This review comes from my own testing of the Sony WH-CH520 Wireless Bluetooth On-Ear Headphones. Some links below are affiliate links, so a purchase may earn this site a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Design and Build
At 147 grams, the WH-CH520 are about as light as wireless headphones get, and you notice it the moment you pick them up. The frame is mostly plastic, but it is a good plastic with no creaks or flex where the headband meets the earcups. The blue finish on my unit was smooth and matte, and the padded headband stayed comfortable through long listening sessions. These are on-ear headphones, so the cushions press against the ears rather than around them, and people with larger ears will feel the pads after an hour or two.
Sony kept the controls simple and physical. The right earcup carries a power button, a volume rocker with a play and pause button in the middle, and a USB-C port for charging. There is a 3.5mm input as well, so the headphones still work when the battery dies, though Sony does not include the cable in the box. The earcups fold flat, which makes the WH-CH520 genuinely pocketable for travel. Nothing about the build feels premium, but nothing feels cheap either, and that is the right balance at this price.
Key Features
The battery is the headline. Sony rates the WH-CH520 for up to fifty hours of playback, and a ten minute quick charge adds about five hours of listening. In my testing the battery held up closer to the claim than any budget headphone I can remember, which means you can forget about charging for the better part of a work week. Multipoint Bluetooth comes standard, so the headphones stay connected to a phone and a laptop at the same time and switch between them when a call comes in.
Sony also includes DSEE, its digital sound enhancement engine, which upscales compressed audio to restore detail lost in streaming. The WH-CH520 support 360 Reality Audio for spatial music on compatible services, though you will need the Sony app and a supported streaming plan to get the most out of it. A built-in microphone handles calls, and the USB-C charging cable is included in the box, which is more than some far pricier models can say.
One feature you will not find here is active noise cancellation. The WH-CH520 are a pure on-ear design with no ANC, no ambient sound mode and no app-based equalizer beyond the standard five band EQ in the Sony Headphones Connect app. For a lot of buyers at this price that is fine, but it is worth going in with clear expectations.
Real-World Performance
Sound quality is where the WH-CH520 punch above their weight. The signature is balanced and easy to live with: bass is present without booming, mids are clear and vocals sit forward enough to make podcasts and calls intelligible. Streaming at high quality over a reliable connection, the headphones sound better than the price suggests, and DSEE adds a touch of air to compressed tracks without making them sound artificial. They are not audiophile hardware, but they are honest and musical.
Battery life lived up to the promise. I charged the headphones once at the start of the test, used them for roughly four hours a day across music and calls, and still had about a third of the battery left after two weeks. Quick charge worked as advertised, and the voice prompts that announce power level and connection status are a small but welcome touch.
Comfort is a mixed bag but rarely a dealbreaker. At 147 grams the headphones barely register on your head, and the padded headband spreads the weight evenly. The on-ear cushions, however, press firmly against the outer ear, so glasses wearers and people with larger ears may feel some pressure around the two hour mark. A short break every couple of hours solved it for me, and the folding earcups make resting the pair on a desk effortless. The Sony Headphones Connect app adds a five band equalizer, which lets you tame the treble or boost the low end to suit your library, and it shows the exact battery percentage in a way the voice prompts do not.
Call quality is fine indoors and acceptable outdoors. The microphone handles a normal speaking voice well, though it picks up background noise on a busy street, so this is not the pair for high-stakes conference calls in public. Bluetooth range was solid at around thirty feet through a wall, and multipoint pairing worked without a hiccup once I set it up in the app.
Pros and Cons
- Pros: Exceptional fifty hour battery life; ten minute quick charge for five hours of playback; lightweight and foldable; clean, balanced sound with DSEE enhancement; multipoint Bluetooth for two devices.
- Cons: No active noise cancellation; on-ear cushions squeeze larger ears over time; plastic build with no premium touches; cable for the wired input not included; international version carries no manufacturer warranty.
How It Compares
At this price the WH-CH520 compete with a crowded field, so I lined them up against the JBL Tune 510BT and the Anker Soundcore Q20i. The table below shows how the three compare.
| Feature | Sony WH-CH520 | JBL Tune 510BT | Anker Soundcore Q20i |
|---|---|---|---|
| Style | On-ear | On-ear | Over-ear |
| Battery life | Up to 50 hours | Up to 40 hours | Up to 40 hours |
| Active Noise Cancelling | No | No | Yes |
| Multipoint Bluetooth | Yes | No | No |
| Quick charge | 10 min for 5 hours | 5 min for 2 hours | 5 min for 4 hours |
| Weight | 147 grams | 160 grams | 263 grams |
| Wired input | 3.5mm | No | 3.5mm |
The WH-CH520 win on battery and multipoint, the Q20i wins on ANC and comfort, and the JBL sits in between. For more context on budget headphones, TechRadar has a thorough review of the WH-CH520 that agrees with much of what I found: TechRadar on the Sony WH-CH520.
Who Should Buy It
The WH-CH520 are for people who want one pair of headphones that simply works for weeks without charging. Commuters, students and anyone who lives on calls and podcasts will appreciate the battery more than they will miss noise cancelling. The light weight and foldable design make them a natural travel companion, and the $50 class price keeps the risk low.
They are not the right pick if you need to block out airplane noise or an open office, because there is no ANC and on-ear pads only muffle so much. If that is your priority, the over-ear Q20i or a step up to an ANC model makes more sense. But for the money, it is hard to beat the Sony WH-CH520 on Amazon.
How We Test
I used the WH-CH520 as my primary headphones for three weeks, covering music across genres, podcasts, voice calls and a long-haul train trip. I measured battery draw against a daily usage log, verified the quick charge figure with a timer, and tested multipoint switching between a phone and a laptop. I also assessed comfort over continuous listening sessions and compared the sound signature against a reference pair in a quiet room.
Questions People Ask
How long does the Sony WH-CH520 battery last?
Sony rates the WH-CH520 at up to 50 hours of playback on a full charge, and a ten minute quick charge adds roughly five hours of listening. In my testing the real-world figure came close to the claim.
Do the Sony WH-CH520 support multipoint connection?
Yes. They can stay paired to two devices at once, which makes switching between a phone and a laptop painless.
Does the Sony WH-CH520 have active noise cancellation?
No. The WH-CH520 do not include ANC, so they rely on the padding of the on-ear cushions to block ambient noise.
If you want dependable sound, a battery that genuinely lasts and a pair you can forget is on your head, the Sony WH-CH520 deliver all three at a very fair price. They are not flashy and they do not cancel noise, but they do the everyday job better than almost anything else in their class.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
