Sony MDREX15AP/W

The Sony MDREX15AP is a budget wired earbud with a mic that costs around $13 USD. It's fine for calls and podcasts, but music sounds thin and muddy with a score of just 10 out of 100. You're paying for the Sony name, not the sound quality.

Let's talk about what these 9mm drivers actually deliver. The frequency response claims 8Hz to 22kHz, which sounds impressive on paper, but in practice the sound is thin and muddy. Our sound score puts these at the 8th percentile, which means almost everything else in our database sounds better. The bass is there but it's loose and undefined, the mids get crowded, and the highs roll off early. Music just doesn't come through with any real clarity or punch.

The mic situation isn't much better. It scored in the 40th percentile for mic quality, so calls are passable but nothing to write home about. The integrated remote works fine for play/pause and answering calls, but don't expect any fancy controls. Battery isn't a factor here since these are wired, though our battery percentile of 45th is just a placeholder for products that don't have one. Connectivity is wired only, which lands at the 13th percentile. That's fine if you have a headphone jack, but more and more phones don't anymore.

Stacked against the competition, the MDREX15AP has a rough time. The Soundcore P31i costs more but gives you wireless freedom, better sound, and a more modern feature set. The Anker Space A40 is in a completely different league with active noise cancellation and genuinely good audio, though you'll pay significantly more. Even the Baseus Bass BP1 Pro, which is still a budget option, manages better bass response and build quality than what Sony is offering here.

The TOZO Crystal Pods and Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro are also in our comparison set, and both outclass the MDREX15AP in every meaningful way except price. The Galaxy Buds2 Pro especially is a flagship-level product that makes these Sony earbuds feel like a relic from another era. The only real advantage the MDREX15AP has is that it's wired, which means no battery anxiety and no pairing issues. But that's a pretty thin silver lining when the core experience is this underwhelming.

At $13 USD, the Sony MDREX15AP is cheap enough that you could buy three pairs for the price of a single budget wireless earbud. But value isn't just about price, it's about what you get for that price. And what you get here is a pair of earbuds that struggle with music, feel cheap in the hand, and don't fit all that comfortably. The budget score of 36.5 out of 100 reflects that. If you're in Brazil, the BRL 174 price tag feels less like a bargain and more like a questionable purchase. For the same money, you could find wired earbuds from lesser-known brands that sound noticeably better, or save up a bit more for something like the Soundcore P31i which offers wireless convenience and better audio.

The Sony MDREX15AP is one of those budget wired earbuds that's been floating around for years, and at around $13 USD, it's about as cheap as name-brand audio gets. You're getting a basic in-ear design with 9mm dynamic drivers, an integrated mic, and a single-button remote for playback control. Nothing fancy, just the essentials. The white version we're looking at keeps things simple and clean.

People searching for cheap earbuds with a mic usually land here because the price is hard to ignore. And with over 28,000 customer ratings averaging 4.3 stars, there's clearly a market for something this straightforward. But our database tells a different story than the star rating suggests. The sound quality sits near the bottom of the barrel at the 8th percentile, and music performance scored a brutal 10 out of 100. So the real question is whether the low price makes up for what you're giving up.

If you just need something to take calls on or listen to podcasts while commuting, this might do the trick. But if you care even a little about how your music sounds, you'll want to keep reading before hitting that buy button.

Skip the Sony MDREX15AP if you care about music quality at all. The sound is genuinely bad, and there are better-sounding wired earbuds available for similar money. Also skip these if you have a phone without a headphone jack, since you'd need to carry around a dongle. If comfort matters to you, the included silicone tips are mediocre and the fit is hit or miss. Anyone looking for wireless convenience should look at budget options like the Soundcore P31i or Baseus Bass BP1 Pro instead. These Sony earbuds are really only for people who need the cheapest possible wired option with a mic and have very low expectations for audio.

Should you buy the Sony MDREX15AP? Only if you need the absolute cheapest earbuds with a mic and you don't care about sound quality. These are fine for phone calls in a quiet room or listening to spoken word content where audio fidelity doesn't matter much. But for music, they're genuinely bad. Our music score of 10 out of 100 isn't a typo.

If you can stretch your budget even a little, you'll get a much better experience elsewhere. The wired earbud market has plenty of options that sound better for similar money, and if you're willing to go wireless, the gap widens even further. The Sony name carries weight, but this particular product is coasting on brand recognition rather than actual performance.