Sony LinkBuds Clip review: Premium, good-sounding open-ear earbuds

For people who don’t want silicone tips in their ears, Open-ear earbuds are becoming more mature offerings. Take the Sony LinkBuds Clip, for example, which is trying to be more ambitious with sound, more premium build materials, and a feature-rich experience. So, you are not only getting ambient awareness; the new Sony clip-style open-ear earbuds come with a 10mm driver, up to nine hours of music playback claim, Bluetooth multipoint connectivity, and IPX4 water resistance at an asking price of Rs 16,990.

I have worn these Sony buds for a long time now, and as a person who isn’t a fan of the open-earbuds design, here’s why I find it to be an interesting product.

A stylish design that is very easy to wear

Sony offers the LinkBuds Clip in Greige (Gray+ Beige), Black, and Green colours. My review unit’s matte beige finish looks more like a piece of contemporary jewellery. This unique look does turn heads, and you would want to wear it as a style statement.

Wearing them is easy. The clip-style design of the LinkBuds Clip has two modules connected by a flexible section that keeps the unit in place: one facing the ear canal and the other outside the ear. This sits firmly and doesn’t fall off with strong head movement. Also, thanks to the IPX4 ingress rating, it can withstand sweat and splashes following a workout session.

In case the clip grip is loose, you can use the bundled fitting cushions in the box. They attach to the flexible clip and can be positioned to make the earbuds feel more secure and comfortable.

The Clip is also very light, and mostly you wouldn’t feel any heaviness while you’re wearing it. Very rarely, though, after wearing it for a long stretch, I felt the grip causing slight pressure on the outer ear. This didn’t mean I wanted to take them off immediately, but I would start adjusting them to reduce the discomfort. This could, of course, vary with different ear shapes but is something to note.

When you are not wearing them, drop them in the bundled case, and this squircle box with cute rounded edges feels premium. It would have been nicer if it were a bit smaller. At present, it is fairly visible in trouser pockets.

Detailed sound quality with restrained sub-bass

The sound is where the LinkBuds Clip makes the strongest argument for its price. Even without a seal around the ear canal, the Clip produces clear, detailed, and spacious sound. Because the driver is positioned towards the ear canal, more of the sound reaches your ears directly. It is just that you need to adjust the position for the best experience.

Still, due to an absent sealed chamber, deep bass reproduction is much more difficult by design. There is enough upper bass and mid-bass sensation, but deep bass is restrained here. You can enjoy fairly precise drops, beats, and the body of male vocals, lower piano and guitar notes.

An example to state the limitation is ‘Limit to Your Love’ by James Blake, wherein deep low-end rumble simply does not come through on the LinkBuds Clip in the way it does on a sealed pair of good TWS earbuds. You can hear the bass notes, but you do not get that deep, almost physical movement of air.

What you get is a more natural sense of space in the LinkBuds Clip. The 10mm driver reproduces clear vocals; instruments are easier to discern, and compared with lower-end open-ear earbuds, there is more detail in both these elements, and high notes have better definition. Songs also sound wider rather than being concentrated around the centre of your head.

The presentation is suitable for acoustic music, podcasts, YouTube videos and tracks where vocals and upper-frequency detail matter more than sub-bass.

Ambient awareness and different listening modes

Sony offers different listening modes in the Sound Connect app. I was listening mostly in the Voice Boost mode, in which the vocals and midrange sounds are louder and thus easier to hear. Especially in a car, office, or other indoor spaces, with this mode, background noise doesn’t reach your ears.

Outside, however, busy Indian roads are a different story. Horns, traffic and other sharp, loud sounds will still reach your ears regardless of the mode you choose. That can be distracting, but it is also part of the design. The LinkBuds Clip is meant to keep you aware of your surroundings, and that awareness is one of the main reasons to choose an open-ear pair in the first place.

The other one could be for people who can’t or don’t want to insert an eartip in the ear canal. The direct push of loud sounds can be harmful or, worse, hurtful. Even the heightened vocals in Voice Boost mode can be harsh at times. You can use the Standard listening mode in such cases. It is the general-purpose mode and does a better job at ambient awareness than the Voice Boost mode.

And in situations when you don’t want others to hear what you are listening to, you can use the Sound Leakage Reduction mode. While it helps in keeping what you are listening to personal, the music quality takes a hit, so I wasn’t using it that often.

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Sound Connect, controls and calls

The pairing experience was smooth, and the connection remained stable when the phone was nearby. It did drop when I moved further away or in areas with patchy connectivity, but within a normal range, I did not face any significant connection issues.

Sony Sound Connect app gives you EQ controls, listening modes, multipoint connectivity and access to the company’s proprietary features like DSEE upscaling technology and 360 Reality Audio (Spatial sound). The latter is compatible with select services only.

What anybody can and will use are the tap operation functions. You can configure it to some extent. You can choose Playback Control, Digital Assistant, Listening Mode/Quick Access to Spotify/Amazon Music/Endel as the tap operation for each side. The tap recognition was accurate and very reliable, even when the fingers were moist.

Sony puts considerable emphasis on voice pickup and AI-powered call processing. The company says the LinkBuds Clip combines microphones with a bone-conduction sensor and voice processing to improve speech pickup in noisy environments. The resulting call experience was respectable.

Fine battery life

Sony claims up to nine hours of continuous music playback from the earbuds, with up to 37 hours of total battery life when the charging case is included. The case charges through USB Type-C.

In my own battery test with the AAC codec, volume set at 80%, and continuous playback of a FLAC music file, the left earbud lasted 7 hours and 15 minutes, while the right lasted 7 hours. That should be enough for a working day or long travel.

Sony claims 1 hour worth of runtime with 3 minutes of wired charging. There is wireless charging at this price, though.

Should you buy the Sony LinkBuds Clip?

The Sony LinkBuds Clip is not an earbud I would recommend simply because it is open-ear. There are cheaper options that offer the same basic benefit of hearing your surroundings with decent sound quality. Sony’s offering here feels like a more refined version of the concept, with better sound, a premium design, reliable controls, useful software features, and enough battery life for a full working day.

The biggest reason to consider it is sound quality. The LinkBuds Clip sounds more detailed than the lower-end open-ear earbuds I have used, with clearer vocals, better high-frequency detail and a wider presentation. It also manages to retain enough mid-bass punch to make beats and drops enjoyable. The compromise is deep bass. If you listen to music where sub-bass and low-end rumble are important, a good sealed TWS earbud will still sound more satisfying.

The design is another reason to buy it, but also one of my reservations. It is easy on the eyes, simple to put on, and light on the ears. But after prolonged use, the grip can become slightly uncomfortable. And because of the open design, you cannot expect the LinkBuds Clip to deal with traffic noise the way ANC earbuds do. That is the trade-off for keeping you aware of your surroundings.

So, if you specifically want this type of design, care about sound quality, and have the budget for it, the LinkBuds Clip is worth considering at Rs 16,990. It is a premium open-ear earbud rather than an alternative to conventional TWS earbuds. If you want the best open-ear experience without compromising too much on sound quality, Sony has made a compelling product here.

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