Sony WF-C700N review: Exceptionally good budget earbuds

Build quality, battery life and noise control feature is really good for budget earbuds that cost less than Rs 10,000.

Sony is a dominant brand in the premium audio system industry and has a huge lineup of products with 1000MX series of overhead earphones and TWS buds. It is now steadily increasing the product portfolio Rs 10,000 price range.

The WF-C700N is the latest from the house of Sony. It is retailed at MRP Rs 12,990 but is available for as low as Rs 8,990 at authorized retail stores.

Here are my thoughts on Sony's latest budget earbuds.

Design and build quality

The new WF-C700N comes with a familiar earbud design. They are compact, visually appealing pebble-like structure and there is only one issue for me though. And, this is not just the case with this unit, but all wireless earbuds, the anxiety of losing them in crowded places.

Particularly in a jam-packed bus or metro train or at a popular watering hole near the office. Yes, they come with good quality ear tips and hang on to the ears firm, there is always this fear in the mind, which doesn't go away at all.

Sony WF-C700N earbuds.

The besides the medium-size tip, the company also offers ear tips in small and large sizes to ensure, they sit comfortably on the ear. They are hybrid silicone rubber tips and have to say, they are really good quality and I never have any irritation while wearing them for long hours. I usually use them during my long commute between my home and the office. Thumbs up to the Sony team.

Besides the black, Sony also offers three other colour options-- white, sage green, and lavender. They look great too

Sony WF-C700N earbuds' case.

I love the Sony WF-C700N's case. It comes in a large pill shape with a flat base so that it can rest without wobbling on a table. Also,

it has a lovely texture finish, which offers a great grip for the fingers to hold onto it. If you ever get the white model, I am sure, it will remind you of that soft spongy, and delicious sweet Cham Cham.

Coming back to the topic at hand, the case also features a Type-C port and a reset button at the back. And, on the front, it features an LED flash that flashes coloured light indicating its battery life. Green means it has sufficient juice in the tank and if it flashes red, it's time to charge the case.

The earbud build quality too is fantastic; the physical button on the top is really tactile and works flawlessly. It never showed any lag-ness to respond to touch inputs. Also, earbuds come with IPX4 rate certification and can sustain accidental water splashes and sweat during heavy workouts at the gym or while jogging at a park.

User interface and performance

It takes less than two minutes to set up the WF-C700N and pair them to the smartphone. Users either manually link through by going Bluetooth connectivity list on the handset to pair. But, it will limit the user from customising the audio delivery.

Sony WF-C700N earbuds connected to iPhone through Sony Headphones Connect app

If you install the official Sony Headphones Connect app, you personalise how the music or podcast can be delivered. Also, as you follow the onscreen instructions, it will offer easy to understand tutorial on how to use the earphones. And, it offers options such as Bright, Excited, Mellow, Relaxed, Vocal, Treble Boost, Bass Boost, Speech.

Sony Headphones Connect app offers equaliser customisation options and also allows users to custom set the functions for tap gestures

Furthermore, you can manually play with equaliser to get the perfect frequency that matches your taste in how you'd like to hear the music or a podcast. And, you can set them custom labels too, so that you don't have to redo it every time you want to use the earphone. It offers two custom options with label.

As noted earlier, the button on each of the earbuds is really good. You can customise the functions for single tap, double tap, and triple tap.

Sony WF-C700N earbuds

On the left, you can switch between ambient mode and ANC with a single tap. For double tap, you can answer or hang up. With the long press, you can reject the call.

On the right earbud, you can play or pause with a single tap, and with a double tap, you can skip to the next track. And, with triple taps, you can go back to the start of a song or to the previous track.

Recently, the earbuds received an update bringing volume control. You just have to tap multiple times continuously to rise the volume on the right earbud and to reduce the volume, you have to perform the same procedure on the left earbuds.

With the recent update, users can control volume on Sony WF-C700N earbuds with multiple button taps

As far as the sound quality is concerned, the WF-C700N aces it. The Sony earbuds deliver a great listening experience and as told earlier with a custom equaliser, you can change them according to the music genre. I tried listening wide range of genres from rock and pop to rap and traditional carnatic music. The audio quality was really good.

I even listened to podcasts with speech mode on and even this was decent.

Most importantly, the noise cancellation is really good for earbuds that cost less than Rs 10,000. It works to a great extent in reducing the noisy traffic and in the office space, it performs even better in cutting the chatter around.

It boasts Adaptive Sound Control, but I wasn't impressed with it. The earbuds are used to randomly switch on the ambient mode while listening to music during a bus ride. So, I turned it off. I used to turn on only when I had to speak to a person in front of me or turn back on the noise control feature with just a tap of a button on the left earbud.

Sony WF-C700N earbuds' case comes with Type-C port

It also supports two device connection feature, which lets the user switch from a phone to a tablet or a computer. If you get a call, the earphone switches from another device to the phone to answer it without any hassle.

With a full charge, it can deliver for up to 15 hours, and with the case, it can be for 20 hours. I never had to worry about the battery life as the app used to show the battery capacity level and only charged when required. If you are meticulous enough with regularly tracking battery life using the app, you will never have to face any anxiety of earbuds dying out during a call or virtual meeting.

Add to that, with 10 minutes of charging, it can deliver up to one hour of listening time.

Final thoughts

Sony WF-C700N series is an exceptional pair of TWS earbuds in the sub-Rs 10,000 price range. I am pretty impressed with the audio delivery and the battery life. Even the design and build quality too, is really good.

Sony WF-C700N earbuds

Given the price of the device, I didn't expect the noise cancellation to work as great as I initially assumed. It explains why Sony commands a lion share of 78 per cent market share in the ANC headphones category.

With WF-C700N, Sony can surely win the customer's loyalty and over time, when they try to aspire for a premium upgrade, they are sure to go for WH-1000MX series overhead earphones.

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