Product Reviews

I bought this in February this year. The noise cancellation works fine, as does the sound mixing on the app. I also appreciated the use of recycled material in the earbuds and box. However, connecting to Bluetooth on my iPhone sometimes takes a few tries. For months, I had an issue where the Linkbuds would connect to my Laptop and provide audio output for Youtube/Netflix videos, but have no audio output for Zoom/Whatsapp/Teams calls despite apparently being connected and working. I visited the Sony Store and the staff helped me to reset the Linkbuds, so the problem now seems to be solved. It's a fair purchase for the price, but is a bit glitchy at times.

Can only last for 3 days for about one hour plus per day , the volumn will auto adjust to max after pausing and resuming youtube video

I bought this 1 year and 6 months ago. About 7 months into using them I got the wind noise that all the reviews talk about when using ambient or NC mode. I thought I could live with that and just not use those modes, not the end of the world. Unfortunately now the right earbud simply no longer works at all. Since it is 6 months over warranty it cannot be fixed so unless you want to have earbuds that don't work after a year DO NOT buy this item. I will not be purchasing from Sony again

Unfortunately these buds were still too big for my small ears as the bud didn't fit well in the shell of the ear and caused pressure which made them uncomfortable to wear. This made them not suitable for me, but probably fine for most other people. I liked the blue mottled colour effect and the packaging was very well designed. I didn't like how the pause to speak function kicked in when I didn't want it when i was working out. Also I had issues with the touch buttons being too sensitive and activating when I knocked them doing yoga.

I bought these ear buds about a year and a half ago, I would expect at least 2 years of solid reliable use from them, however after the 1 year mark they began to malfunction. Initially the left earbud battery would only last an hour or two, before I realised the magnet in the charging case was interfering with the recharging. If you have the AI assistant activated, this also reduces the battery life massively. Soon after managing to rectify this somewhat, I encountered the dreaded 'wind noise' issue with the right ear bud, meaning I can no longer use ambient sound mode. This seems to be a widespread issue with these buds and Sony will not fix after the years warranty. Beware if you plan to keep the ear buds for more than a year.

I'm here to say I've had THREE pairs of these buds in less than two years and every pair has gotten a screeching noise followed by a wind noise in less than a year. My most recent pair, the noise started less than three months after purchasing. Sony's solution to this, if you google, is to turn off the noise canceling...well, I want noise canceling...that's why I spent $200 on a pair of noise canceling buds instead of $50 or less on a regular pair of buds. One of the pairs, also will not stay charged now. This a flawed/lemon product and Sony either needs to fix the problem or pull the product. This is not fair to consumers. (Also, in case you're wondering why I've purchased three pairs when they keep failing is because the buds are great when they work, but they obviously don't work for long before failing. This is why I've given 2 stars instead of 1.)

Great sound and fit very quick delivery just that product

So incredibly disappointed with this product. First off, the multipoint connection - it does not automatically have this and you have to download their app and a firmware add-on to get multi-point functionality. Even with the firmware added, it works horrendously. If my laptop and my phone are both connected - even if my phone is the first priority and is actively playing something - the headphones will not play any sound until I disconnect them from the laptop. And finally, one headphone has suddenly stopped holding its charge. Unfortunately they are now outside the 1 year warranty, so I have spent a lot of money on a flimsy product that lasted me less than 2 years. Avoid!!

So far these earbuds sound good, fit reasonably well, could be better though, have decent noise cancellation and ambient mode. I'm not a huge fan of the adaptive sound control though as it often swaps between modes too easily. Also on android the Sound Control app crashes far to regularly.

I wanted a pair earbuds that I could use with my Android phone, iPad and laptop. The things that primarily matter to me are: sound quality, comfort, decent battery life and bang for buck. After researching thoroughly I decided to go for the Sony Linkbud S earbuds - and I'm really glad I did. The comfort is superb and the sound well rounded and full. Although noise cancellation wasn't high on my priority list initially, I was impressed by the Linkbud S' in this department. Haven't tried them on a plane yet, but the noise cancellation does a great job of drowning out the TV if I'm using one of my devices for some private listening. The downloadable app provides a wealth of fine tuning options to get the earbuds sounding just how you want and the comfort, even for extended use is great. My experience using the Linkbud S earbuds for phone calls is pretty limited, but they seem to work pretty well. I haven't tried other brands of earbuds so providing a comparative review is not possible, but in my opinion I really don't need to look anywhere else. These tick all the right boxes.

I bought these earbuds in 2022 but now in 2024 only two years later the right earbud fails to hold a charge for more than 30 minutes after which the earbuds are then useless.The customer service option to return the earbuds for which a likely charge of upwards of £100 to replace the earbud is unacceptable. Something of this cost price should last considerably longer than 2+ years ?

It’s not been a month i got mine, and it’s been amazing

Battery has totally gone in both buds after just over a year. Won't charge fully and they die after 10mins use. Absolute waste of money. Sony once had a reputable name: not any more.

I bought LinkBuds S in May, and in less than 4 months the earbuds started to make a wind noise (even when I am indoors). I am not sure what caused it. It is a pity, the earbuds are nice and comfortable, but this wind noise makes it unbearable and unusable. I would suggest to anyone who is interested in buying it to look online about this issue, as it's a common one.

I purchased two of these headphones on the same day and I've experienced the same issue with both. the charge on one bud goes from 100% to 10% in less than 10 minutes. It's clearly an issue with this product as so many purchasers have faced the same issue and if you google issues on this product they are always the same, And following the advice if you encouter this problem (below) doesn't work.... 1-Make sure to update the headset to the latest version, as explained here: https://cutt.ly/reEjYAkg 2-Follow the steps mentioned here: https://cutt.ly/TeEjYB2x 3-Resetting the headset: https://cutt.ly/ceEjUeAG 4-Initializing the headset to restore factory settings: https://cutt.ly/UeEjUfNb If you need further assistance, you can contact us using this link: https://bit.ly/2NwYLXL I have purchased lots of Sony headphones over the years and this is the most frustrating as when they work they are great. I'd like to talk to someone about this is possible. Thanks!

Have had WF1000XM3 for a few years - superb sound quality but bit bulky when active. Spent time considering and went for LinkBuds S. Very Pleased I did .... once in they stay in no matter what, comfortable enough to wear all day and after tinkering a bit with custom EQ on the Sony app, the sound is very good even if not quite as good as XM3s

Purchased this as it had great reviews for an affordable price. However soon (within a week) discovered that the earbuds were causing me irritation in my ear canal - unclear of the cause (battery, etc) of the irritation. Unfortunately I am returning it. It's a shame as the quality of music and fit was quite good and not many earbuds out there for petite ears. I thought I had finally found the one! Would still recommend others to try it for the music quality and price. Touch functionality could improve as vs samsung this is highly complicated with numerous taps to adjust volume.

Good performance, lightweight and decent sound for the price

Sidetone cannot be turned off. Not possible to use for calls in any noisy environment like an office. Wind noise with anc is too strong

I bought this a month ago and the Bluetooth connection seems subpar. Music will get distorted if I move away more than 3 metres away from my computer or if I walk pass a crowd outside.

So far, the BT link has been excellent, love the sound quality and control. Great noise reduction too.

Battery life is highly questionable. The battery drain between the two earbuds varies wildly. Amazing sound quality and functionality, disappointing battery performance. Sometimes the right earbud won't turn on (the app doesn't seem to know it's there, only the left one and the case appear).

I bought these earbuds just over a year ago and now the battery of the left earbuds drains after 5 minutes. Extremely disappointed! Just because the product is a couple months over warranty, I am left with a nearly unusable product.

I recently bought a second pair after my first starting losing battery life after 3 years of wearing them. The left earbud would last 30min from full charge to empty. I've had the second set now for 2 weeks and already I'm experiencing an odd wind like noise in the left earbud. Firmware updates do not fix any of these issues so it's disappointing as the sound quality and functionality is excellent, just not very reliable.

I was fairly happy with the product but the quality of Sony's customer service has been below expectation for this brand. I now have to go on holiday without my LinkBuds ... with all the issues of privacy and freedom and lack of listening experience ... during holidays!

The earphones are amazing and they have great sound quality. They are feature packed. However..after a bit over a year then right one can't hold a charge. And the life span of the battery on the left got much worse. Too bad it let down the product. In the UK I couldn't even repair them officially so I just replaced them. I even bought a pair for a friend but I am gutted that they will probably have to go through this as well

I can enjoy my music without disruptive surrounding sound.

I bought these earphones a few months back and quite enjoyed them, the nose cancelling is on par with the price range and the sound was good enough for runs or zoning out in coffee shops. An issue started to occur some weeks after I purchased them when after an hour or so of use the left earphone would start making static and crunching noises quite loudly. I've tried toggling the noise cancelling on and off and it has become a routing issue when using them. I can only count on them to "behave" for around a half hour to 2 hours before it starts to continuously make this painful noise in my ear. Hoping to resolve the issue under a warranty claim.

Good headphones but the battery now drains from the right headphone within 50 minutes. I have only owned this for 12 months

I was incredibly happy with these earbuds for the first year - very comfortable, easily the strongest noise cancelling I've ever heard, great battery life, and the sound quality was fantastic. After about 11 months I started to hear weird wind noises when i used noise cancelling or ambient mode. I submitted a request for an exchange (which was approved by sony) but the problem went away a day later so I didn't send them back. Turns out that was a mistake, because 3 months later (past my warranty period) the problem returned and the noise cancelling and ambient modes completely stopped working - they only create wind noises. I still use these occasionally but only with NC/ambient turned off. I've seen plenty of experiences from others online with the same complaints so my guess is that there's some bad engineering in this model

After beats fit Pro, galaxy buds 2 pro, Bose quiet comfort ultra, these were my last hope, being as all the other wouldn't stay in my ears past 19 mins and a quick head turn.(extreamy small ears) upon receiving them I was extremely hopeful. They were very small compared to the others I tried and extremely light weight. I hardly even noticed them in my ears. After 2 months they were purchased april4, 2024 the left one is constantly having to be put back into the case several times upon use . I take them out of the case at 100% charge and the left one will not have any sound nor will be showing up on the app. I will put it back in case and take it out a few times before It registers. After being charged a full night the left one never fully reaches 100% anymore and is never at equal % as the right. The biggest disappointment is now after only an hour if that they are completely drained of power. And need to be charged which is extremely a short battery life fir earbuds especially ones that are so new and hardly ever used except to watch tv or work on my laptop late night when I need my home to remain quiet. Can't even get through an entire movie. For 200.00 I expected a little more especially being a Sony product. I am usually team Sony as a matter of fact these were a trial pair to see if the stayed in my ears then I wanted to get the next step up in the wf- series. But no way will I be spending over 300$ for a hour time of usage, and an almost out the box faulty product. Really unfortunate and disappointing.

A simple designed good earphones for everyday use! Bass could have been better, but gives a decent music output. Looks 8/10 Noise cancellation 7/10 Bass 5/10 Battery 6/10 Got 8.5\10 Could have added LED on the ear piece

I have had them a few days and enjoy the sound quality as well as using them for cell phone calls. I am plesed so far.

I purchased SONY LinkBuds (WF-LS900N S/N 3008349) headphones a little more than a year ago. Today my right earphone does not work due to the battery not charging, the battery charge lasts for 5 minutes. Looking at the reviews for this model, you can see that many customers complain about this problem. This says it is a manufacturing defect. The warranty for this model is 1 year, which expired before the breakdown. I used SONY products all the time and they were of good quality. But I'm not willing to pay $200 for headphones every year. The battery died after 1.5 years

Bought this about a month ago. Sound great, ANC is good at its price point. But Bluetooth connectivity is below par. My unit gets cut off and on very frequently especially at crowded places.

I bought it for my second half. And she's loving it. Everything it's good for the price range. Sound is well tuned. Battery life like with all similar products can be better, but it is good enough.

Bought these online today, tried other brands off earbuds, but these earbuds sound brilliant, I must say when I oppend the box I thought these are very light, but I must say they are the most comfortable pair I've ever bought, very happy with them, bass is strong but not over powering, mids are silky smooth, highs are pin point not distorted at any level,

I like how the battery of the earbuds last. These are better than using the earbuds or headphones with wires in my opinion. I like how I don't have to always replace my earbuds

I really like it. It is very beautiful color, and the functions are great, god noise cancelling and wear comfortably.

I love the noise cancelling function of my new earbuds, I can now immerse myself fully into my music and movie world without annoying white surrounding noises! ❤️

Bought these in 2022 and they were nice but they only lasted me a year before the battery started acting up, the app would show 100% charge but they would die after 5 songs, the right ear bud overheats when it's charging. I gave up on them but then I thought the warranty was 2 years and I could get help but I was wrong the warranty for these is only a year so Sony was unable to help. Only one year of use is not worth the price

I really wanted to love the Linkbuds S, but unfortunately, they didn't last beyond 1.5 years. I used them only at home and quite sparingly, so they weren't subjected to any harsh conditions. The left earbud began to fail after just half an hour of use, and now neither earbud will charge. I attempted the reset functions, but nothing worked. Since I purchased them directly from Sony without an extended warranty, the standard warranty has already expired. Inquiring about repairs, I was directed to a third-party service, which quoted $40 for the repair plus $20 for shipping. I opted not to send my Linkbuds S in for repair. However, if you don't mind investing around $60 every 1-1.5 years for maintenance, this might still be an option for you.

I've noticed with my link buds S case, that the battery goes very quickly in them, along with my buds which is a little bit disappointing, aside from that these are perfect for music and the noise cancelling is amazing, I can't hear anything with them on.

The noise cancelling is average but I'm really disappointed with 1) noise accompanying voice during zoom meeting. I don't have such problem with Jabra 5. 2) momentary reduction in volume when turning my head in an open environment such as MRT station.

I bought this a couple of weeks ago. The main intent was to use them for online meetings (Teams and the like). A lot of reviews pointed to this being a great choice and praised strong mic performance, both for delivering clear sound and removing any background noise, as well as pretty good ANC. However, what none of them mentions (and Sony doesn't market, if you go to the product page it's never mentioned) is the Sidetone function. Essentially, the moment you enter a call, this feature activates automatically and it passes through to you all the voices of everyone else around you, regardless of your noise cancelling settings. In the end, I hear the people around me more loudly than without the earbuds, sometimes perhaps more loudly than you hear the person on the other side of the call. So I started googling my issue and in the end found an official help page that said that this behaviour is a feature, that it's by design, and that it couldn't be disabled. At all. Which means that the only way to have a meeting with these for me is to go sit in an empty office. At which point I could have gone with a $20 pair of earbuds and in those conditions they would have worked fine. People speculate why it's like this (no official explanation) and mostly think that it's a safety feature. Probably so that I don't get hit by a bus while I'm sitting in my office (because ANC has no issues with blocking the outside world while I'm out and about listening to music on the go - go figure!).

Love it. Sleek, powerful and innovative. I will definitely recommend.

I originally bought a pair of these earphones for my wife. She has tiny ears that push out every earphone design….until now. These are perfect for smaller ears. I borrows them one day and loved them so much that I decided to buy a pair for myself. It can take a bit of time to get the sound you prefer. There are lots of sound options on the app, but, with patience, you will find a sound that you like. They will never be a competitor for more expensive earphones, however, at this price point, they are outstanding value. The app takes a while to navigate around. Sony set theirs out differently from others, but 20 mins and perhaps a you tube tutorial will help you accelerate your learning to get the best out of them. Battery life feels the same as my Jabra 85T’s. About 2.5 hours on a full noise cancelling session. The inserts are comprehensive silicone inserts. I prefer a softer in ear foam insert and bought something I’ve used for years. Sonic Foam memory ear tips.You can find them in Amazon. Once rolled and compressed in the finger and thumb before positioning, they expand for a tight fit and plenty of good bass and treble. They fit well into the case and close crisply with the alternative ear insert. I scored them down from 5 star to 4 star as the case doesn’t have a Q charging facility like others. You have to plug the case in for charging. It’s not really a problem, but it’s also not like the competitors. The material is recycled plastic and has a slightly rougher feel. It works perfectly welll. You can personalise single taps between 1 and 4 for each ear to program up to 8 functions. I can often travel by air and these buds have cleared out the screaming children, adults and engine noise pretty well with their noise cancelling. It won’t take everything away. More like 70-80%. The rest disappears when you have music playing. I remain glad to have purchased these. I suppose a good test would be to ask what I would do if I lost them? I’d buy another pair immediately.

I bought these for traveling. They are comfortable to wear and give a good sound quality. Could benefit from a bit more noise cancelling but overall very happy

I got this a month ago. It fits my small ears nicely. Clear sound.

These were my favourite headphones... for just over a year. My only advice I can give is, don't ignore the 1 star reviews like I did. I tend to think these problems won't happen to me, but looking back I have had the exact same issues as countless other people. A loud, high-pitched noise that nearly burst my eardrum, followed by a constant wind sound that makes the headphones completely unusable. Sony customer support was useless, as the warranty period was over by 2 weeks. You be the judge on whether an expensive pair of headphones like these should last for barely more than a year. I will be looking at Bose in the future.

Sometime one sidenot working while hearing the song

Since the last update 4.0.0, the left earbud loses entire charge in 15 to 18 Minutes. It plunges to 0% from 60%. How to fix that? The right earbud still is at 89%. And I always put on the right earbud first. When is the next update expected to fix this?

I bought these when I worked in the electronics department at target and we were selling the linkbuds s for 99$ on sale to eradicate stock as we stopped selling them… I was super skeptical but these earbuds got me back on the Sony bandwagon I have absolutely no regrets and recommend linkbuds to everybody. I love the spatial audio, the fact you can set all your own equalization profiles, and the ambient sound passthrough is AMAZING. I can blast edm with the bass boost all the way up and turn on voice passthrough and can hear every word as if I wasn’t listening to music ( I joke with my friends that their my musical hearing aids) and the battery lasts forever I use my earbuds at least 4 hours a day and I only have to charge them like twice a week. They’re super super comfy and easy to hide as they sit flush with your ear.. perfect for retail workers lol.

Was really happy with these intially, a good sound (improved by Wavelet AutoEQ), and really great ANC, and low profile, only to find that I couldn't turn off certain chimes/spoken notifications. The low battery notification is particularly bad, as if you fall asleep with these in, it will wake you up and ruin a good nights sleep. As an insomnia sufferer this is unforgivable. Would have been 5 stars with the ability to customise notification sounds, but now they've gone on the back burner, and I'm using Pixel Buds Pro.

+ Good price + Comfortable and light + Decent noise cancelling and microphone + Good sound once adjusted - Controls, volume in particular, do not work well - One of the buds loses sound on occasion - White noise which is present in some settings is annoying Some features, such as switching to ambient noise cancelling, are nice in theory but do not work well enough in practice. Multi device pairing is a nice feature but I have not used it enough to know how well it’s implemented.

I both these about 8 months ago and they’ve been great for the most part. But I’m the last month, they have this weird windy noise in both pass through and noise cancellation modes. Send a lot of people reporting the same.

These buds are a great size and sounds everything I wanted and with the Sony brand I thought I could rely on that for build quality. Unfortunately this isn't the case. The buds are clearly designed to last for their 12 month warranty period and after that they dived off a cliff. Just before the warrant expired I started getting uneven battery drain with the right bud draining quicker. Overall battery life began to drop as well. By month 13 the falloff was shocking. Very frustrating, considering the cost!. After contacting Sony I was asked to reinitialise and reset the buds. This clearly did nothing other than hide the obvious, the cheap batteries used here were simply incapable of holding charge any longer and the re-initialisation of software masks this by resetting the 100% status to a lower point. By month 15 the right bud last 6 minutes before dying and I get around 15 from the left. They are clearly unusable and just more plastic landfill. Sony is now marketing their products as being plastic free in the packaging and using recycled plastics on the products. While in reality they are designing this product to last 12 months. I cannot express here how much you should avoid these buds, unless you think £10 per month cost for the lifetime of a pair of buds is good value and enjoy creating plastic waste.

The sound quality is OK for the money but only lasted 16 before I have started getting a really high pitched noise in the left one. It comes and goes but I don't want to wear them as it's so high pitched it actually hurts my ear! I expect better from Sony and this has made me think twice about spending good money on Sony products in future. 16 is a pathetic amount of time for a premium brand. They should work for much longer.

These earbuds are actually very comfortable, and if you get the right ear fin,

The automatic noise cancellation works great! I'm a chef in a busy kitchen and use these daily at work and can

Bought recently, great so far, and does not hurt my ears as other earbuds

Got these as a Birthday gift last August that then Every Day for at the very least 2 hours a day

After 1 week, the left bud keeps letting out a super loud high pitched noise. So, so bad. Highly do not recommend

Incredible sound quality and value for money. Olivia Rodrigo buds look so good. Transparency is next level, easily beating out airpod pros.