WF-C710N specs and features
So what are the upgrades? First off, the stamina: without ANC deployed Sony tells me you can expect a 40-hour total battery life, or 12 hours from the buds and a further 28 from the case. With noise-canceling on, it’s 8.5 hours and 21.5 hours in the case, or a 30-hour battery total before you need a USB-C charger. It’s a huge step up from the 20 hours without ANC (or 15 with it) total battery life you’d get from the outgoing model.
Next, there’s a new Sony companion app called ‘Sound Connect’ that, in addition to Sony’s five-band EQ tab, adds a feature called ‘Find My Equaliser’. This plays various tracks to you and asks you to pick a favorite of five EQ presets, to create a custom profile tuned to your ears.
Also on the new-for-WF-C710N list is wearer detection, which is something we really wanted to see in the Sony WF-C710N, because it means they’ll pause the audio when you remove one and resume it when you put it back in your ear.
Elsewhere, on-ear touch controls are back including volume tweaks, playback, access to noise-cancelling profiles, hands-free summoning of Gemini or Siri plus Quick Attention, which means that by covering one earbud, playback is cut and your mics are amplified to better hear the person who just disturbed you at your desk. (It’s a great feature. I love it, really… )
On those mics, you now get two per bud with a new AI-enhanced ‘dual noise sensor technology’ to pick out and amplify your voice while nixing extraneous noise in calls. Said mics also now feature a special wind-noise reduction mesh. There’s also multi-point to two devices, adaptive sound control for ANC, Sony’s 360 Reality Audio solution (but do remember, Tidal sadly no longer supports the format) and Sony’s entry-level DSEE upscaler to make even lowly Spotify streams sound closer to the real thing.
The 5mm driver unit appears unchanged, however, and although there’s a Bluetooth 5.3 chipset, at launch the WF-C710N will not support Auracast audio broadcasts at airports and dental surgeries – when those arrive. There’s also no higher-resolution LDAC support (your codec support here is limited to SBC and AAC) and your ear tip selection is limited to just three sizes (small, medium, and large), however, I found their elder siblings some of the best earbuds for smaller ears, so since the driver-size and earpiece dimensions here seem largely unchanged, I’m not particularly worried about the fit.
Pricing? Certainly. The Sony WF-C710N earbuds are priced at £100 or €120 (so just £1 more than the WF-C700N), which translates to around $129 or AU$205, although these last two prices are unofficial.
How good are they and should you rush out and buy a set? I’m working on a full review, and I’ll let you know soon…
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becky.scarrott@futurenet.com (Becky Scarrott)
