The one and only Sony is back with a brand new set of noise-cancelling earbuds. And as you've probably already gathered by the name. Sony has approached the design of the Link Buds Fit with a focus on the fit. 

Now, you might be wondering if that is the case. Has Sony compromised in other areas such as ANC, sound quality or mic pick up, codecs or software, and the current flagships from Sony, the XM5? Well, they are more affordable at £179 Vs the XM5s £259 at the time of this video. So, you might think that, and you'll find the answers here.

Surprisingly, LinkBuds Fit has some interesting advantages over XM5. And we will get into that in this video.

Design and Comfort

Let's start with the design and comfort. So, the Link Buds line is all about seamlessly combining your digital world with the real world.

So when you wear them, it almost feels like you're not wearing them at all. To achieve this, Sony has kept the weight of the earbuds as light as possible at 4.9 grams per bud & without watering down the audio hardware & battery components inside. They've also sealed them up to meet the IPX4 splash and sweatproof rating.

To distribute the weight more evenly and improve the fit of your ears, The link buds now come fitted with what Sony calls air-fitting supporters. Which allows you to kind twist and lock the link buds into your ears. And it is a one-size-fits-all situation with these, but it gets even more interesting that you can buy replacements in various colours. And there's nothing to stop you from mixing and matching the colours to make your set of LinkBuds Fit genuinely unique to you. There are four base colours: black, green, white & violet.

So, the customisation aspect is a one-up on almost all other earbuds I'm aware of right now.

The ear tips are of the silicon variety, unlike the XM5s foam tips. Some people may prefer that & there are 4 sizes provided in the box. Once you select the right size, the secureness of the fit and the audio quality level up. The new Sony Sound Connect app also has a Find My Fit tool. Which now replaces the Sony Headphones-specific app. More on those upgrades in a bit.

So you'll notice there are discrete mic grills on the backs of the LinkBuds Fit for the exterior noise-cancelling mics. There are Wear-detect sensors also on board to auto-pause and play when detected and eventually shut down when not in use. Which is obviously beneficial when it comes to battery life.

On that note, that battery life is 5.5 hours ANC ON and 15.5 with the case, and up to 21 hrs with ANC off. A 5-minute charge will give you 60 minutes of playback with ANC on. This is good, but the XM5, being slightly bigger & heavier buds, naturally has more battery life.

The driver size is 8.4mm, the same size as XM5's drivers. But the driver type is different. They're a new custom Sony driver called the Dynamic Driver X. The case design is very different from the XM5s. It's kind of like a mini hamburger shape. And I do like hamburgers. I believe there is a good reason for this unusual shape 

And that is the case that is shaped in. The way that silicon covers can be fitted to it. And just like the air tips. You can get them in various colours, adding to the customisation aspect of the Link Buds Fit. So this really makes them very different from everything else.

It's worth noting that a lot of the materials used here are manufactured using recycled materials. And you'll notice this kind of marble-like pattern on the lid. This pattern will be unique to each set of LinkBuds Fit.

So, the uniqueness of these Link Buds is clearly a big selling point. Now, in terms of the size of the case, it's reasonably small and does pass the cowboy pocket watch pocket test but is not quite as streamlined as the XM5 case.

All of this would be pointless if they don't sound good. So, let's talk about the

Sound Quality

So, the first thing I noticed about the Link Buds Fit was that They have a surprisingly good sound stage. The sound is open and airy by default. And well-balanced when using the flat EQ.

But if you pick up the Link Buds, I highly recommend you play around with the EQ presets. When you do, you will discover how good the sound and bass output are on the LinkBuds Fit.

And what I like about the presets is that even when you enable the bass boost, it doesn't muddy up the miss and vocal range. Conversely, if vocal clarity is the priority, the LinkBuds Fit won't disappoint. So to summarise.

They can be very bass-heavy & close to the levels of the XM5. The clarity and details are also excellent. And the depth of the sound is better than I expected. It's also much closer to the XM5's sound than expected.

I think based on the out-of-the-box characteristics of the Sound. The Link Buds Fit are better suited to more bassy and punchy types of music. With that said, with the bright EQ. More classical styles of music still sound very nice and clear. If you are interested, the frequency response range on the Link Buds Fit is 20Hz to 20Khz when in connectivity priority mode. Which is certainly a wide enough range for the regular compressed audio you typically get from streaming services.

An edge that LinkBuds has over most of the competition is the codec options. So, you get SBC and AAC, which are optimal for iOS devices.

However, Link Buds can go one better with Sony's own LDAC codec, which supports a 3 times faster bit rate when paired with a compatible device. This means they support HiRes audio, and when listening to HiRes, the frequency response range increases from 20Hz to 40Khz. So this will provide better audio accuracy in the higher frequencies. And this is the same range supported by the XM5's

Noise Cancelling 

Now, to get a good idea of how good the noise active noise cancelling is on the LinkBuds Fit. They use the same integrated V2 processor as the flagship, but the XM5 has a dual-chip setup with the QN2e, which may give it the advantage here. So, I tested them versus the XM5 and the AirPods Pro to find out.

So, I played some loud train carriage noise in the background whilst playing music at 50% volume and Now, the other side of this is the ambient passage. So I did a similar test by playing one of my videos to see how they stack up and check out the video for my thoughts on this.

The Sony Sound Connect App

Ok, so as with pretty much all Sony earbuds, one of the standout areas. It is the software features you get access to via the app. And as I mentioned earlier, Sony has recently renamed and updated what used to be the Sony Headphones app. 

Now, you still get access to all the functionality you might already be familiar with. If you're not. Here's a quick summary of some of the standout features. There's adaptive sound support. So, as you begin to use the app and Sony headphones, it will be able to detect if you are sitting stationary, running or travelling in a vehicle and if you're walking, and it will adapt the ANC accordingly. It will also begin to recognise familiar locations and adapt the profile based on typical noise levels in those spaces.

There are tons of EQ options, and you can manually dial in custom EQs. But if that sounds too much work, you can use the Find My Equaliser tool. This Is a kind of elimination that creates a tailored EQ for you specifically even if you have no prior knowledge of how to dial it in.

There's also spatial audio and head-tracking support here. Which does involve snapping pictures of your ears to calibrate. As well as Sony's DSEE extreme upscaling software. Which is designed to add missing details from compressed audio sources back to the music using a clever algorithm.

You can also switch the codecs in the app to prioritise connection or sound quality. With connections prioritised, you can make use of multipoint pairing. However, one of the reasons for the updated Sound Connect app is to support Sony speakers and headphones, and there's a new feature here with the new Link buds. 

Sony just launched their new compact LinkBuds speaker, which allows audio to be seamlessly switched to when you take your earbuds out. And this also works in reverse. They call this auto switch.

I've not been able to demo this yet. But the idea is that you don't have to stop the music no matter where you go. Again, the digital in-ear audio world is blended with the exterior world. And something quite interesting now. It is a new model supported by the Link Buds Fit. It's the background music mode.

So, this essentially dials down the music whilst activating the exterior mics. To kind of emulate ambient music playing in your environment. This is great if you're the type of person who likes to concentrate whilst having music playing. Personally, I definitely struggle to think clearly about whether there's loud music blasting in my ears. So this is great.

And you can, of course, remap the controls and set up AI assistants, which is pretty standard stuff these days.

Controls

But here's something quite unusual. It's the control option. So you can tap the backs of the edges themselves to play pause and skip. But you can also tap your ear near the earbuds to control them also. I think this is the better option as you won't be lodging them deeper into your edge or loosening the fit with each tap. Also, head gestures are recognised, so you can cancel or answer calls using head gestures.

Call Quality

Now, in terms of mic Quality. I'll let you be the judge of how good this is. Check out the video to hear the mic quality on the LinkBuds Fit.

Conclusion

So here are the pros and cons of LinkBuds Fit. The number one pro is the comfort and fit. One con versus the XM5s for me is the case thickness & the case doesn't support wireless charging. The upside of the case is the customisation of the silicon case options. You can even add a little carrying loop to it.

Of course, the same customisable options are available for the buds, which is a big win for the LinkBuds Fit. The sound quality is fantastic, and honestly, It's hard to fault it, especially in the price range they come in at. But it's fair to say that the XM5s sound better, but that superior fidelity comes at a price. But the quality is top-notch and quite close to that of the flagships.

Battery life is solid, and the user experience isn't watered down at all compared to Sony's compared to Sony's flagships. So that's nice to see. In my opinion, the Sony Link Buds are great all-rounders. If you want earbuds that are highly customisable and modern, or if you want something for commuting or going to the gym and sporting activities, Sony has really ticked all those boxes.

However, if you're all about the music and are a bit of an audio purist. The XM5s do sound better & have better battery life and better ANC. With that said though, they arguably won't fit as securely in the ear as the LinkBuds Fit. But that's not a knock on the XM5s, which are comfortable to wear. These are just a bit more comfortable and a bit more secure. And they do seem to fit a little bit better. 

So, if you live a very active lifestyle, these new link buds could be a great fit.