Sony has a way with naming its audio products — trust us, we wouldn’t be calling its next $300 pair of wireless earbuds the WF-1000XM5s if we had the choice. But they are great pieces of gear nonetheless and that extends to the budget-minded WF-C500 earbuds the company put out back in 2021. We think they’re a top pick for TWS earbuds if you’re short on cash. Sony knows it has a good thing going and, like any such performance, it deserves an encore: we’re learning some new details about the upcoming WF-C700N, including a long-awaited feature that has made it to other earbuds at this price.
Active noise cancellation is said to be coming to the WF-C series — an admittedly short series given that the C500s are the only member right now — for the first time according to new intelligence from OnLeaks through MySmartPrice. The new earbuds apparently also feature wind noise reduction for voice calls and Sony’s proprietary DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) for improved bass and even upscaling audio quality.
Official-looking renders also reveal the four colors the earbuds will be sold in — Black, Violet, White, and Green.
If the renders just don’t do it for you, the leak also highlights a few marketing placards that we can expect will accompany the earbuds when they’re officially available.
Roland Quandt at WinFuture is also sharing some insight into the WF-C700N, adding that the earbuds will feature 5mm drivers, Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and multipoint support — another first for the series and, surprisingly, not too long after Sony added it on for its LinkBuds S and the WF-1000XM4s. That said, buyers will need to wait for a firmware update set to land this summer in order to get multipoint working.
Each earbud weighs 4.6 grams and can last up to 7.5 hours on a single charge with ANC turned on and up to 10 hours without the enhancement. The charging case is said to carry an extra full cycle’s worth of power. Users should get an hour’s worth of use from a 10-minute charge via USB-C, but it’ll take 90 minutes to get from zero to 100%.
Quandt is predicting that the WF-C700Ns will price out at about €120 across Europe — a little more than what the WF-C500s were at a couple years ago, but hopefully that’s just the ANC talking. There’s no word on the earbuds’ launch date at the moment, but given that firmware OTA’s due this summer, Sony’s got all of spring to work wtih.
