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- Sony’s LinkBuds Clip use an open-ear, clip-on design that keeps the ear canal uncovered, allowing listeners to hear music, podcasts and calls without blocking surrounding sound.
- The earbuds offer three listening modes and up to nine hours of battery life, with a premium AUD$329.95 price tag.
- They stayed securely in place throughout eight hours of testing, but their unusual fit, open sound and constant environmental awareness make them better suited to a particular kind of listener.
After wearing the Sony LinkBuds Clip earbuds for eight hours straight, they still don’t fit well, at least for me. The moment I clipped these to my ears, things felt weird. They never fell off, not even while walking or running. But I spent most of my day adjusting them, convinced they would come loose at any moment. Coming from conventional in-ear earbuds, having the speakers sit over my ears rather than stuck inside my ear canal was an uncanny sensation, to say the least. But here’s the thing: these clip-style earbuds have plenty of potential. They’re just not quite there. Yet.
Sony, alongside a handful of other brands including Sennheiser with its new ACCENTUM Clip earbuds and Bose and Kith with their Ultra Open Earbuds, is going after this still-emerging form factor for one obvious reason: you can listen to whatever you want – music, podcasts, phone calls – all while remaining aware of the world around you. Sure, transparency mode exists in plenty of headphones these days, but when there’s no eartip sealing off your ear canal, there’s no need to turn that feature on when you can already hear what’s happening around you.
If you aren’t looking for the best possible sound quality or the very best active noise cancellation, but instead want earbuds that keep you present, I can see the value in this style of earbud, even if the form factor remains a little unorthodox. That’s why I wore the Sony LinkBuds Clip for eight consecutive hours to see whether I could get used to them as an all-day pair, and whether staying connected to the world around me justified the compromises.
1/4Sony LinkBuds Clip – Key Specs
- Model: WF-LC900
- Design: Open-ear, clip-on
- Driver: 10mm
- Weight: Approx. 6.4g per earbud
- Battery Life: Up to 9 hours per charge, up to 37 hours with charging case
- Quick Charge: 3 minutes for approx. 1 hour of playback
- Water Resistance: IPX4
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.3
- Codecs: SBC, AAC
- Multipoint: Yes
- Listening Modes: Standard, Voice Boost, Sound Leakage Reduction
- Colours: Green, Greige, Black, Violet
- Price: AUD$329.95
1/2Finding the Sweet Spot
Right off the bat, putting on the Sony LinkBuds Clip felt unfamiliar. Sony tells you to gently pull your earlobe, clamp the earbud onto the thinner edge of your ear like an ear cuff, then adjust it until you find the right position.
That last part proved easier said than done. Rather than sitting inside your ear canal, the speaker rests over the opening, and I never quite found a position that felt natural. The housing felt a little too large for my ears, and I spent most of the day readjusting them.
Sony includes removable Air Fitting Cushions to help improve fit, but they didn’t really work for my ears. They’re also small and fiddly enough that I could easily see them disappearing down the back of a couch.
Still, they never came loose, even while walking or running. The constant readjusting, however, meant I regularly triggered the touch controls by accident. And when I did want to use them, they weren’t always consistent. Physical buttons are always my preference, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Regardless, they were never painful, just a little uncomfortable and difficult to forget about. Someone with a different ear shape may have a completely different experience, but after eight hours, I still hadn’t found that sweet spot.
1/10Working With the World Still Turned On
Once I stopped fiddling with them long enough to get some work done, the appeal of open-ear listening became a little clearer. You can have music or a podcast playing all while still hearing conversations and whatever else is happening around you. There’s no need to remove an earbud every time someone speaks to you.
It’s essentially like having transparency mode switched on all the time. If that’s what you want, that’s where clip-style earbuds start to shine. You might want music playing while you work, a podcast during a walk, or the ability to hear someone without interrupting what you’re already listening to. For that kind of experience, the open design has an obvious advantage.
For me, though, I prefer having the choice. Most conventional earbuds already offer a transparency mode you can switch on and off, alongside ANC. With the LinkBuds Clip, there’s no noise cancelling that you can retreat into when you want to shut out the world. You’re committed to the open-ear experience, whether that suits the environment or not.
That omission feels harder to ignore now that Apple has added ANC to the open-ear AirPods 5, which start at AUD$219 in Australia. It shows that an open design doesn’t necessarily mean giving up the option to block out some of the outside world when you want to.
As the day went on, the limitations of that choice became more apparent. Sony notes that positioning can affect sound quality, volume and call quality, which matched what I heard throughout the day. The sound is relatively good for what they are: speakers that sit outside your ear canal. But I kept wanting the speaker section to sit a little further into my ear, closer to the canal.
At times, I thought I found that sweet spot where I could get more from the sound, but it also made me question the whole arrangement. If I’m constantly trying to position an open-ear earbud closer to my ear canal, perhaps I’m asking it to do something it was never intended to do. Perhaps I’m better off with in-ears.
1/6The Sony LinkBuds Clip Out and About
Taking them outside gives the open design a clearer purpose. Being able to hear the world around you while you listen is a useful feature when you’re out and about. But those around you might take issue with your new earbuds and their sound leakage. During my testing, I was conscious that people nearby could hear what I was listening to, which is hardly ideal if you’re trying to avoid becoming one of those annoying passengers on the bus.
Sony includes a Sound Leakage Reduction mode, but I preferred leaving the earbuds in Standard mode, since I tend to avoid additional processing where I can. And while the mode may help in the right situation, it didn’t change my view of the underlying compromise. I’d still rather have the option to switch on ANC when I want it.
Are Clip-Style Earbuds Worth It?
The LinkBuds Clip stayed connected throughout my entire eight hours of testing; the battery didn’t need recharging, and call quality was perfectly adequate, if unremarkable. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the fit. Eight hours was enough to convince me the clips were secure, just not long enough for the fit to feel natural.
At AUD$329.95, the LinkBuds Clip aren’t the most affordable earbuds on the market. Cost aside, they haven’t convinced me that clip-style earbuds should replace conventional earbuds as my everyday option. I’d rather have stronger sound, noise cancelling and a fit I don’t have to spend all day thinking about and readjusting.
The LinkBuds Clip certainly offer something different, but I’m not the listener who needs that difference badly enough to accept the compromises. There’s sure to be an audience that wants this style of earbud: someone who wants to hear the world around them while listening, dislikes having earbuds pushed into their ear canals, and finds the clip design comfortable. Those are the people I can see getting the most out of clip-style earbuds.
And I do think the category has potential. The LinkBuds Clip have shown me why the idea is interesting, but also where the limitations remain. Sony has made something that works, but I’m not convinced the form factor is fully realised yet.
I now know the LinkBuds Clip won’t fall off. I just never stopped feeling like they might. For now, that’s enough to keep me reaching for my current daily drivers, even if they are nearing the end of their lifespan. But I will keep an eye on what Sony and other brands are up to with clip-style earbuds, because you never know. They might find that sweet spot I was looking for. Eventually.
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