Regretfully, Bluetooth causes the latency performance to completely collapse. With some of the worst Bluetooth latency I’ve ever experienced, the INZONE Buds are best used for music. There was a little delay even with video, even with the attached device attempting to compensate for audio delay.
Cancelling noise
Transparency option for active noise reduction is available on the INZONE Buds. For the intended usage setting, the ANC performance is acceptable if a little disappointing given what we have come to expect from Sony.
Sony INZONE Headphones review
When worn indoors, the INZONE Buds ANC effectively blocks out background noises including air conditioners, fans, and the loud fans on your computer. It can even sufficiently mask the sound of keyboard keys. The ANC falls short of something like the WF-1000XM5 only when you attempt to use the earphones outside. Because the fit of the INZONE Buds isn’t as deep as that of other TWS earbuds, they inherently let in more noise that the ANC can’t always handle.
Regretfully, the INZONE Buds’ speakers make noise all their own. When nothing is playing, there is a constant background hiss that is pretty noticeable in lower settings but in louder ones you won’t hear it. If the earphones are making noise of their own, then having ANC is useless.
Interface
The INZONE Buds function remarkably well for connectivity when used with the USB dongle. Testing produced no disconnections or brief connection drops. Furthermore stronger than Bluetooth, the connection holds up even when you travel around the house a little bit with walls in between.
The Bluetooth connection was also functional, however the primary problem was getting it to connect with your phone. Just the most latest Pixel models I own supported LC3. LC3 is listed in the supported codecs list in developer settings of some devices, like as the Nothing Phone (2), but it wasn’t compatible with the INZONE Buds. Others have absolutely no support for the codec, such as the iPhone 15 Pro.
It takes tapping and holding on both earbuds at the same time to change between USB and Bluetooth mode. But at some time, something malfunctioned and only one earbud worked, thus one was linked by Bluetooth and the other via USB. Getting both earphones to pair over the same protocol required some back and forth and patience.
battery life
Sony claims the INZONE Buds have a remarkably long battery life of 18 hours when using Bluetooth LE and 11 hours when using USB. Turn off the ANC and you should be able to use USB for 12 hours and Bluetooth LE for an amazing 24 hours.
As most individuals would use the headset in this manner, I concentrated my testing on the ANC results. I was able to get 12 hours and 13 minutes with this turned on, which is a good deal longer than the 11 hours that were stated.
Sony INZONE Bluetooth
Better still were the Bluetooth results. The longest continuous playback time we have ever tested on any set of TWS earbuds was achieved by me with ANC turned on—20 hours and 35 minutes. With ANC disabled, I can only image the figure.
Sony further claims that an hour of gameplay can be had for just five minutes of charging. I tested and got one hour and twenty-three minutes with Bluetooth LE and little over an hour using USB.
Verdict
The Sony INZONE Buds work incredibly well as gaming earphones. They have very good microphone quality, astonishing audio quality right out of the box, and incredibly minimal latency. They are also comfortable for longer use. The battery life is the cherry on top—it is the greatest we have ever observed on any real wireless earphones, much less ones that use a wireless 2.4GHz connection.
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The spatial audio feature in the INZONE Hub app, on the down side, is completely superfluous and performs terribly. At the moment, the absence of broad support for Bluetooth LE Audio makes the Bluetooth connectivity feel similarly constrained. Furthermore less remarkable is the ANC performance in comparison to the more conventional rivals, which includes a few of Sony’s own models.
In the end, though, none of those really matters given the intended use case for these earphones. The INZONE Buds are far superior for gaming and cost about $200 less than most of the high-end Bluetooth TWS devices available. Actually, these outperform the majority of gaming-specific headphones. If the pricing and in-ear style suit you, the INZONE Buds ought to be your go-to choice for any gaming-related demands.
