Sony LinkBuds Fit

Overview: What the Sony LinkBuds Fit can do

Sony LinkBuds Fit are available in green, elderberry white, goji black and purple. They come in a plastic-free box with a compact charging case with status LED and a USB-C cable. The headphones themselves are deliberately compact, barely protruding from your ear, unlike some other designs.

The plastic charging case is also small. The earphones are placed in it and automatically charged, although it makes sense to only use one pair at a time.

The Sony LinkBuds Fit support Bluetooth 5.31 and are IPX4 certified for sweat and splash resistance. They have touch-sensitive outsides and built-in microphones. Noise cancelling and transparent mode are also available, along with a range of supporting automatic functions that can be configured on the smartphone using the proven free iOS/Android Sound Connect app, including an equaliser.

Technically, Sony has installed a Dynamic Driver X driver unit with a diameter of 8.4mm in the closed plastic units, which is said to provide good sound and, according to the manufacturer, operate with very low distortion. The LinkBuds Fit also support the high-quality LDAC Bluetooth codec and the company’s own DSEE Extreme technology for enhancing compressed audio files.

Of course, battery life is an important consideration for a mobile system. Sony claims a level-dependent runtime of between 5.5 and 8 hours, depending on the status of the integrated ambient noise cancellation. Pure talk time is four hours. The charging cradle, which can be fully charged via USB in two hours, offers a further triple capacity, with fast charging cycles also supported. I can confirm these figures in practice, which are more in the middle of the range, but should still be enough for longer trips. Inductive charging is not supported.

This is how good Sony LinkBuds Fit are in practice

The ergonomically shaped headphones are extremely light, weighing less than 5 grams each, and can be adjusted to fit any ear with four differently sized silicone tips. You can barely feel the headphones in your ear and can wear them for long periods without pressure. In general, the construction is relatively non-slip, thanks to an additional wing-shaped silicone adjustment support, and only needs occasional readjustment during long, fast movements.

Bluetooth connectivity was quick and reliable in the test. The range was good across several rooms. As a convenience feature, the LinkBuds Fit can be paired with two transmitters, for example to avoid missing a business call while listening to music on another device.

Double, triple and repeated multiple clicks on the touch-sensitive surfaces on the outer sides of the earpieces trigger functions. You can configure music playback, including track skipping, volume, switching between noise-cancelling and transparent modes, and a QuickConnect function. You can also make phone calls in the same way. In practice, this takes a bit of practice.

The switching functions are not reliably implemented on the earphones themselves. The solution was to select an extended trigger area in the app. This allowed the functions to be triggered by tapping the skin next to the ear, with a much better success rate. The functions are not freely configurable, but can be selected in largely useful groups for the left and right earphones.

As well as the ability to update the firmware (version 1.20 at the time of testing), the app also includes the aforementioned storable equaliser with six bands to adjust the sound, and a support function to help beginners achieve their desired sound. The parameters for the noise cancellation  can also be adjusted here.

Noise cancelling

Sony specialises in noise cancellation and has been developing the technology over the past few years. According to the manufacturer, the same processor is used here as in the well-established WF-1000XM5. The Sony LinkBuds Fit should even have the advantage of improved sensor-controlled filtering of external noise.

In fact, the quality of the ambient noise cancellation is surprisingly good, given the small size of these headphones. In a real-world test on the ICE train, static ambient noise was reduced to a large extent, resulting in a significant improvement. Conversation in the vicinity did not disappear completely, but it was significantly reduced. All this works well even without music playing. Very nice!

A transparency mode (Ambient Sound) is also included. This transmits ambient noise to the drivers via the external microphones to improve external perception and facilitate communication, depending on the situation. As is often the case, these microphones are a little sensitive to wind and touch.

Noise cancellation and ambient mode can be switched statically, but they can also be adapted using automatic functions. An adaptive noise cancelling system should be able to recognise movement patterns and the situation and make automatic adjustments as required. Geo-tagging is possible, and there is even a learning algorithm that learns the user’s behaviour over time. This is impressive, but in some cases confusing. I myself have always preferred to switch between modes manually.

Automatic functions as a way into the future of consumer electronics

The Sony LinkBuds Fit are full of other useful features. It seems that Sony is keen to make the user’s life easier and easier. I have long been familiar with and appreciate the automatic shutdown when the buds are placed in the charging cradle, as well as the start and pause functions for music playback.

The Speak-to-Chat function is also useful, as it detects when you are talking and activates the transparent mode. Finally, there is even gesture control, for example to answer calls. There is also support for various voice assistants such as Alexa. It takes a bit of practice, but with ‘Hey Headphones’ you can actually give the headphones commands to control music, even within Spotify or Tidal.

That’s how good Sony LinkBuds Fit sound

The LinkBuds Fit may look unassuming, but they are packed with the latest technology. As mentioned, LDAC is supported, as are the standard SBC, AAC and LC3 codecs.

With sufficient volume, the Sony LinkBuds Fit deliver a powerful sound that pleasantly surprised me. The sound is balanced, wide and full of detail. I wouldn’t describe the tuning as completely neutral, but rather as contemporary and modern, with a little extra boost in the lower frequencies, which is definitely an advantage for pop/rock and chart music and increases the listening pleasure on the go.

Modern metal, such as Tremonti’s ‘Make it Hurt’, really comes through. No complaints! Electronic music such as Erasure’s ‘Stop!’ is also convincing, bringing out the central vocal melody, the supporting bass and the many electronic percussion sounds.

Detail resolution, dynamics and spaciousness are more than adequate for the price, but as expected, they fall short of wired audiophile models. However, the intended use is also completely different. If you want to listen to jazz, singer-songwriters and classical music in a stationary position, you can do so, and the noise cancelling will keep you perfectly isolated from your surroundings.

But the Sony LinkBuds Fit don’t stop there. For example, you can turn on a background music effect that takes the music away from your ears and makes it sound less direct, as if it’s coming from a room. Sony also offers integrated head tracking, so you can be more immersed in a VR game world or film, because the sound positioning always stays where you want it.

Last but not least is the high level of speech intelligibility during phone calls. External microphones and advanced signal processing work together with voice recognition and noise cancellation with surprising effectiveness, filtering out external noise with great precision.

The bottom line

With the LinkBuds Fit, Sony has created an exciting pair of headphones that are equally at home on the move as they are in the gym. The headphones are super light, comfortable and small. The sound quality is good, too, and combined with the effective noise cancelling, you can enjoy your music and phone calls on the move.

The functionality is also pleasingly comprehensive. Whether it’s the equaliser, the ability to activate transparent mode by speaking or the ability to use two Bluetooth transmitters, the Sony LinkBuds Fit make it all possible. A list price of €169 for a branded product with this level of functionality seems perfectly reasonable to me. A real favourite for me!