Sony LinkBuds Truly Wireless Earbud Headphones with an Open-Ring Design for Ambient Sounds and Alexa Built-in, Bluetooth Ear Buds Compatible with iPhone and Android, White

As someone who has suffered his whole life with pain from wearing earbuds (most types) these are definitely a must have if you are in the same boat.For some reason I can’t handle iems. If they go in the ear, or even AirPods. My ears have always been so sensitive that any pressure results in pain or swelling. I try to stay away from most in ear styles for this main reason.A secondary reason is the pressure from the sound isolation has never been comfortable to me. Feeling like I’m underwater, rather than silence. It’s awful.AirPods 3 were my go to since their release late last year, but they still caused a bit of discomfort. They would also fall out. The convenience of using iOS and AirPods plus the higher than average sound quality made me push through.Before the AirPods 3 I used the Galaxy buds Live. They were great. Most comfortable I’ve ver used. No issues with comfort. Despite enjoying the ANC implementation whereas it focused on outside lower frequencies like hums and engines (opposed to something like the AirPods Pro which attempt to block all sound). I didn’t like how quiet they were. The sound quality was great in a decently loud room but when I was at work with heavy machinery it got hard to hear without cranking up the sound which caused a bit of distortion.Enter the Sony Linkbuds. Out of the box these things come with the medium wing tip which to my horror began causing some burning sensations from the pressure. I swapped them out for the small on both ears and voila. Perfect fit. Perfect volume.It feels like you have nothing in the ear. The Galaxy buds live were close to perfect but they did block sound a bit when you were wearing them. The whole in these Linkbuds make it so that’s a problem of the past.The auto speech detect works well. Too well honestly that I feel like I’m killing my battery by having it on. Speaking of batter it’s still to be seen how long they last. The app will show one percentage one minute and then it’ll jump down like 20%. I don’t think it updates frequently but it’s jarring.The extra features like spatial audio and Alexa are cool but I use iOS and those aren’t that well supported. Maybe in the future, but right now don’t buy the buds if you have iOS and want to make use of those features.The spatial audio is similar to AirPods 3 and pro implementation. It works very well with the supported apps. Seems highly unlikely more will add the feature though.I’m assuming on android it’s a system wide effect that can be toggled on or off. So if you have an android I’d look for more information elsewhere.The last thing I want to mention that makes these a must have is the wide area tap. Every time I tap it registers the proper gesture. EVERYTIME! That’s huge. With my Galaxy Buds I would always skip songs, or be unable to accept calls because the tapping was so inaccurate. Most tap to use headphones suck ass and for me, caused me physical pain to use. Here you don’t tap the headphone. You actually tap your temple… sort of. The side of your head. It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie and it works.Few quirks when using these with iOS but most are now standard fare if you don’t use AirPods. Stuff like sometimes the screen will come on when I use Siri so my thigh will cancel out commands. I don’t use Siri that much anyways. And when I do need an assistant it’s only to do math problems for me that I’m too slow to do on my own. But it is something to be wary about.Alexa implementation is good and works well, but again, Alexa can’t do as much as Siri: most of the things you’d ask her are like music selections. It’s kind of a non issue for me personally.Also the app to set these up is kind of annoying to use. Features work, but the menus are confusing to know if they are turned on or not. Certain apps seem like they are required to set up certain features but not really. I spent about five minutes in the soundscapes app wondering how to I use the spatial audio for movies only to realize the app was trying to tell me the soundscapes app is compatible with the buds and that’s the end of the integration.To use Alexa and Spotify features make sure to go to assign menu and change the left or right settings to the proper apps. Then the rest of the features will work. It’s very confusing at first.With time as I use these through the warm up period they might get better sounding but the fit and comfort are apparent from the start. If you have sensitive ears please try the xs wingtips. Those are the ones on all the promotional material but for some reason they come with the medium.This is my first review on Amazon and I just had to let everyone with similar problems to me that we’ve been saved. The perfect earbud is here.For everyone else you might feel a bit let down. They aren’t as bass heavy as IEM’s and definitely don’t block outside sound. Some people really don’t want to hear anything and these aren’t for those people. For everyone else these are it!!!

I'll keep my review short. These headphones are a niche product, but I really think this design choice deserves more credit. The open back nature of these headphones add a really natural effect to sound. However it does come at the cost of base and treble response since an open back earbud naturally does not create a seal. BUT.... that lack of seal was the exact reason I purchased these. Normal earbuds with rubber plugs are very irritating to my ears. Especially when using the controls, having to constantly seal them back in my ear, or taking them in and out to talk to people. Call quality was amazing as the listener, although the mics I would say are "adequate at best". The added benefit of them not muffling outside noises was a HUGE plus for talking to people, commuting, and just overall being comfortable. These where my favorite earbuds ever until....These units started failing on me a little over the 1 year mark. The case often flashes orange when charging (indicating a charging issue), the right earbud rarely charges at all anymore and the left one has some kind of issue where the charge level is all over the place when in use and does not last very long. Even new though, the right bud would drain about 3x faster than the left one, but until recently was not an issue problematic enough for me to care about. I am not the type to abuse my tech, these never where exposed to water, I never left them in a hot car, etc.I contacted Sony about this 3 times in the span of the last 2 months. The first time they told me they would exchange it for a new pair but to contact them again in a week when they finished system repairs on their end to process it. The second time, they told me to do some trouble shooting steps first and then they would exchange it if it was still behaving weird. On the third time they told me I was outside of warranty and that they would not be exchanging it. They would not listen to me telling them the other 2 reps said they would exchange it, they did not care when I told them I had the chat transcripts to prove it. Only on the 3rd conversation did they tell me my device was purchased more than a year ago, then attempted to lie about the first 2 not knowing about that (even though that was the first question both of them asked) and then referred me to a repair center to pay it out of pocket myself. Which obviously, would cost more then the buds did themselves. Even explaining how the first 2 techs asked for purchase date as the first question did not phase them. I even had a case number, which I used to file a complaint and they still did not care. For anyone reading this, I am not upset my device was out of warranty. I am upset they doubled down on saying they would exchange it wasting weeks of my time to only at the end deny it like they where giving me the run around. Just stating the first time it was out of warranty would have been fine, and this review would be a lot better. To any Sony Rep thinking about sending the "Sorry you had a bad experience please contact us" copy/paste response to this, I am not interested, you have already shown how you communicate with existing customers and I am not interested in being lied to for a month again. Which is ashame considering how many Sony products I have purchased over the years.