Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?
Sony launches its smallest wireless earbuds at an equally small price
By Simon Cohen
Sony has dipped below the $100 barrier for the first time on a set of wireless earbuds with the launch of its WF-C510. The new model comes in blue, yellow, black, and white, and costs just $60 — 40% less than its predecessor, the $100 WF-C500. They can be preordered starting August 26.
The price is obviously a big deal. Sony has never offered wireless earbuds at less than $100 until now. However, Sony says it has also managed to make several improvements to performance and features.
The WF-C510 are 20% smaller and 15% lighter than the WF-C500, which should make them more comfortable, while giving those with smaller ears a better chance of getting a good fit. Sony claims they also have a slightly improved battery life — 11 hours on a single charge, and 22 hours when you include the case’s capacity (up from 10/20 on the C500).
Water resistance is unchanged at IPX4, but the new buds get Bluetooth multipoint for simultaneous connections to two devices, something the C500 lacked.
The C510 also get another feature the C500 was missing: transparency mode. The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.3 and get the same app-based controls as the rest of Sony’s wireless earbuds.
As on the WF-C500, the C510 get the company’s DSEE software for upscaling compressed music, but they won’t get LDAC — the hi-res Bluetooth codec that provides better sound on many of Sony’s other wireless products.
They have Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair, Spotify Tap, and they’re compatible with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio music format.
Sony’s move to create a highly affordable set of wireless earbuds comes shortly after Beats released its own sub-$100 model — the Beats Solo Buds. The WF-C510 may also help Sony grab back some market share from brands like Earfun, 1More, and Soundcore, whose models have continuously topped our list of the best budget wireless earbuds and headphones.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article said the price of the WF-C510 was $70. Sony has since revised the price to $60.
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
Earfun Air Pro 4 ANC earbuds go all-in on hi-res, lossless, and Auracast for under $100
Earfun has announced the Air Pro 4 — its latest noise-canceling wireless earbuds — in black and white versions. And though the $90 Air Pro 4 might look very similar to the Air Pro 3, Earfun has made some significant changes with this new generation, including offering a choice of hi-res audio and lossless Bluetooth codecs. There’s also a promise of Auracast support. The new earbuds will be available August 5 from Amazon and other retailers.
Plenty of wireless earbuds now come with some kind of support for hi-res audio. Sometimes they’ll use Sony’s LDAC codec, which has been baked into Android since version 8.0, or more commonly, they’ll incorporate Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive technology. Some high-end models, like the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 add in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound, which comes with the company’s aptX Lossless codec for CD-quality audio when used with a compatible phone — but then that invariably means there’s no LDAC option.
Bose finally updates its wireless earbuds with Bluetooth Multipoint
Bose promised that one day it would update its QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and Ultra Open Earbuds with Bluetooth Multipoint, and that day is finally here. Starting July 10, and rolling out gradually over the coming weeks, a software update containing the Multipoint feature is being pushed via the Bose app for all owners of these two Bose wireless earbuds models. The update also contains an improvement to voice pickup and “a few other bug fixes” for the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.
Bluetooth Multipoint is the technology that lets a set of wireless earbuds or headphones connect to two (or more) different devices (like a smartphone and a laptop) simultaneously without having to sever the connection on the first device to switch to the second.
LG rolls out its gamer-friendly M4 wireless OLED TV
LG has announced the latest generation of its wireless OLED TV — the LG OLED evo M4 (originally announced at CES) — began its official rollout on July 1.
The new model comes with two big changes that could see it find a home in households where gaming is a big part of the entertainment mix. The first is the addition of 4K video at 144Hz. While that won’t mean much to folks who primarily watch movies and TV shows, it’s a significant change for gamers who enjoy high-frame-rate titles. With native support for a 144Hz refresh rate, these games are going to look even smoother than they did on the OLED evo M3, which topped out at 4K/120Hz. Just keep in mind that the biggest M4 — the 97-inch model — is still limited to 4K/120Hz.
[ For more curated tech news, check out the main news page here]
The post Sony’s latest wireless earbuds are just $60 | Digital Trends first appeared on www.digitaltrends.com
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25612523/Identify_dog.png "Apple’s Visual Intelligence is a built-in take on Google Lens")
