Sony LinkBuds S Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Sony LinkBuds S have a very similar design to the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless but are made of recycled plastic and have a single color scheme. They come in three color variations: 'Black', 'White', and 'Ecru'.

The Sony LinkBuds S have a comfortable fit. Although they're similar in look to the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless, they have a smaller and lighter design that puts less pressure on the ears. Depending on the shape of your ears, you may notice a bit of pressure inside your ear, but it's very minor. That said, they don't have an especially deep in-ear fit, and there are lots of options to find the best seal.

The Sony LinkBuds S have good controls. They have the same control scheme on their touch-sensitive surface as the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless. There are beeps as feedback to let you know when you've registered a command. However, there aren't volume controls by default. While you can remap their control scheme to add this feature, you will lose either ANC or playback controls. In addition, the touch controls are very sensitive, and if you need to adjust the buds in your ears, you can accidentally register commands.

On the left earbud:

• Single tap: Cycles between ANC mode and talk-through mode. This function can be customized in the app so that it also allows you to turn these features off.
• Press and hold: Activates 'Quick Attention' as long as you have your finger on the earbud. Turns down your audio and allows you to hear ambient sound.

On the right earbud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double tap: Skips the track forward.
• Triple tap: Skips the track backward.

On the either earbud:

• Double tap: Answers and ends a call.
• Press and hold: Rejects an incoming call.

The Sony LinkBuds S are very portable. Since they're truly wireless headphones, they have a small footprint and can easily fit into most pockets or bags without a problem.

The carrying case is good. It's small, made with a matte plastic finish, and has a light in the middle of the case to let you know the battery status. There's also an indented pairing button at the back of the case. Unfortunately, like that of the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless, the lid feels a bit flimsy and it moves a bit.

The Sony LinkBuds S have a good build quality. They're mostly made of recycled plastic and are certified IPX4 for resistance against water splashes. However, they don't feel as sturdy as the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless. The plastic can also retain fingerprints if you have oily skin.

The Sony LinkBuds S have a stable fit. Once you find the right fit, they won't move around your ears or fall out. However, you may still need to replace them in your ears over long periods if you find that they're popping out.

• Sony LinkBuds S earbuds
• 4x tip sizes
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Sony LinkBuds S have a warm sound profile. They sound a lot more balanced than the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless, thanks to their flatter, neutral mid and treble ranges. Although they lack a bit of thump and rumble, vocals and instruments are present and clear in mixes. Sibilants like cymbals lose their edge due to their rolled-off treble, but overall their sound is comfy without bloated vocals and instruments. You can customize their sound to your liking using the companion app's graphic EQ and presets, though.

The Sony LinkBuds S have fantastic frequency response consistency. Once you get a good fit and seal, you'll receive consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

The Sony LinkBuds S have great bass accuracy. They have an underemphasized low-bass, so mixes lack thump and rumble, but it's not as weak or lacking as the Sony LinkBuds Truly Wireless. The mid-bass is also a little underemphasized, which lacks a bit of punch. However, the high-bass is very neutral and flat, so mixes are warm without being boomy.

The Sony LinkBuds S' mid accuracy is excellent. The range is fairly neutral, so vocals and lead instruments sound clear and detailed. Although there's a dip in the mid-mid, which nudges vocals and lead instruments to the back of your mix, it's fairly minor.

The Sony LinkBuds S' treble accuracy is fair. The response is underemphasized across the range, so vocals and lead instruments are veiled and dark. Sibilants like hi-hats are also dull and lispy.

The Sony LinkBuds S' peaks and dips performance is excellent. A dip in the mid-mid affects the right driver and pushes vocals and instruments to the back of the mix. A peak in the high-mid and another in the low-treble makes vocals and lead instruments sound a bit harsh in both drivers.

The Sony LinkBuds S' imaging performance is outstanding. Sony tends to have good quality control when it comes ensuring that their drivers match, especially when the products are high-end. That said, imaging can still vary between units. However, our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay, phase response, amplitude, and frequency response, which is important for accurately placing and localizing objects like instruments in the stereo image.

The Sony LinkBuds S have a bad passive soundstage, but that's normal for closed-back in-ear headphones. They bypass your outer-ear by design. However, the outer-ear needs to be activated by sound resonances in order to create a more immersive sound. As a result, sound seems like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. Their soundstage doesn't feel very open or immersive either.

Like the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless, the Sony LinkBuds S are compatible with Sony 360 Reality Audio. In order to use this feature, you need to be subscribed to compatible services like Tidal or Artist Connection, though. When on, it can help create a more immersive experience, especially with songs like Pink Floyd's Money, which have sound objects that move between the L/R drivers.

The weighed harmonic distortion performance is good. There's a couple of small peaks in the treble range at normal listening volumes, but this can be very hard to hear with real-life content. The rest of the frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Sony LinkBuds S. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The Sony LinkBuds S have an excellent noise isolation performance and unlike the Sony LinkBuds Truly Wireless, they have an ANC system. While we originally tested these buds using the small ear tips, we were able to achieve a better seal by using the medium ear tips instead, which improved their noise isolation performance. However, keep in mind that in real-life use, once you get a good fit, you'll also experience excellent noise isolation.

Surprisingly, these buds can block out more background noise than the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless, as they tackle more of the low rumble of bus and plane engines. They're also able to cut down ambient chatter well. However, when it comes to the treble range, and sounds like the humming of AC units, the buds offer a better isolation performance passively compared to the ANC.

The Sony LinkBuds S' leakage performance is outstanding. Leakage is spread out but is very hard to hear, even in moderately quiet environments. It's unlikely that you'll disturb others around you if you like to listen to audio at high volumes.

The integrated mic has a noise gate, which cuts down almost all noise, which caused issues with testing. The noise gate can also take a few seconds to adjust. There's distortion present, especially when compared to the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless. Overall, your voice sounds clear but thin and a bit distorted.

The microphone's noise handling performance is fair. The noise gate takes a couple of seconds to kick in, but it can separate your voice from moderate background noise, although speech quality declines. However, when there are loud sounds, like a train passing, the mic cuts out your voice as well as the subway voice.

The Sony LinkBuds S' battery performance is decent. The manufacturer advertises them to last six hours continuously when using the default SBC codec, which is longer than the 5.5 hours they advertise for the original Sony LinkBuds Truly Wireless. However, we measured over seven hours from the S model when using SBC, which will last long days on the go. If you switch to LDAC, the battery will drain quicker, and Sony advertises roughly 3.5-4.5 hours of playback when using this codec. Keep in mind that battery life can vary depending on use, though. Their carrying case supplies roughly 2.3 additional charges if you need a top-up, and they have a quick-charge feature that supplies an hour of playtime after five minutes of charging.

The Sony | Headphones Connect is great. You can access a graphic EQ and presets as well as their virtual soundstage feature to help you customize their sound. In addition, there's a 'Spatial Sound Optimization' feature, which measures the optimal angle of the headphones in your ear for spatial audio, as well as quick access to certain features like Spotify or even connect to Ingress Prime, which is a mobile augmented reality (AR) game. You can also turn Speak-to-Chat, auto-off, and smart-pause on and off. After updating the headphones to firmware 2.0.2, you can even toggle multi-device pairing on and off.

The Sony LinkBuds S have excellent Bluetooth connectivity. Thanks to firmware 2.0.2, these buds support multi-device pairing, so you can connect them to your PC and smartphone simultaneously. They also have Fast Pair, allowing you to quickly pair Bluetooth devices together. While they have high wireless latency on PCs, their latency on iOS and Android devices is much lower, so your audio and visuals stay in sync while streaming. If you like to stream audio in higher quality, these buds support LDAC, which is Sony's proprietary codec for Hi-Res audio. Keep in mind that some devices and apps compensate for latency, though.

These headphones come with a USB-C to USB-A for charging their carrying case. You can't use them wired, though.

The Sony LinkBuds S are fully-compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you can't connect them to your PC in any other way.

The Sony LinkBuds S come with a carrying case that supplies 2.3 extra charges. It has a USB-C port for recharging the case. However, unlike the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Truly Wireless' carrying case, it doesn't support wireless charging.