Sony LinkBuds Open review

Just a couple of years ago, if a brand released a pair of earphones that not only didn’t stop ambient noise from reaching your ears, but actually banked on it, it probably would have made for a bad product. However, things have changed, and consumers now want open-ear designs, which do just that.

That brings us the new Sony LinkBuds Open, a pair of earbuds that doubles down on the open-ear mantra and offers a design with no stems and a literal hole down the middle. The promise? Quality sound with an emphasis on staying aware of your surroundings.

But do the Sony’s unique earbuds deliver on this front? Let’s find out in our detailed Sony LinkBuds Open review.

Sony LinkBuds Open design

The most intriguing part of the new Sony LinkBuds Open is the design, so let’s start with that. But before we dive in – a quick refresher on what open ear designs are, and why they exist in the ANC era.

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Open ear designs like those offered by the Sony LinkBuds Open or the Bose Ultra Open are aimed not at sealing away ambient noise but deliberately letting them reach the ears. This enables users to be aware of everything that’s happening around them.

This could be useful both indoors, like in an office where you may want to frequently converse with people, or outdoors during running, for instance. The open ear designs also eliminate the stuffiness that comes with silicone-tipped earbuds sometimes after prolonged use.

Coming back to the Sony LinkBuds Open, the earbuds are lightweight and compact, and come with this new three-part form. This includes the body, the donut-like output speaker, and the silicone horn on the top.

While the body does the processing, the speaker helps the sound reach your ears, and the horn keeps the product fastened in your ears, or at least that’s what its supposed to do. We say this because in our experience, not everyone had a good experience fitting the LinkBuds Open in their ears.

While some got a secure fit, and appreciated the open and airy lightweight design, others struggled to keep the earbuds in their ears. This was particularly true for those with larger ears. With no silicone tips to grip into your ear canal, the LinkBuds Open sit on the outside of your ear canal, which also means they rely on the fit more than ever.

We really recommend trying these on first to know if the buds are built for your ears. Irrespective of whether the earbuds fit you, though, you will appreciate the design of the case.

The square-ish case houses the earbuds, and has a nice matte-finish across the case, except for the top portion, which features a glossy black. While this does give the case a dual-tone finish, it also makes the top part vulnerable to scratches and smudges.

Sony LinkBuds Open sound quality and features

Coming to the sound quality, the Sony LinkBuds Open offer a mixed experience. While earbuds come with the hardware to output high-quality frequencies, the design takes away from that. Here’s what we mean.

Due to the open-ear design, bass reproduction on the LinkBuds Open is largely affected. Hearing the thump in hip-hop tracks, for instance, is very difficult, even with some light ambient noise around you, although this isn’t the issue with more vocal-heavy songs.

The other aspect that takes a hit is the volume. The openings of the LinkBuds Open allow no sealing, and as a result, a lot of your music’s output is lost. We found that we were almost always using the earbuds at the maximum volume, and listening to finer details like background instruments was very difficult.

It is safe to say that the music listening experience isn’t going to be on par with the host of ANC earphones available today. We understand that the entire premise of the earbuds is to let outside noise through, but the lack of power and bass also means these earbuds aren’t versatile – when it comes to the setting or the choice of music.

While the Sony Sound Connect app has some equaliser presets to change the sound signature, they don’t help much with the key issues we faced.

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That said, there were some features we really appreciated. This includes wide area taps, which let us control playback with tap gestures, but not in the earbuds themselves. Simple taps on your cheekbones, (in front of the earbuds) will be enough to register gestures.

This works accurately for the larger part, and it was refreshing to change tracks without disturbing the placement of the earbuds. There are also other features that work well, like wear detection, that will pause playback when I take the earbuds off, or AirPods-like head gestures, that let you take or cancel calls.

Sony LinkBuds Open battery life

The Sony LinkBuds Open come with some pretty good battery life and can easily go a full week on a single charge, without any issues. In our week-long testing, we only charged the earbuds twice, and that was only because we were trying hard to completely discharge it.

Unboxed Take: Who should buy the Sony LinkBuds Open?

With a Rs 26,990 price tag, the Sony LinkBuds Open offer somewhat of a mixed experience. If fitting is an issue, you can steer clear of these buds. Alternatively, you can check out the Bose Open Ultra, which takes a different approach to the open ear design and is priced similarly.

If fitting is not an issue, you will appreciate Sony’s open-ear design, the lightweight feel, sound quality and the long-lasting battery life.

That said, for a more conventional experience, you can go with premium ANC earbuds with their built-in Transparency Mode feature, like Sony’s own WF-1000XM5. These can let you enjoy your music when you want to be aware of your surroundings, but also when you want to isolate yourself.

For all the above reasons, we rate the Sony LinkBuds Open 3/5. Stay tuned to Unboxed by Croma for more in-depth reviews.