Sony LinkBuds Clip Review – Pretty Purple Open-Ear Earbuds Tested

The Sony LinkBuds Clip is one of their latest additions to their line-up and is their first open-ear design that aims to address the usual issues of the form factor like sound leakage while potentially offering superior sound quality and battery life.

We managed to get our hands on a sample for testing  After putting it through its paces over the Chinese New Year holidays and across the usual work commute, here’s our Sony LinkBuds Clip review where we share if it’s worth its rather substantial price tag.

Sony LinkBuds Clip review – Build and Design

The packaging of Sony LinkBuds Clip review sample bears the fruits of their sustainability efforts and is primarily made of cardboard and paper. After popping the security seal open, you get a quick start manual, the earbuds and its companion charging case as well as a pair of ear cushions. Oddly, there’s no charging cable so you’ll have to use your own. 

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Up close, you get a rather chunky charging case with rounded corners that can be comfortably opened one-handed. The front features a single charging LED indicator while the rear has a single USB-C port for charging duties. While it comes in a variety of colours, our Sony LinkBuds Clip review sample comes in a cute looking shade of purple with the top half featuring a high gloss finish while the base comes with a contrasting matte finish. Both halves are fairly fingerprint resistant and grippy.

The rounded corners make the charging case comfortable to hold much like a fidget toy though the case is far too large and chunky to be pocketable and its hefty dimensions mean that you’ll likely be tossing it into your jacket pocket, handbag or backpack for daily carry.

Unfortunately, the design lacks wireless charging despite there being ample opportunity to do so seeing the large dimensions of the charging case.

Popping open the lid of the case reveals a recessed cradle to dock both earbuds that come with matching purple colourways. The open-ear earbuds consist of two rounded modules connected by a semi-flexible C-shaped plastic bridge.

The C-shaped bridge hooks onto the outer ear with the smaller rounded module that houses a 10mm driver fitting just outside the ear canal while the larger rounded portion that houses the battery is placed just behind the ear lobe. 

Both the top surface of the C-shaped bridge as well as the top portion of the rear module act as control surfaces that respond to a series of taps. The aforementioned ear cushions provided in the package are intended to be added to the C-bridge portion to offer a better fit for those with smaller ear lobes.

Controls are partially hardwired into the design with constant taps on the left earbud to reduce volume and constant taps on the right to increase volume. A double tap on the left side cycles through settings for Standard, Voice Boost, Sound Leakage and a Background Music mode to simulate the ambiance of a cafe. A triple tap on the left lets you take or finish a call.

For the right earbud, a double tap controls play or pause while a triple tap lets you fast forward to the next track or to take as well as finish a call. 

The earbuds feature an IPX4 rating which means that it is slightly splashproof while the charging case does not have any water resistance so some care needs to be taken to ensure the case is safe from rain or sweat. The earbuds fortunately are able to resist minor splashes of water like rain or sweat from a workout though they aren’t able to survive a shower or a swim in the pool.

While it is rather obvious that the charging case is made of plastic along with the earbuds, the build quality of our Sony LinkBuds Clip review sample is otherwise solid and even after several weeks of use, the casing and earbuds have remained relatively scratch free. 

Sony LinkBuds Clip Review – Performance 

While the earbuds can be used straight out of the box when paired to a phone, you’ll need to download and run their Sound Connect app to gain access to more menu settings. Seeing the open-ear nature of the design, there’s no active noise cancellation option in Sound Connect for the LinkBuds Clip though users can alter its Listening mode to one of four different options to accommodate different usage scenarios.

You get Standard, Voice Boost, Sound Leakage Reduction and Background music as selectable options. Oddly, only Standard mode allows access to equaliser settings for a more customised sound profile with the other modes featuring fixed settings.

The Sony Sound Connect app also allows you to tweak the earbuds to accommodate usage in specific locations such as Office, Commute, Walking, Running and Gym. Beyond these settings, the app allows you to see remaining battery life on both earbuds and also the case itself. 

Getting it paired up and running with an Android phone took mere minutes though navigating the complicated web of sign-ins for the Sony Sound Connect app took a few more.  Once that formality was sorted, it then took a few minutes to ensure a proper fit for the earbuds. 

The LinkBuds Clip can be moved up and down slightly while still retaining enough clamping force to stick onto the ear lobes. As mentioned earlier, the Sony LinkBuds Clip does not have active noise cancellation capabilities seeing the nature of the design as it is not able to maintain a passive sound seal which leads to external ambient sounds leaking in.

To overcome this, the LinkBuds Clip lets you adjust Listening profiles to match your environment or usage scenario. If you’re using it in a fairly quiet environment, you can use the Sound Leakage Reduction profile to minimise noise to avoid sharing your taste in music or lack thereof with everyone within three paces. If you’re in a fairly noisy area like a coffee shop, you can opt for Voice Boost that increases voice volume playback for better clarity. 

The new Background Music mode which is available with the latest system update tweaks music so that it sounds like background music in a cafe. This is a highly specific scenario which will likely see use only for those focused on studying or serious tasks that require intense focus. By and large, you’ll likely be reliant on Standard mode for most usage scenarios.

When worn, our Sony LinkBuds Clip review sample proved to be exceptionally comfortable with its open design mitigating the usual discomfort and ear pressure build-up common to closed in-ear designs.  This allows for hours of comfortable long-term wear. It proved to be comfortable enough that it stayed in all day from early morning till sundown without any serious discomfort.

However, the provided ear cushions aren’t particularly secure and have a tendency to fall off when in use or nudged. Hopefully, future iterations redesign the cushions so that they are more secure.

In Standard mode, the earbuds were able to deliver fairly well balanced sound with good mids and highs with fair, if unremarkable bass. It handles casual listening for most genres well and manages to tackle voice calls clearly even in noise environments with minimal fuss. 

Joanna Wang’s ‘Vincent’ with its rich vocals sounded clear while Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow’ offered good detail though the sound stage felt rather restrained. There’s minimal external sound leakage even at fairly high volume as the earbud portion is fairly close to your ear canal.

While equaliser settings and Sony’s strategic placement of the 10mm driver as close to the ear as possible go some way to mitigating external sound, there’s still some measure of external ambient noise leaking in. On a four-hour flight, the background engine noise was still audible as a dull murmur in the background when tracks were playing.

Battery life is excellent with a single charge lasting 9 or so hours which is a full work day with the charging case offering an impressive 37 hours of battery life.

Should you buy the Sony LinkBuds Clip?

The Sony LinkBuds Clip does not come cheap but its unique open-ear design offers exceptional comfort for extended and a measure of good sound quality and enough battery life to last a full workday of music listening.

However, the nature of its design means that it doesn’t handle bass all too well and a measure of external noise leaking in does occur in noisy environments. This combination of features makes it a good buy for urban commuters who still need to be aware of external sounds to some degree and who prize comfort for all-day wear. 

If you prioritise higher quality sound, Sony’s new flagship WF-1000XM6 wireless earbuds that are also available in Malaysia are a potentially better choice though it also comes with a premium price tag higher than the Sony LinkBuds Clip.

Specifications
Price RM899
Frequency response 20Hz – 20,000Hz
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.3 w/ A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP
Supported codecs SBC, AAC
Battery life 9 hours (music playback), 37 hours (inclusive of charging case)
Size/Weight 50.4 x 50.4 x 32.6mm / 42g

Sony LinkBuds Clip review sample courtesy of Sony Malaysia. For more details visit  https://www.sony.com.my/headphones/products/linkbuds-clip?sku=wf-lc900-gz-e