Sony introduces the WF-C500 and WH-XB910N Wireless headsets

I was expecting Sony to unveil these next week, but it looks like they took the wraps off this week, so a nice surprise. These look to be quite decent pairs of wireless headsets specification wise, hopefully they will perform and sound just as good.

WF-C500

• IPX4 Water resistance rating
• Sony 360 Reality Audio support
• Sony│Headphones Connect App support
• 10 hours playback with 10 hours in the charging case
• DSEE
• Lightweight (5.4g) and compact size earbuds
• 10 minute quick charge provides up to 1 hour of extra playback
• 4 colours, black, white, ice green and coral orange
  

According to Sony, these will become available in October and retail for about 100 Euros. The headset is voice assistant compatible, and features Fast Pair for Android and Swift Pair in Windows 10. The driver unit is 5.8mm, which is close to the 6mm on the WF-1000XM4. I am not sure why Sony did not just use the same 6mm driver in the WF-C500. Perhaps since these are made in Vietnam and not Malaysia, perhaps a different parts supplier.

A full earbud recharge takes about  2.5 hours and a full case recharge takes around 3 hours. The charging case weighs about 35g. And just like the WF-1000XM4, the retail packaging includes zero plastic and is fully recyclable. The button I wrote about in earlier posts does seem to be the large flat surface on the outside of the earbuds. It is used to control the voice, cycle through tracks and change volume. I do believe the functions can be selected using the headphone app.

WH-XB910N

• 40mm driver
• Bluetooth 5.2 with LDAC, AAC and SBC support
• DSEE
• Dual Noise Sensor technology
• 30 hours of playback (NC on), 50 hours (NC off), 10 min quick charge provides 4.5 hours
  
• Extra Bass
• Multipoint connection
• Sony 360 Reality Audio support
• 2 colours, black and blue
  

Like the smaller WF-C500, the WH-XB910N will also ship in October and retail for about 200 Euros. The new model is about 50 euros cheaper than the previous model, hopefully the costs savings are not due to cheaper materials and build quality. I will mention again these are manufactured in Vietnam, and not China like the XB900N.

In the press release Sony mentions blue and black colour options but we know a grey model exists, so perhaps that will be limited to certain markets. One can see the colour on twitter here.

 

The weight is 252g, which is 2g less than the previous model, so no real difference. The driver size remains the same at 40mm which is good. In the previous post I said it was 25mm on the previous model, but I mixed it up with the WH-H910N, so apologies for that.

The noise cancellation also uses dual mic tech like the WH-1000XM4, and also features Precise Voice Pickup Technology, "which combines two built-in microphones with advanced audio signal processing, to pick up your voice clearly and precisely for hands-free calls". We will have to wait for a teardown to see how many total microphones there are inside and how it compares to the WH-1000XM4.

I find it surprising Sony decided not to mention the V1 processor here, after all, the MT2822S used in the WH-XB910N is the V1, unless the true V1 requires additional tech/software which is missing on the XB910N. Similar situation with the previous model which also used the QN1 chip but there was no mentioned of it anywhere on the product page. Perhaps Sony wishes to reveal that the same chip is used in the XB910N as in the WF-1000XM4.

The headset can also fold up and comes with a durable travel case. The retail packaging is also fully recyclable and will look similar to the WF-1000XM4 packaging.

I can do a comparison between the WH-XB910N and WH-XB900N if people want me to. Also one more headset still left, the YY2953.

Press release can be found here.