The Sony WH-CH530 is a pair of wireless on-ear headphones in pink, made for everyday listening on the commute, at a desk or around the house. They weigh about 150 g, run for up to 55 hours between charges and connect to more than one device at once, which makes them an easy choice for students and anyone who wants simple, long-lasting Bluetooth headphones.

Sound

Each earcup holds a 30 mm driver in a closed design, so less of your music leaks out to the people around you. DSEE, Sony's Digital Sound Enhancement Engine, works on compressed and streamed music to bring back its natural expression. An updated 10-band EQ lets you shape the sound to suit what you are playing, a Gaming EQ tuned by Sony's INZONE team is there for games, and 360 Reality Audio is supported for immersive tracks.

Streaming and connections

The headphones use Bluetooth 6.0 with the SBC, AAC and LC3 codecs. Multipoint connection keeps them paired with more than one device, and fast pairing gets a phone connected quickly. They also support LE Audio for low-latency listening and Auracast broadcast audio. For calls, the built-in microphone uses AI noise reduction, trained with a deep neural network, to keep your voice clear in noisy places. Buttons on the earcups handle music and calls without reaching for your phone, voice control is supported, and you can choose one of 5 maximum volume levels to protect your hearing.

Size and installation

These are on-ear headphones, so the cushioned pads rest on your ears rather than around them, and at about 150 g they are light enough for long sessions. A full charge over USB takes about 3 hours and gives up to 55 hours of music, or up to 35 hours of talk time. If you are in a hurry, 3 minutes of charging gives about 1.5 hours of playback. Sony recommends a USB mains adaptor that supplies at least 0.5 A. The pink finish is one of six colours in the range, alongside black, cobalt, mint, white and coral.