Sony WF-C700N Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Sony WF-C700N have a similar design to the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless. They're round buds with a monochromatic design and minimalist profile that doesn't protrude much from your ear. Unlike the more premium models in the brand's line-up, which use touchpads, these have physical buttons taking up the majority of the outer face of each bud's housing. They come in four color variants: 'Black,' 'White,' 'Sage Green,' and 'Lavender.'

The Sony WF-C700N are decently comfortable. While they're lightweight and fit deep in-ear, using the control scheme can put extra pressure on the buds and create a suction feeling in your ear canal. Because fit and comfort vary between everyone, the seams of the housing can be felt by some wearers. They come with three ear tip sizes to help you get the best fit possible.

The Sony WF-C700N's control scheme is easy to learn and intuitive. Each bud has a single large button. The buttons have good clicky feedback and don't press in far or require much force. You can use the controls to skip tracks, play and pause audio, and answer, reject, and end calls. Control remapping is done in their companion app but is limited to trading default commands for listening modes and volume controls. Additionally, the buds only give input chimes when using ambient sound controls.

On the left earbud:

• Single press: Toggles between ANC/transparency modes. You can turn ANC off for a normal mode, but you have to enable that function via the companion app.
• Double press: Answers and ends calls.
• Press and hold: Rejects incoming calls.

On the right earbud:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double press: Plays the next track. Also answers and ends calls.
• Triple press: Plays the previous track.
• Press and hold: Activates the voice assistant. It also rejects incoming calls.

The Sony WF-C700N buds are very portable. Like most truly wireless earbuds, their small size won't take up much space in your pocket or bag, and when combined with their low mass, they travel easily.

The Sony WF-C700N's charging case is good. A single LED on the front of the case indicates the battery level and there's a Bluetooth pairing button on the back. It's a small case with a stable flat bottom, so it won't tip over and opens like a clamshell. The plastic has a pleasant texture but can feel a bit slippery when open because the bottom is shallow compared to the lid, so there's not much to hold on to. The lid also has strong magnets, which can make it a little harder to open, but this can be advantageous as the buds aren't as likely to fall out during an accidental drop. The lid itself feels sturdy, but the plastic has a slight flex when you open the case. It poses no obvious issues, but it's a little cheap feeling.

These earbuds are well-built. They'll survive a few accidental drops without significant damage. Their plastic isn't as dense-feeling as the flagship Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless, but it's serviceable with no obvious weaknesses. Fortunately, the buds are rated IPX4 for protection against water splashes, so they'll hold up if you get them a little wet. The silicone ear tips, however, feel very thin and prone to tearing over repeated use.

The Sony WFC700N's stability is good. Their deep in-ear fit and lightweight build won't move significantly during moderate exercise. However, they can get dislodged from your ear canal during more intense movement, requiring readjustment to get a comfortable fit. Due to their shape, if you have smaller ears, they might be a good pick, while those with larger ears can find the buds can shift a bit over time if you're out walking, but they don't fall out. They can jostle slightly if you go for a run because they lack stabilizers.

• Sony WF-C700N earbuds
• 3x tip sizes
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Sony WF-C700N have a warm sound profile. Their default tuning is versatile for pop, rock, jazz, and podcasts. The bass range has plenty of thump and punch, while the mids aren't cluttered, so vocals and instruments sound clear and present, if a little dark due to an underemphasized treble range. The de-emphasized treble causes sibilants, like cymbals (and S and T sounds), to come across as somewhat dull and veiled. Fortunately, you can adjust their sound using their companion app's graphic EQ and presets. The curve you're working with from the start is an easier one to coax and fine-tune as it's not particularly extreme in any regard.

These earbuds have fantastic frequency response. You get a predictable sound with each wear. Once you get a good fit and seal, you'll receive consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

They have incredible bass accuracy. The range is very flat and well-balanced, so the mix has ample thump, punch, and boom without overpowering the rest of the mix. A slight under-emphasis in the lowest bass frequencies won't impact the bass much at all, given that the majority of the frequencies that constitute the groove of a bassline or the thump of a kick drum occupy mid and high-bass registers.

The Sony WF-C700N have superb mid-accuracy. A dip in the mid-mid pushes vocals and instruments into the back of the mix, but only very slightly. They still sound clear, present, and detailed.

These earbuds have good treble accuracy. In songs like Dynamite by Taio Cruz, the vocals and synths sound a bit veiled and lose some of their detail, while sibilants, like cymbals, sound dull and lispy.

The Sony C700N's peaks and dips performance is decent. They control their own sound profile well, except in the treble range, where they exhibit stronger peaks. A small peak in the bass range adds extra thump and rumble to the mix. A slight dip in the middle of the midrange pushes leads and vocals back slightly in the mix. The peak in the mid-mids into the high-mids adds slight boxiness and harshness to vocals. Most noticeable, though, is the peak throughout the mid-treble, which makes sibilants, like cymbals, sound piercing.

Imaging performance is decent. Sony tends to have good quality control and ergonomics. While our unit's L/R drivers have phase response and group delay mismatch in the high-treble, it's not noticeable with real-life content since this range isn't audible for most people, and there's often not much audio content included that high. The mismatch in the phase response's mid-mid shifts those frequencies towards the right slightly, but it's extremely difficult to notice with real-world content. Otherwise, they're well-matched in amplitude and frequency, which helps ensure a balanced and stable stereo image. For the most part, group delay is well-matched, too, ensuring tight bass, although the peak in the treble still has a small impact on imaging transparency. However, imaging varies between units.

These closed-back earbuds have a terrible passive soundstage, which is expected with their closed-back and in-ear design. As a result, their soundstage doesn't sound immersive or open. It feels like audio comes from inside your head rather than all around the room.

These earbuds are compatible with Sony's 360 Reality Audio feature via their companion app. However, you must be subscribed to a compatible streaming service to use them, like Tidal or 360 by Deezer. When you use it, the app analyzes your ear shape and creates a virtual soundstage for a more immersive listening experience. You don't get any head-tracking if you want to feel like you're moving within a surround sound space.

These earbuds have reasonable weighted harmonic distortion performance. Acceptable amounts of distortion are present across the whole range, but it's not audible with real-life content. The treble region sees the most distortion, which can add slight unwanted distortion. Fortunately, most people find the upper treble range difficult to hear, so you'll experience mostly clean and pure audio reproduction in daily listening.

These are the settings used to test the Sony WF-C700N. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The noise isolation performance is decent. While their active noise cancelling (ANC) cuts out deep rumbles from bus engines and tempers midrange noise traffic din, it's not a drastic improvement over the passive isolation gained by a good in-ear fit. It's also inconsistent, as the ANC doesn't filter out some boomy noises. In the case of trebly noises like a clatter, the ANC doesn't cancel out the noises and can reintroduce noise that passive isolation ordinarily blocks. This tends to happen with sudden, shrill, and non-repeating noises, as the ANC can't necessarily react quickly enough.

The leakage performance is excellent. Escaping audio is mainly concentrated in the bass and treble ranges but is hard to hear unless you're in a very quiet environment. If you like to crank your tunes, you won't need to worry about disturbing coworkers or commuters.

The integrated mic performance is satisfactory. Your voice sounds clean and understandable but somewhat thin and lacking body.

Noise handling performance is unremarkable. In moderate and loud environments, background noise is suppressed somewhat, but it's still present and annoying, even if your words are intelligible. Loud and sudden noise, like a passing train, will drown out most of your voice, making your speech difficult to understand.

The Sony WF-C700N's battery performance is reasonable. Sony advertises 7.5 hours of continuous playback time with the ANC on, and we measured just shy of eight hours. Their carrying case only holds one extra charge, which is less than the Sony LinkBuds S Truly Wireless. Thankfully, they feature an auto-off timer to save power. Keep in mind that battery life varies depending on use. According to the manufacturer, 10 minutes of charging yields an hour of playback in a pinch.

The Sony | Headphones Connect app is great. There are a ton of extra features available in this app. You can monitor the battery life of each bud and the case, adjust the mix via graphic EQ and presets, customize button functions and playback controls, and much more. You can see how some features work here. Unlike the premium Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless, select features like control remapping have more basic implementations, but it's still pretty packed.

The Sony WF-C700N's Bluetooth performance is great. As of firmware 2.0.0, they support multi-pairing with two devices. You can enable this feature in the app, under system settings. Their latency is somewhat high, however, so if you're hoping to game or stream videos on your phone, you'll likely experience sync issues, although it's not the worst we've seen. Latency can vary between devices, and some apps compensate. Unlike the Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless, they don't have the brand's proprietary Bluetooth codec, LDAC, which can transmit high-resolution audio via compatible devices compared to the default SBC codec.

These earbuds come with a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging their carrying case only.

These earbuds have full voice and audio compatibility with PCs via Bluetooth.

Their carrying case only charges via its USB-C port and holds one extra charge. The case doesn't support wireless charging.