A combination of superb ANC with some very handy features make these wireless buds unique.
Sony LinkBuds S MSRP $200.00 Score Details “Excellent ANC and unique features make these earbuds an intriguing new option.” Pros Cons Sony’s $180 LinkBuds amazed and perplexed me. Their original premise — that it should be possible to enjoy high-quality sound while also maintaining a barrier-free connection to the outside world — was intriguing. Same for their donut-shaped speakers. And despite a few drawbacks, they largely worked.
It’s easily the most eco-friendly packaging in the industry, and we hope the other players take note — I’m sure this is one innovation Sony won’t mind if its competitors imitate. As with all of Sony’s current generation of wireless earbuds, the LinkBuds S have an IPX4 rating for water and sweat resistance, so they should have no trouble with a run or gym workout as long as you clean them afterward.
The LinkBuds S give you single-, double-, and triple-tap gestures to work with as well as tap-and-holds. Between the two earbuds, that’s a total of eight possible actions, but Sony continues to use a control customization scheme that prevents you from selecting the specific functions you want. Instead, you must choose from one of four control “groups” and you can assign only one group to each earbud.
However, it’s worth noting that, like Sony’s other wireless earbuds, the LinkBuds S do not support Bluetooth Multipoint for simultaneous device connections, even when LDAC isn’t in use. Given Sony’s philosophy for the LinkBuds of “always on/never off” this is an especially odd omission. Another limitation: You can use the right earbud on its own for music or calls, but if you choose to use advanced features like Spotify Tap, the left earbud won’t be able to operate independently.
Perhaps that’s simply a testament as to how good Sony’s DSEE upscaling technology works, but I feel like other LDAC-enabled earbuds, like the Technics EAH-AZ60 and 1More Evo offered a greater improvement when using this codec. Speak-to-chat, which Sony has cloned from the WF-1000XM4, uses sensors to detect when you’re speaking and automatically engages transparency mode while simultaneously muting your audio. It’s a great convenience — especially when your hands are full — and it works really well, though on a few occasions it mistook gear changes on my bike for speech. Sony says some vibrations will cause this kind of false positive.
Battery life Strangely, for a set of earbuds that purport to be an all-day, always-on, never-off companion, the LinkBuds S only have average battery life, if that. Sony claims you’ll get six hours per charge with ANC turned on, and nine hours when both ANC and transparency are off. With ANC on, you’ll get 20 hours total when you include the charging case. That’s certainly enough for an entire day , but not much more.
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