Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsJust meh. Good price, but lacking (and inaccurate Amazon description)
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2022
The first thing I noticed unboxing these as that they feel cheap, because they are. The plastic they're made of is light and almost seems brittle. The ear pads aren't terribly soft like some other brands. There is no padding on the top, and since I shave my head, that's really annoying having the bare plastic scrape against my scalp. I really wish they would have spend an extra $1.15 and put padding up there. The noise cancellation isn't even noticeable compared to other brands I own. If I sit next to a fan (which should be easily canceled out), I honestly can't hear a difference between the headphones being on and the headphones being off. Compare that to another brand and the sound of the fan is completely canceled. While the description on Amazon claims "smart noise cancellation" those words appear nowhere on the box and I can't find any reference to noise cancellation in the (very tiny) instructions. Nor could I find that on Sony's web site description about these headphones. I'd have to say the Amazon description for them is wrong.
On the plus side, the sound is decent. It's not as great as my Bose, but then again these headphones cost a fraction of the price, so I'd say the sound they provide is a good deal. The bluetooth paired quickly and easily with my Android phone, and a double tap of the power button brought up the Google Assistant. I could pair the headphones with multiple devices, however in order to switch between them, I would have to turn the active device's bluetooth off, then move to the other device and force it to connect. Again, my Bose headphones allow me to flip between multiple devices with a button (although, again, the Bose are fare more expensive). I also paired them with my Windows laptop, but had issues with Zoom. The microphone appeared to work and others could hear me, but I couldn't get the headphones to work, despite playing with the settings.
Sony has an app for headphones in the Google Play store, however these headphones don't appear to work with it, which was disappointing. I was hoping to find additional settings in there and thinking maybe that it leveraged the app and the phones microphone to accomplish ANC through software, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
All in all these headphones are just OK. I'd give them a solid "C". You can't beat the price, however I think this is definitely a case where you get what you pay for. I think I'm going to return these and spend $30 more and get something better, especially since I can't get them to work with Zoom, which is a show-stopper for me.
