Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great concept, and I actually think they sound pretty good, especially for what I was expecting! These are definitely specialty earbuds and are not for everyone but if you're looking for a natural ambient sound while listening to your music or podcast or on a call. I haven't tested the call quality, but music sounded much better than expected from other reviews I saw. Obviously you won't get a ton of bass because it's an earbud but overall it sounds surprisingly full if you tweak the EQ a little. They aren't the most comfortable since, after all, it is a piece of plastic you're putting in your ear, but they are very lightweight and if your ear is the right shape you could probably forget they're there which is good. I don't exactly think they're worth full price, but if/when they go on sale I would be more inclined to recommend them!

I’ll just sum it up quickly for those who don’t want to read all the details. Overall: I recommend these earphones, but they’re a little overpriced. Not a bad option though. Pros: -Interesting Design (you can hear your surroundings at lower volume levels) -Good quality sound and decent bass -Fit comfortably (with the right wings tips applied) -Little to no ear fatigue -Battery life is good especially for the size -Extremely portable case -Sony Headphones App allows you to tweak sound settings -Packaged well with recyclable materials -Various wing tip options -Interesting & smooth case and earphone material Cons: -A little overpriced -App software isn’t terrible but can be optimized (ex: improving pairing speed) -Doesn’t get as loud as other earphones like the beats pro or AirPods Pro (but that’s not it’s purpose) -For the price, Sony should’ve included a protective case for the charging case. Would’ve made it more enticing to buy These are pretty good earphones and I’m enjoying them!

I've used this daily since purchase, then right earbuds stop charging after 2 months. Sony customer service helped me get it back to charge, but then charging case died few days later. It wouldn't charge past 59% and caused issue with right earbud connection soon after. I'm guessing that first production batch (since I've preordered soon after announcement) has some quality issue. Sony customer service was great and helped me get replacement earbuds without any hassle. I just wish they were this helpful with my MDR-1000X back in the day with its headband cracks. With that aside... The product is not worth Sony's asking for. Not because of build quality or my issue with earbud and case dying but rather because of its sounds and features. Sound: I've been owning WF-1000xm3, N400NC, Buds Pro, and Momentum true wireless. Since all of these were in-ear type it is a bit unfair to compare LinkBuds to them. HOWEVER this doesn't mean that it should be this bad. Bass is practically non-existent. Mid range is murky, and highs just barely covers necessary range. Funny thing is that all of these issues gets somewhat remedied if I position both earbuds in a certain way, but... Comfort/Support: I would need a double sided tape in order to get improved sounds since included silicone ear piece gives practically no support for these units. Simple task as just walking on streets will cause the earbuds to fall off of the ear. I have tried all four included silicone pieces and none of them helped resolving this issue. I practically had to stop, put them back on, walk for a minute, stop, repeat. It gets annoying to use it while commuting, so I pretty much had to only use it when I am sitting down for a long study session. And here comes another comfort issue. Sony pretty much said that these buds are so light and comfortable, it won't cause ear pain for long use. May be so that my eardrum doesn't hurt for having bad bass and crappy highs, but my auricles were screaming pain. My ears are not that small and all other wireless buds I have fits in perfectly fine into auricles. I mean have you looked at WF-1000xm3?? That thing fits fine in my ears without causing any issue other than ear canal becoming too waxy after use. Linkbuds are way smaller than those but are causing pain on my earflaps after a 30 min use. Then how come I used these daily? Because Linkbuds was the only one that let my ear canals to breathe while listening to music and podcasts without being bulky like headphones. Other in-ear wireless buds were causing my ear to get too waxy and wet after use, making me scared of getting an ear infection. Linkbuds did not cause any issue with my ear canal after long term use, and that was the only reason why I used these daily until it stopped working... Features: I guess most of these are covered already since earbuds' features are pretty much sounds and comfort. But I should say that its heavily marketed conduction control (wide area tap) and speak to chat are bad. Really bad. Like, if you chew on food while listening to music, music stops. At times it catches chewing as conduction control, the other speak to chat. I hoped they would provide a function to control how sensitive the conduction control should be but I couldn't find any to adjust. Yawning caused to speak to chat to activate too. I thought the outer mic would catch my voice to activate the speak to chat to activate, but I guess it wasn't. Adaptive volume control was pretty much a BS as I pretty much never had volume adjusted to the noise from surrounding environments. I did all those audio improving process that app makes you go through too. It does not have LDAC support, but I understand why they left it out considering LinkBuds' sound quality. Since I also had issue with bluetooth signal being unstable, I guess adding LDAC would've made it worse. Yes, their claim of stable, skip-free wireless sound is a joke. I pretty much hoped for no cars or people near me so that I would enjoy my music without interruption while walking. Also, I don't know why they decided not to include wireless charging for this device. Considering Samsung's Buds pro can have wireless charging in similar form factor, I'm pretty sure they could have added wireless charging as a feature. But then I kinda understand that it seemed like the case needed magnets to secure earbud units and wireless charging would've been impossible with a magnet. But then... Buds pro also has magnets... sooo I don't know why Sony didn't include wireless charging for a product that costs $180 in retail. So are there only cons? Nope, but the list of pro ain't long. I mean, like I said, it is the only open earbuds that let my ear breathe. It is small enough to carry around without occupying too much space in my pockets or backpacks. Despite it is made out of plastics, it definitely feels great to touch and looks great. As long as you've app installed, connecting the device was simple and easy. You can easily hear what happens around you that speak to chat is kind of useless. (guess it is a pro??) Verdict: Unless they give a significant reduction in price (like $60) I would not recommend buying this 1st gen product. At the time of this review, WF1000xm3 costing much less than Linkbuds for same features minus the open back design, I would rather go for that if you are looking for Sony earbuds that would give the best value. If you definitely need an open-earbuds like I do ASAP, I guess this is the only option at the moment. If you're not in a hurry, I would wait if Sony would make second gen of this product.

I love how I can hear everything around me and the sound is great on these. Getting the fit right in my left ear with the silicone rings was a breeze but I’m having more trouble with my right ear. I like falling asleep listening to something and an issue I’ve run into with AirPods is they hurt my ears, but I can keep these in all night no problem. The wide area tap is really cool and accurate and I hope other companies adopt the tech. The one thing though that is a deal breaker for me is you can’t just use the left bud by itself. It connects to the right bud so that one has to be out of the case and on in order for the left bud to connect. I frequently use only one of my headphones while I’m doing random things throughout my day, and being limited to only being able to use the right one is a bummer since the battery life on these is shorter than headphones. Plus in this day it seems a little out there to not let both headphones connect individually.

Overall these new earbuds have been pretty slick, however there is definitely some areas of improvement in my eyes. First of all, The unboxing of these earbuds are pretty neat, the box they come in is very well designed to allow the user to easily pair and complete the initial set up. However, once you get past the initial set up phase, the companion app is a bit too involved in my opinion even though it does provide a good amount of value for the end user. The app syncs the headphones then asks for pictures of your head to suggest which ear piece would fit the best. If then suggest yet another app to install to get full 360 degree sound. It just seems as if there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get up and running. On the other hand, the sound is good, but I wouldn't say excellent, the amount of bass that pumps through is about average in my opinion. One thing I really like though, is the ear fittings that are supplied (and make sure you located before throwing box away because they are sort of hidden). They come with several sizes allowing them to snuggly fit in my ears. Past ear buds I have used have not been that good of a fit. All in all, I think the companion app needs some work but the fit and sounds offset that negative experience. Worth picking up in my opinion!

Great earbuds for those who like to hear your surroundings and the open design is great for calls or use in an office. The open design is much better than using ambient mode and the sound is much better than expected (although not for bass heads). Using them with a Pixel 6 and no issues with connectivity or updates. No complaints so far on call quality either. I am very happy with these and the small lightweight design of the earbuds and case are great. I can wear them all day for hours at a time and enjoy my music. EQ works well and you can customize to your preferred sound signature. Only subtracted a star because, for the price, these should support aptX and I do miss wireless charging. I also wish it had better battery life (I have run out of battery within 3-4 hours of use).

I bought these just yesterday evening so this review is based only on a single hour with these on today at the gym. (I'll update the review later.) I'm a huge fan! I've literally been looking for years for quality, comfortable wireless buds that would stay in place when exercising. And I've tried and own. a lot of different models. I really like Jabras - they're phenomenal buds - but as they don't have a securing appendage they tend to pop out of my ears, sometimes just when walking. I was worried when I unboxed these LinkBuds as I had one fall out shortly after first trying them. But I switched to the largest securing loop and today I had zero issues all workout long (which included a whole bunch of bud-shaking box jumps). So that's the first huge positive. The only other pair of wireless buds I have that reliably stay in place are the Bose Sport Earbuds, which I'm a huge fan of and which have become my most-used buds once I got used to their unorthodox form factor. Finally I have a second set of quality buds I can exercise with. The fact that these are an open design, like the Bose Sports, is an additional major plus. I love, love the open design concept, I think it's far superior for most use cases to the in-ear design which I find much more claustrophobic. At least partly because of the open design, I found these buds extremely comfortable, very light and airy. So another check mark for the Linkbuds. Sound-wise I'd say that like the LinkBuds themselves it's are on the lighter side. And that with buds this small and with the open design you shouldn't expect all that much. These are not the Bose Earbuds, which sound amazing but are about 2.5x the size. But to be clear the Linkbuds sound perfectly good to a non-audiophile like me, really very nice. Plus there's an EQ in the app if you want to tweak things a bit - I haven't tried it yet so can't comment. The rest of the features are very good. The face-tap I found pretty phenomenal while at the gym, it worked great and definitely beats having to touch the bud itself. And I very much liked that there some ability to configure what the taps control. Great! Since Sony to their credit seems to be reading these reviews, I'll note a couple of smaller things that perhaps could be improved down the road in a gen 2 (or even sooner in the latter case). First, the buds, despite being small, still do protrude from the ears a fair amount, partly because of their domed shape. Because of this they look a touch odd face-on - someone would definitely notice them when speaking to you. For the next gen of these I'd suggest Sony flatten the dome down into a Jabra-like top. Then they might look almost unnoticeable and thus great for wearing all day in an office. Finally, the app, while robust, is way too bloated and spammy with the tie-ins to music services and the like. I gather there's some enhanced sound mode available with the LinkBuds, and I did try it out and it sounded kind of neat, but I don't happen to subscribe to any of the supported music services yet the app was annoyingly pushy about it. But my suggestions are nits. These are very good buds, basically exactly what I've been looking for, and they're certain to rise near the very top of my wireless bud choice I reach for. Great job on this one, Sony.

Overall I am satisfied with these headphones. The Audio quality doesn’t blow me away but anyone that expects open ear headphones to have phenomenal audio quality has incredibly unrealistic expectations of the current technology. I bought these for the specific feature of being able to hear everything around me while also listening to music. I have yet to test them in a loud environment but I would expect that the outside sound will somewhat over power the volume of the headphones. Anyone that expects anything other then this should buy noise canceling headphones. They are literally designed to let noise in so what else would you expect… The case feels a tad on the cheap side but if their claim of using recycled plastics is to be believed then I’m okay with that. It’s not a make or break for me personally. I watched the video about how to wear them(it took me a couple minutes to get it down and now I pop them in and out no problem) and picked out which little silicon band fit my ears best and I have yet to have any discomfort and they stay in my ears very well. Most earbuds start to aggravate my ears after a couple hours but these are so far very comfortable and light. The tapping on your head next to your ears takes a little getting used to finding out where exactly you need to tap for this function to work. You can always tap the headphone itself also if you can’t get the other tap option figured out. The app works well enough and has a decent bit of customization options. EQ doesn’t do much noticeable to change the audio quality, if you have expectations of a Bass machine go another direction. You don’t get the bass you would expect with other headphones with the way these headphones are designed. I have had zero connectivity issues so far, connected quick to Bluetooth and has worked since but things like that are always subject to change I guess. My one gripe about these headphones is that there was a very very small line where they molded the shell I would guess and it irritated my ears but a couple seconds and razor blade and I was able to shave that line off without damaging my headphones and it made a world of difference for me personally. Which is the main reason I give it 4 stars but other people may not even notice that line but I guess my ears are sensitive. I don’t use headphones to talk on the phone so I can’t comment on mic quality or anything like that. I use mine pretty much only for music and I like what they offer. So overall if you don’t have unrealistic expectations of what these headphones are supposed to be used for then these might be for you. If you are expecting excellent audio quality then don’t buy these. The style of speaker doesn’t allow excellent audio quality. If you are expecting these to somehow magically block out noise in loud places then don’t buy these. They were literally made to let noise pass through them. If you are expecting them to over power loud noise then don’t buy these. They won’t and to be quite honest all you’re doing is damaging your hearing if you need to listen to music that loud anyways. I’d prefer to keep my hearing for when I’m old but that’s just me. Hopefully my review helps some people out

I bought these to try because I like open ear earbuds for multiple reasons. One reason is because I have small children and like to be aware of my surrounding. Another reason is I have very small, sensitive ears and earholes. It might sound weird but if you know, you know. I'd been using the aftershock open ear head phones that wrap behind your head but they are not great with long hair or with wearing coats etc. I was very optimistic about these but sadly they were still too big for my ears. Not the part that you can change but the actual noise producing part that is white. I could only wear them for about ten minutes before my ear felt like it was getting violated. Even after I would remove them my ear would ache for quite a while. So sadly I decided to return them for a more expensive set (Bose). The sound they produced was very nice though and I could still hear the world around me. I just needed a smaller option. I will also add for some reason it was a pain for me to set them up to my phones blue tooth. I had never had to go through so many steps with headphones before.

Pretty pricey for what you get, but overall a good set of earbuds. It took a while to get used to the little doodads that hold them against your ear, but once fitted, they stay in and are comfortable. Not sure about the open ear part, as I found that when the music is playing, I can't hear outside noises very well so I still need to be wary of my surroundings. App works very well, battery life is acceptable. Oh, and they sound great, especially when I tweaked the equalizer settings in the app. I like these alot, but they probably should sell for a lot less.

If you had fit issues with the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, skip these as well. The sound was fine, but i found that they made my ears hurt in the same places the Galaxy Buds Live did. The little silicone attachments you add to make them fit better were pretty flimsy. You have to use the specific app that's made for the LinkBuds to connect them to your mobile device. My phone didn't pick up the headphones at all in the Bluetooth menu without that app initiating the connection. Connecting the LinkBuds to your phone through the designated app wasn't the easiest either. A note about the actual set i bought and returned: they were a used/open box item that was sold to me as if it were brand new. When I connected them to my phone, they were labeled as "Letitia's LinkBuds". That's not my name. When I went through all the fitting supporters/silicone attachments, one side of the large was missing. When I was sold the product, I noticed the little sealing sticker that keeps the package closed was a little messed up, but I thought it was because of shipping and not because it had previously been used. When I returned the product and addressed it with the employee, they tried to tell me it wasn't open box or used since it didn't have the red sticker on it. But, missing item, already named earbuds, and messed up package sealing sticker = used item. If I had liked the earbuds, I would have been more upset to have bought a used item at a new item price.

As a new take on earphones they’re pretty cool. This is a niche product, definitely not for everyone. It’s curated more for smaller ear types. They can get a little uncomfortable during extended use. The sound quality is good despite being “open back” although the bass is almost nonexistent. Using an available bass feature does help a bit but the design is its main downfall in regards to the clarity and volume. If you need a pair of true wireless earbuds to workout in or listen to podcast and still be aware of your surroundings this is it, if you like ANC or better audio clarity this isn’t for you.

When I wear ‘tipped’ or in-ear-canal earbuds, I almost always wear just one, because I like to hear my surroundings clearly. So, when I saw these, I instantly knew I had to try them. After watching and reading generally positive reviews they were a confident buy and I received them shortly after. I like the size (of the case), color, weight, and advertised battery life, though I never used them long enough to fully test that out. I also like the concept itself and the sound quality, which was about what I was expecting for ‘open-back earbuds’. The Wide Area Tap was also cool, though a bit sensitive, and it would register taps sometimes when adjusting the positioning of the buds. The microphones on these, according to friends who have joined me on calls, are incredible, and the background noise cancellation just as much so. They always complain about my audio while driving in the car, but when tested, they said that they couldn’t really hear any unwanted noise through these at all. The most major downside though is the size of the buds themselves. I’m a fully grown adult male, though on the short side and with small ears, and these were too big. One ear fit okay, though it began to hurt after ~20min of wear; but the other was instantly uncomfortable and very quickly painful. No size of the silicone wings or position adjustments could make them both be comfortable and stay in my ears— nor could any amount of advice from other customers, Samsung diagrams, or pictures/stills from reviews. Eventually I had help and measured the more troublesome ear to about 24mm from ‘shelf’ to bottom of the inside, which is shorter than the buds (about 25mm across longest points, w/o wings). The other ear measured about 25mm long. If these earbuds came in a small/medium/large, with these being medium and the small size being 5-10% smaller, they would be a 5/5 and my daily drivers. Until then, it’ll be back to mono audio and waiting for some company to make another product like this.

I just picked these up hoping to replace my airpods pro and so far after a few days of use, I will be retiring my airpods pro. These sound similar to the airpods on transparent mode which is the only mode I use. I love that I can be listening to music or an audiobook with these in but can still talk to people around me without pulling out one ear piece and asking them to repeat what they said. I made a few calls using these over phone and zoom on my laptop and the other people on the line said my microphone quality is much clearer than usual. The microphone quality on these are superior to the airpods pro based on my call testing. The major selling point for me with these is I can wear these for hours, almost all day without fatigue or having them fall out of my ears! I can't wear the airpods pro even with a bunch of different ear tips. The airpods pro just keep falling out of my ear and crashing to the ground when I'm out and about. These Linkbuds look a lot more minimal in the ear compared to other earbuds. For my lifestyle, these fit my everyday routine better than any other earbuds/headphones I've tried. I'm an asian female that lives and works in the city and noise canceling headphones are not an option for me. For safety reasons I need to be aware of my surroundings at all times and these Linkbuds were designed just for that. These don't fall out of my ears either so the fear of losing a bud is completely eliminated now.

These earbuds are some of the best ear buds I have ever used. I don't know if it's due to the Open-Ear design, or just simply because the earbuds are so good. I've never used Open back head sets before so the sound characteristics might be due to that. At any rate, it's excellent. The fit is very comfortable for these ear buds. They are not heavy and fit well in the ear. They are also fairly secure. I don't know if they'd stay in if you were head banging to some heavy metal, but for general movement and exercise I have not had any issue with them staying put. I will also say that I can wear these much longer than previous ear buds I have tried without discomfort. (Previous ones being Sony WF-1000XM3, XM4s and various other lower costing ear buds) As noted about, for sound quality these are excellent. I usually like noise canceling ear phones / buds, with these being "Open-Ear" that obviously isn't possible. So I was skeptical initially going into them, but they sound is good enough to make me prefer these over the noise cancelling features of my others. Granted the noise canceling ear buds still have their place if I'm in a noise environment, but if not and going purely for the pleasure of the sound these are amazing. Build quality overall seems good. I do have some concern if the little wings will hold up over time. But as of right now everything is great. Using these on a call the microphone seems to work well. I've done some recordings with it and it sounds descent. Callers have not complained about not being able to hear me or excessive background sounds. As for battery, it's pretty good too. With the case I can easily get an entire day out of these. I think it's about 4 to 5 hours of continuous listening before needing to put them back into the case for a little bit.

These are pretty great. I use them all day on Zoom calls, phone calls, listening to music and they sound great and are very comfortable. For audio, tweak both the EQ on the app and the EQ in Spotify (if you use it) and you should be able to find a great sound. No issues with not enough bass after the tweaks. Would have loved to see wireless charging but not a dealbreaker. I really appreciate how Sony is always innovating and these are the next step.

I've been using these for about a week, and am really enjoying them. I've always wanted a set of 'open back' truly wireless in-ears, and I saw the Linus Tech Tips review and literally ordered them right away. I don't like using the normal in-ears when I'm biking/skating, since they block out too much sound. I feel very comfortable wearing these biking, since I can still hear everything going on around me. I usually would have speakers with me when I bike, to play music or podcasts, but the problem with that is when there's heavy traffic, it drowns out the speakers; this hasn't been an issue at all with the Linkbuds, so far at least. For sound quality, I would say it's the same as any other wireless in-ear, so it's great for background music and podcasts, but I wouldn't use them over actual headphones if I'm just listening to music. I don't think that's what they were designed for anyways so that's not really a criticism. I prefer the 'open back' sound, but that might be a downside, if you want to block out outside noise. For comfort and fit, that's the one big downside in my opinion. It took me a while to figure out how to wear them without them just falling out right away. Once I figured it out, they're pretty secure, like I've bike around and they didn't fall out (yet). Even still, they don't 'feel' as secure as the in-ears that use the silicone tip and wing. I think the silicone 'wing' the Linkbuds come with don't feel that secure. If they were shaped more like how Bose eartip wings are shaped, I think that would be a huge improvement. Some random benefits I've noticed: You don't have to take them out to have a conversation. To pause, you just tap your upper jawbone twice (I think that can be reconfigured in the app though). Talking on the phone is soooo much better; For some reason the in-ears that have a tight seal make my voice sound really weird to me. These honestly really good for talking on the phone, it makes a huge difference for me. Some downsides: If I'm adjusting the fit, it often registers that as a tap, and pauses. I had to turn off the double tap to stop that from happening. I think they can be configured to pause with a triple tap, so that might help.

It fits the purpose. Light and comfortable to wear. Sound is clear but lacks bass. Being able to hear ambient is amazing. Great to wear long term and during exercise. QC issue : my first lair had tear on one of ear guard. My second pair had sound problem after obe month of use. Thankfully bestbuy replaced them without a hassle. Good to be theor elite plus member for longer period to return. Otherwise I had to send this to Sony. Still 4 stars because none others can offer this special feature during exercise

Interesting concept, listening to audio was pretty good in low to medium volume environments, but do not work well in loud places, even at max volume. On video calls connected to my computer, they do not have noise cancellation, so they pick up background noise. I think they need to fit your ears just right, as they slipped out of my ear quite easily, even just sitting down. The changeable loops have trade offs for their design. They are soft for comfort, but do not provide enough rigidity for stability for me.

Great on fitment. I have small ear canals so finding headests have been difficult. Between these & pixel buds are only ones that fit my ears without falling out. Decent sound quality for what they are made for which is being able to hear surrounding noise & still be able to hear sound clearly. I feel like a lot people give bad reviews for not being loud enough. My biggest issue is battery life. Definitely needs longer life. Overall for 1st version they are pretty good but I don't think the price equates to the product