Sony INZONE Buds Truly Wireless Headphones Review

These buds have a sleek and minimalist aesthetic. Unlike the Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless, they have a stem design that protrudes from your ear. There's a touch-sensitive surface at the end of each stem that you can use to input controls. They come in two color variants: 'Black' and 'White'. The black variant features a monochromatic, all-black look, including matching ear tips. With the white variant, white is used around the edges of the stem to accent the rest of the buds, which are black.

The Sony INZONE Buds are decently comfortable. The manufacturer designed them to have a looser fit that doesn't go fully in your ear canal, so they don't sit as deep as the Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless. The lighter ear contact is intended to create a more comfortable fit. However, this means they also stick out from your ears and can get snagged if you move around. Fortunately, they come with four sets of ear tips, making it relatively simple to achieve a good fit.

These buds have simple, reasonably intuitive controls. There are distinct controls for each bud, so you won't be able to input some controls if you only have one bud in. The touch-sensitive surface is also easy to accidentally tap. There are useful chimes that sound when you engage the ANC or mic, as well as when you increase or decrease the volume or hit max/min volume. There are no playback controls by default, but you can map these via the companion app.

On the left earbud:

• Single tap: Toggles ANC and Ambient Sound mode on/off.
• Hold Toggles mic on/off.

On the right earbud:

• Single tap: Raises the volume.
• Hold: Lowers the volume.

These buds are very portable. They're lightweight and won't take up much space in a bag or pocket. However, you'll need to bring the transmitter to pair them with most devices. Thankfully, the included carrying case has a section for the transmitter and can protect the buds when not in use.

They come with a good carrying case. It has magnets to secure the buds and prevent them from moving in transit, and there's even a dedicated nook for storing the wireless transmitter. However, the all-plastic design feels both weak and bulky. It lacks the heft of more premium cases, and its awkward shape takes up more space in a bag than other cases from this manufacturer. The hinge is also quite weak and won't stay shut if you accidentally drop the case.

These earbuds are decently well-built. Apart from the silicone ear tips, they're made entirely of plastic that doesn't feel as dense and high-quality as some of the manufacturer's other earbuds. While they lack an official IP rating, Sony says they're IPX4 equivalent for protection against water splashes.

The stability is satisfactory. Their looser, shallower fit means that you can easily dislodge them if you move your head sharply while gaming, and they'll require readjustment afterward.

• Sony INZONE Buds Truly Wireless
• 4x tip sizes
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• USB-C transmitter
• Manuals
• Warranty
• Strickers

These buds use the same drivers as the Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless. While they have slightly similar sound profiles, we can largely attribute some key differences to the difference in fit. The response across the bass range is tilted, resulting in an underemphasized low-bass that strips some of the intensity from explosions. Conversely, an exaggerated high-bass to low-mid can help bring out footsteps. The right and left drivers also deviate from each other across the mids: a large mid-range dip in the right ear is followed by a smaller dip in the left ear. This results in mid-range instruments and voices sounding inconsistent in their presence. There are also some slight inconsistencies in the treble range, but sibilants sound bright rather than piercing overall. You can adjust their sound profile with the EQ and presets in the Sony INZONE Hub app.

We obtained our sound results with the transmitter set to 'PC' mode, using 'INZONE Buds - Game' on Windows. However, we also ran an extra sweep set to 'PS5/Mobile' mode and found no difference in frequency response. You can see the results here. It's worth also mentioning that these buds have a higher noise floor than most earbuds. However, it's not unusually high or annoying.

The Sony INZONE Buds have excellent frequency response consistency. Despite their looser fit, you'll achieve consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

These buds have a titled bass response. The low-bass is slightly underemphasized, so in-game explosions lack rumble and thump. However, the high-bass is a touch over-emphasized to compensate for the lack of low-bass, which helps bring out the sound of footsteps.

The Sony INZONE Buds have great mid accuracy. There's some overemphasis in the low-mid, which is a continuation of the boosted high-bass, cluttering the mix somewhat. The frequency response of the left and right drivers also deviates between the low-mid and mid-mid, and there's a dip in the right driver that nudges dialogue and instruments to the back of the mix. It can also make it more tricky to pick out the whispered dialogue between NPCs in games like Ghost of Tsushima. However, the high-mid range is fairly neutral and flat across both drivers, so the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments sound detailed and present.

These earbuds have great treble accuracy. The response in this range is fairly neutral, with some slight deviations. A small, narrow dip in the low-mid dulls the upper harmonics of vocals and instruments. A peak in the mid-mid adds brightness and character to sibilants, like cymbals.

The Sony INZONE Buds have a decent peaks and dips performance, meaning they generally follow their own sound profile with some deviation in certain ranges. A peak in the high-bass to low-mid helps bring out footstep sounds in-game. The mismatched response in the low and high-mid means that the right driver's response dips sharply in the mid-mid, while the left driver has a smaller dip in the high-mid. This dip in the high-mid and another dip in the low-treble causes dialogue and instruments to lose presence and detail. While the response is matched in the treble range, a sharp peak in the mid-treble makes higher-pitched sibilants sound bright and piercing.

The imaging performance is great. Sony has a reputation for good quality control and ergonomics in their earbuds, and the imaging performance of these buds indicates this. Our unit's drivers are well-matched in terms of group delay and phase. There's a sharp peak in both group delay and phase response at the very top of the range, but this is tough to hear, considering we lose our sensitivity to this range over time. There's also an audible phase mismatch in the low to mid-mids that causes the placement of sound objects to vary between the left and right driver in the soundstage. This can be distracting during cutscenes that feature characters with differently-pitched voices, as the placement of their voices changes in stereo width depending on who's speaking.

These buds have a bad passive soundstage, which is normal given their in-ear design. Audio needs to interact with your outer ear to create a wide and spacious soundstage; this isn't possible with closed-back buds. As a result, audio sounds like it's coming from inside your head and isn't spacious or immersive.

The Sony INZONE Buds are compatible with Sony's 360 Reality Audio and Spatial Sound features. The app can analyze your ear shape and creates a custom profile that helps deliver a more immersive listening experience via a virtual soundstage. You can access this in the PC or mobile app.

These buds have a very good weighted harmonic distortion performance. While there are increased levels of distortion between the mid-mid and treble frequencies, it's difficult to hear in real-life content, even if you crank the volume to high levels. Otherwise, audio reproduction is clean and pure.

These are the settings used to test the Sony INZONE Buds. The Windows setting we used was 'INZONE Buds - Game', but some computers may default to 'INZONE Buds - Chat', which has worse sound quality. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The full range noise isolation performance is great. While the loose fit doesn't provide much passive isolation in the bass range, the ANC can block out low-end sounds. Attenuation against treble range sounds is good, too, and mostly comes as a result of the seal created with these in your ears.

These buds have very good noise isolation performance in common scenarios. They do a great job of attenuating against the whirr of oncoming traffic in a busy street. They perform slightly worse when it comes to blocking out the roar of airplane engines, as well as the hustle and bustle of office environments but still provide a solid amount of attenuation.

Wind noise differs from other sounds as it can interact with the ANC microphones, sometimes resulting in an annoying tone as the ANC tries to combat a sound that isn't reaching your ear. These headphones don't have a wind reduction feature and struggle in windy scenarios. That said, this won't be an issue if you plan on using them exclusively to game at home.

The leakage performance is superb. Audio bleed is mostly concentrated in the bass and treble ranges, but levels of leakage are generally very low. Consequently, you can crank up your in-game audio without worrying about disturbing others around you.

The integrated mic's performance is okay. Your voice will be understandable to your teammates but sound thin and distant.

The noise handling performance is reasonable. In moderately noisy environments, your voice will be fuzzy but still understandable. Noisier environments can easily drown out your voice, but if you plan on using these to game at home, this won't be an issue.

The Sony INZONE Buds' battery performance is very good. The manufacturer advertises 12 hours of battery life when using the transmitter with ANC on, and we measured slightly less than this. The included charging case also provides an extra full charge if you need to top up your battery in a pinch. The manufacturer advertises an even longer 24-hour battery life when connected to an LE Audio-compatible device. However, we measured this at closer to 18 hours. Battery life varies depending on use, so your experience may differ.

The earbuds are compatible with two apps, the Sony INZONE Hub app on PC and the Sony Sound Connect (formerly known as Sony Headphones Connect) for mobile, which offer excellent customization options. Both apps let you adjust sound profile presets, save EQ settings, and control ANC. You can also map additional controls, handle device connections, and enable spatial audio. Using the INZONE Hub, you can even create volume/chat mixes for individual games or apps, to name just a few.

We could only connect the buds with the Sony Sound Connect app on Android (as of firmware 2.0.2), but this may have more to do with their Bluetooth limitations. A video tour of the mobile app shows it shares many of the same features as the PC version, except it is a bit stripped back by comparison. For example, the equalizer has fewer bands that you can alter, and there are fewer microphone settings at your disposal. It includes adaptive listening modes, though it requires you to register an account. You still get plenty of features for on-the-go, such as a rather exhaustive selection of options to remap touch controls.

These buds come with a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging their carrying case. You can't use them with a wired connection.

The Sony INZONE Buds have poor Bluetooth connectivity. They only support Bluetooth LE audio, which uses the LC3 audio codec. Currently, only a select few phones are compatible with this codec. As a result, we couldn't test the Bluetooth performance using our usual methodology. However, if you have a compatible device, you'll benefit from LE audio's higher-quality wireless transmission, and your buds' battery will last longer than traditional Bluetooth. It's also possible to connect to a smartphone by plugging the included transmitter into your phone's USB-C port and setting the switch on the transmitter to 'PS5/Mobile'. Check out the Sony PULSE Explore Truly Wireless if you want gaming earbuds that can connect to any Bluetooth-compatible device.

These buds have an amazing, low-latency performance when connected via their USB-C dongle.

We used the 'PC' setting on the wireless transmitter to test for this but also used the 'PS5/Mobile' setting and found there was no significant difference in latency. When connected wirelessly on either setting, you won't encounter sync issues between your video and audio. The wireless range is slightly lower when using the 'PS5/Mobile' setting, but this won't be an issue if you're gaming from your couch.

These earbuds have full voice and audio compatibility with PCs via the wireless transmitter when set to the 'PC' setting. However, you can connect with the 'PS/Mobile' mode if your PC supports LE audio.

When connected with the wireless transmitter on the 'PS/Mobile' setting, these earbuds have full voice and audio compatibility with PlayStation family consoles.

The Sony INZONE Buds come with a carrying case that holds one extra charge. There's no wireless charging, so you'll need to charge the case using the USB-C to USB-A charging cable.