Sony’s LinkBuds Clip open earbuds don’t stand out from the competition

The Sony LinkBuds Clip are the company’s first clip-on earbuds. They follow the innovative donut hole Linkpods and Open LinkPods Like their predecessors, they allow you to listen to music or podcasts, make phone calls, or be active outdoors while maintaining awareness of your surroundings. The clip design has become more popular over the past couple of years, and while the LinkBuds Clip has a sturdy design and good sound, there’s nothing significant that sets it apart from the competition, especially at its $229.99 price.

Like other open-ear headphones, the LinkBuds clip wraps around your ear helix like an earband. The small, spherical earphone housing is placed just outside your ear canal and is connected by a flexible band to a larger, capsule-shaped housing located on the outside. I like the look of the Clip Buds, with their slightly shiny casings and a selection of muted tones, including lavender, green, gray (grey beige), and black. Some may prefer a bolder, flashier look, but I like the green sample that Sony provided. You can also mix and match five different case covers—black, green, blue, coral, and lavender—to customize it.

The clip is designed to be in the middle of your ear, but since everyone’s ears are different, there may be some adjustment to find the most comfortable spot for you (for me, it’s a little lower than mine). Once you find the right spot, putting the earbuds on is quick and easy, although I found them to be a bit loose. The band is not as flexible as the one on Shokz OpenDots onewhich fit more securely around my ears. Instead, Sony includes silicone “cushions” that fit over the band. (Color-matched pads come with additional top case covers.) They gave me the secure fit I was looking for, and I was able to wear them for almost the entire workday without discomfort. I even forgot I was wearing it sometimes, because it lets in ambient sound. Those with larger ears may feel more pressure from them, even without the cushions attached.

The highs and lows in the audio performance of the clip

While I preferred the fit of the LinkBuds to the pads, using them affected the sound balance. The cushions caused the speakers to be positioned slightly farther away from my ear canal, which resulted in decreased bass performance. And the clip – and every pair of truly open earbuds – is a little light on the amazing bass. There are three basic listening modes: standard, sound boost, and sound leakage reduction.

Standard mode sounds the most natural, with a clear midrange that doesn’t overwhelm the higher frequencies. The sound boost added a lot of audio presence that became tiring during longer music listening sessions, but added good clarity for podcasts and news programs. Sound Leakage Reduction mode cuts out much of the high-end response, limiting potential disturbances to those around you, but it also makes music sound muffled and dull. There wasn’t much leakage anyway, even in standard and audio boost modes.

There are some presets in Sony’s Sound Connect app, as well as a 10-band equalizer, if you want to boost or lower a particular frequency band. For some of my more swinging tracks — Soundgarden’s “Spoonman,” for example — I turned up the bass and low-mids a bit. There’s also Sony’s DSEE technology, which slightly improves the sound of compressed audio.

The LinkBuds clip really shines when making calls. They have a new AI noise reduction chip and a bone conduction sensor that allows them to focus on their wearer’s voice and isolate it from the noise around them. While making multiple calls while walking the busiest streets in my neighborhood in Los Angeles, my friends could easily hear me, while traffic around me was at a standstill. There were occasional moments when they commented on hearing a gust of wind or the sirens of a nearby police car, but they were fleeting. During those moments, I had some trouble hearing it due to the Clip’s open design.

I was a little surprised by some of what was missing from the LinkBuds Clip, especially for $230. Although battery life is good at nine hours per charge (and another 28 hours with the case), the case doesn’t have wireless charging. The earbuds support the standard SBC and AAC codecs, but Sony’s high-resolution LDAC is missing. They also don’t have audio sharing, which is Available on WF-1000XM5 It can now be found for just $25 more than the clip.

Touch controls can be difficult. You can use multiple taps for different controls – two taps on the right side for pause and play, three taps for the next song, and four taps to turn up the volume (or turn down the volume on the left earbud). But the point on the bar to tap has a small margin of error, so if my finger is off target at all, the taps won’t register. It was more difficult while running. I would need to slow down to a brisk walk to get better control.

You can set up scene-based listening in the Sound Connect app, which allows you to customize the earbuds’ functionality based on your activity or location. So, you can have a specific playlist start when you start up, or when you get home, and the app can switch to your favorite music streaming service. You can also have the app read notifications in your ear. It’s an interesting feature if you have specific routines and invest the time to set them up.

It makes sense that Sony came out with the clip, especially since it helped popularize the open-ear headphones trend with the original LinkBuds. The Clip are good earbuds that look great, sound good, and are comfortable. But for $230, there’s nothing that sets them apart from other newly opened earbuds like the Shokz OpenDots one and Earphone clipAnd both are cheaper. Once their prices drop or go on sale, your purchase will be more tempting. But until then, unless you’re a fan of the look of the LinkBuds Clip, it’s best to wait.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Kralis/The Verge