Sony LinkBuds Clip: Experience Open Audio Freedom

There’s clearly no shortage of truly wireless earbuds and earphones, but finding one can be especially fun, particularly if you don’t find the feel of earphone tips all that nice. Whether called an earbud or earphone, most of the in-ear offerings tend to actually sit inside the ear, often with a little bit of silicone or foam or something like it called a “tip”. And that’s not a style everyone digs. If you prefer a variety of earbuds that more closely follows an actual earbud like Apple’s AirPods, tips may disagree with you. In recent years, companies have found solutions to this. Open audio offerings have popped up, wrapping a pair of earbuds around the ear and holding a speaker to where your ears actually are, while another style of earbud avoids the tips altogether. Almost based on the concept of an earring, a clip-on earbud is kind of what it sounds like: an earbud that clips to the ear, rolling over the fleshy nub of your ears to hold in place and provide sound. It’s an area we first saw from Bose in the Ultra Open, and later on from Shokz in the Shokz OpenDots. This year, Sony is giving the idea a good go with a continuation of the LinkBuds range, coming in the LinkBuds Clip. We’re a little reminded of Sony’s first open-audio LinkBuds attempt with its ring-shaped driver, but the LinkBuds Clip definitely conforms to the more normalised approach for open audio earbuds: clipping to the side of the ear. For Sony’s take on the tech, there’s a 10 mm driver on either side and an IPX4 water resistant design, which largely means sweat resistance. In terms of audio, you can largely expect a similar approach to what Sony tries in its noise cancelling headphones, minus the noise cancellation. There’s no noise cancellation or isolation here, but there is Sony’s Digital Signal Enhancement Engine known as the DSEE, and a variety of modes you can cycle through in order to get the sound boosted for various environments. Comfort will be one of the key issues, and while the LinkBuds Clip are designed to clip, they also have fitting cushions that can be attached, handy if you want to keep them on all day and you don’t find the earbud itself all that comfortable by itself. The battery life even seems suited to all day use, with a maximum of 9 hours of music playback or 4 of talking, likely accounting for between 6 and 9 for most people with mixed usage. The case maxes out at 37 hours (an additional 28 hours), essentially giving you a few extra charges in between. Pricing can be seen as a little on the high-side, especially given there’s no noise cancellation or isolation in these earbuds. As such, you’ll find the Sony LinkBuds Clip available in stores shortly, priced from $330 in Australia.