Open earbuds are a unique beast, and Sony has been releasing them for several years now. Taking the wraps off the Sony LinkBuds Clip, have we been introduced to the greatest open earbuds of all time? Or are the new earbuds lacking? I took them through the lab and into my life for a few days to find out.

What’s it like to use the Sony LinkBuds Clip?

The Sony LinkBuds Clip is a set of open-ear earbuds that clip to the middle part of your outer ear, appearing as though it’s a colored plastic cuff. There are two bulbous, glossy plastic parts at each end of the band connecting them, the bigger one sits behind your ear, while the smaller one sits in it. You may find that the band doesn’t provide enough tension to comfortably stay on your ear, but in that case, Sony does sell some inexpensive soft silicone accessories for the earbuds to help keep them in place — and add durability to the case.

Even if fit isn’t an issue, the earbuds always seem like they’re ready to fall out, even though they’re completely secure in place. It takes a while to get used to, and when I handed the earbuds to my wife, her exact words were “I hate wearing that s—t.” It’s definitely not for everyone, but once you get over the hump, it’s easy to ignore them because you don’t feel like you’re wearing much. The earbuds don’t even occlude your ear canal, which adds to the illusion.

With an IP rating of IPX4, runners, bikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts will likely find a capable ally in the Sony LinkBuds Clip, as the earbuds can handle errant rain or moisture. However, just keep in mind that these can’t take a dunk, and you should definitely avoid showering with any wireless earbuds.

Controlling the Sony LinkBuds Clip is a bit odd, as you don’t touch the earbuds themselves. Instead, like the other models of LinkBuds in the latest tranche of releases, you tap the outer part of your tragus instead. The controls can be a bit finicky, so definitely get comfortable with the Sound Connect app. If you dig around, you’ll find that you can adjust your controls somewhat, but you can also increase the sensitivity of them. I found this to be hit or miss, and it was a little weird to not have a single tap function, but c’est la vie.

Finally, the case of the Sony LinkBuds Clip is quite boxy, but still able to fit in some pants pockets. If you have skinnier jeans, I would imagine it would probably end up living in your bag, instead. It can be a little tough to tell the left from right earbud when opening the case, so pay attention to the dots on the bigger bulb: The red one means “right,” and the silver one means “left.”

Sony’s LinkBuds products are often a little on the wild side in terms of features, but it is cool to see a company experiment with what the product category can do. For example, offering three listening modes to meet users’ use cases: standard, voice enhancement, and leakage protection. The latter of which alters the sound a bit so that people around you have a harder time hearing what’s going on in your earbuds — essential if you use these on a call, as the earbuds are unsealed. Like Sony’s other flagship offerings, the Sony LinkBuds Clip also offer support for 360 Reality Audio, though this is only available through the app, and with content that supports it.

If you create an account with Sony, there are a few other features that you might want to play with. For example, scene-based listening will allow you to teach the app to recognize when you’re doing different things and trigger functions like autoplay accordingly. You can also use voice cues to tell you things like the time of day, have the earbuds read notifications to you, or let you know what day it is when you put them on at the beginning of the day. You can also use a feature called “find your equalizer” to tune your earbuds to your liking using a guide. While it’s not a parametric EQ like we’d like to see, most people don’t have the time or patience for that.

Finally, users of Spotify, Amazon Music, or… Endel? can set quick access controls with a triple tap on the left side to trigger the feature. For example, to trigger Spotify tap, set it in the app, and then triple tap for the service to start playing a song it thinks you’ll like.

How do the Sony LinkBuds Clip connect?

The Sony LinkBuds Clip connects to devices wirelessly with Bluetooth 5.3 over SBC and AAC. For those that bounce between devices, the earbuds support multiple device pairing, though true Multipoint doesn’t appear on the spec sheet. The earbuds are pretty standard in their connection options, and the Sony LinkBuds Clip definitely isn’t geared towards spec-chasers in this regard. I don’t believe the open-ear design would be a good match for a higher-bitrate Bluetooth codec anyway, as that might increase latency while users wouldn’t be able to notice much of an improvement anyway — AAC was the right choice for this product.

Just be aware that for any features or advanced options, you will need to install and keep current the Sound Connect app. This will also let you manage your connections, and download/install firmware updates as they come.

How long does the Sony LinkBuds Clip’s battery last?

On a single charge, the Sony LinkBuds Clip were able to last for 7 hours and 10 minutes, level-matched to the same conditions we put every other portable audio product through with our battery testing. In my experience, this is a pretty good approximation, though your results will vary depending on how loudly you listen, the battery age, and other common factors.

If you need to top off your charging case, you’ll need to use a USB-C cable, as there’s no wireless charging with this product. That said, the small battery in the case charges quickly, and is good enough for several full cycles of the earbuds.

How well do the Sony LinkBuds Clip block out noise?

Open earbuds by their design are generally pretty terrible at blocking outside noise because, and I cannot stress this enough: They don’t try to.

Not occluding the ear is the defining feature of these products, so it’s very unfair to hold them to the same standards as other earbuds. While some products have attempted to add noise cancelation to open ear designs, at best they offer very limited isolation from the outside world. The Sony LinkBuds Clip is no different — there is no noise cancelation feature, and the open-ear design means there’s very little passive attenuation outside of the highest octaves.

How do the Sony LinkBuds Clip sound?

Open earbuds generally don’t sound all that great compared to headphones, but it’s a natural tradeoff of the design. The Sony LinkBuds Clip sounds fine, all things considered.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Can you use the Sony LinkBuds Clip for phone calls?

Like most contemporary wireless earbuds, the Sony LinkBuds Clip has a lot of attention paid to its microphone array. Unfortunately for us, the Sony LinkBuds Clip also uses a hybrid array like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Generation), which combines data from bone conduction through your own skull combined with recorded sound from microphones to sidestep a lot of environmental noise. I say “unfortunately” because our current setup doesn’t work with this, so we’re holding off on microphone samples.

I’m not content with leaving things at that, so just know that I’ll be testing candidate fixtures to handle this soon. While you’re waiting on these samples, I did use the Clip on phone calls, Discord chats, and video calls. All seemed to work very well, though the Sony LinkBuds Clip is never going to replace a studio mic or anything. If you’re worried about the call quality, don’t be — just be prepared for typical irritants like incidental noise to make its way in every now and again and you’ll have reasonable expectations.

Should you buy the Sony LinkBuds Clip?

If you like the idea of open earbuds, I’ve come across worse options than the Sony LinkBuds Clip. Though the design has inherent tradeoffs, that fact hasn’t dampened the popularity of the category, and as long as you go into it with both eyes open: you should be pretty happy with these. In my personal use, I found myself reaching for these often, but I still would like something with actual isolation or ANC for commuting. At home or in a quiet environment, these are a convenient option to listen to music without disrupting your life too much. But in a noisy environment, you’ll really need to crank the volume to hear your music over noise like cars and trains.

To the right buyer, the Sony LinkBuds Clip is a no-brainer, but there are very specific drawbacks to open earbuds as a product design that some may not be willing to put up with. Others may also prefer the ability to use ANC when they need to, making an option like the Sony LinkBuds Fit or Apple AirPods 4 with ANC more attractive.

What should you get instead of the Sony LinkBuds Clip?

Open earbuds as a category is still quite immature with a bunch of growing pains to get through, but they are becoming quite popular. Options like the Nothing Ear Open ($149 at Amazon) have a lot to offer, but the common theme with open earbuds is that very few look like others. Some use ear-hook designs, others sit within the outer ear, and still more use a sort of cuff design like the Clip. You will need to figure out which method suits you best, as each of these wear styles can annoy some more than others.

If you’re dead-set on an ear cuff design, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds ($299 at Amazon) are fine, but a poorer option for most because of the price. Beyond that, there are very few top-tier options in this form factor.

You may be able to get a good deal on something like the Sony LinkBuds Open ($199.99 at Amazon) or Sony LinkBuds Fit ($178 at Amazon), however. Though these products are older, I find that I prefer the performance on these products to the Clip, and the Fit in particular has a good enough transparency mode to simulate the world around you while giving you the option to cancel it out.