Sony WF-C500 True Wireless Headphones – Up to 20 hours
Sony WF-C500 True Wireless Headphones – Up to 20 hours battery life with charging case – Voice Assistant compatible – Built-in mic for phone calls – Reliable Bluetooth® connection – Orange
Your sound, just how you like it
With the Sony│Headphones Connect app, you can tailor your sound to your personal preference. Choose from a variety of presets to match the sound quality with the genre of music you’re listening to. Or create and save your own presets using the EQ Custom feature on the app.
Compact. Lightweight. Secure.
These compact buds are made to fit securely in your ears, thanks to a new ergonomic surface design.
Your ideal on-the-go companion
The charging case is small enough to carry in a pocket or bag, so you can easily recharge on the go.
Control it all with the click of a button
Handy buttons let you play music, adjust the volume, access your voice assistant and make calls.
Eliminating plastic waste
The WF-C500’s packaging is 100% plastic-free, reflecting our commitment to the environment.
Your sound, easier than ever
360 Reality Audio
So immersive. So real.
Immerse yourself in sound, as real as if you’re at a live concert or with the artist recording in a studio. With 360 Reality Audio, your music has never been so immersive and so real.
See how the WF-C500 compares to other headphones
 WF-C500 |  WF-C700N |  LinkBuds S |  WF-1000XM5 | |
| Noise cancelling | No | Yes | Yes | Best Noise Cancelling |
| Hi-res audio wireless | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Battery life (with NC OFF/ON) | 20H / – | 20H / 15H | 30H / 20H | 36H / 24H |
| Quick charging | 10minutes = 1 hour | 10minutes = 1 hour | 5minutes = 1 hour | 3minutes = 1 hour |
| Wireless charging Qi | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
| PreciseVoicePickup Technology | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Touch control | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Wearing detection | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Multipoint connection | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Earbud weight | 5.4g | 4.6g | 4.8g | 5.9g |
| Case weight | 35g | 31g | 35g | 39g |
| iOS & Android compatible | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Great Buy
Bought these in the Prime Day sale. Great value. Easy to operate and hook up to my iPad and phone. Used them to listen to commentaries at cricket matches. The charge lasts well and sound quality is good. Very happy.
Difficult to justify spending more
Really good.
Make sure to try the different size supplied buds, as that makes a huge difference to fit/seal and sound quaility.
Super comfortable, and light weight….maybe not as good sound quality as ‘phones that cost 200, But I really don’t feel like I need anything better, unless you really need ANC…
..these block your ears pretty well so I don’t feel the need for ANC.
To be honest any bluetooth connection is going to be a compromise on sound quality over a hard wired headphone, so I don’t see the need to spend more, these are a really good all-round package.
Basic but good
I have owned Samsung Buds+ and Lypertek P3s. I also own other headphones including Sennheiser HD 560S and other good gear. These are perfect for what I need: music while exercising and out and about. Sure, they don’t sound amazing, but there is no crazy hiss or distortion, and they are easy to EQ to preference. Main good thing is they are small and last for ages.
The case is basic, but small and will keep the headphones clean.
Amazing!
Best wireless headphones I’ve ever had! Comfortable, look good. And the battery! I work 8 hours shifts and that time barely puts a dent in the battery life! Bought them on a deal and would definitely buy them agai
Good quality affordable price
Light weight , comfortable to wear ,good quality sound at a great price. I use them for my gym sessions. I have small ears & these fit & don’t hurt. Sound is Sony grea
I Bought these Sony WF-C500 green earbuds two weeks ago to replace a pair of Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ earbuds that started behaving erratically after a firmware update. After that experience, I was reluctant to spend a lot on replacements. These are absolutely amazing for the price. Well balanced sound, plenty of bass, (not overblown) very good dynamics, (plenty of “slam”) fairly smooth top end & surprisingly detailed midrange. Even classical sounds reasonable. They seem well built, with long battery life, good control ergonomics & they are paired before I can get them in my ears! They fitted me perfectly without needing to change the tips. I didn’t want ANC as I prefer to be somewhat aware of my surroundings, but these provide a fair degree of isolation anyway. The app is well designed, although the app icon is rather large, so I relegated it to a secondary page on my phone & it’s only a swipe away. I find leaving the EQ flat works for me across all musical genres. Only slight negative is phone conversations could sound a bit clearer. OK, so they’re not quite perfect, but they are uncannily involving to listen to & at this price, they’re more than good enough for the moment & an improvement on my previous buds.
Not as good as the reviews. Only buy if on a significant sale
Decent sound quality but nothing special. Could probably get the same quality for less from a cheaper brand. Comfort isn’t great either which was the biggest letdown. On the plus side connectivity via Bluetooth is excellent.
Great sound
These are really great ear buds, especially for the price. Very comfy to wear at the gym and when walking.
Sound quality is fab and the battery life is grea
Great product from Sony agai
Always find the sound quality from Sony earphones and headphones so good especially when it comes to price against other more fashionable brands such as Beats. These certainly don’t disappoint. Also note that any other people like me who find Apples EarPods don’t fit them these are a much better alternative
WOW, that’s the fabulous pair of wireless earphones. Not gonna write about battery life and build quality as it’s completely adequate with no concerns.
As earphones are made for music, is all that matters and for the asking price you’ll get plenty of natural sound!
The sound is light and clear. Good frequency separation and response. If track has sub bass you will hear it. Mids are clear and not overlayed with bass which is great in my opinion. Treebles sound clear and not overwhelming. Sound stage is wide enough to hear difference in instruments placement. All of this makes WF-C500 great for long listening sessions.
I have a pair of Dali IO-6 headphones and I have to admit those little Sony sound very close to Dali, as they both are on the light side sound wise and surprisingly WF-C500 outperform Dali in terms of less obvious in head sound effect if you now what I mean.
They do have no ANC so not the great option if you planning to use them mainly in the city but on other side if you often using transparency mode, you’ll get similar effect naturally )
Overall the best headphones within their price and even compared to more expensive models.
Bought on sale - fantastic
Great little ear buds. Very good sound quality for price. Very comfortable to wear for long periods.
Used them whilst running, dog walking, chores around house and no issue with them falling out.
Excellent product.
Excellent sounding Bluetooth buds.
Easy to use and connect with Sony headphone app,sound quality is very good with decent bass extension,nice midband and controlled treble.All in all very pleased with them and a step up from a pair of earfun earbuds I’ve had for a while.Seem decent value for 47.
The sound quality of these are amazing, they’re comfortable for long periods of time. I do a lot of travelling and so are well used and loved.
The battery life on them is incredible and way outlast my partners AirPods.
They have great background noise suppression and are fantastic for public transport and blocking out the environment around you. – something I’ve never gotten from an in ear wireless earphone.
The only downside to these are they sound muffled when using them to make calls, it can be hard for the person on the other end of the phone to hear me.
Overall I would still say these are well worth it.
Easy Set U
These are a breeze to set up on Android and iOS (I have both).
Good quality, sound good. Bought to use at the gym, they stay in the ear when moving around.
All in all am happy with these
Not great for calls
Had these for a year now and they are great unfortunately I bought them to use them during calls and everyone complains of high pitched noises and crackling when on calls with me. Besides that they work great and battery life is great too
Sound quality’s great. However no active noise cancellatio
I particularly like the sound quality and also the option to change equalisation and batteries strength (earbuds & case) is brilliant. On the downside, these buds comes loose off my ear after periods of prolonged use. Though no ANC, that notwithstanding, i think these pair is okay for its price.
Truly wireless earbuds with superb sound quality
My new mobile phone had no 3.5mm jack, so I decided to dip my toe into the world of wireless earbuds for the first time. The Sony WF-C500 received a 5/5 review in What Hi-Fi’s 2023 round-up, and RTINGs rated these highly for their sound quality, so at just over 40, I thought these were worth a punt.
Having now received them, I can say the praise is well-deserved; the sound quality is outstanding. Despite using compressed audio over Bluetooth, the sound quality is a significant improvement over the Soundmagic E10c wired headphones I had been using. The default silicone ear tips fit surprisingly well, and create a really good seal, which blocks out practically anything. Although these don’t have active noise cancelling, I can’t imagine how ANC could possible make these any better – relatives have been screaming at me all morning to take them out because I can’t hear them talking! To give some context, playing music at medium volume completely drowned out the sound of 2 vacuum cleaners running right next to me.
As for software setup, my phone detected the ‘buds as soon as they powered on, and prompted me to download the Sony app. This part was relatively straightforward, although Sony wants you to sign up for an account to unlock all the features; I already had an account, so this didn’t take too long to sort out.
Each ‘bud has a physical button that can be pressed to start/stop music playback, activate your phone’s voice assistant and more. These are easy to use, once you know the commands, and making/answering calls is a cinch – no longer will I have to disentangle a bunch of wires when trying to make a call with wired headphones attached.
In summary, I’m blown away by just how good these earbuds are. The drivers are stupendously powerful for their size, but they weigh next to nothing! In the sort time I’ve worn them, I’d also say they’re the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever used. You can pay four times as much for premium wireless earbuds, but sound quality is subject to diminishing returns, and for 40 – 50, these are a total steal.
Awesome Sound!
These earbuds may be lacking in a great number of features but they are so awesome with sound for the Money that if you are purely in it for the Music you will Love them. The isolation is good enough to block out most noise so in the price range I don’t think you would miss out on ANC of most similarly priced earbuds. For me the fit was good and comfortable right out of the box, which may not be for everyone Sony has different size buds to try on. Great earbuds ! Great value for Money ! Especially at the discounted price I got them fo
okay for the price
I got these in black friday, so forty quid. If I had spent double that I would feel I had overpaid.
Pros: very light, never move while running, physical button (though it is light enough to be pressed inadvertently, you can at least adjust fit without pressing), battery life and charge time. The case is small too. Cons: The sound quality is just okay, a bid mid-centric and difficult to sharpen up with the options in the app. I am comparing to the similarly priced melomania touch and reflect flow, both of which sound better, the melomania significantly so. But they are fine for podcasts and gym.
Easy to set up , comfortable
Pros
Long Battery life esp if you play at the middle volume level has good variety
audio quality is clear without interference
connectivity quick and easy
comfort of inner ear buds with someone who struggles with finding any headphones for my tiny ear wholes
Good value for money
cons
can fall out for intense exercise
For my 63 year old mother who I bought it for the set up was a tad tricky when it came to personalisation
some features can require using a paid audio service (but none of the essential features)
there is a slight latency which might be inconvenient, but never affected me
For the price, these are absolutely amazing!
Superb value earbuds.
Quality as you would expect from Sony – but for a little over 50 these are seriously impressive!
The good
Sound quality (for the price) is excellent. Crisp, clear and they really pack a punch and allow you feel the music. I have the of Sony XM4 over the ear headphones which are in a different league but they are also four times the price so you would expect the sound..that said I can listen with these and they really do sound great. Equally I have the overpriced Apple AirPods 3rd gen which double the price and these win hands down for sound quality.
Comfort is very good and they feel very secure, they wont out.
No noise cancelling, they provide a reasonable natural isolation as they sit inside the ear. I use them cycling so don’t want ANC so couldn’t justify spending 100 more.
Battery life is excellent
Good compact case – does feel slightly plasticky but quality is good and it does the job. I love the magnetic snap in place feature.
They connect instantly and the connection is rock solid as always with Sony
Two minor things I don’t like:
The buttons come up quite high so they are easy to press accidentally with a cycle helmet or in bed. The commands take some getting used to but they work well and can be disabled or customised in the app.
No way to check the battery level on the casealthough battery life is so good it’s not really a problem.
Overall, if you want great sound and comfort on a budget, and great all round quality, these are amazing value! If you like me you already have a pair of high end phones and want a pair of buds that deliver without breaking the bank, these are a great buy.
I use headphones a huge amount and have probably gone through 30 pairs in my life , including multiple Bluetooth pairs. i have had either great quality wired ones , which are great for audio , but bulky and not compatible with more modern phones.
allot of the Bluetooth headphones i have used, have been good but not great , with over ear headphones, being noticeably heavier than their wired counterparts , and the earbuds, usually having both poorer sound quality , battery life and fit over the years .
The Sony has really impressed , especially with the price i got it for , has surpassed headphones at five times the price.
They have impressive sound isolation , due to the deign and fit , which leaves no real need for noise cancelling,
Speaking of the fit , is is again impressive as i have worn them for several house with little or no discomfort , but can become loos when either eating or through intense exercise (it has been fine on normal running or jogging)
Sound quality is impressive , and can be tailored though the app to optimise for whatever your use is , from movies to music and more , there are custom profiles .
There are features like personalising to your ears , but does require being connected with several music services , which all seem to be pay per month so i opted out .
Battery life has been excellent , i would say i average 15-7 hours, but might be due to louder volumes , more use of buttons to pause and change volume , but much more impressive than previous headphones
finally connectivity has been pretty easy , with the pixel six, and my acer laptop was as simple as turning on my Bluetooth, with other devices might be a challenge, but just hold the button on the earbud for several seconds and should be fine . there will always be latency with Bluetooth , but i would say so far has been unnoticeable , even for extended periods such as films , or tv series
i have to experience with games so cannot comment .
Pros
Battery life
audio quality
connectivity
comfort
value
cons
can be tricky for intense exercise
some features can require using a paid audio service (but none of the essential features)
there is a slight latency which might be inconvenient, but never affected me
UPDATE: 2 months later, the buds started working unreliably, had to return them.
I bought these to replace a pair of Bose Sport earbuds, that finally died out of warranty. I felt aggrieved of buying another set of Bose earbuds, having had two sets of earbuds fail on me in 4 years (in contrast to their over ear headphones which seemingly last forever). Unfortunately, the earbud market seems to have moved on, so that every bud offers noise cancelling (which hurts my ears and isn’t great for running), so I was limited in choice for earbuds without cancelling. Fortunately, after a bit of research, I found these old Sony buds.
The first things I noticed were the lack of wing tips to keep the buds securely in your ears (concerning), the small size of the case (fantastic), and when I put them in my ears, the rubbish sound quality (disappointing). I thought that I may have made a mistake. Fortunately, after a bit of learning to trust the earbuds, I found that they never fell out of my ears, even when running. The case size meant that I got even more use out of the buds, they now go everywhere with me. And most importantly, when I got myself set up on the Sony app for the earbuds, there was an excellent tool (a bit like an optician test where they say, do you prefer sound style 1, 2, or 3, then keep narrowing it down) that allows you to fine tune how the earbuds sound. They now sound great.
There are still compromises, especially as (on sale at 45) these buds cost about a quarter of the Bose buds. But I can take things like poorer call quality, microphones, etc.
I was given a pair of these 2 years ago as a present and love them so much that I bought a pair for someone else’s birthday. PLEASE BEAR IN MIND: these photos are after 2 years of daily use so they look a little battered! Obviously they arrived pristine 🙂
For reference, I use these twice daily: one 1-3 hour use with a single bud, and one 1hr use with both buds), and once or twice a month for 4-5 hours with both buds. They have definitely risen to the challenge.
1. SOUND. I’m not a music buff so don’t know how the sound quality of these would compare to more expensive or professional products, but I’ve found they produce well-balanced music at a high quality (i.e. no tinny sounds, decent bass) and no voice distortion in spoken word. I mainly use them for audiobooks and they’ve been excellent. If I’m in a noisy environment (I’m talking cooking with the extractor hood on, or the footie on TV husband-based commentary thereof, not a full-blown concert or anything) they do a great job of blocking out the room noise and delivering my own noise straight to my ear without having to have the volume deafeningly high. They’re not really noise-“cancelling”, but they negate enough of the unwanted noise for it to not be a distraction, and work well for my own purposes.
2. DURABILITY. As I say, I’ve had mine for 2 years and they have been put through the ringer; 90% of their use is outdoors on dog walks. I live near the beach so they have been dropped in the sand and dirt, sat loose (i.e. out of their case) in sandy pockets, generally been battered about and abused and they’re still working perfectly. The flexible in-ear parts can be easily removed for cleaning, if needed.
The recesses in the case can be a bit fiddle to clean (though I’m not sure you’d normally ned to as I’m sure most people will treat theirs far better than me!) but a cotton bud and a quick blow and they’re perfect. The case itself is nice and sturdy and, even though I have the white version it still looks in good nick, especially considering the amount of dirt it’s been dragged through.
3. BATTERY. When you first take them out of the case, a voice tells you “battery fully charged” / “battery, about X%”. I use mine for on average 2 hours but up to 5hrs at one time before popping back in the case and I’ve never had a low battery warning (I’m assuming there would be one in-ear if they got low). Very occasionally I’ll get a “battery about 70%” warning in which case when I get home I pop the case on charge and forget about it, but battery just hasn’t been an issue for me and I’ve never heard lower than that. I can’t tell you how quickly they charge because I’ve never had to time it but the case is always fully charged after around an hour I’d guess.
The ‘case as a charging unit’ is a fantastic design feature and really useful when on the go. The metal charging connectors have never once failed, despite all the dust and dirt they’ve been dragged through. The magnetic areas mean they snap back into the case perfectly every time, and they’re definitely secure in there, even with the case open. They also snap together if they’re loose, which is useful if you’ve dumped them both in your pocket!
4. COMFORT. As they are relatively large, I’m surprised at how well they fit & sit in the ear. The only time I notice them wiggling loose is if I’m gardening and spending a lot of time jiggling about with my head lowered. And even then, a quick press and they’re back in place. With normal, upright behaviour they stay in place for hours. They are comfortable enough that you forget they’re there.
5. CONTROLS. I tend to just use the right one (I’m a woman walking alone so only have a single earbud in) which has the pause/play/skip chapter/answer call control. It’s a big old button (so very easy to use/no chance of missing it), works quickly, and when you restart it will usually rewind a second or two so you’re not missing anything. A long press skips forward to the next chapter/song. If you’re listening to something and a call comes through, it knows to pause your music/book and automatically resume once you’ve hung up, so no faffing about digging out your phone again. Left earbud is volume control (single press: volume up / long press: volume down) and, again, is responsive and doesn’t race through the volume levels too quickly, so you’re able to adjust easily.
6. OTHER POINTS. Bluetooth setup was quick and easy (both on phone and laptop), and it connects quickly (another voice in your ear tells you “bluetooth connected/disconnected”). Charging is quick and simple: orange light on the earbuds when charging / orange light on the case and earbuds when plugged in to a cable. When first removed from the case the buds flash blue twice to show they’re on and working, then some more blue flashes to show bluetooth connection status. There are various other flashing/colour combinations to indicate different things which are listed in the paperwork if you’re interested. There’s also some 3D sound system you can download (I never explored this) so I’d imagine you can tweak the levels if you want to. The case design is lovely; it’s smooth and rounded and feels pleasant in-hand.
IN SUMMARY: these are excellent. As I said, I’m no professional sound person, but if you want something that gives you solid sound quality, and will stand up to everyday use and abuse I would *highly* recommend these. They’re a good price for a quality little product and they’re definitely built to last.