The Sony INZONE Buds have been out for a while now, but we’ve only just managed to get our hands on them. Although they look like your average Bluetooth headphones, it’s far from it.
First, let’s look at the packaging. As with other recent Sony devices, the packaging is entirely made of paper. You get the earbuds, a short charging cable, and four sets of silicone tips in different sizes.
The INZONE Buds are gaming-centric earbuds that work primarily using a USB dongle that plugs into your PC or PS5. It operates on the 2.4GHz band and has a claimed latency of just 30ms. The dongle can also be plugged into tablets and smartphones that have a USB-C port for audio.
The INZONE Buds technically support Bluetooth but in a limited form. Only Bluetooth LE is supported and the only codec available is LC3. Even if the LC3 were to succeed the SBC, only a handful of devices currently support it, meaning most people won’t actually be able to use these headphones with Bluetooth.
The INZONE Buds support ANC, which is not a common feature in gaming audio gear. They also feature the same 8.4mm drivers as the WF-1000XM5 with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio feature . Sony claims 11 hours of battery life with ANC when using the USB dongle and 18 hours when using Bluetooth. That last number is especially incredible for a pair of TWS earbuds, but as mentioned before, they only use Bluetooth LE with LC3, so very few devices can actually use it.
But that’s all for now. We are already working on the full review and it should go live shortly.
