The complete review about Sony LinkBud S

The complete review about Sony LinkBud S. The Sony WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds are among the greatest headphones money can buy, but not everyone can afford their premium £250 price tag. Sony offers some of the best headphones money can buy.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have virtually the same flagship features and audio without having to spend a lot of money? That’s where the LinkBuds S comes into play.

They don’t belong to the premium 1000XM line and have little in common with the doughnut-shaped original LinkBuds. Even so, these are one of the most complete sets of genuine wireless earbuds available, so it doesn’t really matter.

Design & Build:

• Lightweight and stylish
• Three colors
• IPX4 water resistance

Key Feature:

The LinkBuds S doesn’t look like the regular LinkBuds, which have a unique design featuring a hole straight through the middle.

Instead, the LinksBuds S are considerably more similar to the WF-1000XM4 in terms of design, appearance, and feature set, but it’s possible that Sony found it too challenging to come up with a logical name for them inside that framework.

The name “WF-1000XM4S” doesn’t exactly have a ring to it.

In spite of this, the LinkBuds S features a nice appearance that is appropriate, albeit not very unique. After the fairly insane LinkBuds, they naturally look much more straightforward because they are wireless earphones.

The most distinguishing feature is the tiny mesh circle that precisely encloses one of the LinkBuds S’ mics and is evocative of the vintage Shure SM58 microphone.

It is important that they are 4.8g apiece, manageable, and well-fitting. Normally, I select the tiniest ear tips offered, but this time the default choice worked just well. A tight fit results in a strong acoustic seal and superior performance.

When one did, I found it simple to tighten it without accidentally activating the touch controls, which, when necessary, operate quite well indeed. I seldom ever noticed them become loose.

Three colors are available for the LinkBuds S: white, ecru (also known as desert sand in the US), and black (tested here). The earbuds have an IPX4 waterproof rating, making them suitable for light rain but not much else.

The earphones and casing are made of recycled plastic from car components, while the packaging is free of plastic.

In order to create the marbling effect that is unique on each pair, Sony has now introduced a new Earth Blue color to its palette. This color is manufactured from recycled resin components produced from recycled plastic water dispensers.

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Sound Quality:

• 5mm dynamic drivers
• LDAC for Hi-Res Audio Wireless
• Almost flagship-level features

Key Feature:

With only 6mm drivers, Sony’s top-of-the-line XM4 earbuds accomplish a lot, while the LinkBuds S are only somewhat smaller at 5mm. Do they sound as good? is one of the key queries.

1. In a nutshell, no, although you may not anticipate them to be given the lower price. However, the LinkBuds S sounds excellent, there is no denying that.
2. Neodymium magnet-powered dynamic drivers perform a good job of making the majority of content sound excellent.
3. Although the top-end isn’t as stunning, it’s still there, and the bass is tight and deep, and the mid-range is robust and clear for the voices and other important instruments.
4. When utilizing LDAC with compatible devices, the headphones’ frequency range can be extended to 40,000Hz from 20Hz to 20,000Hz when used normally (such as the Sony Xperia 1 III).
5. This implies that you may receive Hi-Res Audio Wireless at up to 24-bit/96kHz at data rates as high as 990kbps.
6. The majority of consumers probably won’t, and if you’re using an iPhone, AAC will be the default.
7. Here, Sony has understandably chosen to use its own codec rather than aptX HD or aptX Adaptive.

• The LinkBuds S definitely has decent sound quality, but they aren’t as roomy or as dynamic as the LinkBuds or the XM4 earbuds.
• Depending on what’s most essential to you, there may be a minor lack of focus and muddiness here.
• This is not a significant problem, but I’m picking at it for the review since I’ve used Sony’s other earbuds before.
• It’s important to note that, in terms of sound quality alone, you can have a comparable experience from companies like Cambridge Audio for less money.

Noise Cancelling & Smart Features:

• Class-leading ANC
• Adaptive Sound Control
• And plenty more on offer

Key Feature:

1. The LinkBuds S contains a number of clever features that may be enough to convince you to choose them over less expensive options.
2. Although many users may find Sony’s active noise cancellation (ANC) to be sufficient, this feature truly just scratches the surface
3. since it also includes adaptive sound control, which is found on the company’s premium XM line.
4. This will modify your noise-canceling profile based on the locations you visit or the activities you engage in.
5. For instance, when I boarded a train, it was already in transit mode with maximum noise cancellation.
6. You may change the app’s settings, though, if you want to, for instance, turn on Ambient Sound Mode when you’re in your favorite coffee shop.

You also get Speak-to-Chat, which recognizes when you’re speaking to someone and turns on Ambient Sound Mode while pausing your music.

Alternately, you may press and hold the left earbud to activate Quick Attention, which lowers the audio volume and achieves a similar function.

However, the major purpose of this feature is to let you easily hear something like an announcement.

Google Assistant:

Yet there are many additional uses for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support, and there are even more intelligent features available. When you take out or put in new earphones, wear sensors will automatically play or pause your music.

Reality Audio:

They also feature 360 Reality Audio and quick pairing with compatible Android and Windows smartphones.

Integrated Processor:

The WF-1000XM4’s Integrated Processor V1 powers all of this, and I found the LinkBuds S to be incredibly responsive while using it.

Battery Life & Charging:

• Up to 20 hours total
• Quick charging
• No wireless charging

Key Feature:

With ANC enabled, Sony claims that the earbuds have a six-hour battery life, while the case, if full, has a 14-hour battery life.

20 hours overall, especially with noise cancellation turned on, is respectable, but if you want, you may get earbuds with greater battery life.

And you might want to, given that the LinkBuds S failed to live up to Sony’s claims in my tests.

They dropped from full to 41% during a two-hour train ride into London with ANC on the great amount of the time.

Power delivery:

They recovered to 60% after a 15-minute charge from that point, but if they are entirely dead, you could receive more than 20%.

Sony claims that a five-minute charge will provide one hour of playing, however, that charge must be made over USB-C because the case lacks wireless charging like the XM4 case does.

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Verdict:

It is undoubtedly more than what competitors provide, but those may deliver comparable sound quality and noise-canceling functionality at lower costs. The LinkBuds S is in a little tricky situation because the XM4s are older and have lower pricing right now.

At the time of writing, $20/£20 extra will bring you the complete flagship experience. Much after the price cuts, they are still highly recommended, and they will become even more practical.