While many in-ear headphones seems to focus more on noise cancellation feature, Sony LinkBuds goes the other way around: it offers true wireless in-ear headphones that we can wear the whole day because it allows us to hear our surrounding normally. A clever design puts hole in the in-ear units, allowing sound to come in naturally to our ears while still allowing music to be heard. Tempted by this interesting idea, I decided to give it a go.

Sony LinkBuds come in two colour options: white or grey. I chose grey because I thought it looked better. The charging case is really compact, which is a big plus for me. It uses USB-C for charging. No wireless charging, but I generally prefer cable for charging anyway.

According to Sony, LinkBuds are made from recycled plastic materials. It promises 5.5 hours battery life, total 17.5 hours with charging case. Weighing only 8 grams, these are the lightest wireless earbuds that I have ever owned. The charging case weighs 33 grams, also lighter than most charging cases. This product is splash-proof and sweat-proof with an IPX4 rating.

I was pleasantly surprised with how comfortable these earbuds are in my ears. I could definitely see myself wearing them for hours. Probably not the whole day, but long enough to survive work hours and commuting time. I can happily confirm that I could hear outside sound reasonably well unless I set my music too loud, which should be common sense really. Imagine carrying a Bluetooth speaker with us to an outing, we would also have problem hearing our surrounding if we play very loud music.

Sound quality is very decent. It is obviously not at the level of flagship headphones from Sony or Bose, but I find it quite enjoyable for everyday casual listening. For even better comfort, it is a good idea to find the right size of the fitting supporter (Sony includes 5 pairs of fitting supporter) to find the one what works better for the shape of our ears.

These excellent in-ear headphones quickly find their way in my everyday use case scenario. These become be the ideal pair of headphones that I grab at night when my kids would sometimes still call me. Happy with the purchase, Sony LinkBuds has now joined my short list of frequently used everyday headphones.