Design & Construction

It has been a while since we had a special release from the Sony true wireless headphones line, Most of the time, it the familiar extra bass series, the h.ear series or the 1000x line. But this time, Sony is changing the market strategy to launch a totally new line of earbuds, the Linkbuds and Linkbuds S. Today, we are looking at the more promising option of the duo, the Linkbuds S. Heavily inspired by the combination and experimentation of the WF-C500 and WF-1000XM4, the Linkbuds S is by far the best earbuds Sony has ever designed in the the past few years, As usual, making an effort to save our environment, Sony utilises no plastic in the Linkbuds S packaging, reflecting their commitment to reducing the environmental impact of their products. This time, the Linkbuds S got it right with a simple rounded earbud shape that nicely contours to all ear sizes, while not forgetting that it is made with recycled plastic materials from automobile parts that feel premium. The earbuds sit just right in your ears like most of earbuds on the market today, there is no need to jam it in too tight like the WF-1000XM4 but not as definitely isn't as free floating like the AirPods Pro. At the front of the earbuds, a large microphone mesh, can be seen to take in as much ambient noises or filter them out. Of which, we will dive deeper in the later part of our review. Both earbuds bear the Sony logo debossed on the side of the earbuds appealing to those who are after a subtle look. As usual, Sony went with touchpads on the face of the earbuds that work really well without actually jamming the earbuds into your ears when you tap them. Now for the controls, a single press on the right earbud will play/pause your music, a double press will skip forward and a triple press will skip backward; holding it down will launch your choice of smart assistant of Alexa, Siri or Google. Moving to the left earbud, a single press will enable Active Noise Cancellation or Ambient Sound, a double press will play/change Spotify playlist, while a triple press will play Endel Soundscape. Meanwhile, holding it down will activate Quick Attention. Quick Attention is a feature that allows you to quickly talk to someone without removing your earbuds from your ears. Now, this feature is further improved with a Speak-to-Chat function that tracks and learns your voice in real-time to pause your music immediately when you start talking. This can be really handy for those times where you don't have a spare hand to hold the side of your right earcup. This time, Speak-to-Chat has improved so significantly to the point that when you start talking, it just instantly kicks in, less than a second to detect your voice. Absolutely fabulous. Now, you may change certain settings like the voice detect sensitivity from High, Low or leave it on Automatic as well as change the time until the mode closes ranging from as short as 5 seconds to a maximum of 30 seconds or even not close automatically. Personally, I would always just leave it at the standard 15 seconds with voice detect set to Automatic. Alternatively, you may also remove one earbuds from your ear and the music will auto pause, and that you may turn it off in the app if you wish. Of course, these controls for either side of the earbuds can also be customised in the Sony Headphones Connect App to control the volume. Of which, a single press will increase the volume and holding it will decrease the volume. It takes about 3 hours to charge both the case and the earbuds from a dead battery. However, if you are in a rush, there is always quick charge which will allow for 1 hour of playback with a 5 minutes charge. On this note, I have to let you know that the case unfortunately does not feature Qi wireless charging. Now, onto the case, I was surprised at how slim it was when I first unbox the LinkBuds S. It is as small and compact as the Apple AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM4 and the Marshall Mode II. Like all true wireless earbuds, the earbuds dock in fairly easily and will not fall out when the case is flipped since there are magnets inside to keep them secure. Both the case and the earbuds have a matte coating that resist fingerprints really well. There is a USB-C port at the back of the case with an LED indicator in the front to notify you of the case charge when closed. In the box, there are extra sizes of silicone eartips to ensure a tight seal and secure fit. Even though the LInkbuds S isn't a sports earbud, it boasts a decent IPX4 water resistance for those intense workouts or rainy days, giving users the ultimate peace of mind. 

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Sound Quality

Well-defined, balanced and energetic is how I would describe the sound of the Linkbuds S. Let's start off with the bass response. In short, it is deep, punchy, and tight. It never managed to distort at loud volume and never bleeds into the mids when it is at a low volume level. It doesn't hit as deep as the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 but it definitely as strong as the Jabra Elite 7 Pro. The highs sound decently bright and filled with plenty of details. The mids do sound extremely crisp with good clarity. The soundstage is as wide as the Jabra Elite 4 Active but still far from the best, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3. The instrument separation is excellent and distinct left and right channels could be heard clearly. If you are not so much of an EDM or Hip-Hop fan, I am glad to report that the LinkBuds S works perfectly with all other genres ranging from Pop to Jazz after you fiddle with the customisable sound settings in the Sony Headphones Connect App available for download from the App & Play Store. In the app, you are first greeted with the earbuds and case battery status with the codecs in use as well as DSEE Extreme. Moving downwards, we have a few tabs here, starting with the Status tab. First, Adaptive Sound Control allows for the toggling of different noise-canceling modes like Walking, Staying, Running, and Transport. Each has different levels of noise-canceling and ambient sound mode. These are all automatically detected by the headphone itself through its smart Sense Engine technology built-in. Of course, users can toggle the amount of ambient sound let in, focus on voice-only, or just turn it off completely. This feature has improved to be faster and more responsive than before to also track your frequently visited locations and kick in the right amount of ambient sound control when you are there so you don't have to physically switch each time. You may register your locations either from learned ones or from the map itself. However, if you are concerned over giving away your location data to Sony, you may turn off this option as well. There is also the option to enable or disable the notification tone when a mode switches now. Personally, I hardly use this feature but having tried it couple of times, I am confident to say that its accuracy is fantastic. You will then see the current song playing and adjust the volume slider or skip songs in this setting too. One of the newer features here after the latest update is the option to measure your volume levels for hearing safety. Working with World Health Organisation, the app shows us a range of sound decibels of frequent daily sounds for us to benchmark our volume levels for hearing protection. This feature will keep track of your volume levels for 7 days to understand if you are listening too loud for your own good, honestly quite a handy feature that is very relevant in today's world. Moving onto the Sound tab, we will see the main feature here, Ambient Sound Control. Based on my testing and usage, the Sony Linkbuds S does well in its ANC abilities amongst its competitors. From the hum of the AC, traffic sirens and horns, strong winds and even high frequencies screams or baby cryings, the Linkbuds S blocks around 80% of those using the new Integrated Processor V1 to enhance the quality of noise-cancelling and reduce cabin pressure. You may also switch to Ambient Sound Mode where you can utilise the microphones to take in surrounding noises for safety as well as focus on voice which keeps the ambient noise low and takes in more of human voices instead as well as turn off all settings for passive noise isolation. Just like before, there is a slider to toggle between level 1 to 20 of ambient sound intake. Next, the option to turn on or off Speak-to-Chat is there for you to change its settings as mentioned earlier in my review. Comparing the Ambient Sound Mode with the AirPods Pro, I would give the edge to Apple's Transparency Mode as it is simply the most natural-sounding transparency that seems to know what to filter out and take in. There is also the essential sound equaliser with presets ranging from Bright, Excited, Mellow, Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Speech Etc. You can also choose to customise your own to make the headphones great for all genres of music ranging from soothing jazz to bass-heavy EDM tracks. 360 Reality Audio being Sony’s object-based spatial audio technology adds to that immersive experience. However, this feature is currently only available to users of 360 By Deezer, nugs.net, Artist Connection and TIDAL. There is no support for mainstream music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube Premium as of yet. You will need to do a photographic scan of both of your ears and the app will find the most optimised sound field for your listening. Lastly, there is the option to switch priorities between sound quality for LDAC codec support or stable connection if the Bluetooth signal is unstable and the addition of DSEE Extreme to enhance the quality of the music output. Dolby Atmos support is also available with the compatible Sony WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter when connected to a BRAVIA XR TV. Call quality is improved as the headphones now uses the new Precise Voice Pickup Technology and an AI-based noise reduction algorithm to isolate my voice against ambient noises. The caller on the other end feedback that the microphones do pick up significantly less surrounding noises but my voice comes off decently loud and clear though the technology do sometimes overcompensates to block the loud noises resulting in softer volumes even when I speak up. Wind noise reduction was not too bad either as hardly any wind noise could get though even if it was quite strong outdoors. When put against the AirPods Pro superior call quality, I would say it is close to beating the competition. Moving to the System tab, you can change the Voice Assistant from your regular phone's default of Siri for IOS or Google Assistant for Android or use Amazon Alexa built-in, The headphones touchpad can be enabled or disabled and customised to cycle between the 3 options of Ambient Sound Control, Volume Control, Playback Control or have no function assigned to either earbuds. Ambient Sound Control Operation can cycle between the 3 options of ANC, Ambient Sound and Passive Noise Isolation or use just 2 options of ANC and Ambient Sound Mode as I have set here as well as customising the double press or triple press on the button to instantaneously activate Spotify or Endel Quick Access. I have to commend the amount of detail Sony have given to ensure that users use the right ear tip fit as the app has an optimal earbud fit test to help you determine if you really have a perfect seal. The headphones will also automatically power off after a certain period of time. There are other more settings like the enabling or disabling or auto play/pause, language of voice guidance and automatic download of software updates with the option to reset all the settings to original if you mess up any. In the Services tab, you may set and edit the settings all of the 3 services of Spotify, Endel and Ingress Prime. Endel creates soundscapes that adapt to your heart rate, motion, time of the day, weather, and circadian rhythm. While, Ingress Prime is a real world game using Augmented Reality and Spatial Audio. Meanwhile, Microsoft has a compatible Soundscape app that enables innovative experiences for 3D audio-based navigation, using sensors in the earbuds to give a heads-up and hands-free experience. All of these services listed would require you to enable Service Link, which would turn off the LDAC codec support as well as disable the single use of the left earbud as a continuous connection is needed to the right earbud. In other portions of the app, there is an achievement-like dashboard to show your listening hours, locations and actions, listening volumes and earn badges. Not the most useful feature here, but some extra data is better than none I guess. Lastly, the information tab shows all your notifications for software updates and couple of user-friendly tips. In other settings, you can backup or restore your settings when you sign in with your Sony account and turn off the headphones from the app itself.

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Connectivity & Portability

The earbuds supports LDAC, AAC and SBC codecs together with Bluetooth Version 5.2. The battery life peaks at 6 hours per use and additional 14 hours from the case giving you up to a total of 20 hours of playtime. The package also comes with a USB Type-C cable for charging. The headphones' connectivity to the app is perfect as I never experienced it being unable to detect my in-ear headphones. The Linkbuds S also support Google’s Fast Pair feature that enable effortless Bluetooth pairing with your Android devices. You can easily locate where you left your headphones by ringing them, check their last known location on your smartphone or receive a notification when your headphones battery is running low so you know when to charge them. These features are further enhanced with Swift Pair on a Windows 10 laptop, desktop PC or tablet as pop-up pairing guidance will appear on compatible devices when pairing mode is selected. My only pet peeve is the lack of multi-pair Bluetooth that allows you to connect more than one device to the earbuds at any one time especially if you have both a laptop and a phone in use at the same time and you want to be able to take calls on one and listen to music on the other device. If you are planning to watch videos or movies with these, I am glad to report that they do not suffer from any latency. Should you also wish to only use one earbud at one time, either earbud is available to do so provided that you have the Service Link option in the app set to off.

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PROS​​

• Premium Recycled Materials

• Ergonomic Fit

• Low Profile

• Adaptive Sound Control

• Ambient Sound Control

• In-App Equalizer

• Strong Noise-Cancelling

• Quick Attention

• Speak-To-Chat

• Quick Charging

• Quick Pairing

• Quick Access to Spotify/Endel/Ingress Prime

• LDAC Support

• IPX4 Water Resistance

• Bluetooth 5.2

• Multi-Device Bluetooth Pairing

• A Range of Colours

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CONS​​​​

• No AptX Codec Support

• No Qi Wireless Charging

The Bottom Line

In all, the Linkbuds S is a peek into the promising future of the Sony true wireless earbuds lineup. Having so many features packed in, it has a lot to offer in terms of sound settings and third party compatible services. The top features why it is so sought-after in a saturated market of true wireless earbuds has got to be its sound quality, call quality, noise-cancelling as well as overall user experience. It is indeed a seamless and hassle-free experience that Sony has finally nailed after many years of R&D. The Linkbuds S is definitely the way to go if you need a complete package with an attractive price tag to match.