To date, Sony’s efforts in the active noise cancelling world have been pretty impressive, producing what is arguably the world’s best. But not everyone wants a big pair, and so this year, Sony goes small.
Ever wondered if noise cancellation could fit in your ear wirelessly, portably, and possibly so you can go running with it even in the rain?
This year, Sony will be answering that question, using CES 2018 as the place to announce a pair of wireless in-earphones that not only get the luxury of being able to block the outside world, but do so in a way that keeps them water-resistant, meaning they’ll handle sweat and going for a run in a bit of a storm or squall.
A first for the brand — and indeed for most wireless earphones — Sony’s WF-SP700N have been built to not only offer a wireless way to stay connected to your world, but also block it out and survive a close encounter with our water-dripped world.
The earphones will rely on the noise cancelling technologies drawn from the likes of 2016’s MDR-1000X and 2017’s WH-1000XM2, both pairs that managed to impress us greatly, except unlike those bigger headphones, these will fit in the crevice of your ear, resting in the little fleshy bit and allowing you to focus on what really matters when you go running: yourself.
Like most of Sony’s range, the WF-SP700N lacks a catchy name, but does include support for the Headphones Connect app, something brought in last year to customise sound settings and identify where you are. Also quite important is the inclusion of an ambient sound mode, which will open the microphones on the outside of the earphones and let you filter the world in, helping you not get run over by a car because you can hear it all.
As is the case with wireless earphones, Sony’s WF-SP700N will come with a compact charging case, offering three hours of battery life inside the earphones, but two extra charges from the case itself, hitting nine hours in total. While that’s not as much as some of the other wireless and sporty in-ears, our guess is that the noise cancellation is likely reducing the battery life, even if it’s just a little.
Pricing and availability isn’t yet known, by don’t expect Sony’s wireless wonders to be terribly cheap, as the combination of technologies — wireless, noise cancelling, and water resistance — usually carries a bit of a cost.
These won’t be all that Sony has to offer, mind you, with Sony’s corded (yet still wireless) WI-SP500N and WI-SP600N announced alongside, both geared for a very sporty focus, though if we’re honest (and we always are), you can probably airway guess which pair will get the most attention.
We’ll let you know when Sony reveals more details, though we’d anticipate a launch from March onwards.
Leigh :) Stark travelled to CES in Las Vegas as a guest of Dell.
