如果您正在寻找一副廉价的无线(budget wireless)入耳式耳机，您可以从相当多的品牌和型号中进行选择——Jabra、Panasonic、Anker、Plantronics、Skullcandy等等。在本文中，我们将回顾索尼对入门级真无线耳塞市场(wireless earbuds segment)的主张，即索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)。它们体积小、价格合理，并且拥有索尼品牌的专业知识和经验(Sony brand know-how and experience)作为质量的保证。他们会在你的候选名单上吗？他们有足够的收益吗？阅读此评论以了解它们的表现：
索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)：它们对谁有好处？
如果您满足以下条件，则应考虑使用Sony WF-C500 真正无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)：
- 在您的移动设备上听(Listen)很多音乐
- 不喜欢触敏耳塞
- 长时间远离充电器，不想打扰您的聆听为耳机充电
- 享受慢跑(Enjoy jogging)，需要一副轻便、坚固且音质不错的耳塞(sound quality)
优点和缺点
索尼 WF-C500 真正无线(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless)耳机有几个优点：
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- 它们坚固且构造精良
- 他们很舒服
- 简单的控制方案(control scheme)，再加上物理按键，让设备使用起来非常方便
- 耳塞的电池寿命(battery life)很好
- 好看的颜色选择
但是，也有一些我们不喜欢的东西：
- 索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)上的麦克风无法在通话中拾取您的声音
- 当其他蓝牙(Bluetooth)设备也连接时，我们的测试笔记本电脑出现了一些连接问题(test laptop)
- 充电盒的电池寿命(battery life)本来可以更好
判决
索尼 WF-C500 真正无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)首先是一款廉价产品(budget product)。因此，我们不能因为缺少ANC等更高级的功能而责怪他们。然而，集成麦克风的质量不足，这使得它们不太适合打电话。它们非常适合听音乐，因为电池寿命(battery life)长，而且佩戴舒适。音质是正确的价格。我们会向那些花费大量时间在iPhone 或 Android 设备(iPhone or Android devices)上听音乐并且不需要它们进行频繁通话的精打细算的用户推荐索尼 WF-C500 真正无线耳机。(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)
索尼 WF-C500 真正无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)开箱
索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)耳机采用白色小盒子包装，带有高质量的图形和大量信息。该盒子的尺寸仅为 3.75 x 2.75 x 1.96 英寸（95 x 70 x 50 毫米），并且正如预期的那样非常轻。正面有一张珊瑚橙(Coral Orange)耳机的图片、型号名称(model name)和几项技术规格。
索尼WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)进来的盒子正面
包装盒背面包含其他技术规格以及产品序列号。据索尼(Sony)称，包装不含任何塑料。
盒子背面有几个技术规格和序列号
包装盒内包含耳机、充电盒、两组耳塞、一根 USB-A 转USB-C 数据线(USB-C cable)，以及多种语言的常用操作说明。
标配：充电盒(charging case)、耳塞、数据线
打开充电盒，我们可以第一眼看到耳机的实物。外壳的半透明盖子很容易打开，外壳很轻。
简单(Simplicity)通常意味着坚固，WF-C500 勾选(WF-C500 tick)了这两个框
开箱体验很愉快。随附的盒子制作精良，易于打开。我们喜欢包装中没有塑料，内盒很容易回收。配件的质量很好，它们与箱子分开包装很好。(The unboxing experience was pleasant. The included box is well-made and easy to open. We like that there is no plastic in the packaging, and the inner box is easily recyclable. The quality of the accessories is good, and they come well packaged separately from the case.)
设计和硬件规格
开箱后，我们先来看看配件。USB 电缆(USB cable)很短（只有 8.5 英寸或 21.5 厘米），但对于大多数用例来说应该足够了。耳塞有S 和 L 两种尺寸(S and L sizes)，M 尺寸的已经安装在耳机上。
充电盒可提供足够的电量播放 10 小时
充电盒坚固轻便，重量仅为 1.23 盎司（35 克）。其尺寸为 3.15 x 1.37 x 1.21 英寸（80.0 x 34.9 x 30.9 毫米）。盖子是半透明的，在黑暗的环境中，当芽充电时，可以通过盖子看到它们发出的一些琥珀色光。(amber light)它还有一个状态LED，当充电盒充电时会亮起。据索尼(Sony)称，它有足够的电量为耳机充满一次电。说到这，芽的电池续航时间(battery life)真的很不错：连续播放 10 小时加上外壳提供的另外 10 小时。如果您使用耳机通话，电池寿命(battery life)会减半。充电时间(charge time)据索尼(Sony)称，这种情况下大约需要 3 小时，而芽将在 2.5 小时内充电至 100% 。此外(Furthermore)，充电 10 分钟即可播放 1 小时，如果您赶时间而忘记事先为耳塞充电，这很好。
索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)小巧轻便
这款耳机小巧轻便（每个 5.4 克），配备 5.8 毫米驱动单元，频率响应(frequency response)为 20Hz-20,000Hz（44.1kHz 采样）。我们回顾了珊瑚橙版本(Coral Orange version)，但耳机也有柠檬绿(lime green)、黑色和白色可供选择。
索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)耳塞也有黑色、白色和柠檬绿色可供选择
称我们为老式，但我们喜欢索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)具有物理控制的事实。这些按钮相对容易按下并提供足够的反馈。IPX4 认证(IPX4 certification)意味着花蕾不受偶尔溅水的影响。使用蓝牙 5.0(Bluetooth 5.0)进行连接。
您可以在此页面上找到所有技术规格：WF-C500 真正无线耳机(WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)。
总的来说，用料并不便宜，充电盒的半透明盖子在我们看来是一个不错的设计选择。芽和外壳感觉不高级，但坚固且适合日常使用。材料质量没有明显问题，技术规格与价格一致。(Overall, the materials used are not cheap, and the semitransparent lid of the charging case is a nice design choice in our opinion. The buds and the case don’t feel premium, but rather sturdy and fit for daily use. There were no visible issues with the quality of the materials, and the technical specs are in line with the price.)
使用索尼 WF-C500 真正无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)
现在，继续有趣的事情(fun stuff)。引起我们注意的第一件事是耳机具有物理控制功能。为什么在电容式按钮和触摸屏时代，您想要耳塞上的实际按钮？有两个原因：
- 与触感耳塞相比，意外发出命令的概率要低得多；
- 在大多数触敏芽上实际按下按钮的触觉反馈为零。您只会听到哔哔声，这对某些用户来说可能很烦人。使用索尼WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)，您可以在成功按下按钮时感受到，因此提高了可用性。
物理按钮与一个极好的（如果是基本的）控制方案相结合：从按钮你只能控制音量、媒体文件的播放/暂停、接听和结束通话，但在命令方面，有时越简单越好。例如，要提高音量，您只需按一次左键，而要降低音量，您只需按住相同的按钮，直到音量降至所需水平。
控件很简单，但也很简单
经历了复杂的命令方案，包括在触摸感应按钮上双击甚至三次敲击，这种方法更加有效和精确。
耳塞足够小，适合大多数耳朵，随附的耳塞尖端覆盖了各种耳道尺寸。我们试着穿着它们跑步，它们没有掉下来。一件好事，因为它们太小了。专业提示：如果您选择白色或橙色的，如果它们脱落，您会很容易发现它们🙂
物理按钮很大并提供良好的反馈
我们首先通过听音乐来测试芽。最初的音质(sound quality)并不令人惊叹，音量和低音都足够好，但中音和高音，因为没有更好的词，平淡无奇。芽听起来很平均，但质量没有真正的问题。然后，我们下载了Headphones Connect，这是一款适用于其全系列无线耳机的Sony 应用程序，适用(Sony app)于 Android(for Android)和iPhone(for iPhones)。该应用程序功能丰富，并具有干净的用户界面(user interface)。它甚至与它连接的耳塞的颜色相匹配，因为为什么不呢？
使用该应用程序，我们能够根据自己的喜好微调声音，因为该应用程序提供了多个预设和自定义均衡器(custom equalizer)设置。它还有一个部分专门根据……您的耳朵图片提供最佳声音。是的，你看的没错。除了它仅适用于少数应用程序（例如Tidal）之外，我们不相信拍摄我们的耳朵有助于获得更好的声音。这就像将您的汽车照片提供给改装公司，以便他们仅根据这些照片提高其性能。我们相信，比赛的方法，实际上是在几个频率上测试用户的听力，更有用并且产生更好的结果。话虽如此，使用此功能的选定应用程序听起来确实不错。
Headphones Connect 应用程序(Headphones Connect app)美观实用
使用应用程序调整声音后，耳机听起来更好，但仍然缺乏高端设备的清晰度。我们激活了DSEE（数字声音增强引擎），这是一种由(Digital Sound Enhancement Engine)索尼(Sony)开发的算法，用于增强音乐的音质，效果虽然微妙但清晰呈现。最终结果(end result)与竞争结果一致：良好的低音、清晰的高音、足够间隔的乐器、整体平衡而细腻的声音。
然后，我们在第二个最常用的场景中尝试了它们：电话。可悲的是，虽然音质(sound quality)很好，但电话另一端的人总是听不到我们的声音。我们尝试了几部手机，但结果是一样的。继续前进，您不能因为缺少ANC（主动降噪）而对(noise cancellation)索尼 WF-C500 真正的无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)感到失望，因为它是一款廉价耳机(budget headset)。此外，将它们放在耳朵中的噪音抑制效果已经足够好。(noise suppression)没有环境声模式(sound mode)或者（当耳塞播放周围的声音时，即使戴着耳机你也可以听到周围发生的事情）。但是，如果您愿意，您可以只使用其中一个耳塞，例如，如果您正在开车，这是一个不错的选择，但您仍然需要将耳塞用作电话耳机(phone headset)。
我们继续将它们连接到笔记本电脑，以查看问题是否仍然存在。同样(Again)，在视频通话期间，另一端的人会抱怨音质(sound quality)。使用集成的Voice Recorder 应用(Voice Recorder app)收听在Windows 11中录制的录音：
奇怪的是，当使用蓝牙 4.0(Bluetooth 4.0)加密狗连接时，我们甚至无法使用索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)上的麦克风，但通过蓝牙 5.0(Bluetooth 5.0)连接时它可以工作。此外，我们注意到一个间歇性错误：有时，当耳机连接到我们的华硕 Zenbook Duo 笔记本电脑(ASUS Zenbook Duo laptop)时，我们的蓝牙鼠标(Bluetooth mouse)（也是华硕(Asus)制造的）停止正常工作。您的里程可能会有所不同，具体取决于您的设备，但我们在将索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)与笔记本电脑一起使用时的体验并不好。
连接到Windows 11笔记本电脑的索尼 WF-C500(Sony WF-C500)
最后，我们测试了电池寿命(battery life)，在这里，索尼 WF-C500 真无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)完整交付：以中等音量播放音频(playing audio)，我们能够超过索尼(Sony)指定的电池运行时间(battery run time)。我们有 11 个小时，虽然不是最好的结果，但肯定非常好。如果不使用它们并且不在它们的情况下，Sony WF-C500耳机会关闭以节省电池。要重新打开它们，只需按下每个耳塞上的按钮几秒钟即可。如果有选择，我们会用非常轻的外壳换取更大的外壳电池容量(case battery capacity)，能够多次为耳机充满电。尽管如此，20 小时的综合播放时间(playback time)并不算太寒酸。充电(Charging)很快 - 在三个小时内，耳塞就可以使用了。
使用索尼 WF-C500 真正无线耳机是一种混合体验：耳机非常适合与智能手机一起日常使用，但仅用于音乐播放。通话时，集成麦克风拾取的声音不是很大，连接电脑时，在使用其他蓝牙设备时可能会遇到连接问题。控制方案非常好，得益于良好的电池寿命，您可以轻松地在这些耳塞上聆听您喜欢的音乐一整天。(Using the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones is a mixed experience: the headphones are perfect for daily use together with a smartphone, but only for music playback. For calls, the sound picked up by the integrated microphones is not great, and when connecting to computers, you can encounter connection issues while also using other Bluetooth devices. The control scheme is very good, and you can easily listen to your favorite music on these earbuds for a full day thanks to the good battery life.)
您对索尼 WF-C500 真无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)有何看法？
寻找无线耳塞(wireless earbuds)是漫长而乏味的。您被技术规格和功能列表(specs and feature lists)轰炸，但与其他可穿戴设备相比，选择合适的耳塞(right earbuds)很大程度上取决于您的解剖结构和个人喜好。我们希望我们能够对使用Sony WF-C500 真正无线耳机(Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones)的感觉有所了解。在您离开之前，我们想知道您对这些预算无线耳塞(budget wireless earbuds)的看法。如果您拥有一双，如果您也可以在评论部分(comment section)描述您与他们的经历，那就太好了，以便其他用户可以更清楚地了解(clearer picture)。
Sony WF-C500 review: budget earbuds for comfortable listening
If you’re searching for a pair of budgеt wirеless in-ear headphonеs, yоu can choose from quite а few brands and models - Jabra, Panasonic, Anker, Plantronics, Skullcandy, to name bυt a few. In this article, we are reviewing Sоny’s proposition for the entry-level true wireless earbuds segment, the Sony WF-C500. They are small, reаsonably priced, and have the Sony brand know-how and experience as a guarantee for their quality. Will they make it on your shortlist? Have they got enough bаng for your buck? Read this review tо find out how they perform:
Sony WF-C500: Who are they good for?
You should consider the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones if you:
- Listen to a lot of music on your mobile device(s)
- Dislike touch-sensitive earbuds
- Are away from a charger for long periods of time and don’t want to interrupt your listening to charge your headphones
- Enjoy jogging and need a pair of light, robust earbuds with decent sound quality
Pros and cons
There are several positives about the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones:
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- They are sturdy and well-built
- They are comfortable
- The simple control scheme, coupled with the physical buttons, makes the device extremely easy to use
- The battery life for the earbuds is good
- Good-looking color selection
However, there are some things that aren’t to our liking:
- The microphones on the Sony WF-C500 have trouble picking up your voice in calls
- We had some connectivity issues on our test laptop when other Bluetooth devices were also connected
- The battery life of the charging case could have been better
Verdict
The Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones are, first and foremost, a budget product. Thus, we cannot fault them for the lack of more advanced features like ANC. However, the quality of the integrated microphones is inadequate, and that makes them less desirable for phone calls. They are great for listening to music, both because of the long battery life and the fact that they’re comfortable to wear. The sound quality is correct for the price. We would recommend the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones to budget-conscious users who spend a lot of time listening to music on their iPhone or Android devices and don’t need them for frequent phone calls.
Unboxing of the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones
The Sony WF-C500 headphones come in a small white box, with high quality graphics and lots of information on it. The box is just 3.75 x 2.75 x 1.96 inches (95 x 70 x 50 mm) in size and, as expected, very light. On the front there’s a picture of the Coral Orange headphones, the model name and several technical specs.
The front of the box that the Sony WF-C500 comes in
The back of the box contains other technical specs, as well as the product serial number. According to Sony, the packaging does not contain any plastic.
The back of the box has several technical specs and the serial number
The box contains the headphones, a charging case, two sets of bud tips, a USB-A to USB-C cable, plus the usual operating instructions in several languages.
The contents are standard: charging case, ear tips, cable
Opening the charging case, we can take a first glance at the actual headphones. The semi-transparent lid of the case is easy to open and the case is very light.
Simplicity usually means sturdiness, and the WF-C500 tick both boxes
The unboxing experience was pleasant. The included box is well-made and easy to open. We like that there is no plastic in the packaging, and the inner box is easily recyclable. The quality of the accessories is good, and they come well packaged separately from the case.
Design and hardware specifications
After opening the box, we first took a look at the accessories. The USB cable is very short (only 8.5 inches or 21.5 cm), but it should be enough for most use cases. The ear tips are the S and L sizes, with the M sized ones already mounted on the headphones.
The charging case provides enough charge for 10 hours of playback
The charging case is sturdy and light, with a weight of just 1.23 oz (35 g). Its dimensions are 3.15 x 1.37 x 1.21 inches (80.0 x 34.9 x 30.9 mm). The lid is semitransparent and in dark environments, when the buds are charging, some of the amber light they emit can be seen through the lid. It also has a status LED that lights up when the case is charging. According to Sony, it has enough juice to fully charge the headphones once. Speaking of which, the battery life of the buds is really good: 10 hours of continuous playback plus another 10 provided by the case. The battery life is cut in half if you use the headphones for calls. The charge time for the case is roughly 3 hours, while the buds will charge to 100% in 2.5 hours, according to Sony. Furthermore, ten minutes of charging time will get you an hour of playback, which is nice if you are in a hurry and you forget to charge the earbuds beforehand.
The Sony WF-C500 are small and light
The headphones are small, light (5.4 g each) and have 5.8mm driver units with a frequency response of 20Hz-20,000Hz (44.1kHz sampling). We reviewed the Coral Orange version, but the headphones are also available in lime green, black, and white.
The Sony WF-C500 earbuds are also available in black, white, and lime green
Call us old-fashioned, but we love the fact that the Sony WF-C500 has physical controls. The buttons are relatively easy to press and provide sufficient feedback. The IPX4 certification means that the buds are safe from the occasional splash of water. The connection is made using Bluetooth 5.0.
You can find all the technical specs on this page: WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones.
Overall, the materials used are not cheap, and the semitransparent lid of the charging case is a nice design choice in our opinion. The buds and the case don’t feel premium, but rather sturdy and fit for daily use. There were no visible issues with the quality of the materials, and the technical specs are in line with the price.
Using the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones
Now, onwards to the fun stuff. The first thing that caught our eye was the fact that the headphones have physical controls. Why, in the age of capacitive buttons and touch screens, would you want actual buttons on your earbuds? There are two reasons for that:
- compared to the touch-sensitive earbuds, the probability of issuing a command accidentally is much, much lower;
- The haptic feedback from actually pressing a button on most touch-sensitive buds is zero. You only get beeps, which can be annoying to some users. With the Sony WF-C500, you can feel when you successfully press the button, so the usability is improved.
The physical buttons are coupled with a superb, if basic, control scheme: from the buttons you only get to control volume, the playing/pausing of media files, answering and ending calls, but when it comes to commands, simpler is sometimes better. For example, to increase the volume, you only need to press the left button once, and for decreasing it you simply keep the same button pressed until the volume drops to the desired level.
The controls are simplistic, but also simple
Having experienced complicated command schemes involving double or even triple taps on touch-sensitive buttons, this method is much more effective and precise.
The buds are small enough to fit most ears, and the included bud tips cover a wide range of ear canal sizes. We tried running while wearing them, and they didn’t fall off. A good thing, since they’re so small. Pro tip: if you choose the white or the orange ones, you will spot them easily if they do fall off 🙂
The physical buttons are large and provide good feedback
We first tested the buds by listening to music. The initial sound quality wasn’t amazing, the volume and the bass were good enough, but the mids and highs were, for lack of a better word, bland. The buds sounded average, but there was no real issue with quality. We then downloaded Headphones Connect, the Sony app dedicated to their whole range of wireless headphones, available both for Android and for iPhones. The app is packed with features and has a clean user interface. It even matches the color of the earbuds it connects to, because why not?
With the app, we were able to fine-tune the sound to our taste, as the app provides several presets and custom equalizer settings. It also has a section dedicated to providing the best sound, based on… pictures of your ears. Yes, you read that right. Apart from the fact that it works with only a few apps (like Tidal, for example), we’re not convinced that taking photos of our ears will help in achieving better sound. It’s like providing photos of your car to a tuning company so that they increase its performance solely based on those pictures. We believe that the competition’s approach, actually testing the hearing of the user on several frequencies, is more useful and yields better results. That being said, the selected apps that work with this feature did sound quite good.
The Headphones Connect app is good-looking and useful
After tuning the sound using the app, the headphones sounded better, but still lacked the clarity of higher-end devices. We activated DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), an algorithm developed by Sony to enhance the sound quality of the music, and the effect was subtle but clearly present. The end result was in line with the competition: good bass, clear highs, sufficiently-spaced instruments, overall a balanced and detailed sound.
We then tried them in their second most-used scenario: phone calls. Sadly, while the sound quality was good, the person on the other end of the call constantly had trouble hearing us. We tried it with several phones, but the result was the same. Moving on, you can’t really fault the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones for the lack of ANC (active noise cancellation), since it’s a budget headset. Furthermore, the noise suppression from having them in your ears is good enough. There is no ambient sound mode either (that’s when the earbuds play the surrounding sounds so that you can hear what’s happening around you even with the headphones on). If you prefer, though, you can use only one of the earbuds, a good choice if you’re driving, for example, and you still need to use the buds as a phone headset.
We moved on to connecting them to a laptop, to see if the issues were still present. Again, during video calls, the person on the other end would complain about the sound quality. Take a listen to a recording made in Windows 11 using the integrated Voice Recorder app:
Strangely, when connecting using a Bluetooth 4.0 dongle, we couldn’t even use the microphone on the Sony WF-C500, but it worked when connected via Bluetooth 5.0. Furthermore, we noticed an intermittent bug: at times, when the headphones were connected to our ASUS Zenbook Duo laptop, our Bluetooth mouse (also made by Asus) stopped working correctly. Your mileage may vary, depending on your devices, but our experience when using the Sony WF-C500 with a laptop wasn’t great.
The Sony WF-C500 connected to a Windows 11 laptop
Finally, we tested the battery life, and here, the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones delivered in full: playing audio at moderate volume, we were able to surpass the battery run time specified by Sony. We got eleven hours, which, although not the best result out there, is certainly very good. If they aren’t used and not in their case, the Sony WF-C500 headphones turn off to save battery. To turn them back on, simply press the button on each earbud for a few seconds. If presented with the choice, we would have traded the very low weight of the case for a larger case battery capacity, able to fully charge the buds more than once. Still, 20 hours of combined playback time is not too shabby. Charging was quick - within three hours, the earbuds were ready to go.
Using the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones is a mixed experience: the headphones are perfect for daily use together with a smartphone, but only for music playback. For calls, the sound picked up by the integrated microphones is not great, and when connecting to computers, you can encounter connection issues while also using other Bluetooth devices. The control scheme is very good, and you can easily listen to your favorite music on these earbuds for a full day thanks to the good battery life.
What's your opinion about the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones?
The search for wireless earbuds is long and tedious. You are bombarded with technical specs and feature lists, but more than other wearables, choosing the right earbuds depends a lot on your anatomy and personal preferences. We hope we were able to shed some light on what it’s like to use the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones. Before you leave, we’d like to know your opinion on these budget wireless earbuds. If you own a pair, it would be great if you could also describe in the comment section your experience with them, so that other users can get a clearer picture.
