Sony Electronics today debuted LinkBuds, a new kind of earbud design using a ring-shaped speaker driver to enable an immersive listening experience without closing out the listener’s surrounding world. It holds great promise for safer commuting and outdoor workouts, experiencing augmented reality, playing mobile games and similar uses.
The $179.99 MSRP earbuds feature some nice high-end tricks, such as voice-powered compatibility with Amazon and Google virtual assistants; volume control that adapts to surrounding noise levels; a Speak To Chat function that temporarily halts music while in a conversation; tap-based quick access to Spotify playlists; IPX4 water resistance against sweat and splashes; and compatibility with Microsoft’s Soundscape way-finding audio beacons.
I tested a pair of the LinkBuds provided by Sony and found them to be a promising and unique new design take on the headphone/earbud experience, allowing high-quality, hours-long listening while still being able to hear and be aware of surroundings. It also suggests another step toward augmented-reality and Metaverse-style experiences that merge real-world and virtual experiences.
Getting set up is a little arcane, using the Sony Headphones Connect app and the LinkBuds in their (open) charging/storage case. Bluetooth pairing wasn’t the most intuitive process, but only took about 10 minutes, as you link the buds to the app, set up a Sony account, and more.
You can tie the app to music services such as Tidal and Sony’s own Artist Connection app that use Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, a format designed to create a more immersive and spatial listening experience. Spotify’s many users can tie their accounts through the Sony app to the LinkBuds, and use its Spotify Tap functionality to quickly access pre-selected playlists.
Given Sony’s own in-house ecosystem of music label, streaming service, gaming-oriented Experia phone, and other enabling technologies, it’s little surprise that the LinkBuds do best with an Android phone to take advantage of everything on offer, rather than playing in the Apple iOS world more deeply.
For instance, with Alphabet recently ending support for Google Assistant on iOS, the LinkBuds can only use that virtual assistant though an Android phone. Conversely, there’s no voice-activated Siri compatibility, which is built into Apple’s various audio products.
But even on an iPhone using Apple Music, the sound is excellent, with instruments and vocals distributed across an expansive, well-defined virtual listening space that can be quite entrancing.
LinkBuds side-by-side
(LinkBuds image courtesy of Sony Electronics)
The more remarkable thing about the LinkBuds, however, might be that its excellent audio quality doesn’t prevent you from generally being able to hear and respond to, say, a spouse sitting behind you talking. That alone, depending on your spouse’s temperament this late in the #WFH/pandemic-cloistered era, could be a lifesaver.
More generally, that integration between real world and virtual head space can add greatly to experiences such as using augmented reality and mobile gaming apps, which will only become more important in coming years.
As part of today’s launch, Sony reached out to Niantic, the pioneering publisher of AR mega-franchise Pokemon Go, for an endorsement of the LinkBuds’ ability to enable an immersive audio experience while protecting players from the hazards of trying to “catch ‘em all” while moving around busy streets and neighborhoods.
“Our products — Ingress, Pokémon GO and Pikmin Bloom — use augmented reality and real-world gameplay to inspire fun and wonder for our community,” said Niantic Director of Product Marketing Archit Bhargava said in a release.“Sound is an important part of any entertainment experience, especially ones where users are out exploring. That’s why we’re so excited to partner with Sony on the launch of LinkBuds to deliver immersive real-world audio experiences to our community.”
Creating an account through Sony Headphone Connect also sets up a plethora of gamified badges and “achievements” that track listening time, settings, and locations, among other details. If you’re into the Quantified Self, those badges represent another way to measure still more of Everything.
The data also can be used to optimize listening for different locations, from work, to the bus stop, to the gym. The LinkBuds feature “Adaptive Volume Control,” designed to tweak volumes based on surrounding ambient noise, according to Sony representatives.
LinkBud fitted in ear, with ring driver over ear canal
(Image courtesy of Sony Electronics)
You can change the tap-based controls on the LinkBuds themselves through the app, but the default settings are straightforward. Double-tap by your left ear to pause/play music tracks, and triple-tap to skip to the next track. Double-tap by your right ear to answer the phone.
The LinkBuds are tiny, just 4 grams, and surround the entrance to the ear canal rather than push into it. The bulk of the electronics, including Sony’s Integrated Processor V1 and Digital Sound Enhancement Engine, are contained in a half-sphere attached to the ring-driver element that tucks under the ear’s upper fold. The device is kept comfortably and snugly in place, even during workouts, with help from a tiny rubber adapter (the LinkBuds come with five sizes of those adapters for different kinds of ear shapes).
The approach reduces fatigue and discomfort for long-term listening. And to further enable longer sessions and near-day-long use, Sony promises 5.5 hours straight of listening time, and another 12 hours of capacity in the charging case. The LinkBuds can add 90 minutes of listening time with 10 minutes of recharging, the company says. As always with manufacturers’ claims of battery life, Your Mileage May Differ.
All told, the LinkBuds suggest a promising approach to the earbud universe, so promising that Sony Electronics dispensed with its usual cryptic naming conventions that string together near-random letters and numbers, and created a fluffy new brand name that’s actually memorable. The company also has put a substantial marketing push behind LinkBuds as it tries to carve out space in a booming sector of consumer audio.
The company’s enthusiasm seems justified. The LinkBuds provide excellent audio quality, at a high-end but competitive price. Its unusual design also provides lightweight, all-day access to the real world with enough additional functionality and compatibility to enable a wide range of uses for music, mobile games, augmented reality, commuting, work outs and more.
