Sony WF-1000XM3 vs WF-SP800N: Which to Buy?

This is the review of the comparison between two in-ear headphones from the same brand and from the same series. The comparison here is between the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the Sony WF-SP800N. There is around twenty dollars difference in their price range. To know does the difference in their price range brings the difference in their features and performances or not, and to know which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

Sony WF-1000XM3	Sony WF-SP800N
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Active noise cancellation works exceptionally well. The audio quality is great. EQ adjustment allows for musical tweaking. Battery life is excellent.	IP55 water-resistant (splashproof and dustproof) and secure fit. Good noise-cancellation tech. Bass has plenty of oomph for Workout playlists. Responsive touch controls.
CONS	CONS
No waterproofing. Frequent fliers may miss a cable option. No wireless charging. No on-earbud volume controls.	The case lacks wireless charging and only has enough battery for one recharge. Controls won’t cover all your needs.

SPECIFICATIONS:

INTRODUCTION:

Sony WF-1000XM3

The Sony WF-1000XM3 is one of the popular in-ear headphones available in the market, also these are one of the premium headphones in the market. These earbuds are well-known for their noise-cancellation technology as they are considered to be one of the best. These earbuds are retailing for around a hundred and seventy-eight dollars currently on Amazon. 

Sony WF-SP800N

As far as the Sony WF-SP800N, I think that Sony is trying to find the sweet spot between the XB700 and then their very popular WF-1000XM3. The SP800N is considered to be a sports model but it is definitely coming in with features that their higher-end model has. These earbuds are retailing for around a hundred and ninety-eight dollars.

DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY:

Sony WF-1000XM3

The case is a super nice case and has a premium quality to it. As far as the build quality for this case, Sony made it fantastic from this wonderful copper tone up there, the Sony little logo that’s really nice, and this nice soft-touch plastic around it, its really very nice case. It’s a little bit big but you’d be able to figure out a way to transport this around easily. When you open it up, you’re greeted here with the WF-1000XM3 from Sony and that looks fantastic got a nice little red LED on the case itself lets you know that it is charging and the red LEDs on each earbud lets you know that the earbuds are on. When you take them out, it starts flashing blue and that means they are in pairing mode and they are ready to connect. These do come with a sensor that once they go into the ear they will start playing. They will automatically connect to my phone and they will start playing, which is actually super duper handy.

On the insides of the earbuds, we got our pins for our charging when we charge, and then we have our sort of barrels there that go fairly inside your ear. You’re gonna see a red “R” and “L” on your earbuds that indicates your right and left earbuds, so really straightforward. When you open the case up, you will also see R and L as well there inside. On the backside of the case is where it has the USB-C charging port. One thing that people will bring up is wireless charging but this does not support wireless charging.

We do have touch controls on these, on the right-hand side we have our media playback that is one tap for play and pause, double touch to skip a track, and triple tap to go back. On the Left earbud is your ambient sound connection, so this is where you tap it once it’s gonna turn on your ambient sound, tap twice it’s gonna turn off your ambient sound, and tap thrice it’s gonna turn your active noise-canceling.

Sony WF-SP800N

The case doesn’t come with Qi wireless charging but outside of that, the case is a very premium feeling case, it is a fairly large case so it is gonna take up a little bit more space than some of the other earbuds. In my opinion, it’s about on par with the WF-1000XM3 case. On the bottom, you have your USB-C input for charging, and then around on the front, you have your single indicator light to gauge how much battery life is left on the case. When we look at the earbuds themselves, they do resemble the WF-1000XM3 is quite a bit because they do stick out about the same as those, so if you are somebody that doesn’t like your earbuds sticking out do know that these are gonna do that.

As far as the controls, they do have touch controls and they do control everything but it depends on what you want to sacrifice and the reason I mention sacrifice is that you’re gonna have to use Sony’s app to be able to get volume control because out of the box the left ear has smart assistant controls but you can go within the app and switch it to where you want your volume controls on your left side, but you do have to give up that smart assistant control.

COMFORT:

Sony WF-1000XM3

Sony actually gives you an absolute plethora of ear tips, so you should be able to find something that you like. It’s sort of a side note, when I bought these I put them in and they sounded great and at first, I felt like these are really nice but after some time these aren’t quite fitting well. Then I changed the eartips as per my fit and when you get the right ear tips on, these things sound absolutely stellar. I would not hesitate, even without active noise-canceling, these things sound freak in amazing.

Sony WF-SP800N

In terms of comfort, these are definitely like the Sony WF-1000XM3 because they look the same as that.  As the XM3 sticks out of your ear, these do also stick out from your ears when you put these in your ears but I did notice that they are extremely comfortable. If you are not feeling comfortable with these or if you don’t have the perfect fit on these, then you do get some extra eartips and wingtips that you can play around with. So, once you find the right ear tip mixed with the right wingtip, it’s easy to kind of forget that they’re in there.

FEATURES:

Sony WF-1000XM3

Box does show that these have Google assistant, Bluetooth 5.0, and then we have wireless noise canceling. On the back of the box, there are some of the specs and then they have the DSEE HX, it’s only a codec as far as Sony goes it’s sort of upscales lower-resolution audio to a higher resolution and these earbuds also support HD calls, and 6 hours with noise canceling on eight hours with noise canceling off. In the box, you do get some manuals, a quick start guide, some extra eartips, the charging case, USB Type-A to Type-C cable for charging the case, and the earbuds themselves.

The one thing I do want to bring up and this is some stuff that some people weren’t happy about it is the volume control. There is no volume control on this but if I go and I put them in my ear and I hold the right end, I can call up my Google assistant and use it to set the volume. For the pairing process, you just take the earbuds out of the case then they will go into pairing which can be known by the Blue LED on them, just put the earbuds in your ears, select Sony WF-1000XM3 in Bluetooth settings of your mobile and you are done. It’s a very quick Bluetooth 5.0 connection on these earbuds. 

The ambient sound mode in these means when I use these earbuds and I’m isolated from the world if I touch it and I turn on the ambient sound I can hear the surroundings around me, which is actually really handy if you’re doing stuff with people around or you need to hear somebody. If I just simply take my finger and put it on the left earbud, and if I use the left earbud if I just hold it there, it’ll actually reduce the volume of my music and allow ambient sound in like a quick attention mode as they call it, and it works out super duper well. 

As far as the app for this, you have got the Sony Headphone Connect app for these earbuds. At the top of the app, it shows your earbuds model so you will get the WF-1000XM3 then it also shows the battery percentage of your right and left earbuds. You can also use these in a single-use scenario, so if you want to listen to just your right earbud, you can listen to just the right earbud, if you want to listen to the left earbud, you can listen to just the left earbud. It’s up to you, you don’t have them both ends if you just want mono sound, which is nice. Then you have the ambient sound control, if you turn it off this is gonna read your surroundings and if you turn it on it’s gonna adjust the noise cancellation to the best thing that it thinks.

The noise-canceling works really well but it’s only going to block out low frequencies air conditioners, maybe road-noise, fans, stuff like that. If somebody comes in starts shout at you, it’s not going to get them out as much as you would like probably. If we come down in the app, we have an equalizer, we have a five-band equalizer that you can play around with and you can also customize these. You have got different presets options such as excited, fantastic, mellow, relaxed, vocal, treble, bass boost, speech, manual, custom, off, and bright. Down below we have our music, so if you click on that you can control the music from the app as well. Then you have the option for pause when the headphones are taking off, so when you take an earbud out it’s gonna pause your music which is really nice.

Then also in the app, you have the sound quality mode priority, if I go in the sound quality I can either go for the connection or sound quality. I’ve had zero problems with connection, so I have it on sound quality until I do. Then you have the option to turn on the DSEE HX and I have it off as I don’t really notice much of a difference when I have it on. Then you have some customizations for your touch controls and then automatic power off so off when the headphones are taken out and not used for your set time in the app, they gonna turn off automatically to conserve the battery. Then you have an option for notification, voice guide, language setting, and then we have our software downloads.

Sony WF-SP800N

The first thing is these are available in a few different colors, they’re available in black, they have the white version, and it also comes in blue. They do have Bluetooth 5.0 and Sony again is taking the approach of not really saying which Bluetooth codecs these are capable of playing. I have noticed that they are AAC and SBC playback based on what my phone is saying but outside of that, I’m not really sure.

As far as the IP rating they do come in rated at IP55 and with this being a sports model that’s good to know that you can go out if you sweat heavily or if it starts to rain, these will be fine but just make sure that you don’t submerge them in water. As far as what you’re getting inside the box, you are getting four sets of silicone ear tips, and you’re also getting two sets of wingtips because that’s very important to make sure that you get the right fit because that’s what keeps these from falling out. As far as the charging cable, it comes with a USB-C cable.

As far as the app for the WF-SP800N you get the Sony Headphone Connect app for these earbuds. In the app, you can customize the function of the touch controls and the app also allows for a bunch of different features such as ambient mode, and have a bunch of EQ settings to choose from, you have adaptive sound. Then these also have 360 audio support, so Sony’s app which I think is one of the best out there and is fully compatible with these earbuds. For me, the app is what bumps up the value in these because you’re getting a whole lot of control and a whole lot of features that a lot of other earbuds can’t offer because they don’t have the app that Sony has.

As far as the noise canceling on these, I think they do a very good job. They don’t do as good a job as the WF1000XM3 as they’re not using the same chip but I still think it’s some of the best noise-canceling out of truly wireless earbuds. If you like to use your earbuds individually, you’ll be happy to know that you can use either the left or the right as they are independent of each other.

Overall, I think these are a great pair of in-ear headphones but I do have a few cons. First, the con is I really wish that these had Qi wireless charging capabilities. Then I don’t like that you have to sacrifice some controls like if you want volume control you kind of has to drop the smart assistant. Then my only other complaint is gonna be something that a lot of people have issues with and that’s the size, I think a lot of people are gonna think that these are too big. I don’t have an issue with that especially when you can get the bass that you can get out of these, and the battery life that you’re able to get mixed in with all of Sony’s features, I think it’s worth the trade-off but I can see that some people might have an issue with that.

BATTERY AND ITS LIFE:

Sony WF-1000XM3

On the Box down there, it says six hours plus 18 hours of playtime. Sony is really good and what they did with that is they have already given you that amount that is with active noise canceling on. You have six hours with it on and eight hours with it off, so these actually have some very good battery percentages which actually is super good in that regard. Six hours is great, eight hours is even better. We have a quick charge feature too, so 10 minutes of charge will give you 90 minutes or an hour and a half of playtime which is really good.

Sony WF-SP800N

The huge improvement on these is the battery life because with the noise canceling turned on, you’re gonna get around 9 hours on the earbuds with it around an additional 9 hours using the case. If you decide to use these without using the noise-canceling, that then bumps it up to get 13 hours on the earbuds with an additional 13 hours using the case. So do know whichever way that you choose, you’re only getting one additional charge with the case.

The case that comes with is not a Qi wireless charging case which I definitely would have liked to have seen in this price range but it does have fast charging. So, if you happen to pick the earbuds up, in quick 10-minute charge will get you an hour’s worth of use. I have seen better fast charging performance in some other earbuds that don’t cost as much as these, so I would have liked to have seen a little bit more battery life out of that fast charge.

MICROPHONE:

Sony WF-1000XM3

As far as the microphone quality and the HD quality for the calls, one thing I’ve noticed when we’re dealing with these earbuds is if you’re indoors the call quality is fine but I sounded a little bit echoey to the person on the other side. However, when I went outside and doing calls with these, it sounded awful because the wind was picked up a lot. So, if you’re using these inside predominately, I think you’re gonna be ok, they’re not stellar but they’re adequate, you’re gonna be using this outside for a lot of calls I don’t think these are gonna be really great for you. The microphones on these are used for the noise-canceling as well.

Sony WF-SP800N

When it comes to the microphone on these, Sony did a very good job here. I think it does a good job of focusing on the voice and blocking out a lot of the surroundings. I think they do a fairly good job of picking up the voice, it does feel like it’s a little on the warmer side but people on the other end don’t have any complaints. The microphone on this also performs very well when it comes to noise-canceling. It does a great job in letting in and blocking the ambient sound as per the model you select within the app.

SOUND:

Sony WF-1000XM3

As far as the sound quality on this, these sounds really good they have great highs, amazing mids, and great low end. These earbuds worth the money for their sound, but you need to make sure you get the appropriate ear tips on. You need that good seal, and you need that amazing isolation to make these things sound good. These earbuds sound great if you get the right ear tips in and I think the medium ear tips fit amazing and they sound amazing.

Sony WF-SP800N

As far as the sound quality on these, its kind of falls in with the WF-1000XM3, when it comes to the volume where I think they get loud enough but I think at times you’re still wishing that you can kind of turn them up a little bit more. These are advertised to be in Sony’s extra bass lineup and in my opinion, right out of the box you can definitely tell, it’s a very warm-sounding earbud and without EQ these definitely it can kind of sound too warm, and too booming. But once you go in the Sony’s app you start to play around with the EQ settings, you can fine-tune these to sound like some of the best sounding earbuds out there.

A lot of other earbuds once you start to go through EQ settings, some earbuds just don’t adapt very well, and these do a good job at responding to what you’re trying to get out of them. You can pump up the bass as much as you want, you can definitely bring out a lot of clarity in the treble, and the mids I think are doing a very good job. In my opinion, the mids are probably the weakest point on these, I just don’t feel like the mids can be pushed forward to match up to that bass and treble.

As far as the soundstage and the sound imaging, again this kind of depends on what EQ setting you go with but they can become very detailed, you can tell where instruments are coming from but right out of the box with the warm sound signature that they have, the details are definitely on the lower side. But once I played around with the EQ setting the way that I wanted, I was able to bring out those details, and it definitely can sound like you’re in a larger environment.

WHICH TO BUY?

In my opinion, the Sony WF-1000XM3 is good for your buy than the WF-SP800N because the WF-1000XM3 is really a nice solid package that they’ve given us. The sound is stellar, the fit is stellar, the style is wonderful, and I haven’t had a single problem with the Bluetooth connection. The ANC works well, the call quality is decent, and I think they’re absolutely fantastic. Definitely, they are expensive but if you’re looking for a pair of in-ear monitors that have the quality and the feature set you cannot go wrong with, these are the ones for you.

Expert Reviews of Sony WF-1000XM3:

By liveatpc.com
I’ll get straight to the point. At RM 949, these earbuds are not cheap. For the most part, however, you get what you pay for. Of course, we have to take its price into account, so. Are the WF-1000XM3s good all-around true wireless earbuds? Sort of.Are…

By pokde.net
The Sony WF-1000XM3 is a pretty solid offering and is definitely one of the best ones around among truly wireless…

By MobileSyrup
I’ve been using Sony’s latest wireless earbuds, the ‘WF-1000XM3s’, for more than a month and they’re fantastic. While I’ve experienced struggles with the earbuds, there’s one phrase that thoroughly explains my feelings about them: “Sony, take my money.”…

By goodhousekeepin.co.uk
While these wireless headphones are expensive, if you’re looking for incredible sound quality, they’re well worth investing in. They offer an ideal balance between treble and bass, and the audio and noise-canceling tech can be tweaked to suit your…

By Andriod Central
I wouldn’t say reviewing phones is easy, but there’s a sameness to it. You unbox it, put your SIM in, set it up, and start using it as the phone before it. You do some tests — call quality, photos, maybe a drop test if you’re feeling bold — and…

Expert Reviews of Sony WF-SP700N:

By Pocket-lint
These sporty in-ears offer a lot of Sony’s smart ambient sound control and the noise-cancellation tech is the real star. Battery life is only average though, which is surprising given the size of the case. Overall these ‘buds sound great and offer plenty of customization.

By The Verge
Sony’sSony’s noise-canceling WF-1000XM3 earbuds have been considered some of the best-sounding truly wireless earbuds on the market since their…

By Tech Radar
The Sony WF-SP800N is a sweat-resistant pair of truly wireless earbuds that have both active noise cancellation and support for Sony’s spatial audio format, 360 Reality Audio. Could one pair of earbuds please both workout enthusiasts and audiophiles? Well…

By Engadget
Sony may have positioned the WF-SP800N as the midrange option in its lineup, but these earbuds punch above their weight. The powerful noise cancellation that adjusts automatically…

By cnet
While they don’t perform quite as well as the WF-1000XM3 and lack a little bit of premium touch for their price, the WF-SP800N are very good active noise-canceling true wireless sports…