Open earbuds are all the rage, as companies like Bose and Nothing debuted earbuds that prioritize environmental awareness and balance internal and external sound over noise cancellation. Sony was leading the pack with the LinkBuds, but it's been two years since their release.
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The company has now given the LinkBuds a facelift in a successor, the LinkBuds Open, which I tested for a few days. The LinkBuds Open retail for $200 and boast a lot of swanky software features you can discover through the app, but they miss on some hardware features. So are they worth your time and money? Keep reading to find out.
View at SonyThe LinkBuds Open improve on their predecessors' design with a silicone wing tip that helps stabilize the earbuds in your ears and by delivering richer bass. Additionally, Sony fitted the LinkBuds Open with Bluetooth multipoint and eight hours of battery life, which is three and a half more hours than their predecessors.
Sony's typical sound profile is warm and full, and the LinkBuds Open are no different. I enjoyed using the LinkBuds Open to listen to my autumn vintage jazz playlist as I walked around the neighborhood, rode the subway, worked, and hung out. I can turn the volume all the way up and immerse myself in the harmonies of a Stan Getz song while also keeping tabs on the surrounding conversations.
The LinkBuds Open lack noise cancellation (look to Sony's LinkBuds Fit for that), but you can customize the sound on the new Sound Connect app, which replaces the older Sony Headphones Connect app. In the app, you can adjust the earbuds' EQ, and there's a new feature that lets you adjust your music to mimic how it would sound in various environments, like a café, a bedroom, or a living room.
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When I turned on the Background Music Effect to mimic a café environment, my jazz songs sounded like they were bouncing off of walls, accentuating the highs and muffling the bass. I like this feature and hope to see it in even more Sony audio products. Music listening is often a passive activity that you pair with studying or consuming another form of media, so it makes sense for the sounds to move to the background.
One of my favorite LinkBuds features is the voice assistant-less voice commands. You no longer have to activate Siri or your phone's native assistant to get your earbuds to stop playing music. Once you turn on the voice assistant mode in the companion app, you can say: "Hey headphones, stop music," or "Hey headphones, raise volume," and your audio wishes are granted.
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Another fun feature Sony debuted in 2022's LinkBuds series is Wide Area Tap, which lets you touch near the ear -- and the earbud itself -- to pause and play audio. This feature is helpful when you're on the move, whether running or just in a hurry, or if you find the earbuds' sensor area too finicky for wireless controls. I recommend turning the sensitivity of Wide Area Tap to high to get the most use out of it, since the standard sensitivity mode isn't always responsive.
Since open earbuds lack noise cancellation and are best for when you want to be aware of your surroundings, a key component of an open earbud is all-day comfort. A great open earbud excels at staying in your ear and balancing internal and external sound, all while providing enough comfort.
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Unfortunately, comfort is where the LinkBuds Open fail. They are deeply uncomfortable for me to wear for longer than an hour. My discomfort stemmed from the one-size-fits-all design of the earbuds' speaker. With some traditional earbuds, you can switch the ear tips depending on your ear size. If Sony designed this earbud for all ears, it shouldn't have created one uncomfortable fit size for its entire audience. Other open earbuds, like Bose's Ultra Open and Nothing's Ear (Open), find a way to create a unique, inclusive open earbud design that serves all ear shapes.
As someone with smaller ears, it was painful to wear these as I worked or walked around. The donut that fits in the ear does not have a silicone tip covering it, so I had trouble keeping it in. If you have an average or larger ear, you may avoid the sizing issue I experienced.
Future-forward software upgrades and intuitive features are the highlights of the new Sony LinkBuds Open earbuds, but the discomfort I experienced superseded the new and improved features that blew me away. I couldn't wear them long enough to fully enjoy them.
If you have larger ears and are interested in open earbuds, these may work well for you. If spending $200 on open earbuds that might not fit isn't worth your while, I recommend the Nothing Ear (Open) or the Bose Ultra Open.
Sony also released the LinkBuds Fit, which have a closed design and noise cancellation. I found the Fit to be more comfortable, and they're packed with all the fun features that Sony introduced with the LinkBuds Open. If Sony's software intrigues you, I recommend those instead of the LinkBuds Open.