So the new Sony WF-SP800N are a great pair of workout ear buds and I actually prefer
these over the Powerbeats pro cause first off they sound much better and you can make
them sound how ever you want, and more importantly they also have an ambient mode… as well
as active noise cancelation. And thanks to their optional ear fins they stay in place
very well. But a lot of people want to know how these earbuds stack up as everyday carry
wireless earbuds and how they compare to the Galaxy Buds Plus, Jabra Elite 75T’s and
pixel buds.
Now when it comes to price, all of these earbuds hover around the same area. The Galaxy Buds
Plus retail for $150, both the Pixel Buds and Jabra Elite 75T’s retail for $180 and
the SP800N’s retail for $200. But the SP800N’s routinely like to go on sale for $168. So
if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below.
Now over all performance and feature set wise the SP800N’s do out perform all of these
other earbuds. But the one area where these ear buds really struggle and just kills it
for me when it comes to considering these ear buds as everyday carry ear buds is their
case. The SP800N’s carrying case is significantly larger than all of these other carrying cases.
And since this case is so large you really do notice it when its in your pocket. Where
as all of these other cases just aren’t as noticeable cause they all have a smaller
foot print and they’re all significantly thinner. Now both the Galaxy Buds Plus and
Jabra Elite 75T’s have decently sized cases but personally my favorite case here has got
to be the Pixel Buds case cause this case just feels the most premium here. The Pixel
Buds case has this nice heft to it and it also has this slate finish to it just just
feels great in the hand.
Now when it comes to tech specs, all of these cases charge via a USB C port as they should.
But only the Pixel Buds and Galaxy Buds Plus cases have wireless charging here where as
these other two cases here don’t. No personally I don’t care about wireless charging unless
I have a phone that supports power sharing. But I did want to point it out cause the SP800N’s
don’t have wireless charging even though this case is significantly larger than both
the Pixel Buds and Galaxy buds Plus case.
Now when it comes to battery life all of these earbuds are roughly the same. The Galaxy Buds
Plus have a combined battery life of 22 hours, the Pixel Buds have a combined battery life
of 24 hours, and the Jabra’s have a combined battery life of 28 hours. But then there are
the SP800N’s that have an advertised combined battery life 18 hours.
But that advertised battery life of 18 hours is for when these earbuds have their active
noise cancelation turned on. Now personally I only use the Active Noise cancelation on
any of my ANC earbuds when I have to… so these earbuds actually have an advertised
battery life 26 hours with their ANC turned off.
So over all all of these earbuds have decent battery lives but I think the real winners
here are the Pixel Buds cause they have a combined battery life of 24 hours but they
also give you wireless charging if you want it. And even though the SP800N’s do have
a combined battery life 26 hours… its not all that impressive cause their case is significantly
larger than all of these other cases.
But now lets talk about fit… all four of these earbuds fit like your standard in ear
ear buds. None of these earbuds go in super deep into your ear canal like the Sony WF-1000XM3’s
do and none of these earbuds just sit at the edge of your ear canal like the AirPods Pro
do. Now all of these earbuds fit well but I do feel that the SP800N’s are the best
fitting ear buds here cause they do come included with optional ear fins if you want them. And
the ear fins on the SP800N’s really do help with keeping these earbuds in place. Now even
though the Pixel Buds also have ear fins, their ear fins are one size fits all and you
also can’t remove them. So there is the chance these ear fins might not work for you.
Either cause they’re too big or too small. But then there are the Galaxy Buds which do
have adjustable ear fins but even their largest ear fins might still be too small for some
people. And then there are the Jabra’s that just don’t have ear fins. So over all, all
of these earbuds fit just fine but if you’re looking for the most secure fit here than
you’ll might want to go with the Sony’s cause of their larger ear fins.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity. All three of these earbuds have zero latency
across the board when you try to watch movies or videos on your phone. But when it comes
to their set ups all of the earbuds here except for the Jabra’s each establish a connection
with your phone. So if you want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one it
doesn’t matter.
Where as the Jabra’s are using a hero and sidekick set up meaning that one earbud in
this case the right ear bud actually establishes a connection with your phone and then relays
that signal over to the left earbud. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time
you gotta use the correct earbud. In this case the right earbud.
But one advantage the Jabra’s have over these other earbuds is that they can be connected
to any to Bluetooth devices at the same time. So if you’re a power user you can easily
hot swap from one device another. Where as with these other earbuds switching between
devices isn’t as seamless.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these earbuds. Now the Pixel buds are
the only ear buds that don’t have a customizable EQ here. But the pixel buds should be able
to please most people. These earbuds have a slight emphasis on the mids so vocals are
pronounced and they also have a decent amount of bass to them. Then there are the Galaxy
buds Plus which do have few EQ settings to choose from but I think these earbuds sound
best when they’re set to their clear. While in their clear EQ these earbuds put an emphasis
on the mids so vocals are very pronounced but their bass isn’t as strong as the Pixel
buds. But these earbuds do have better clarity. So if you’re someone that likes a neutral
or brighter EQ than the Galaxy buds plus are the way to go. But then there’s the Jabra’s
which have a fully customizable EQ. But the stand out characteristic here about these
earbud is their bass. If you’re someone that likes a lot of bass in their music then
these are the way to go. But then there are the SP800N’s and these are the best sounding
earbuds here and they can do it all. First off these earbuds have a fully customizable
EQ so you can make them sound however you want. If you want a neutral or brighter sounding
EQ you can do that and these earbuds have the same great clarity that you’ll find
on the Galaxy Buds. Or if you like a bass heavy EQ you can also do that, and these earbuds
also have a lot more bass than the Jabra’s. The only thing that you gotta lookout for
one these earbuds is that right out of the box the stock EQ on these earbuds have way
to much bass which I do find to be over powering. But like I said since these earbuds have a
fully customizable EQ you can go in and fix them. So over all, pixel buds sound good enough
to please most people, the Galaxy Buds are better for neutral or brighter sound signatures,
the Jabra’s are better for people who like bass, and the Sony’s can do it all.
Now when it comes to your media controls, the Jabra’s are the only earbuds here that
don’t have touch pads. So if you don’t want to have to deal with touch pads then
the Jarab’s are your only answer here. Now out of all of these touch pads, I think the
Pixel buds have the best touch pads here. These touch pads are very accurate, they do
a really good job of recognizing their swiping gestures and they also do a good job of rejecting
inputs when you’re just adjusting these earbuds. And you have full media control with
either of these earbuds. So even if you just have one in bud in you can still play, pause,
skip through your music, and even adjust your volume all with out having to take you phone
out of your pocket. Next up are the Sony’s which I think have the second best touch pads
here. No through Sony’s app you can choose what each of these earbuds do and just like
the pixel buds these touch pads are very accurate. But personally I still prefer the pixel buds
touch pad cause you still have full media controls even if you jut have one earbud in.
And finally there are the Galaxy Buds touch pads which are okay, but these earbuds can
be a little finicky by comparison. Sometimes to they get a little too excited and they
start to put in false inputs or sometimes they miss inputs.
But now lets talk about the ambient mode on these earbuds. Now unfortunately the Pixel
buds don’t have an ambient mode and im really keeping my fingers crossed that Google with
eventually add an ambient to these earbud cause an ambient mode on earbuds is really
useful for like when you’re walking around the city, at the grocery store or even when
you’re just watching videos at home.
Now out of this line up I do gotta say that the Ambient mode on the Jabra’s is the worst
here. Now even though the ambient mode on the Jabra’s is decent, it sounds natural
and it does a good job of blocking out wind noise when walking outdoors… if you raise
their ambient mode past 50% they do start to develop a hissing the background which
is very noticeable and distracting when you’re watching videos with these earbuds.
Where as the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds doesn’t develop any such hissing in the
back ground. But without a doubt the Sony’s do have the best performing ambient mode here.
Now the ambient mode on the Sony’s sounds the most natural here cause even though the
ambient mode on the Galaxy buds does sound much better than when they first came out…
it does still sound a little tiny compared to the Sony’s. And the Sony’s also do
a better job of blocking out wind noise than these other two earbuds.
Now like I hinted at a little earlier in this video the SP800N’s also have active noise
cancelation. Now even though the active noise cancelation on these earbuds does do something.
These earbuds block out very little noise, and these earbuds block out nowhere near as
much noise as the AirPods Pro or Sennheiser Momentum 2’s. So personally I think the
Ambient Mode on these earbuds is way more important that their ANC.
But something that the Pixel buds does have over all of these other other earbuds is that
they have Hey google support. So you can just be like hey google and start talking to your
assistant where as with this other earbuds you do gotta press and hold to active your
assistant.
But finally here’s the microphone test now I feel the microphone on both the Jabra’s
is good enough to get the job done for a quick phone call but they don’t do the best job
of blocking out that AC unit.
And the same goes for the Sony’s. They sound good enough to get the job done for a quick
phone call but they don’t do a great job of blocking out that AC unit.
Where as the microphone on the Galaxy buds plus does do a slightly better job of blocking
out that AC unit.
But finally there’s the microphone on the Pixel buds. And the Pixel Buds does the best
job of blocking out that AC unit you can bearly even hear it. Cause if we were to scwith over
to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear that AC unit. But if we switch back over
to the Pixel buds, its completely blocked out which is very imrepssive.
So over all, like I said at the beginning of this video I think the Sony WF-SP800N’s
are a great pair of workout earbuds and I actually prefer these to the Powerbeats pro
cause they have a really good ambient mode. And when it comes to comparing these earbud
to today’s popular everyday carry wirelsss earbuds… the SP800N’s are the best performing
ones here. These earbuds are the best sounding earbuds here, you can make them sound how
ever you want, they have the best ambient mode here cause it sounds the most natural
and they block out the most amount of wind noise, and they also have really good battery
life if you use them with their ANC turned off. But for me the size of their case is
a really big deal breaker to use as everyday carry earbuds. This carrying case is 4 times
thicker than my Pixel 4 XL. But hey, if you’re willing to put up with it by all means daily
drive the SP800N’s. But ultimately I still think that the best logical everyday carry
wireless earbuds here for android users is going to the Galaxy buds cause of their price,
tiny carrying case and better performing ambient mode… but if you do want more bass in your
music than the Jabra’s are the way to go. But personally I still really do like the
Pixel buds cause these things have amazing build quality. But if google really wants
their Pixel Buds to take off they need to add an ambient mode.