Sony LinkBuds Open review: open TWS headphones with a unique design

We are used to standard headphones: in-ear, in-ear or full-size. But over the past couple of years, TWS headphones with an open acoustic design have been gaining popularity quite actively. The purpose of such headphones is for the user to constantly hear the surrounding sounds and not be completely detached from reality. Structurally, they are different: mostly these are variations on the theme of mounting on the auricle and directing the emitter into the ear canal, but so that the headphone does not go inside. A couple of years ago, Sony offered a more interesting design in the form of a ring with a hole in the middle. Today we will talk about the second such model from the manufacturer, Sony LinkBuds Open.

Specifications of Sony LinkBuds Open

Package contents

The Sony LinkBuds Open come in a small recycled cardboard box with a soft cover that features a picture of the headphones themselves and basic technical information.

The package is minimal: the headphones themselves in a charging case, a short Type-C cable for charging, and the necessary documentation. Due to the design, no additional tips or ear pads are required.

Design and usability

Different manufacturers implement open TWS headphones in different ways. Sony has perhaps the most interesting design. In fact, each headphone consists of two parts. The larger one is in the form of a small sphere with all the main electronics. And the smaller one is in the form of a donut, which is attached to it. It is directed into the ear canal.

The main unit has a matte rubber surface that actively collects dust. There is a microphone hole on the outside of each earbud. And the outer ear cups are designed to more securely fix the headphones in the ears.

The smaller part has a hole in the middle through which the user can hear everything that is happening around them. The main part is made of matte plastic, and the decorative ring inside is glossy.

On the inside of the main unit there are two charging contacts, left and right earbud markings, as well as infrared sensors responsible for auto-pause when the earbud is removed from the ear. The smaller unit on the inside has holes around the perimeter through which sound is fed into the ear canal.

For correct positioning, Sony LinkBuds Open must be inserted into the ear and rotated slightly to ensure that the locking bar is in the correct position. The headphones are lightweight and secure. However, correct positioning is extremely important: the sound quality depends on it.

The headphones look extremely unusual and interesting. As for sports, they have IPX4 protection. So they are suitable for training and jogging, but you should not immerse them in water or get into a heavy downpour.

The charging case consists of two halves that resemble sea pebbles. The upper half is glossy, the lower half is matte, and between them on the front is an LED to indicate charging. The black version of the case is not very practical: the upper part immediately collects fingerprints. The white version will look neater.

Inside the case, everything is standard: two places for headphones with charging contacts. On the back is a button for switching to pairing mode.

Management

To control the Sony LinkBuds Open, you don't have to touch the headphones themselves. There is a Wide Area Tap function: you can touch the area in front of your ear and the headphones detect vibration thanks to the built-in acceleration sensors. The function is convenient and useful, but sometimes it doesn't work very correctly. To fix the problem, you can adjust the sensitivity of this function in the Sony Sound Connect application.

The standard control scheme is not the most convenient, but you can get used to it, and it is also possible to reconfigure it. Double-tap is responsible for playing and pausing, triple-tap is for accepting or ending a call, as well as controlling playback. And to control the volume, you need to tap at least five times. The left earbud is for decreasing the volume, the right earbud is for increasing it.

In addition, there are several other useful control functions. Autopause when removing the earphone from the ear (and resuming playback when the earphone is back in the ear), Speak-to-Chat: playback automatically pauses if you start a conversation. Head gestures are also supported for accepting and rejecting calls: you just need to nod or shake your head. Among other things, the Sony LinkBuds Open support voice control. There is support for Google and Alexa.

Connectivity and functionality

To connect the Sony LinkBuds Open, Bluetooth version 5.3 is used. During use, there were no stability problems, no disconnections. There is support for SBC, AAC and LC3 codecs, as well as LE Audio to minimize latency. Sony's native LDAC codec is not supported. But, given the design, there would be no special increase in sound quality from this.

The headphones support simultaneous connection to two Multipoint devices. The application has a corresponding tab where you can select two devices from all previously connected ones.

In the proprietary Sony Sound Connect application, the main tab displays the charge of the headphones, the case and the codec. Then there are three main tabs. The sound settings include an equalizer, head tracking, Spatial Audio, the proprietary DSEE sound enhancer, ear shape analysis, autoplay, and the background music effect. It creates the impression that the audio is playing in the room, not in the headphones.

The system settings include Multipoint, adaptive volume, voice command settings, touch control, sensitivity of the aforementioned Wide Area Tap function, head gestures, auto-off, LE Audio settings, etc.

The last tab is responsible for linking the application and headphones to Spotify, Endel, and Ingress Prime services.

Sound and noise cancellation

The sound of the Sony LinkBuds Open is powered by 11mm ring drivers with neodymium magnets and the flagship V2 chip. Given the design features, the sound quality is very dependent on the correct position of the headphones in the ears and the level of ambient noise. In general, potential owners should be aware that this design involves compromises in terms of sound quality. As always in open headphones, the low-frequency part of the range suffers the most. Therefore, it is amplified to compensate. On the other hand, the open design gives more "air" to the sound and this is quite important when listening in the background.

Speaking directly about the sound, in a quiet room the headphones sound very good and driving. There is a sufficient amount of low frequencies, although their detail and depth are at an average level, which is expected. The mid and high frequencies are reproduced well. There are no significant dips or peaks, everything is enough. The mids are worked out a little weaker, the highs are good. And at the same time they are not annoying. On the street, of course, the sound quality is somewhat lost. In general, it can be compared with in-ear headphones. Although the latter still have minimal noise isolation.

Of course, you shouldn't expect from open TWS headphones too accurate sound that will satisfy music lovers. Still, Sony LinkBuds Open is not for that. These are headphones for an active lifestyle and for those who want to always hear everything that is happening around. As for the microphones, they are quite good: the interlocutor clearly hears everything even on the street when it is quite loud. Of course, the voice does not sound very natural, but this is a common problem of TWS models.

Battery life

Sony claims that you can listen to music for up to 8 hours (and talk time for 4.5 hours) on a single charge. The charging case adds another 14 hours. Fast charging is supported: 3 minutes should provide up to 60 minutes of music. A full charge of the headphones takes 1.5 hours, and the case takes 2.5 hours. Unfortunately, wireless charging is not supported.

The headphones were used mostly at maximum or close to maximum volume with minimal talking. They lasted almost 7 hours, so the real performance is close to the declared one. And these are very good figures for a TWS model.