Sony WF-XB700 Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Sony WFXB700 are in-ears with a slightly bulky, oblong design. The buds are also quite large and stick out from the ears. They come in two colors: blue and black.

The Sony WFXB700 are decently comfortable in-ears. They're lightweight and come with differently-sized earbud tips to help you find the best possible fit. However, they may not be comfortable for everyone as you have to push them deep into your ears to get a good seal. Also, you have to hold them down in order to use the controls, which some users may find uncomfortable. If you want a similarly-performing pair of truly wireless headphones that are more comfortable, check out the Sony WF-SP800N Truly Wireless.

The Sony WF-XB700 have a mediocre set of controls. Overall, they aren't very easy to use, and their control scheme isn't intuitive. The left earbud controls the volume. Click it once to turn the volume up, or hold it to turn the volume down. Click the right earbud once to play/pause, twice to skip forward, three times to skip backward, or hold for two seconds to activate the voice assistant. Unfortunately, there's almost no audio feedback from the controls, except for when you power the headphones on/off or pair them with a device. You also can't remap the buttons or adjust the control scheme.

The Sony WFXB700, like most truly wireless in-ears, have fantastic portability. You can easily take them with you on-the-go because they're small enough to fit into pockets, purses, and bags easily. They also come with a charging case.

The Sony WFXB700 come with a good case. It's a little bit smaller than the case for the Sony WF-1000XM3 Truly Wireless, and it can easily fit into most purses, pockets, and bags. The hard case can protect the buds from damage, and it can also be used to charge them when you're on the go.

The Sony WF-XB700 have a good overall build quality. While they don't feel as premium as the Sony WF-1000XM3 Truly Wireless, they still feel well-built. They're mostly made of plastic, which feels solid and not too flimsy. Even the case feels well-made, and the hinge doesn't seem like it could break easily. These in-ears also have an IPX4 rating for water resistance, though we don't currently test for this.

The Song WF-XB700 are decently stable in-ears. They're stable if you can get a good seal, but that can be hard, especially if you have smaller ears. Once you do, they shouldn't fall out of your ears during casual use or low-intensity movement like walking. However, they don't have any features like stability fins or ear hooks that can help make headphones more stable. If you're looking for more stable Bluetooth in-ears, consider the Sennheiser CX 400BT True Wireless.

• Sony WFXB700 earbuds
• 4x silicone tip sizes
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Sony WF-XB700 have a fairly neutral but somewhat warm, thumpy sound profile that should suit a variety of listeners and musical tastes. Vocals and lead instruments don't sound harsh, and as part of Sony's "XB" line-up, they have a slightly bass-rich sound with some extra rumble and punch, which fans of hip-hop and EDM may be looking for. However, they don't have an EQ, so if you don't like how they sound out-of-the-box, there's no way to adjust them.

The Sony WF-XB700 have an outstanding frequency response consistency. Once you get a good, air-tight seal, you should be able to get a consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use these headphones.

The Sony WF-XB700 have good bass accuracy. They're designed to deliver a bass-rich sound and lend some extra thump and punch to mixes. This should please fans of bass-heavy genres like hip-hop and EDM, but some listeners could find the overemphasized rumble a bit overwhelming.

These headphones have excellent mid-range accuracy. The response is quite flat and even. There's a dip in the mid-mids that pushes vocals and lead instruments back somewhat, but overall they should sound clear and detailed.

The Sony WF-XB700 have satisfactory treble accuracy. The low-treble response is quite neutral with a small bump, so instruments and vocals sound present and detailed. However, a dip in the mid-treble range dulls sibilants like S and T sounds and instruments like cymbals.

These headphones have great peaks and dips performance. They're quite well-balanced, and most peaks and dips shouldn't be audible for most listeners. A small peak across the bass range gives a bit of extra thump and rumble, and a small peak in the low-treble range makes voices and lead instruments sound clear and detailed. However, a dip in the mid-treble makes sibilants sound dull or weak.

The Sony WF-XB700 have an outstanding imaging performance. The group delay is below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight and accurate bass and treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our unit are also well-matched amplitude, frequency, and phase response, so the placement and localization of objects in the stereo image likely sound accurate. Note that these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Sony WF-XB700 have an awful passive soundstage, like most in-ear headphones with a closed-back design. These types of headphones don't interact with your outer ear, so sound seems to come from inside your head instead of from all around you.

The Sony WF-XB700 Extra Bass True Wireless Earbuds weighted harmonic distribution performance is very good. There are a few peaks in the treble range at normal and high listening volumes, which may cause a bit of distortion. However, that shouldn't be audible to most listeners, and audio reproduction should be mostly clean and pure.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Sony WFXB700 block out a decent amount of noise. They don't have an active noise cancelling (ANC) feature and don't block out very much low-frequency sound like the rumble from bus and plane engines. However, they should isolate you from a good amount of higher-frequency noise like humming A/C units or ambient chatter.

These headphones have an outstanding leakage performance. You should be able to crank your music up to a high volume without disturbing the people around you.

The Sony WFXB700's mic has a poor recording quality. Recorded speed is understandable but sounds thin and muffled.

The Sony WFXB700 microphone has a disappointing noise handling performance. It doesn't do a great job of separating your voice from background noise, so it may be hard to hear you if you use the microphone in a moderately noisy environment like a busy street.

The Sony WF-XB700 have a mediocre battery performance. They provide more than 10 hours of continuous playback, which is slightly longer than the advertised battery life of nine hours. They take about 1.7 hours to charge, which is also better than the advertised charging time of 2.5 hours. However, their portable case only gives you around one additional charge for when you're on the go. Casual users who want to use these headphones during their commute may not have to recharge them every day, but they may not be ideal for long flights. That said, it should be noted that battery performance can vary with real-life use, so your experience may be different.

The Song WFXB700 headphones have decent Bluetooth compatibility. They're compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 and have a great line of sight range, so you can listen to audio even when your Bluetooth device isn't nearby. Unfortunately, these headphones don't support multi-device pairing or NFC pairing, which may be disappointing if you want to easily switch between devices. They also have a fair amount of audio lag on PC, iOS, and Android, so they aren't ideal for mobile gaming or watching videos. Then again, some apps seem to compensate for latency, so your real-life experience may vary.

The Sony WFXB700 are truly wireless headphones that can't be used wired. They come with a very short USB-C to USB-A charging cable.

These headphones use Bluetooth for their wireless connection, so they aren't compatible with Xbox consoles.

The Sony WFXB700 headphones have a hard charging case that stores around one additional charge. You can charge it with the included USB-C to USB-A cable, but it doesn't have any other inputs.