Sony WH-CH510
Affordable wireless on-ears that tick the important boxes.
First thing to notice – these are on-ear headphones rather than over-ear, meaning that their cups won’t surround your ears but rather rest upon them. This makes them considerably more compact, but arguably a little less comfortable (it also impacts the audio, but more on that later).
Aesthetically, there isn’t too much to say about these Sony cans, but their subdued and simple appearance does wonders to broaden their appeal given that the aim here is accessibility. They’re available in a tasteful black, white, or blue, and their shape profile is as close to ‘a straight line with a circle on each end’ as you can get. Apart from the Sony logo on both cups, the only other flourish is a simple diamond grid texture covering most of its exterior.
Perhaps the most obvious and striking reflection of the WHCH510’s price point is in its structural integrity. The plastic headband, swivel joints, and ear cup housing don’t feel remotely rugged and we’d be remiss to recommend chucking them in your bag or treating them rough.
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 play/ pause, volume up/down, and skip forward/back options but they also allow you to activate the 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.
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.
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.
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.
With solid audio, great battery life, and Bluetooth connectivity, the Sony WH-CH510 are excellent bang for your buck. A slightly flimsy build may be a dealbreaker for some, but for most it’ll be a worthy sacrifice at that price. Harry Domanski
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.