Sony LinkBuds S: A Balanced Offering That Gets Added To My Favorites

It was only a few short months ago we reviewed the very unique LinkBuds by Sony aka the donut-hole earbuds. I thought they were innovative & interesting as we called them a niche pair of buds for a niche crowd. Aka they’re not gonna be for everyone or everyone’s ears.

And then we got leaks of another version of them and last month, we got the normal-looking LinkBuds S. These resemble more of a traditional look for earbuds. Sony armed these new ones w/ both noise-canceling & ambient sound so you’ll never have to take them off. After a good month w/ them, we’re ready to tell if this version of the LinkBuds is ready for the masses.

Now unlike the OG LinkBuds, the S type version gives you a more ‘standard’ look. No donut holes here. These look like several Sony designs merged into one. So the LinkBuds S is a mix of their WF-1000MX4 flagship buds and WF-C500 budget buds to sit somewhere in between – design and price-wise.

You got on an overall plastic body comprised of recycled car parts along w/ its charging case. Then you have sensors + charging pins on the inside part and mics for noise canceling/ambient mode on the outside. You got the touchpads on the larger outside part for customizable touch controls (i.e. 2x right for playback & on left for adaptive sound levels).

These might be one of the more lightweight & comfortable earbuds I've put in my ears.

You still have IPX4 rating to hold you down against the elements. But this means that it can only handle splashes of liquid but cannot take being doused or fully submerged. So keep that in mind. All while weighing in at only 4.8 grams. Keep in mind the AirPods Pro comes in at over 5 grams.

Making the latest from Sony, one of the lightest buds on the market. Now on top of being on the lighter side of things, these are also pretty comfortable as well. You have the usual 3 top sizes to choose from according to your ears. I actually prefer this fit over their flagship WF-1000XM4s which offer memory foam-type ear tips as the LinkBuds S just has the standard silicone tips.

Not the biggest & best sound but a good overall, balanced offering.

Sony checked off a lot of boxes here in regards to feature support. You got their drivers enhanced w/ Sony’s Integrated Processor V1 which handles the ANC, beefs up the sound quality, & reduces distortion. As well as Bluetooth 5.2 along w/ DSEE Extreme which is upscaled the fidelity lost on digitally compressed files, Sony’s higher quality LDAC, SBC, & AAC sound profile support.

Now believe it or not w/ the LinkBuds S is a bit larger than the OG ones, the driver is actually smaller here. The original LinkBuds had 12 mm drivers while the LinkBuds S have 5mm ones. Now, this doesn’t make for a drop in audio quality or volume at all between the 2. This does mean that you won’t get the big bass you might expect from the WF-1000XM4s here though.

Speaking of the sound on these, I tested these playing old Shanice from The Meteor Man soundtrack, Kendrick’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Aubrey’s Lemon Peppers Freestyle, Nipsey Hussle, GoldLink, as well as podcasts from Rory & Mal, and Social Proof. The results led to amazing clarity, good separation, and kind of on the light side for the bass.

And lastly, in the sound department, we’re talking about its mics. While everything else about these has been pretty good, I think the mics excel on these. The exterior mics have a mesh covering to help fight against the wind. Which does a pretty good fighting off some background noise while taking calls on these. Probably one of the features that live up to its price tag.

Sony quotes the LinkBuds S to offer a little more juice than the OG ones. They added an extra 30 minutes to go from 5 and a half hours now to 6 hours on a single charge. The charging case adds an extra 14 hours to the clock as well. You don’t have any wireless charging but fast charging is still present. This will get you an hour of juice in a 5-minute charge as it will take you an hour and a half to fully charge the buds and 3 hours for both the buds and case. The LinkBuds S easily loves up to the said battery life. Over the course of a month, I had to charge these only twice. So if you use the case sparingly like me, these will last you quite a while before having to plug the case in.

These aren't perfect & a bit overpriced but the LinkBuds S offers a great mix of ANC, comfortability, & sound - all in a lightweight package.

Sony made the LinkBuds S as a jack of all trades, master of none pair of earbuds. You got the great benefits of LDAC high-quality audio, noise-canceling, ambient sound, and a great mic for calls in a nice package. Now, this is Sony and these are budget buds so these ain’t cheap either. These retail for $200 but don’t offer the very best ANC or sound quality from Sony.

With that said though, it might be the one tough pill to swallow. You’d have to shell out another $80 for their flagship WF-1000XM4s or save yourself $30 and opt for the Liberty 3 Pros which offer top-notch features albeit not as comfortable as these though. As my last words on the matter, I do enjoy the balance the LinkBuds S offers in regards to feature set and ability over the other 2. So now that you have all of the info, choose wisely. Or wait until they go on sale.