With the Sony LinkBuds, the brand dares to innovate with bluetooth in-ears. Thanks to a special opening in the earpiece, you can listen to music and be aware of your surroundings. You can read how that works in practice in this Sony LinkBuds review.
Sony LinkBuds
Recommended retail price € 179,-
Color black and white
Link bluetooth 5.2
Battery 32 mAh (earpiece), 300 mAh (charging case)
Weight 4 grams (earpiece), 34 grams (charging case)
Features microphone, IPX 4, voice control
Load usb c
Website www.sony.nl
6 Score 60 
- Pros
- Weight
- Ambient noise
- app
- Negatives
- Fit
- Sound experience
The Sony LinkBuds have a quirky design, with a ball and a ring. The ring goes over your ear canal, while the ball is placed in your auricle and secured with a bracket. The ring has an opening in the middle and therefore resembles a piece of jewelry. Also, the design is extremely small and light.
This design allows you to remain aware of your surroundings while simultaneously listening to music, podcasts, audiobooks or other audio. The round speaker simply plays the sound in the ear, unlike, for example, the Aftershokz Aeropex, which plays via bone conduction in order to remain aware of your surroundings. This makes the Sony LinkBuds useful on the work floor or in traffic, for example.
wearing comfort
However, despite the weight and size, the wearing comfort is not optimal. The earphones do not go into your ear canal, but the sound comes from a speaker on top. This ensures that the LinkBuds do not sit firmly and are only held by a bracket in the ear cup. If you use the LinkBuds at work, for example, that’s no problem. During movement, they do not stay stuck because of this system, despite the fact that the brackets are interchangeable in different sizes.
This means that you use your LinkBuds for specific situations, as said: it is ideal in the workplace. The earphones are also very suitable for cycling, for example. For a walk is already a lot of exercise. Let alone sports.
Sound experience
The sound experience also suffers from the design, the sound projection is slightly different than with a speaker that is traditionally placed on or in the ear. As a result, sound sounds a bit shriller and less detailed than you are used to from Sony headphones. It does not seem that this is due to the audio parts used, but that they do not come into their own due to the design. Perhaps Sony could improve the sound experience a little with a software update.
An app is available to configure the earphones and adjust the sound to your own liking. You can also go here for firmware updates of the Sony LinkBuds. It’s nice that the app also guides you to find the best fit for your ears.
Small earphones, small battery
The small size also has its downside: a small battery. Since there is no ambient mode or noise reduction, these playback modes do not negatively affect playback time. This means that you can use the earphones for about five and a half hours on a single battery charge. Exactly as Sony advertises on its site. Other manufacturers can learn from that.
It does mean that your earphones will not last a whole working day on a battery charge, which is a shame. The charging box offers enough battery capacity to charge the earphones twice, so that you can listen for a maximum of sixteen to seventeen hours before you have to recharge the box again. Unfortunately, that charging is not possible wirelessly, only via the USB-c port. Fast charging is possible.
Sony dares to innovate, while the competition mainly looks at AirPods
Conclusion: Buy Sony LinkBuds?
With the Sony LinkBuds, Sony dares to innovate, while the competition seems focused on making AirPods alternatives as much as possible. The fact that the concept is not yet optimal in terms of fit and sound experience does not mean that the LinkBuds deserve to be flared in this review. On the contrary! The design where you remain aware of your surroundings in a natural way and can listen to music is extremely valuable. That’s why I hope Sony can improve the sound experience with firmware updates and Sony continues to invest in a second generation LinkBuds.
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