You might be familiar with the Sony Extra Bass speaker range, but never has a little pair of wireless buds claimed to be worthy of the title. The Sony WF-XB700 earbuds (where XB stands for Extra Bass) changes that, launching as the first pair of wireless in-ears in the Extra Bass Series.
Not only do the buds boast Sony's Extra Bass sonic chops, you can get eight hours of battery life from the buds plus eight hours from the case – giving you 18 hours of juice in total. Thanks to a USB-C charger, a quick ten-minute charge will give you an hour of playtime, too. Interested? You should be.
It's no secret: Sony headphones have snapped up awards from this publication in the past six months, in both our over-ear (WH-1000XM3) and true wireless (WF-1000XM3) categories. So when a new true wireless Sony headphone model is launched, we stop what we're doing and reach for our working faces. Add to this the fact that the WF-XB700 will be available very soon – and for just $130 – and the furious pecking out of words on our keyboard echoes throughout our (home) offices.
These Sony headphones are available in black and blue colourways, and the housing is elliptical, with a small physical control on the lower edge of each earpiece for playback, calls, your phone's voice-assistant access and volume adjustment. There's also an IPX4 water resistant rating and a design that Sony is calling an 'Ergonomic, Tri-hold structure' for a secure fit.
The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.0, with each earpiece establishing an individual connection to your device. Sony is supporting AAC and SBC in terms of codecs, and while you’re not getting any kind of noise cancellation here (for that, you’ll still need to level up to Sony’s flagship set, mentioned above) that Extra Bass for a powerful, punchy low-end is an intriguing proposition.
The Sony WF-XB700 will launch soon in the US. No news on availability for the rest of the world yet – but when we know, you'll know. Will they challenge the best wireless earbuds on the market? We will have to wait and see.
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