Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Sony Link Buds Clip are open earbuds. And while I’ve tried open earbuds before, I just haven’t been satisfied. That is until I got these from Sony. The whole point of open earbuds is to be able to listen to music or podcasts while simultaneously being completely aware of your surroundings. With most earbuds like this, you are certainly aware of your surroundings, but they often fail as headphones you can really listen to music with. Now, these new Sony LinkBuds Clip aren’t like any open earbud I’ve ever used before. The music remains audible even in somewhat noisy environments. Now, I wouldn’t recommend them for a long airplane journey, but if you want to use them at the gym, a coffee shop or running in public, they work better than any open earbuds I’ve used before. The LinkBuds Clip come nicely packaged as you’d expect from Sony. In the box is the charging case where the LinkBuds are stored and charged, an Air Fitting Cushion for each LinkBud and the requisite warranty and environmental pamphlets. The Air Fitting Cushion would likely work best for people with smaller ears and is intended to make them more stable when worn. I tried them, but they didn’t work well with my sized ears. The good thing is they are easily put on or taken off if you don’t need them. When you open the box, you see a QR Code to take you to the App on your iOS or Android Phone, which lets you pair them and set them up. I charged them before doing anything and was a tad disappointed the charging case is not wireless charging capable. And you don’t get a USB C cable, so you need to own one (I have several) and charging plug. The first charge took a couple hours. Pairing them was simple but you must download the Sony Sound Connect App first to pair them. The App is pretty-simple and straightforward to use. The home page of the app lets you choose between 3 different listening modes: Standard – Voice Boost – Sound Leakage Reduction. Standard sounds the most balanced. Voice Boost does just what it implies. If listening to vocals, it emphasizes the mid-range and human voice. And Sound Leakage Reduction, limits the amount of sound others who may be in very close proximity may hear as you’re listening. Again, these are open earbuds. They are not sound isolating earbuds. There’s also an equalizer with preset settings and custom options. To be honest, I found they sound fine without any equalization. But there are loads of options if you feel they need to be optimized. The LinkBuds offer touch controls, but this is an area, where Sony fell a little short, in my opinion. To adjust volume up for example, you need to tap the strap of the LinkBuds FOUR times and the left side FOUR times to turn the volume down. It would be easier to just use the volume buttons on your cell phone. On the left LinkBud, if you tap it twice, it will take through the three different Listening Modes. A double tap on the right LinkBud pauses or starts play. And a triple tap advances to the next track. There’s no way to start a track over or go back, which is unfortunate. The charging case is nice and compact and feels solid and well made. It has a master reset on back side of the case, which lets you also pair them to another device as these feature Multi-Point Connectivity and you can have them connected to two devices at the same time, so you can easily move from one device to another. In terms of charge, the LinkBuds offer at least 9 hours of listening outside the case, and the case offers an additional 28 hours, so 37 hours in total, which is awesome. If you forget to charge them, a one minute charge in the case will get you about an hour of play time which is pretty-amazing as well. In terms of Codec, they offer AAC and SBC, which work fine with Apple or Android devices. They feature Bluetooth 5.3. They are also IPX 4, which is dust and sweat resistant. They are not waterproof but should be fine at the gym or a light rain if outside. These are the most comfortable open earbuds I’ve ever worn. You could wear them for hours on end and NEVER feel any listener fatigue. Compared to in-ear earbuds, you will honestly forget they’re attached to your ears. Another thing I was completely blown away by is call quality. Sony says they’re using Artificial Intelligence to make the call quality greatly enhanced and let me tell you, it’s simply amazing. Even in a loud environment, like a coffee shop with people talking, no one I was speaking with while using these LinkBuds had any idea I was in a loud environment. I have earbuds costing significantly more, which can’t hold a candle to these puppies. Sound is far better than I would have expected from Open Earbuds. I have listened for hours to all types of music, such as classical, rock and jazz. The LinkBuds are balanced and natural sounding. They never sounded sibilant (harsh). Do they have the same deep bass you’d get from premium in-ear earbuds? No, that would defy the laws of physics, but for their intended purpose, these are really, great sounding earbuds. Highs are nice and crisp. Human voices sound real and warm. All in all, I think Sony has advanced the art of open ear earbuds with the LinkBuds Clip. They brought a lot of customization to the table, long battery life, sublime comfort and honestly good sound. If Sony had just made the charging case wireless charge capable, they’d be perfect. For the price of admission, they honestly should have.

I honestly didn't know what to expect when these earbuds arrived. As a fan of open ear tech, this new clip design really intrigued me. It was very clear how to put them on, and once they were in place, they were barely even noticeable. Hands down, these are the most comfortable earbuds I have ever worn. I never got any listening fatigue and felt perfectly fine wearing them for an entire eight-hour workday. ​I did take them for a run, and while they stay on securely even on technical trails, the touch sensitivity was a bit of an issue for me. My sweat or movement would sometimes cause the music to pause or cycle through the audio modes. In fact, they’re so lightweight that when the music paused, I actually had to double check to make sure they hadn't fallen off! ​Where these earbuds really shine for me is in the office or at home. In the office, I can switch on the Sound Leakage Reduction so I don't distract my coworkers, and at home, the Voice Boost is great for cutting through the noise of running water while I'm doing dishes or a noisy vacuuming while cleaning up. Most of the time, though, I just leave them on the Standard setting with a custom EQ I built in the Sound Connect App. Once you fine tune them, the audio quality is freaking amazing. ​The form factor is also great. The case and the buds are both very small, but they still pack up to 37 hours of battery life and have quick charging. I never have to worry about being stuck without my music or podcasts during a long day. ​Overall, I love these earbuds. They’ve quickly become my favorites for their design and fantastic audio. If you wear glasses and hats like I do, you'll really appreciate this design for its best in class comfort. 100% would recommend.

So this is me giving open ear buds another try, and I have to say it's about the same for me. Let me explain. First the cons for me have not changed with this type of earbud, and here they are. Price: These are a little to high in price, based on the sound quality they offer and the way they feel in your or I should say ON your ears. They don't hurt, they are just so weird for me, it's hard to love them. The clipping portion is sometimes hard to get right, and they do not just slip right on. Comfort: These are not the best feeling ON earbuds you can get these days, but they aren't the worst either. I think they are cool looking, but in the end with long use I get annoyed with them on my ears. Pros: Sound is pretty good, but you have to get them in your ears JUST right to get the best sound from them. A person with very small ears, would probably say these are amazing for open earbuds. I don't have the biggest ears, but for sure not the smallest. The sound is just not there, compared to other open earbuds on the market. I honestly don't think I could recommend these to very many people, because I workout daily and these just don't cut it for me. For casual listening, maybe...but the price is just too high to compete in my honest opinion.