These are what I buy when I need earbuds and genuinely do not care what happens to them. The Sony MDREX15AP costs about as much as a sandwich, and that single fact explains everything about it, good and bad. Inside is a 9mm dynamic driver, there’s a 1.2 metre Y-cord with a slider so the two sides don’t flap around, three sizes of silicone tip in the packet, and a one-button inline remote with a microphone. That AP in the name matters: it’s the version with the mic, where the cheaper LP has none. Nothing to charge. Nothing to pair.
Sound is where the price turns up and asks to be acknowledged. Speech is fine, so podcasts, audiobooks, and YouTube all come through perfectly acceptably, which is honestly what most people use cheap earbuds for. Music is harder going: the bass is bloated rather than deep, the midrange sits recessed and slightly caved-in, and busy tracks turn cluttered fast. Measured against other wired earbuds they come tenth of eleven, around 44 out of 100, and having listened to them I don’t think that’s unfair. If you’re buying these to actually enjoy an album, buy something else.
The build is better than the sound, which is a strange sentence to write. The cable is respectable for the money, the slider is a genuinely useful touch, and the joints feel sturdier than rivals at the same price. Where it comes apart is in the wearing. The microphonics are noticeable, meaning the cable transmits every bump and brush straight into your ears, which makes them irritating for running or walking briskly. Isolation is below average even with a good seal, and getting that seal is fiddly if you have larger ears. Small ears, sitting still: fine. Big ears, moving around: not fine.
Being wired means no pairing, no battery, and nothing to lose except the earbuds themselves. The gold-plated L-shaped plug goes into any 3.5mm jack, so laptops, older phones, and seatback screens all work, and a modern phone needs an adapter Sony doesn’t supply. The single button covers play, pause, skipping, and answering calls, which sounds convenient until you realise there is no volume control on it at all. You’ll be reaching for your phone constantly, and that’s the gripe that shows up most.
These make sense as a spare, a lending pair, or something for spoken word where fidelity doesn’t matter. At this price you can leave one in a bag, one at a desk, one in the car, and never think about them again. Don’t buy them for music, and don’t buy them for the gym, because the cable noise will drive you mad within a week. If you can spend a little more, the Panasonic ErgoFit is the usual recommendation at similar money. The Sony’s real argument is that it costs almost nothing and the mic works.
Pros
• Costs so little that losing them barely registers
• Cable and slider feel better made than the price suggests
• Inline mic handles calls acceptably
• Perfectly fine for podcasts and audiobooks
Cons
• Bloated bass and recessed mids make music a chore
• Cable noise transmits every step into your ears
• Weak isolation, and hard to seal on larger ears
• No volume control on the remote at all
Our score: 6.0/10