Sony WF-C510 review: cheap ’n’ cheerful wireless earbuds are a brilliant bargain

The Sony WF-C510 are looking to continue the brand’s freakishly hot form in the wireless earbuds category.

We have first-hand experience of the Japanese giant’s dominance across multiple price points in the past year or two. Its premium WF-1000XM5 earbuds quite rightly garner a lot of praise, but not everyone has the budget to go straight in at the deep end and buy a flagship pair with all the bells and whistles.

There’s a lot to be said for opting for a pair of fun-sounding, no-frills and affordable wireless earbuds which you can just throw in your bag and use until the wheels fall off. Let’s see if the Sony WF-C510 fit the bill.

Price

The WF-C510 fall firmly in the camp of cheap wireless earbuds and come in at a very respectable £55 / $60 / AU$109.95. This actually makes them more affordable than their predecessors at launch. The Award-winning Sony WF-C500 appeared on the scene in September and cost £89 / $79 / AU$109.95, although at the time of writing, they can be found for around £39 / $70 / AU$90.

We haven’t tested many five-star pairs of wireless earbuds at this level, although the EarFun Air do fit the description and are currently available for around £35 / $50 / $40. The next step up from this price point would be Sony’s own WF-C700N which launched at £100/ $120 /AU$200 and can now be found for around £80 / $100 / AU$150.

Design & build

As you’d probably expect, the price of the WF-C500 is reflected in the finish and appearance. They look and feel quite cheap compared to their predecessors, the WF-C500 and even a budget rival like the Earfun Air. The C500 feel more tactile and give the impression of higher-quality plastic compared to the smooth, slightly unadventurous finish of the newer WF-C510 earbuds.

The C510’s pill-shaped charging case is solid if a little dull compared to the two-tone case Sony provides with the WF-C500. It’s much thinner, though, and like the earbuds it’s very compact, so should be easy to keep in your pocket without getting in the way. The WF-C510 are available in blue, yellow, black and white – perhaps the black finish of our review sample doesn’t really do them justice, although we’d need to see the other finishes up close to be certain.

There’s a USB-C charging socket and pairing button on the back of the case and a pin-prick LED light on the front which indicates charging and pairing status.

The earbuds themselves are small and streamlined – Sony claims they’re its smallest design of this type of earbud to date, and in the flesh they make the older WF-C500 look quite bulky in comparison. We think this makes them a great option for smaller ears.

During testing, we found the Sonys slot into our ears with zero fuss and are easy to position. There aren’t any extra elements to help keep them in place bar the silicone eartips, but they do a great job in this regard – during testing we found both the seal and the stability offered to be excellent.

Features

It’s nice to see Sony hasn’t completely stripped all the useful features out of these budget buds to hit their price point. You still get Multipoint Bluetooth which allows you to have two sources connected at once, they offer IPX4 water resistance and you can use the earbuds independently, so you can use one while keeping the other in the case.

Interestingly, Sony has included Ambient Sound Control here, a feature which we only tend to see used in conjunction with its active noise-cancelling earbuds. This allows some external noise through when you’re using them and can be tweaked on a scale of 0-20 in the Sony Headphones app. In addition to this, the mode gives you the option of a ‘voice passthrough’ function which claims to help capture voices better “while suppressing noise”.

You can hear a slight difference when there’s no music playing as they attempt to subdue background noise and raise voice levels. But if you’re trying to use the mode while listening at modest to high volumes we don’t find it hugely effective. Your music just drowns out the bulk of the outside noise.

At this price, it’s no surprise that the WF-C510 don’t offer touch-sensitive controls, but the outer surface of each earbud doubles as a physical button. And the concept is executed well.

You can control playback and volume from the off, which isn’t always the case with wireless earbuds at this level (and even higher). Single, double and triple taps on the right earbud play/pause, skip tracks forward and backwards, while multiple presses of the right button increase volume, with multiple presses on the left button turning things down. It’s nicely executed – the buttons respond well and the volume doesn’t drop or rise too far too quickly, so you feel in control.

Sony’s Headphones App gives you access to a five-band equaliser so you can customise the sound and set it as a custom preset – you’ve also got nine different preloaded presets to cycle through which all alter the sound in slightly different ways. We experimented with them all during testing and feel that some users might like the added drive and power of the ‘Excited’ setting, but we don’t think you need to stray from the out-of-the-box sound.

Sony claims up to 11 hours of battery life, although the fine print does state that this is with Ambient Sound Mode, Sony’s DSEE audio processing and EQ Custom mode all turned off. The case should be good for another 11 hours of playtime. We had several long listening stints of between six and seven hours while testing the WF-C510 and didn’t struggle for battery life.

Sound

The key at this price point is to be fun, engaging and musical, and the Sony WF-C510 deliver all of this and more.

We test them with a range of genres and the Sonys just go about their business. You can tell the WF-C510 are part of the Sony family, such is their musicality and rhythmic ability – even complex pieces of music don’t unravel and their sense of timing and ability to just get into the groove of a song works with any music you play through them.

They do produce a slightly different flavour of sound compared to their predecessors, though, with the WF-C510 sounding richer and more full-bodied than the WF-C500. They make the previous model sound slightly leaner and smaller scale in comparison.

We start with an old favourite, Beyonce’s Baby Boy, and the Sonys serve up a solid, weighty and driven sound. There is serious power behind the track’s prominent and repetitive basslines and the WF-C510 capture the dynamic shifts in the quicker, more agile bass notes as they interject.

The quality of the midrange and treble is also better than the WF-C500, with the strings and claps keeping the tempo upbeat and sounding more refined and subtle at the same time. Beyonce and Sean Paul’s vocals sound solid, expressive and display a good dose of natural warmth.

We switch over to Benson Boone’s Slow It Downand the Sony WF-C510 immediately draw you in with the way they dig out emotion and detail from his vocal and the piano play. The Sonys do a great job of shifting up the gears in terms of scale and dynamic drive, and this really helps these wireless earbuds connect with the listener.

Sure, the earbuds’ dynamic dexterity and agility can be bettered, but only if you move up a price bracket and jump up to a pair such as their WF-C700N siblings. Here, there’s greater balance, separation and insight, and an even surer sense of timing.

Verdict

At this level, it’s hard to pile on too much expectation, but Sony’s previous track record has us doing just that. And the WF-C510 don’t disappoint. They might look and feel cheaper than what has gone before them but we can’t really argue with the comfort, sense of fun and musicality that they convey. They’re brilliant buds with a bargain price tag.

SCORES

MORE:

Read our Sony WF-C500 review

Also consider the Earfun Air

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