Review of gaming wireless headphones Sony WF-XB700

If you like your music with a generous sprinkle of extra bass, then you’ll love Sony WF-XB700. They’re an audiophile’s nightmare and a bass head dream come true.

For quite a few years now, Sony has been trying to please every group of music listeners. From audiophiles, casual listeners to bass lovers. Sony WF-XB700 are made for the latter.

The “XB” in the name stands for “extra bass,” and it doesn’t lie. These true wireless earbuds produce seriously punchy low-end sound.

Surprisingly, both the midrange and treble stay relatively smooth and natural sounding.

The WF-XB700 are also pretty comfortable, despite their weird TriHold design protruding from your ears.

On top of that, you get a great 11-hour long battery life on a single charge, reliable physical controls on both sides, and decent microphone quality.

However, the price fluctuates from $70 to $128. Are they worth the cost? Are there any deal breakers? Dive into the full review below and find out.

Sound

Star Rating 3.5 Almost Great

Sony managed to mix a bass-heavy sound with natural midrange and treble. However, the bass likes to veil the details and occasionally becomes bloated.

Sony’s XB series was always super bassy to the point of sounding muddy and overly warm.

While you can’t deny the enormous thump of the WF-XB700, they surprisingly sound quite pleasing compared to the rest of the Extra Bass headphones and other true wireless earbuds.

However, even when tuned carefully, the bass boost always takes its toll and veils other ranges.

Bass

Lower frequencies start rising at around 200Hz, measuring +15dB above the target at the highest peak.

The bass kick feels tight and large in scale, probably due to bigger 12mm drivers. It produces a decent amount of rumble and adds warmth to the overall sound output.

However, as soon as it starts kicking, you can hear it masking the details, especially in higher frequencies.

For example, the beat from the “24k Gold” by Bruno Mars is simply too strong, and it stands from the rest of the frequency response.

Furthermore, the bass can get muddy when playing already bassy music. Faster genres like metal also sound bloated.

While I don’t mind a boost in bass, the amount coming from the WF-XB700 might give me a headache after a long listening session. It’s that strong.

Here’s everything you need to know about bass earbuds.

Midrange

Mid-frequencies are a tiny bit recessed but stay natural for the most part. And thanks to a dip between 6-11kHz, the WF-XB700 never sound harsh or sibilant.

Everything from vocals to instruments sounds pretty smooth and accurate yet pushed back in the mix.

Listening to “Easy On Me” by Adele is still a pleasant experience, just don’t expect to hear fine nuances in her voice.

Treble

Despite a massive peak at 13kHz, the treble feels absent. It lacks power and extension to balance out the bass.

Consequently, you don’t hear many details in higher registers. When listening to busier tracks, cymbal crashes are a bit splashy and get easily lost in the mix.

Unfortunately, the soundstage is pretty tiny, even by in-ear headphones standards. Certain songs sound a bit too claustrophobic, with most sounds coming from inside your head.

Listening to tracks like “Wandering” from Yosi Horikawa feels too crammed in to experience the track’s full potential.

The imaging is reasonably accurate, and you can quickly pinpoint the direction of the sound.

However, despite all the bashing I just did with the sound, the Sony WF-XB700 are probably one of the best-sounding true wireless earbuds for bass heads.

Their sound quality is much better than on most bass-heavy headphones with a distinctively V-shaped sound signature.

In conclusion, you don’t pick these earbuds to enjoy fine details and nuances in the music. You have many cleaner-sounding options at this price range.

You choose these Sony headphones to create your personal party at home or anywhere else for that matter.

Comfort & Fit

Star Rating 4.0 Great

Despite their large size, the WF-XB700 truly wireless earbuds feel comfortable and secure for extended periods. They can even endure some light running and exercising.

Sony WF-XB700 use the TriHold ergonomic design that Sony uses in many true wireless earbuds. The idea behind it is that it grabs your outer ear in three places, ensuring a secure fit.

Earbuds definitely stay in securely, no matter how hard you shake your head. However, due to their size, they like to bounce a little when walking, producing annoying “microphonics.”

As for comfort, you can easily wear them for a couple of hours without experiencing fatigue. However, not everyone is content with this design, so your mileage may vary.

Durability

Star Rating 3.5 Almost Great

Earbuds can survive sweaty workouts or get caught in the rain. Their build quality is also robust, so dropping them on the floor shouldn’t cause damage. Only the lid feels a bit cheap.

As with many true wireless earbuds, the Sony WF-XB700 come with an IPX4 rating, indicating a decent level of water resistance and complete sweat protection.

You can wear them during your workouts without worry, and they can even survive some light splashes of water.

On the other hand, the rating isn’t sufficient enough to listen to music under a shower or take them into a swimming pool.

Despite their size, truly wireless headphones feel solid in hand and shouldn’t break apart if they accidentally fall on the floor. Of course, make sure to keep earbuds from falling out in the first place.

Also, avoid getting them dirty due to the lack of dust resistance. If that happens, here’s how to clean your earbuds.

In contrast, the case gives some mixed vibes. Overall, it feels sturdy, especially the bottom part.

However, the lid has a very stiff hinge, making it hard to close with one hand. The plastic used for the top is slightly translucent and feels cheap. It’s probably the first thing that will crack if dropped on the floor.

In conclusion, the whole package is pretty solid and should endure everyday use.

Battery

Star Rating 4.5 Almost Perfect

Up to 11 hours and 20 minutes of battery life on a single charge are excellent, but the remaining 9 hours inside the charging case are too low for the highest rating. Also, the case lacks Qi wireless charging.

Sony WF-XB700 pack a sizable battery. During our battery life test, they played the music for up to 11 hours and 20 minutes per charge, which is above average for true wireless earbuds.

Unfortunately, while being very bulky, the charging case only holds another nine hours, which is rather low.

Moreso, it lacks Qi wireless charging, despite having a lot of space at the bottom.

At least it can fast-charge the earbuds using USB-C charging port.

Features

Star Rating 3.0 Good

Earbuds come with physical buttons and a good array of commands. Sadly, they aren’t remappable since there’s no companion app. At least the mic quality is good.

Sony WF-XB700 aren’t exactly packed with extra features. They lack active noise cancelling, ambient sound mode, companion app, and even some EQ presets.

While you can’t remap controls to perform custom commands, the button controls are reliable to use and offer a good set of actions for music playback. Strangely, though, you can’t call your designated voice assistant (like Google assistant).

Sony WF-XB700 controls:

Play/pause – one press on the right side

Next track – double press on the right side

Previous track – triple press on the right side

Volume up – one press on the left side

Volume down – press and hold on the left side

Noise Isolation

Star Rating 4.0 Great

Due to a deep fit and good seal, you get excellent passive noise isolation.

True wireless earbuds use 4 pairs of regular silicone ear tips to seal off your ear canal. They do that very successfully, reducing background noise by a significant amount.

It’s more than enough to block engine noises and people’s chatter and prevent them from interfering with your music.

This isolation level is vital for Sony WF-XB700 since they lack active noise cancellation.

Also, earbuds don’t come with the ambient sound mode, missing the ability to amplify surrounding sounds.

Bluetooth

Star Rating 4.0 Great

Earbuds provide a solid Bluetooth connection with an above-average range. However, they lack multipoint and mono mode on both earbuds.

For the most part, Bluetooth 5.0 ensures stable connection strength with no hiccups.

The Bluetooth range is great. Inside a house, I managed to walk around 55 feet before one earbud cut off the audio completely. There were at least 2 brick walls in between.

How to pair Sony WF-XB700?

To initiate the pairing process for the first time, place the earbuds out of the charging case. Right after that, they should appear in your Bluetooth menu.

For all the pairings afterward, you have to hold the physical buttons on both earbuds for 7 seconds until you see the blue light blinking.

Unfortunately, you can only use the left earbud for mono mode (the right earbud simply stops playing when the left one is in the case).

Also, earbuds don’t support multipoint connection, meaning you can’t pair them with more than one device simultaneously.

What Bluetooth Codec Do They Use?

Sony WF-XB700 use SBC and AAC audio codecs. The latter is the default for Android and iOS, even though it doesn’t work as well with Android gadgets.

However, if you force SBC Bluetooth codec inside Developer options, you might experience random audio stutters, which is weird. Therefore, you have to use AAC.

Is There an Audio Lag?

The audio is entirely in sync when watching movies and YouTube videos on both operating systems (Android and iOS).

Even mobile gaming shows great results, with just a minor delay. Gamers might still want to consider true wireless earbuds with a dedicated gaming mode.