I am very much an over-ear headphones girlie—living in a historic tourist town will do that to you. But besides that, my weird little cartilage has just never found in-ear buds agreeable. If they’re not making my ears ache, earbuds are straight up popping out and threatening to get lost somewhere in the unknowable corners of my messy desk. But can heavy-hitting headgear honcho Sony change my mind?
Once upon a time, I was a weirdo with a Sony Xperia Z3, a phone that lasted me almost half a decade. Even wilder, I’m genuinely still using the wired earbuds that came out of that box. As great as those still are for Discord calls with my Final Fantasy XIV Online Free Company, I’m not a fan of the wire rattling across my jacket zip or getting caught on goodness knows what else when I’m out IRL. So with all of that in mind, it would be fair to say I was optimistic about the Sony WF-C510.
The first test—would the smallest of the three included tips actually play nice with my narrow cartilage?—yielded a comfortable result. Truthfully, I can easily wear these for a full day of work without my ears aching.
Sony WF-C510 specs
(Image credit: Future)
Drivers: 6 mm Frequency response: 20 - 20,000 Hz (44.1 kHz sampling)Connection: Bluetooth 5.3Battery life: Up to 22 hours (11 from earphones, additional 11 from case)Extras: Charging case, 3x different-sized tips, Waterproof IPX4Price: $59.99 / £55
As for taking them out into the real world, these Sony earbuds haven’t attempted to make a popping break for it out of my ear yet. A compact, sleek design (available in white, black, blue, or yellow) means these hardly scream ‘gamer earbuds’ either. My only complaint is that, despite a fairly good seal, I do still get some wind noise as I power walk to work. Otherwise, these earbuds are great for listening to tunes or a podcast at your desk—but leave much to be desired if your day-to-day is full of video calls.
As is typical for earbuds, the mic’s noise cancelling is abysmal. That’s not the end of the world if you’re just trying to quietly coordinate the Free Company, but anyone situated in, say, a noisy, open-plan space will end up sharing all nearby conversations over every video call. Because of this, these earbuds are especially ill-suited to taking calls while out and about or otherwise on the go.
This is genuinely a shame, as the earbuds otherwise do a surprisingly great job of filtering out ambient noise as you listen to tunes, despite not having Active Noise Cancellation. Instead, you can choose to filter out or listen in on ambient noise with a press of the left earbud.
(Image credit: Future)
Alright, so party chat aside, how does the Sony WF-C510 fare for music and gaming? In a word: serviceably. I found the sound quality comparable to my trusty, over-ear JBL TUNE 720BT headphones—which is just as well, as both float around a similar price point on Amazon. Sure, there’s an attempt at bassiness here and there, though nothing truly roof-raising due to those absolutely tiny 6 mm drivers.
Overall, it’s a pretty balanced, clear sound profile, with maybe just a touch of splashiness on the percussion—sure, it could be better, but it could also be a lot worse. There’s limited room to futz around with audio equalisation in Sony’s Sound Connect app, but you can only download this to Android smartphones and iPhones, with no PC compatible app currently available.
So, while I wasn’t wringing any fresh depth out of Une vie à t’aimer from the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack (which may well be down to Spotify’s compression more than anything else), the Sony WF-C510 earbuds are still good enough to prompt me to consider diving back in to collect all of the RPG’s Steam achievements.
But while these buds are fine for turn-based parrying and dodging, I doubt they’ll offer an edge in gameplay that’s any twitchier, as these lack anything like a ‘low-latency game mode’ or any gamer-geared options at all. These are definitely aimed at a more everyday consumer crowd.
TINY! (Image credit: Future)
The main sticking point is the earbud buttons, which encourage you to almost think in code for more complex functions. Due to the compact size of the buds, it’s one button for multiple functions, with different actions predominantly differentiated by the number of presses. Pressing the right bud’s button pauses and plays the current track, while tapping the left bud button once toggles the Ambient Sound Mode. For slightly less frequently used functions, you need to either paw at the buds multiple times or fiddle with the UI on your paired device.
This is fairly standard for the small form factor of earbuds, and thankfully, you can customise the buttons’ functions in the Sony Sound Connect app. However, this is only on a very limited profile basis. In other words, you can choose either your left or right bud to handle playback control functions—but that means you’re looking at rapidly pressing your earbud four times just to adjust the volume by default.
Thankfully, the earbud buttons are the least friendly part of the user experience. Great, multi-point connectivity means that as soon as I open the sleek little case, the Sony WF-C510 earbuds easily find my phone and desktop again with no nudging required from me. Comparatively, I tend to find my pricier Philips TAH8506 wireless headphones need a lot more cajoling to reconnect.
(Image credit: Future)
As for initial pairing, you just need to flip open the Sony WF-C510 earbud cradle case and hold down the button on the back for five seconds—it couldn’t be easier. The case itself also handles charging, storing another 11 hours of power on top of the earbud’s 11 battery. A light on the open case will turn orange when it’s running low, and a notification even tells me how much power is left in each bud and the case whenever I connect them to my phone.
Buy if…
✅ You want affordable, wireless earbuds with great connectivity: I can’t fault the multi-point bluetooth connection on offer here.
Don’t buy if…
❌ You want earbuds with a beefy battery: 11 hours of charge in the earbuds on top of 11 hours of charge held in the case really isn’t that much.❌ You want to chat without giving the Discord server an earful: Perhaps par for the course, the mic on these earbuds struggles to filter out ambient sound.❌ You long for deep equalisation options or bass that rattles your skull: You’re just not going to get a lot out of those 6 mm drivers. Sony’s Sound Connect offers some customisation, the app is far from an audiophile’s delight—especially as it’s not yet available on PC.
Still, it’s hardly the beefiest battery life, especially as hours of heavy use will definitely give you less than 11 hours of playback. For instance, the Creative Outlier Pro buds boast a comparatively much larger reserve, packing in 60 hours of charge into the case alone. Furthermore, Creative’s earbuds also offer ANC, running for about 10 hours with this switched on, while only costing about 20 bucks more than the Sony WF-C510 buds.
Wanting battery life aside, the Sony earbuds magnetically snap into place within the case, automatically charging on contact. The case is compact, though it doesn’t feel overly flimsy, featuring a wide back hinge that could withstand at least some force—not that I’d advise testing that out.
But even with swish magnetic attachment, I can’t quite escape the anxiety that these earbuds will be far easier to lose than full-sized headphones. So, while I appreciate that earbuds don’t leave me feeling like I’m walking around with claustrophobic horse blinders all day, I’m still reluctant to declare myself a complete convert.It’s also hard not to feel the absence of any gaming-specific features. If you’re looking for a pair of earbuds that will change the mind of someone who swears by hefty gaming headsets, you’re better off checking our best wireless gaming earbuds guide.
From PCGamer latest via this RSS feed