Sony INZONE H7 Wireless  Headphones Review

The Sony H7 look pretty much the same as the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless with a mostly white plastic frame and black detailing. They also have an LED light at the bottom of the ear cup to let you know if you're connected via the dongle or Bluetooth. Their white boom mic also isn't detachable. They only come in one color variant: 'White'.

The Sony H7 are decently comfortable. They have a lightweight design with ear cups with a good range of motion to accommodate most kinds of head sizes. They have the same cloth padding on the ear cup as the Sony INZONE H3, but they feel a bit more stable. Their headband is nice and can distribute the headphones' overall weight well. Unfortunately, if you have a small head, the frame may be a bit big, even at their smallest setting.

The Sony H7 have decent controls. They're easy to use as there are only a couple of physical buttons, and there's lots of different feedback to let you know when you've made any changes. On the left cup is an infinite volume wheel that beeps to let you know when you've hit min or max volume. The mic can also flip upwards when you want to mute yourself, and it makes a clicking sound to indicate you've been muted. The rest of the buttons are on the right ear cup, but it can be hard to tell the buttons apart when you're wearing the headphones. They offer beeps to let you know when you've made a change, though. If you're switching between Bluetooth and dongle mode, a light at the bottom of the ear cup will change between blue and white, respectively. Two quick flashes also indicates that you're in pairing mode, and there are different chimes to let you know when you've entered Bluetooth, pairing, and Bluetooth mode off modes.

On the right cup:

• Game Chat button:
• Single press: Depending on whether you press on the 'Game' or 'Chat' side of the button, you can incrementally adjust channel mixing to hear more (or less) of one audio channel.
• Bluetooth button:
• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Skips to the next track.
• Triple press: Skips to the previous track.
• Power button:
• Press and hold: Turns the headphones on and off.

If you keep them on your desk or couch, then the Sony H7's bulky design isn't an issue. However, if you want to take them with you on the go, they take up quite a bit of room, even in their default position.

The Sony H7 have a decent build quality. They have nearly the same overall plastic frame as the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless, but their cloth ear cup padding is nearly identical to the Sony INZONE H3. What makes them a little bit different, however, is that their cloth padding lacks stitching on the forward face of the pads. Despite their high price point, their design feels plasticky and cheap. They'll still survive accidental impacts without taking too much damage, though.

The Sony H7 have mediocre stability, though they're a little more grippy than the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless. If you move your head a lot while gaming, they're likely to fall off your head. You won't experience this too much if you don't move around much while gaming.

• Sony INZONE H7 headset
• USB wireless dongle
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• User manual
• Stickers

The Sony H7 have a nearly identical sound profile as the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless. Although they lack a bit more low-bass, this is likely due to their inconsistent audio delivery. As a result, you must take the time to adjust their fit, seal, and positioning to get a more consistent sound. Overall, they have a boomy and bright sound. Sound effects like footsteps are accentuated in gameplay, which is great for FPS games. They aren't the best choice for music since they make tracks sound muddy and sharp. Luckily, their companion software has a graphic EQ and presets to help you customize their sound to your liking. You can see a comparison of the EQ presets here.

The Sony H7 have sub-par frequency response consistency. They're very prone to inconsistencies in audio delivery. If you have thick hair or wear glasses, you may experience a drop in bass as these features can disrupt the headphones' seal on your head, so it's important to take the time to adjust their fit, positioning, and seal on your head each time you use them to get a more consistent sound.

The Sony H7's bass accuracy is satisfactory. They're lacking low-bass, so mixes have less thump and rumble. However, a big peak in the mid to high-bass adds extra punch and boom to mixes, which can help emphasize sound effects like footsteps in gameplay. However, this can really muddy vocals and lead instruments.

The Sony H7 have great mid accuracy. There's some overemphasis coming from the bass range into the mids, which muddies dialogue and instruments. It's noticeable in tracks like No Save Point from Cyberpunk 2077, as Killer Mike's voice in the second verse sounds cluttered and layered below the kick drums. However, the rest of the range is fairly flat and accurate, so vocals and instruments in cut scenes are still somewhat clear and present.

The Sony H7's treble accuracy is passable. There's a dip in the low-treble that hurts the comprehensibility of vocals and instruments. However, a peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants sound piercing. Put together, this means in songs like One-Winged Angel from the remake of Final Fantasy VII, the choir's powerful chant, 'Sephiroth' in the second chorus, sounds a bit veiled compared to the pounding drums, which are competing to add emphasis to the voices. At the same time, the cymbals further increase the intensity of the song but are overly bright.

The peaks and dips performance is just okay. A dip in the low-bass primarily affects the left driver, so mixes lack thump and rumble. A peak in the mid to high-bass adds extra warmth and boom but a dip in the mid-mid pushes vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix. There's also a peak in between the high-mid to low treble, making vocals and lead instruments sound harsh, but there's a steep dip in the low-treble, which really veils these sounds. Another peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The Sony H7's imaging performance is outstanding. This manufacturer usually has good quality control when it comes to their headphones' drivers, so you can expect their products left and right drivers to be well-matched. Our unit is also well-matched. Even though there are a couple of peaks in the phase response's treble range, which indicates that audio skews slightly towards one driver, it's very hard to hear with real-life content. Mismatch in the treble range is also hard to hear as humans lose sensitivity to this range over time. As a result, you won't encounter any issues while gaming as objects like dialogue, instruments, and sound effects like footsteps aare accurately placed in the stereo image.

The Sony H7's passive soundstage performance is disappointing, but this is normal from closed-back headphones. The soundstage seems wide and somewhat natural. However, the headphones struggle to create an out-of-head soundstage that's open and spacious, meaning it won't be very immersive.

The Sony H7 are compatible with Sony 360 Spatial Sound, which analyzes your unique ear shape via photograph to create a more immersive sound. However, once set up, you can only turn this feature on or off. You need to use the Sony 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer app on your smartphone to set up the virtual soundstage on PC, though.

These headphones, like the Sony INZONE H3, are also compatible with PlayStation 5's 3D Audio, which is found on the 'Settings' page. This spatial audio feature can help add depth and directionality to sound effects like footsteps and voices. However, we didn't notice a big difference between on and off.

The Sony H7's weighted harmonic distortion performance is fair. There's a peak in the low to mid-mid at high volumes, and then another peak in the low-treble is present in both moderate and high volumes. However, these peaks can be hard to hear with real-life content. As a result, most of the frequency ranges fall within good limits, resulting in somewhat clear audio reproduction.

There are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Sony H7's noise isolation performance is disappointing, but that's normal from gaming headphones. Unlike the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless, they lack an active noise cancelling (ANC) system, meaning they won't block out sounds like the rumble of car engines outside your window. That said, they do a better job of cutting down ambient chatter and the high-pitched hum of computer fans.

The Sony H7's leakage performance is decent. Leakage is mostly concentrated in the mid to treble range and sounds somewhat thin. Escaping audio isn't very loud, though, so if you want to crank up the volume while gaming, you won't bother others around you.

The Sony H7's boom mic has a fair recording quality. Your voice sounds natural and clear, so your teammates won't have any problems hearing you clearly.

The mic has a great noise handling performance. There's a noise gate that automatically cuts out noise when you're talking. As a result, the mic can separate your voice from moderate ambient noise. If you're chatting with teammates in a loud environment, they can still hear you clearly.

The Sony H7 have an excellent battery performance. The manufacturer advertises them to last 40 hours continuously, but we measured almost 50 hours. That said, battery life can vary depending on use. You can use the headphones while charging, but you need to be connected to a device via Bluetooth or the dongle as the charging cable doesn't pass through audio.

Sony INZONE Hub is good companion software that offers a lot of customization features. It offers different profiles in which you can save your unique settings, allowing you to quickly change presets. It also offers robust sound controls like a master volume slider, three EQ presets, a 10-band graphic EQ, and spatial sound. You can access dynamic range control (DRC), which automatically adjusts the balance of your content's audio, and the auto-off timer. For the microphone, there's a master volume control, gain control, and sidetone levels. You can even switch the Bluetooth connection quality if you want to prioritize sound quality or a stable connection and set whether Bluetooth is enabled when the headphones are turned on.

These headphones have great Bluetooth connectivity. You can connect them to your PS5 and smartphone at the same time, which is nice if you want to receive audio from a different device than your console. That said, they have high Bluetooth latency on PC, so if you want to game using this connection, you'll notice that your audio and visuals fall out of sync. Audio lag is lower on iOS and Android, which is better for streaming video. Keep in mind that latency can vary depending on your device.

The Sony H7 have decent non-Bluetooth wireless latency. They have higher latency than the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless, but we measured similar results during multiple retests. However, this audio lag isn't very noticeable, making them still a solid choice for gaming.

The Sony H7 come with a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, which doesn't pass through audio. Keep in mind that these headphones don't have an AUX port either, so you can't use a 1/8" TRS for a wired connection.

The Sony H7 can connect to your PC via Bluetooth or wireless dongle with full audio and mic compatibility.

These headphones can connect to PlayStation consoles via the wireless dongle. You can receive audio and use the mic.

The Sony H7 come with a wireless dongle. It has a switch that allows you to move between PS5 and PC mode. This dongle doesn't have any inputs, though.