Sony's LinkBuds Get New Features That Rival Apple's

If there’s one brand I consistently recommend as an alternative to AirPods, it’s Sony. The company has noise canceling and audio quality figured out, and while that’s most apparent on its over-the-ear WH-1000XM series headphones, the far more pronounceable LinkBuds earbuds are perfectly acceptable as a more affordable alternative. Until now, you’ve had two options for LinkBuds—the noise canceling LinkBuds S and the open-ear base LinkBuds—but this year, Sony is reconfiguring its lineup to focus on comfort and a few ease-of-use features that rival Apple’s.

Now, the LinkBuds S are being joined by the new LinkBuds Fit and LinkBuds Open, and while they’ll still be on store shelves, the old base LinkBuds are being discontinued. To coincide with this shakeup, Sony is also launching a new LinkBuds Speaker to go alongside its new earbuds.

With these updates comes your typical improvements to battery life and sound quality—both new LinkBuds earbuds feature a new driver and a new chip; when I tested them, vocals were crisp and bass was deep. But beyond meeting typical expectations, these new buds set themselves apart with a focus on better quality of life.

Starting with the LinkBuds Fit, the most noticeable change is right in the name. There are shorter eartips that should make them more comfortable in the ear, and a new supporting arm to help keep them in place while you wear them. I found them to be far more stable than the basic, circular design of the old model, and even my AirPods Pro, which sometimes come loose when I’m exercising.

But there have also been upgrades internally. Battery life with just the buds alone is a little shorter (by a half hour), but to compensate, battery life with the charging case is an hour longer. More impressively, there’s an auto ambient sound feature that filters out noise around you based on whether you’re in a quiet or loud environment, or if the earbuds detect that you’re in a conversation. That should help these keep up with Apple’s similar features, like Conversation Awareness, as should Auto Noise Canceling optimizer, which helps you test the headphones’ fit to ensure you’re getting the best ANC experience.

The LinkBuds Open don’t have quite so many unique features, but they also get the supporter arm, plus they’re a bit smaller. They still have the unique donut-shaped driver, which is how you’ll hear ambient noise while wearing them. They’ve also had significant battery-life improvements, up to eight hours (from five hours) with the buds alone and 22 hours (from 17.5 hours) with the case.

Regardless of which model you pick, though, both benefit from Sony’s new audio app. Dubbed Sound Connect, it replaces Headphones Connect and introduces voice control, gesture control, and a bizarre effect called “Background Music."

Voice Control lets you control your headphones with a “Hey headphones” command, just in case your phone’s virtual assistant isn’t cooperating, and can affect volume, ANC, playback—pretty much anything you might use physical controls for. Gesture control is more limited: You just nod to accept a phone call or shake your head side-to-side to decline it. Background Music, meanwhile, lets you select from a number of environments, after which your headphones will try to adjust your music to make it sound like you’re listening to it in that space. For instance, you might use the “Cafe” setting to pretend you’re in a coffee shop, and the headphones will adjust your song and introduce ambient noise to match.

Less excitingly, there’s an “Auto battery save” feature that automatically turns off features like Voice Control when you hit 20% battery life left. It’s the type of nanny feature I’d probably turn off immediately.

Returning from the previous models is tap control, which is how you control the earbuds physically. You can either tap directly on the earbuds or, impressively, on the side of your head (they’ll feel the vibrations). The taps detect well enough, but while it’s convenient to not have to fiddle with the buds themselves, it’s difficult to remember how many taps do what in a pinch. Turning noise canceling on and off is as simple as two taps, but increasing volume can take as many as four, and controls will sometimes differ per ear. That can be distracting if you just need to quickly mute your music as your boss approaches your desk.

What isn’t distracting is the new LinkBuds Speaker—which, mercifully, doesn’t bother with Alexa or any call assistants. It’s a simple portable music player and speakerphone combo, with one woofer, a passive radiator, a tweeter, and a top-mounted microphone. Battery life varies heavily depending on your volume, but it also comes with a charging puck if you just want to leave it stationary.

The thing that really stands out to me about the LinkBuds Speaker is that, like AirPods with Apple TV, it can automatically swap music between earbud and speaker playback on LinkBuds Open, Fit, or S earbuds, plus Sony’s WH-1000XM5 or WF-1000XM5 headphones.

The LinkBuds Fit and Open are available for pre-order now for $199, so which one you pick is simply a matter of whether you prefer noise canceling or open-ear ambient noise. The LinkBuds Speaker costs $179. All are available in black and white, but the LinkBuds Open also come in purple, while the Fit come in purple and light green. Sony is also selling additional colors separately as cases exclusively through its website.

It’s currently unclear whether the LinkBuds S will get a price drop to make way for the new models.