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With gadgets taking up more and more space in our day-to-day lives, companies are pushing the boundaries of product design, trying to make gadgets super compact in a way that doesn’t compromise performance. That’s what Japanese tech giant, Sony has tried to do with the brand-new Sony LinkBuds S.
Design
Off the bat, Sony has gone the eco-friendly way with its proprietary sturdy packaging which it calls ‘Original Blended Material’. While it’s recycled, it neither looks nor feels cheap. On the back of the flip case, you have the power/pairing button and the charging slot, and a thin strip of indicator light at the front, which turns on the moment I flip open the case.
Now, the claim to fame with this set of earbuds is that they’re one of the smallest and lightest TWS (True Wireless Stereo) earbuds in the market right now. It sits securely enough, during workouts and bumpy autorickshaw rides. However, what I dislike about the design is that every time I tap the earbud it pushes uncomfortably against my inner ear.
Sony says they’ve managed to keep the size small by developing a compact driver and merging the Bluetooth Audio SoC (System on Chip) and the noise-cancelling processor in one single chip. The LinkBuds S also happens to come packed in one of the most compact, space-efficient boxes I’ve seen, with the accessories - the charging cable, and three sets of silicone ear tips - nestled in easy pull-out compartments.
I tried out the biggest ear tip size available and somehow it doesn’t feel like the perfect fit, although the app’s earbud test disagrees. Anyway, I get along with enabling Spotify Tap and streaming some music on my way to work. What the LinkBuds S does well is delivering well-rounded, balanced acoustics. In AMARIA BB’s Slow Motion,the bass is punchy and seductive, without overpowering the vocals. In Ryan Castro’s Mujeriego, the vocals are crisp and enjoyable. In some of the tracks, the treble seems to be a little heightened but thankfully, there are multiple equaliser settings to take care of that.
After spending a couple of days listening solely to music, I decided to switch on the Speak-to-Chat feature. This option pauses any audio I’m streaming on the headphones the moment I start a conversation in real life. So, when a colleague walks up to my bay, and I turn around and say, “Hey! What’s up?” the music immediately pauses. It stays paused for as long as it can hear me talk. Once the conversation is over, I manually tap to resume music, and when I don’t, it anyway resumes after 15 seconds. While useful, this feature isn’t foolproof yet with the music pausing when there’s loud chatter in the background and also when I let out a loud sigh, of which there are many during the workday.
App experience
One appealing feature of the LinkBuds S is, once it’s paired with the app, most functions are fully customisable. However, I strongly feel the app could be simplified and made more user-friendly in terms of navigation and personalisation. While there are a bunch of options that the buds and the app offer in tandem, there are undesirable trade-offs. For example, if I choose Spotify to fire up with a single tap on the left earbuds, I can no longer use it to adjust the volume and I’ll need to pull out my phone to tweak that each time. I lose tap access to switch between noise cancellation and ambient sound mode if I choose to retain volume controls on the left earbud. This also means I have to remember what I’ve set as default controls on the left earpiece. When I keep switching the quick-function shortcut, I end up increasing the volume when I just wanted to activate noise cancellation or vice versa. Even on the custom equaliser settings, there’s only the mention of the frequency range and not the associated tonal range - bass, mids, and treble.
Noise cancellation
The noise cancellation is fairly effective on the earbuds. The multi-point connectivity needs to be enabled on the app before I can use it first, which seems like an unnecessary extra step to me. Once connected, the multi-device switching is fairly seamless - it takes just about a second to tune in to an incoming call and put my YouTube binge on the laptop on hold.
Battery life
These Sony earbuds kept me company for almost three functional days with most of my usage being around streaming music and almost no voice calls. If you tend to have busy workdays with lots of voice calls and video conferences, the earbuds might keep you company for around two days. The case was good for two charging cycles during my usage.
Verdict
Size truly doesn’t seem to matter given the fact that the nifty lil’ Sony LinkBuds S is able to deliver well-balanced audio, effective noise cancellation, and good battery life. In my opinion, the improvements that need to be made to make this even more desirable are the user experience and customisation options on the app.
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