- Listen all day long with up to 35 hours of playback time
- Listen to your favorite tracks wirelessly with a Bluetooth wireless technology by pairing your smartphone or tablet
- 30mm driver unit for dynamic sound
- Swivel design for easy travel
- Easy hands-free calling and voice assistant commands with microphone
- Voice assistant-compatible for easy access to your smartphone
- Next-generation USB Type C charging.
- In the box: USB Type-C cable
Product Description
Looking at the Sony WH-CH510, it’s frankly insane that wireless headphones could cost this little, not to mention a pair that has decent sound, a USB-C port, and 35 hours of battery life. So, when reading this review, be sure to keep its price in the back of your mind (just as we had to) when noticing any shortcomings or failings.
Features
For a control interface, these cans have a Spartan array of three large buttons that are easy to locate, differentiate and interact with. They’re responsible for the usual array of play/pause, volume up/down, and skip forward/back options but they also allow you to activate your device’s voice assistant.
There’s an integrated microphone next to these buttons for this purpose and for taking calls, and while it’s certainly serviceable, it’s not the clearest option out there.
Next to the controls and microphone is the sole port for USB-C charging (audio over USB isn’t supported from what we tested). We’re disproportionately excited to see a budget product adopt this future-proofed port instead of micro USB.
These Sony cans boast 35 hours of playback time, which we’re super-impressed with, and if you’re in a pinch you can top up 90 minutes worth of juice from just 10 minutes of charging from flat.
The absence of a 3.5mm headphone port and lack of audio over USB means you’ll be out of luck if you do run out of batteries on the go, but the impressive battery life and affordability this presumably allows for makes up for it.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but the WH-CH510’s lack of features is one of its strengths. In focusing on more significant attributes – battery life and audio quality among them – costs have been cut on features that its target audience could do without (active noise-cancelling prime among them).
Performance
As we’ve already mentioned, the fact that these headphones are in the on-ear format means you won’t quite get the audio quality that over-ear competitors offer. This is largely due to the smaller cups not creating as solid a seal as well as offering less sense of space.
With that said, it’s remarkable how solid these Sony’s still manage to sound, despite their low price and limited form factor. We found the bass to be clear and present, but certainly not overbearing. The higher frequencies were a little more dominant than we’d like, and the mids too suppressed, but the profile was pleasing overall.
While they won’t have the superb clarity, balance, and sense of space that their WH-1000XM3 siblings boast, the sound these on-ears produce definitely belies their size and price. You’ll find most genres perform well here, although tracks that already have low mids and bumped treble might get uncomfortably exaggerated.