This is a review for the Sony WF-SP800N Wireless Noise-Cancelling In-Ear Headphones. I have had these headphones for about two and a half weeks now, and I felt a review was in order for these items.
First, let's start with the cons:
The seal can be hit-or-miss with earbuds, but that's a given with the nature of these earbuds. I personally have no trouble with the seal, using two medium silicon earbuds, but other friends who have tried them with different earbuds have had differing results.
Another problem I had with them is within the Sony headphones app. Occasionally when I'd pair them to my phone, they would have no volume or sound output. This was fixed by going into the app, manually adjusting the volume slider, and then returning out. This has only happened 3 or 4 times, and overall is fine.
The final con, and this could be considered a dealbreaker for some, is that sometimes the earbuds disconnect from each other. Very rarely it happens, but when pairing the earbuds, they can just randomly drop out and you'll be left with one playing audio, and the other one just silent. I usually need to reconnect both earbuds at least one or two other times, and then they will start working in tandem with each other. It's a very niche problem, but it will happen.
Now, for the pros and what I personally enjoyed about these:
The audio quality is superb and clear, and as someone who usually uses wired Audio Technica ATH-M50X's into a DAC on their desktop, these Sonys actually held up quite well. Bass is a bit lacking, but with some EQ work and better sealing, you can get a nice punchy base without sacrificing too much of the mids and highs.
The microphone quality is quite good. I used them in a few Discord calls and phone calls, with everyone remarking that my microphone sounded pretty good. Even recording internally to my phone sounded fine, and I'd say that it was nice to hear clear audio coming from these little buds.
The noise-canceling can be hit or miss depending on the person, but for me personally it blocked out around 90% of the sound when set to the highest settings. The ambient noise feature was also very helpful, and works quite well, granted that you don't have long hair like me that brushes against the microphones and causes a rustling sound. It performed well when I was walking next to a highway, and blocked out almost all noise.
The size of these is what also appealed to me, being very small and almost flush to the ear when inserted is very helpful. It allowed me to workout with these on indoors and outdoors, and they didn't fall out of my ears or anything. It was nice to be able to hear while moving up and down and around, and they didn't fall out a single time. This is dependent once again on the amount of seal you have, but for me they worked great for just walking, running, and overall exercise. I also felt fairly secure as they are IP-55 water and dust resistant, so they can take some dust and sweat, but that does not mean you can swim with them. Trust me, I've tried swimming with IP-68 rated earbuds and they broke. Do not try that with these.
The battery life is amazing, being able to get around 16 hours with the case at half volume without noise cancelling. With noise cancelling I was able to get around 10 hours at half volume with the charging case. It feels good to be able to snap open the case, put in the earbuds, walk around for a bit, and then pull them out with no worries for the battery life. They actually performed better for battery than some of my older earbuds and headphones, which was quite surprising.
The build quality is also really nice. The plastics on the earbuds and case feel like a nice high-quality one, the silicon earbuds don't feel cheap, and the charging case has a nice smooth feel, while also having a good hinge that makes that satisfying "snap" noise. I feel confident that this case can hold up to anything in my pockets, and it's quite sturdy. The earbuds themselves don't have any give and the capacitive sensors work almost all the time, with a few misinputs from my hair. Additionally, the charging pins are set so that the earbuds just snap in magnetically and start charging. Simple to put in and simple to pull out.
Finally, let's talk about connectivity. I was able to use these with my phone around 35 feet away in my house with almost no breakage in signal quality, but when moving around there'd be a bit of fizz followed by a change in volume. 35 feet is good enough for me, and honestly was better than I was expecting, and holds up to the Bluetooth standard. In the Sony app, you are able to see the charge of the headphones and the case charge (determined by the last time the earbuds were placed within it) which is very helpful and nice to see, allowing me to generally get a feel for when the earbuds were draining low. The adaptive location setting has worked fairly well, and was very consistent. It knew when I was in my workspace, and then it knew when I was moving around and to put ambient noise on. I think it was probably one of the more experimental but good things I've liked in the headphones and earbuds space.
Overall, this was a pleasant and nice product to use. The adaptive noise canceling, ambient sound, and ANC are very good for the price class. The build quality is great, the sound is spectacular and clear, with good base and a really good microphone that has no business being as good as it is. It feels comfortable, is small and portable and will always have a place in my electronics bag.