Sony WF-SP800N, new Bluetooth Noise Cancelling headset coming soon

Set to debut sometime next year, the WF-SP800N is Sony's new sports oriented truly wireless noise cancelling headset. The WF-SP800N looks to be a successor the the WF-SP700N, and could potentially debut at CES 2020, but then again it might not even be sold in North America, the WF-H800 was on the FCC but there has been no announcement of availability for the US or Europe.

The new headset will feature Bluetooth 5.0, a new design, and USB type-C on the case for charging. The Bluetooth chip will be the same as in the WF-1000XM3 and WF-H800, the Mediatek MT2811S, with this being by the FCC documents.

The noise cancellation should be close to the WF-1000XM3, since they both use the same chip for NC. The WF-1000XM3 does have the QN1e, so it should sound better than the WF-SP800N. This does not mean Sony will not include the QN1e chip in the WF-SP800N, if there is space for it and Sony uses a 2 board setup like in the WF-1000XM3, then the small QN1e would fit.

Sony has already used the QN1 in the new WH-H910N and WH-XB900N as seen in the teardowns but there is no mention of the QN1 for either device. This is probably because the QN1 (CXD90050), requires 2 microphones, feedback and feed-forward, to qualify for the the QN1 label. This seems to be the same case with the QN1e, the WF-1000XM3 uses 2 microphones as well. Even if Sony includes the QN1e in the WF-SP800N, but only uses one external microphone for noise cancellation, then the CXD3781 cannot be called the QN1e.

Back to the WF-SP800N, like the other members in the truly wireless lineup, a 6mm driver is expected, DSEE HX, and being a sports model, an IPX4 rating like the WF-SP700N. The WF-SP700N offered Extra Bass but it is unknown if this will be present on the new WF-SP800N. 

There will be support for Alexa and Google assistant and Sony's 360 Reality Audio. Battery life should be significantly improved from the WF-SP700N which had a pathetic 3 hours. I would estimate up to 8 hours of single use with NC off, with another 8-16 hours from the case. But it all depends how big the charging case battery will be. The earpod battery should be the same Varta CP1254 as in the rest of the WF line. Codec support should be the standard AAC and SBC.

There are some measurements in the FCC documents for the writing and using this as a scale, I get the following estimated sizes, 79.2mm length, and 31.4mm for width. I cannot find the dimensions of the WF-1000XM3 or WF-H800 cases so I cannot compare them. If anyone has the dimensions of the WF-1000XM3 and WF-H800 cases, please post them in the comments.

Both the WF-H800 and WF-SP700N are offered in a few colour options, so I would expect the new model to also offer more than just black and silver. Of course colour options could be region specific as well.

Like I mentioned earlier, a possible debut at CES 2020 is likely, the WF-SP700N was introduced at CES 2018, along with the WI-SP600N and WI-SP500. Pricing is tricky, the current WF-1000XM3 are $229 USD, so perhaps anywhere from $149-199 USD is possible. I do wonder if Sony will offer a new WI-SP600N or kill it off.

One point to add, with 2 new devices on the FCC in the past week, there is hope for a WH-1000XM4. Keep your fingers crossed.

Edit, the device has finally appear on the Korean FCC.

I will update the post if I find any more information. If anyone knows anything more, please post a comment. Thanks.