SONY’s LinkBuds range has two main purposes. First, it gave the company a platform to launch radically different designs, such as the first generation of LinkBuds in the shape of doughnuts. It also allowed SONY to develop the LinkBuds S, a more traditional product that offers a taste of its flagship product at an inexpensive price.
Two years after the launch of LinkBuds and LinkBuds S, SONY has introduced a completely new product and improved on the original. With LinkBuds Fit, the company has developed a suite of fully functional, comfortable earbuds with impressive sound. With LinkBuds Open, SONY has tweaked its unique open wear mode by updating some of its tools. Next up is the third product in the LinkBuds trio, the LinkBuds Speaker, which is designed to seamlessly integrate with two pairs of new earbuds when you get home or to work. This is what I’ve been saying about these products since SONY launched them, so be prepared because you’re going to get three reviews for one price.
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LinkBuds Fit
Sony flexes its mobile audio muscle on the LinkBuds Fit, combining great sound with tons of features.
Pros
- Tiny, comfy design
- Surprisingly big sound
- Lots of handy features
Cons
- ANC performance is lacking
- Battery life
- Call quality is fine, but not great
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Sony’s LinkBuds S were a low-key hit in 2022. They have some of the great features from the 1000X line, with a similar overall shape, too. Small and comfy.With this year’s LinkBuds Fit, Sony has debuted the next progression in its active noise canceling (ANC) LinkBuds.
This is the option for people who prefer a closed design and a secure fit. Sony completely redesigned the LinkBuds Fit, aiming for the optimum shape for most people. To get there, the company made the main housing a lot smaller, as the whole thing tucks almost entirely into your ear. There’s a so-called Air Cushion silicon support wing that’s hollow instead of solid. This allows more flexibility, and honestly it’s more comfortable since you can tuck it into the ridges of your ears however you need to. The combination of the smaller size and the Air Cushion make the LinkBuds Fit some of the most comfy in-ears I’ve tested. Even though they plug your ears closed, they never become a burden, even after hours of constant use.
One of the best things about the LinkBuds S was the impressive sound quality for the price. That continues on the LinkBuds Fit as Sony offers balanced tuning right out of the box. There’s crisp highs, ample mid range and snappy bass throughout most genres.Vol. 2. Plus, the company’s DSEE Extreme upscaling can help restore some audio quality lost over compression for Bluetooth streaming. Audio presets and a 5-band EQ are here for adjustments, but I didn’t even think about using them.
The sound capabilities of LinkBuds Fit are on full display in BONES UK’s Soft. Crunchy guitars, humming basslines and punchy kick drums provide a full, deep sound field with textured sounds floating around. Interestingly, LinkBuds Fit’s heavy rhythm has nuances, not just the rhythm of one note. All this sound improvement is partly due to the earbuds inherits the dynamic driver X and the integrated processor V2 audio chip from 1000X. The WF-1000XM5 has more surround sound, but not much, as SONY has narrowed the gap between its flagship model and the LinkBuds line – for now.
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Features like Adaptive Sound Control, multipoint Bluetooth and Speak to Chat make their return on the LinkBuds Fit from the LinksBuds S. But Sony has gone well beyond those with a host of new conveniences. The company took a page from Apple’s book and now allows you to answer or reject calls by nodding or shaking your head. There’s also a built-in voice control that doesn’t require your phone’s assistant, something akin to what Bose offers on the new QuietComfort Earbuds. And because the earbuds are so small, there aren’t onboard touch controls. Instead, Sony employs the Wide Area Tap gestures from the original open-design LinkBuds. They work really well, but I will never be comfortable tapping my upper cheek to make adjustments.
Perhaps the only area where the LinkBuds Fit fall well short of the WF-1000XM5 is ANC performance. I’d call this active noise reduction more than cancellation. You’ll get some relief from constant sources like white noise machines or a raucous fan, but these earbuds don’t silence them. They also struggle mightily with human voices, so if you sit near a chatty coworker, you’ll have to crank up the volume to compensate.
For calls, the LinkBuds Fit will give you better-than-average voice clarity, which means you’ll sound better than if you’re on speakerphone. The earbuds also do a decent job of blocking background noise, although I noticed a slight delay in them picking up sounds that began during calls. Sony also boasts that this model has its “best ambient sound,” and while I’m not ready to bestow that honor, the audio mode does have a natural quality that makes it pleasant to use. Plus, a new Auto Ambient Sound feature can automatically adjust the level of transparency when you encounter a noisy environment.
With the LinkBuds Fit, Sony says you can expect up to five and a half hours with ANC on and 21 hours total when you factor in the case. There are a lot of advanced features at work here, and those have an impact on power consumption. With the volume at a comfortable 75-80 percent, I only managed around four hours and 45 minutes. That’s with noise-canceling active as well as Voice Control, Speak to Chat and DSEE Extreme all enabled. The good news is that Sony offers a tool called Auto Battery Save that will disable the latter three tools, as well as any EQ tweaks, to conserve power. This will extend things beyond the 5.5-hour mark, but not by a ton.
The LinkBuds Fit are a massive advancement over the LinkBuds S. In fact, they’re some of the best earbuds Sony has ever made. But they aren’t without a few significant faults. My primary gripe is ANC performance, and though it’s the only one, it’s a biggie. Like it usually does on the 1000X line, Sony has packed in a ton of features here, and for the most part they work as advertised. It’s clear the company is taking notes from the competition with the Apple-esque head gestures and automatic sound adjustments, in addition to the Bose-like built-in assistant. But, somehow, Sony managed to innovate and keep the price tag exactly the same as the LinkBuds S.
LinkBuds Open
The LinkBuds Open show progression from the first-gen model, but they’re still uncomfortable.
Pros
- Improved sound quality
- More features than the previous version
- Unique design
Cons
- More expensive than their predecessor
- Still uncomfortable
- Good sound requires some tweaks
The original LinkBuds were wonderfully weird. After years of very normal-looking earbuds (besides the Xperia Ear Duo), Sony took a big swing in early 2022 with the donut-shaped, open design model that sought to provide all-day wear while keeping your earbuds unobstructed from your environment. They were different, but they were unique, with their own drizzle of Sony’s special sauce. However, overall comfort was a big issue, and one the company sought to remedy on the follow-up with the LinkBuds Open.
To start, Sony reduced the overall size of the IPX4-rated LinkBuds Open. Like the LinkBuds Fit, this model also has the Air Cushion silicon support that’s more flexible. That’s a big improvement from the small hump meant to stabilize the first version that didn’t offer much added support. Unfortunately though, the casing for the ring-shaped driver that sits in your ear is still hard plastic. After about 45 minutes, it became uncomfortable, and after several hours it was downright unbearable. On the bright side, the cheek-based Wide Area Tap controls are back and they’re reliable, if not slightly awkward.
Sony made two key adjustments to improve the sound quality on the LinkBuds Open. First, it built a revamped ring-shaped driver and paired it with the Integrated Processor V2 chip from the 1000X line. These two changes make for louder sound and richer bass, according to Sony. And the claim holds up. You’ll only need around 65-70 percent volume, unless you suffer from some degree of hearing loss. And there is more pronounced low-end tone, though you’ll have to coax it out with an EQ tweak.
By default, the stock tuning is heavily reliant on treble, which means vocals tend to overpower most of the mix. However, Sony’s EQ tools actually help balance things out, and adding more mids and bass makes the LinkBuds Open’s sound profile more well-rounded. After this adjustment, the kick drum thumps under vocals and guitars, an improvement over the default sound profile for Better Lovers’ thunderous, crunching single “A White Horse Covered In Blood.”
Like it did with the LinkBuds Fit, Sony brought over a lot of the handy tools from the 1000X earbuds to the Open. Those include multipoint Bluetooth and Speak to Chat, but Adaptive Sound Control automation isn’t here. Sony did add its voice assistant, Adaptive Volume Control and head-gesture recognition for answering calls. The company also offers a fit check via your phone’s camera, something it’s done for other products to check your positioning for 360 Reality Audio. Most of these work well, though in my experience Speak to Chat is still tripped up when I coughed or cleared my throat. And it seemed to be even more sensitive on the LinkBuds Open than other models I’ve tested.
Thanks to the design, the LinkBuds Open are nice to wear during calls since, well, you can hear yourself. However, the quality of your voice on the other end isn’t as clear as what I encountered on the LinkBuds Fit. It will get the job done, but I did sound slightly muffled. And background noise, while subdued, is noticeable at times when I’m talking.
Sony says you should be able to eke out eight hours of use on the LinkBuds Open, a significant improvement over the five and a half hours on the first LinkBuds. Indeed, I had no trouble hitting that number during my tests with DSEE Auto and other power-taxing tools enabled. If you find yourself in a pinch, Sony devised a faster quick charge solution that gives you an hour of use in three minutes. What’s more, Auto Battery Save from the LinkBuds Fit is in play here, automatically disabling advanced features when you hit 20 percent battery to extend listening time.
The LinkBuds Open offer some improvements over the first-gen model, but Sony hasn’t addressed an inherent issue with the design. Simply put, they aren’t comfortable to wear for longer than a few minutes and that will be a problem for a lot of people. I understand the outer shell around the ring driver has to be robust enough to protect it, but there needs to be even the slightest bit of cushioning to relieve the pressure. If Sony fixes that, it will have a more compelling product rather than a novelty.
LinkBuds Speaker
The LinkBuds Speaker is designed to be a stationary companion to Sony’s earbuds and headphones, but it doesn’t offer anything more than that.
Pros
- Tiny but loud
- Charging dock is included and convenient
- Auto Play routines are handy
Cons
- Pricey for the size
- Restrained bass, absent mid range
The LinkBuds Speaker is an unexpected part of the new LinkBuds lineup. It’s a small Bluetooth speaker that’s designed to be your go-to device when you’re stationary, and is equipped with several features that sync with the LinkBuds Fit and LinkBuds Open in a bid to make your life easier – at least in terms of listening to music or podcasts.
The LinkBuds Speaker won’t win any design awards, but that’s par for the course with small Bluetooth speakers. Up top are volume and playback controls which you can also use to start music from select streaming services with one tap (Amazon Music, Spotify and Endel). There’s also a microphone for calls, if you’re okay with a no-frills speakerphone option. Around back, the power button sits at the bottom just above a USB-C charging port. There’s also an attached loop here so you can hang the LinkBuds Speaker on a hook or carabiner. That USB-C port is technically the backup charging method though, since the IPX4-rated speaker comes with a charging cradle that connects via metal contacts on the bottom.
The LinkBuds Speaker works with Sony’s new Sound Connect app for access to various settings. There’s one key feature I’ll discuss since it’s unique to this device. First, the app allows you to set up routines so that your music starts at specific times during the day. There’s also an automatic switching element to this that works with the LinkBuds Fit and LinkBuds Open, along with additional support for the LinkBuds S, WF-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM5. All of this is managed in the Auto Play section of the app.