Sony LinkBuds – Unique Wireless Earbuds
Sony has unleashed a truly unique wireless earbud that can be worn all day. The Sony LinksBuds are the world’s first open-ring in-ear headphones. The risk taken by Sony is to design an earbud that is subtle and does not have a stem protruding out unlike the Apple AirPods. Available at £149 which makes it much cheaper than Sony’s flagship wireless earbuds but benches at a similar price point to the Apple AirPods 3.
Wear All Day
The main objective of the design is that the Sony LinkBuds are comfortable to wear around all the time without shutting off from the outside world achieved by the unique open-ring design. Each earbud comprises a ring-shaped driver connected to a rounded housing. The ring part of the earbud surrounds your ear canal while the housing sits above the conch of your ear. The LinkBuds comes in five different sizes of fins and comes in two different colours (Black and White). The Link Earbuds come with an IPX4 water-resistance rating so they can be your workout earbuds or you don’t have to worry about a few drops of rain while running.
To control the LinkBuds Sony has implemented a feature called Wide Area Tap which allows you to double or triple tap the area in front of your ears to control the earbuds. You will be able to tap your face to pause/play your music or skip a track. The LinkBuds also come with the Speak-to-Chat feature which automatically pauses your music if you start talking and if the earbuds don’t detect your voice for 15 seconds, they will assume your conversation is over and your music will resume.
The LinkBuds come with a battery life of 17.5 hours which is 5.5 hours for the earbuds and a further 12 hours from the charging case. A quick 10-minute charge will give you 1.5 hours of playback. The battery will drain quickly if you turn on many of the features listed above. The charging case itself has no wireless charging capability so you will have to charge it via the USB-C port.
Should I Buy Them?
The Sony LinkBuds seem to cater for a niche market that is looking for earbuds that can be worn all day. The size and design of the LinkBuds will make them more discreet when worn. However, if you are an audiophile then these may not be the earbuds for you due to the nature of the open-ring design. The open-ring design enables the user to hear environmental noise, so audiophiles that want to isolate themselves from the real world would not appreciate it. The lack of noise cancellation will also persuade people to avoid these earbuds as a travel earbud.