Sony LinkBuds Fit Review – Not Fit For Your Wallet

Hey everyone, welcome to the Sony LinkBuds Fit review! They’re noise-cancelling, truly wireless earbuds.

The Sony LinkBuds Fit is best compared to the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024 version). The Bose earbuds are excellent. I’ll draw some quick comparisons: which is better, Sony or Bose?

Accessories include a USB-A to USB-C cable (6 inches), though a pure USB-C would have been better. No power adapter in the box, so plug it into a cell phone adapter or computer.

Design & Comfort

The earbuds look compact and interesting. They were easy to conceal under a toque during the 60 cm (25 in) snowstorm we had last week in Toronto as of writing the draft for this post. Despite the snow shoveling, they were comfortable. However, the left earbud occasionally produced a high-pitched screeching sound, painful enough to cause me to yank it out. Updating firmware and settings didn’t fix it. A Reddit forum revealed others experienced this with both Sony LinkBuds Fit and Sony LinkBuds S.

Despite this, the earbuds fit well and are some of the most comfortable I’ve used. Available in black, green, white, and violet.

The case is compact and light at 41g, fitting easily in pockets.

The earbuds remain comfortable for hours. I averaged three hours per session, with and without glasses, without irritation. Great for all users.

The snug fit makes them great for workouts, as they don’t shift around. They’re IPX4 rated, so they’re sweat and splash resistant. But the case isn’t water-resistant, so keep it dry.

Sony doesn’t seem to sell official ear tip replacements, so you may need to look for third-party options like Amazon if you lose them.

Controls

The controls are disappointing. On the left earbud, double-tap switches between ANC (active noise canceling) and transparency mode (this mode lets you hear your surroundings). Oddly, decreasing volume requires five taps.

On the right earbud, double-tap for play/pause, triple-tap for next track, and five taps or more to increase volume. Single-tap can’t be assigned to do anything.

There is control customisation, but it’s limited. App customisation has issues, like setting ANC with a double-tap but getting stuck with limited triple-tap options.

The control functions are poorly designed. Why can’t anything be set for a single tap? Why is volume up and down assigned to 5 taps and not 4? These decisions make no sense.

Tapping on the earbuds sometimes doesn’t register, which is also a common reported problem across the internet. Double-tap works, triple-tap is inconsistent, and five tap for volume control only worked once in my weeks of testing.

Sony has a feature to use the area around your face as a touch surface, but it didn’t work for me.

One standout feature is the ability to pause content and switch to transparency mode when you start speaking, resuming ANC and music after you stop speaking for a custom set amount of time in the app. It works well even in crowded rooms, never picking up other voices and allowed me to quickly have clear conversation with others.

However, the smart assistant functionality is poor, often misinterpreting commands in crowded areas. Ironic to the excellent speak to pause function, when using Google Assistant with Android it would pickup other people’s voices in the room as part of the command.

The passive play/pause feature works well when removing the earbuds. It would quickly pause content when removed and resume when placed back in my ears. This feature can be turned off in the app.

Noise Cancelling

As for noise canceling, it’s mediocre in high-volume, low-pitch environments like planes, requiring me to play my content at high volume, which can irritate ears during long flights. It might do okay with engine noise from a bus but that’s just passable.

It performs poorly with high-pitch noises and general background chatter, making little difference in crowded rooms. Even when outside shoveling snow, the ANC couldn’t block out the sound of a snow blower from across the street and two houses over or my scraping shovel, despite listening to deep house music at the same time.

In transparency mode, the earbuds perform almost as well as premium-priced ones. Conversations are clear, but there’s a slight echo. However that echo is hardly noticeable and this function performs well for this price.

No Sidetone mode (allowing you to hear your voice and surrounding noise while on a call), which is uncommon for mid-tier earbuds but usually included by Sony. I thought it was worth mentioning.

Battery

Earbud battery performance with ANC on: Sony claims 5.5 hours, but I got 8.1 hours on average at 60% volume. With regular mode, Sony claims 8 hours, and I averaged 9.2 hours.

Charging time for the earbuds is around one hour, though Sony doesn’t list this. The earbuds magnetically snap into the case, which has a USB-C charging port at the back.

The case takes about 1.75 hours to recharge, slightly under Sony’s two-hour claim.

The case and earbuds fully charged, the case can provide four full and a bit earbud charges. With ANC on, I averaged 37 hours total; with regular mode, 42 hours.

The case doesn’t support wireless charging, which is expected for mid-tier earbuds.

Microphone Quality

Using the microphone in a quiet room allowed my voice to come through clearly enough to be understood. Keep in mind that these are mid-tier priced earbuds, so there is a slight digital effect on my voice, which means they’re not the best microphones around, but they perform well at this price point.

In a simulated noisy cafe setting, the microphone clarity was just as good as in a quiet environment. Background noise was minimal, even when I stopped talking, and it did a commendable job.

Wind noise is typically a challenge for most earbud microphones, but to my surprise, the Fit did a decent job of reducing additional noise. Some wind noise did come through, but most of it was reduced, allowing my words to be easily understood.

Audio Quality

Sony LinkBuds Fit supports SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LC3 codecs. My audio testing focused on quality over Bluetooth stability which can be set in the app.

Out of the box, the flat profile was a bit disappointing for mid-tier earbuds. Sony usually emphasizes bass, which was lacking. However, using the equalizer, increasing bass often sacrificed vocals and highs. Strangely, leaving bass neutral but adjusting the custom equalizer for what Sony calls “Clear Bass” worked best, providing strong bass without sacrificing vocals and highs. Thankfully the Clear Bass performance made up for the poor lows adjustment in the equaliser.

Increasing mids for vocals was impressive, pushing the vocalist’s voice to the forefront without losing audio quality. For example, when listening to “Niagara Falls” by The Weekend, the vocals felt too close and had to be adjusted down. This isn’t a bad thing but should detail how much mids can be pushed.

Increasing highs was just right, enhancing sounds in various songs, especially in EDM.

As mentioned, wearing the earbuds with glasses doesn’t impact audio quality due to their small size.

Software

In the app, Sony has changed the design, making it hard to access deeper settings. The shortcuts on the homepage are fine but isn’t user-friendly for non-tech-savvy individuals to find most app functions.

Other features like head gesture control are gimmicky, allowing some control with head nods but it doesn’t work. Basic functions include power saving mode, earbud behavior when removed, and firmware updates.

Services section includes partnerships with music services like Amazon Music and Spotify. Discover offers tips and tricks.

Keep in mind that there are a ton of things that can be done in the app which can be viewed in the video above. In fact, there are so many that even in the video I couldn’t cover it all.

Conclusion

I’ve reviewed many Sony audio products, and while some are great, the LinkBuds Fit are best avoided. I recommend the Bose QuietComfort 2024, which is slightly cheaper, offers excellent ANC, and good audio quality (be sure to check my review).