Sony Link Buds Review

Reviewed by Kathryn Harrison

Recently I was offered the opportunity to try out the new Sony Link Buds wireless headphones. Now let me start by saying I am not a techy person. I’m not interested in having the latest tech just because, however, I was getting sick of becoming tangled in my regular wired headphones and was very eager to try these out.

The first thing I noticed about the Link Buds was the unique design. They look like no other headphones I’ve seen before. There’s the usual headphone shape but underneath that there’s an attached open ring shape. I have to admit when I was taking them out of the box I didn’t think there was any way they would fit in my ears! Well not only do they fit, they are super comfortable and secure! There is a stretchy silicone ring that goes round the outside of the headphone that helps keep the buds exactly where they need to be, within the box there are 5 different sizes of these rings which you can easily remove and change to find the best fit for your ear.

When setting up the Link Buds there is an app for you to download and then you connect the Buds to the app easily by Bluetooth. Once connected its really simple to play music, listen to tv shows, tune into radio or listen to podcasts all through the existing apps on your phone. I was struck by how clear the sound was, there was no delay or crackle of any kind.

I’m a seamstress and work from home, I often work in an evening when by children are in bed and I like to listen to audio books or podcasts. However because sewing machines are quite loud things in order to hear the audio books clearly I find I have to have the volume quite high in order to hear the dialogue over the sound of the machines. This isn’t great when my children are sleeping as its just all too noisy. As an alternative I have been using headphones but they have downsides too. With cheaper, lower quality headphones I still struggle to catch all the dialogue or when I can hear it they drown out all other noise meaning if one of my children calls out in the evening I can’t hear them. Far too many times have I had the shock of my life when a child I thought was asleep has snuck into my sewing studio because I hadn’t heard them! With the Link Buds this doesn’t happen, due to the unique ring design I mentioned earlier you can still hear all ambient sounds around you, yet the audio quality is so good I haven’t missed any of my story so far. I can’t really describe how brilliant it is. I was listening to music the other day, the sound was absolutely great, straight into my ears yet I still heard the doorbell ring downstairs meaning I didn’t miss the postman! Theyre amazing. This was also the day I realised how good the range is, up until then I had only used the Link Buds with my phone very close by, but as I ran downstairs to answer the door, leaving my phone upstairs, the playback continued seamlessly.

As well as using the Link Buds when I’ve been working at home, I’ve also used them when I’ve been walking on the school run. Its been pretty cold, windy and wet here lately but as the Link Buds are water resistant I had no concerns using them under my hood. Another great feature of them is the Wide Area Tap function, this is where you can do either a double tap or triple tap near your ear to pause/play or skip tracks! Perfect when it’s wet and you don’t want to have to take your phone out of your pocket just to control the audio.

So far, I’ve used these Link Buds daily for a few hours at a time and have only had to charge them once! The battery life is brilliant, its also really easy to monitor the battery within the app so there’s no worries about them switching off unexpectedly. When it is time to charge them you just place the buds inside their case and plug the whole thing in using the provided USB cable. Really simple!

As mentioned previously, I’m not techy and there are so many features I’m discovering every day that I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than me would have found out a lot quicker. Just yesterday I worked out that I can link my Amazon Alexa to the Link Buds! This means that whilst listening to music or books, I can check the time, see what the weather forecast is, set myself a timer all without stopping what I’m doing. Its amazing!

All in all I absolutely love these Link Buds and I’m sure a more tech savvy person would find even more features to love about them. I definitely recommend these as an amazing gift for all your tech loving family and friends!

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £149

This product can be purchased from Sony here.