Sony LinkBuds Fit review: comfort above everything else

“Unrivaled comfort.” That’s really Sony positioned its caller LinkBuds Fit noise-canceling wireless earbuds erstwhile they debuted alongside nan company’s 2 different new LinkBuds products, nan LinkBuds Open and LinkBuds Speaker.

That’s a bold claim. It’s besides beautiful accurate. I don’t cognize if they’re nan astir comfortable wireless earbuds you tin bargain — possibly you person weird ears? — but arsenic acold arsenic my ears are concerned, they’re easy successful nan apical three.

Now that we person that retired of nan way, what astir nan LinkBuds Fit’s galore different characteristics and features?

Let’s cheque ‘em out.

The LinkBuds Fit (left) and LinkBuds S Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

First a statement connected wherever nan Fit beryllium successful Sony’s earbuds lineup. It’s tempting to deliberation of these buds arsenic successors to nan 2022 LinkBuds S. But since Sony plans to waste nan 2 products broadside by broadside for nan foreseeable future, they’re much for illustration siblings. The Fit connection a fewer much bells and whistles — immoderate of which travel straight from Sony’s $300 flagship, nan WF-1000XM5 — yet pinch nan aforesaid $200 value arsenic nan S.

Design-wise, nan Fit whitethorn not triumph complete S fans. Sony has utilized a batch of silicone connected nan LinkBuds Fit, mostly successful nan shape of nan new, hook-shaped “Air Fitting Supporters” (which is simply a unspeakable name). It’s a very different look. It’s besides a different shape.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The S employs a dual-chamber design, pinch a mini spherical module sitting adjacent to nan receptor canal and a larger coin style placed successful nan outer concha. For those pinch smaller ears, for illustration my daughter, it lets nan silicone receptor tips penetrate deeper into nan ear, providing a snug and unafraid fit.

By contrast, nan LinkBuds Fit person a larger, much accepted shape. It proved to beryllium excessively large of a quality for my girl — nan Fit conscionable don’t fit.

The caller charging lawsuit adopts a clamshell design, offering fantabulous entree to nan earbuds. Sadly, location is still nary wireless charging and I’m not convinced it’s immoderate easier to pouch than nan S. The hinge useful well, but nan magnetic closure isn’t arsenic strong, which whitethorn lead to inadvertent openings successful a purse aliases backpack.

You tin get nan aerial supporters and lawsuit bottom/top covers successful respective colors. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I’m connected nan obstruction erstwhile it comes to Sony’s optional silicone lawsuit covers. I’m not a large instrumentality of customizing nan look of my accessories (I’m astir apt not portion of nan target market), but I do for illustration nan other protection they afford. My achromatic reappraisal unit’s glossy lawsuit lid became marred pinch fingerprints arsenic soon arsenic I removed it from nan box.

The specs

Because Sony has wrapped nan full outer information of nan Fit successful silicone, nan controls usage accelerometers to observe pat gestures. This has respective benefits. First, it enables Sony’s Wide Area Tap, a cool characteristic that heightens nan accelerometers’ sensitivity to movements created erstwhile you pat connected your cheek, adjacent your ear. It besides intends that nan controls are glove-friendly — nary capacitive touch needed. Finally, it each but eliminates inadvertent pausing aliases different unwanted commands erstwhile you set aliases region an earbud.

I enjoyed this strategy connected Sony’s first-gen LinkBuds (not nan S model), and it useful conscionable arsenic efficaciously connected nan Fit.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The downside is that Sony has besides kept its frustrating power strategy from nan LinkBuds: You tin customize 2 gestures per earbud, but you tin only prime from preassigned motion groups. These see ANC control, playback, opus selection, sound assist, and respective others. If you prime ANC power connected nan near earbud and playback connected nan right, you don’t get entree to opus selection.

Thankfully, Sony has added a persistent measurement power motion (repeated taps connected nan near aliases correct earbud to raise/lower volume), truthful that’s 1 little logic to scope for your phone.

Sony’s caller Voice Assist feature, should you take to usage it, makes up for nan limitations of nan motion groups. Saying “Hey Headphones …” followed by a bid specified arsenic “turn sound canceling on” does precisely what you’d expect. There are sound options for astir each function, including a useful artillery cheque command. It useful good and I emotion that you don’t request to pat an earbud first, but it’s not very smart. If you want to region your tunes, “Hey Headphones … pause” doesn’t work. You request to complete nan building “pause music,” aliases “pause song.” The deterioration sensors are nan different measurement to do this, arsenic they auto-pause your tunes erstwhile you region an earbud.

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Also caller to nan Fit are telephone guidance caput gestures. When a telephone comes in, you tin motion to judge aliases shingle to diminution it. I recovered nan nodding motion worked consistently, while nan shaking mobility seemed to require a much exaggerated movement.

For years, Sony was a laggard successful nan Bluetooth Multipoint department. But those days are now down us. The newly redesigned Sony Sound Connect app (previously known arsenic nan Headphones Connect app) does a awesome occupation of showing you nan LinkBuds Fit’s presently connected devices. You tin besides bump nan earbuds backmost into pairing mode from nan app truthful you tin adhd different instrumentality to nan list. I conjecture bully things travel to those who wait.

The LinkBuds Fit apparently person Sony’s champion ambient sound (transparency), successful portion because of their Integrated Processor V2 chip, which first debuted successful nan WF-1000XM5. I hesitate to co-sign that claim. I work together that there’s a quality successful nan Fit’s ambient capacity erstwhile compared to some nan LinkBuds S and moreover nan WF-1000XM5, but an improvement? I’m not truthful sure.

As pinch astir of Sony’s ambient products, you tin perceive nan extracurricular world pinch awesome clarity erstwhile it’s engaged. I deliberation I’m connected committee pinch nan conception that nan Fit does this portion marginally amended than those different earbuds. However, portion of nan transparency look is really good you tin perceive your ain voice. The Fit are surely nary slouch successful this department, but I for illustration nan LinkBuds S type — they’re much natural-sounding to my ears.

On nan different hand, erstwhile it comes to sound cancellation, their capacity is astir identical to nan LinkBuds S, which is to say, perfectly adequate, but not arsenic tin arsenic nan benignant of quiet you’ll get from nan XM5 aliases moreover Bose’s caller $180 QuietComfort Earbuds.

One thing’s for sure: Sony’s Adaptive Sound Control, which attempts to conjecture whether you request sound cancellation aliases transparency based connected a assortment of factors, is arsenic annoying arsenic ever. For immoderate reason, it can’t grip nan thought that you mightiness want nan benefits of ANC while stepping and ever turns connected transparency mode. Your mileage whitethorn vary, but I thin to move it disconnected and time off it off.

Conversely, speak-to-chat is an disposable action (there are truthful galore disposable options successful nan Sound Connect app!) and it does an fantabulous occupation of sensing your reside without reacting to different sounds for illustration sneezes, coughs, aliases nan clearing of throats. It quickly moves you from ANC to transparency and halts your tunes wrong a 2nd aliases 2 of detecting speech, while letting you determine really agelong it waits aft it senses you’re done talking (5, 15, 30 seconds, aliases never) earlier returning you to ANC and music.

Sound value is yet different area wherever Sony believes nan LinkBuds Fit excel. It claims that nan V2 spot and nan Fit’s “Dynamic Driver X” architecture were some inherited from nan company’s 1000X series. If that’s true, I conjecture it’s impervious that there’s much to nan XM5’s sound than these 2 ingredients.

I person perfectly nary complaints astir nan Fit’s sound. It’s precisely what I’ve travel to expect from Sony’s midrange offering, pinch nan benignant of clarity and bass resonance that keeps earning Sony praise twelvemonth aft year. But make nary mistake, they don’t present nan class-leading capacity of nan XM5.

Swapping backmost and distant pinch nan LinkBuds S, I was hard-pressed to show nan quality betwixt these models, isolated from successful 1 area: Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codec.

With nan LinkBuds S, I didn’t observe overmuch quality betwixt LDAC and AAC, but nan Fit are a different story.

For this listening session, I paired nan LinkBuds Fit to an iPhone 14 (AAC) and a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (LDAC) and deed nan aforesaid 3 hi-res FLAC tracks utilizing Tidal. It was Lusaint’s haunting screen of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game that champion demonstrated LDAC’s other detail. A heavy echo effect is applied to Lusaint’s sound astatine nan extremity of each of nan six opening lines of nan song. On nan iPhone, nan decay of that echo felt for illustration a protector of nan vocals that produced them. On nan S23, nan decay had an audible texture and shape, giving nan echo an eerie characteristic — you could perceive it fighting against nan inevitable oblivion.

The Sound Connect app gives you entree to Sony’s modular equalizer usability pinch its postulation of presets, manual settings, and bass boost adjustments. You tin usage it to execute extended tweaks if you want, but I was contented pinch nan equilibrium correct retired of nan box.

Speaking of EQ, Sony has added thing called “background euphony effect” to nan Sound Connect app. It gives you a prime of 3 simulated environments: My Room, Living Room, and Cafe. Each 1 modifies your euphony to springiness you much aliases little “space” to nan sound. With My Room, nan sound is placed very adjacent to your ears — you whitethorn not moreover announcement a immense quality versus nary effect. But erstwhile you get to Cafe mode, there’s a very chopped consciousness of being successful a ample space, pinch sound that is coming from further away. Sony says it helps pinch relaxation and focus. Thankfully, location are nary simulated Cafe patrons.

Sony’s attack to spatial audio mirrors that of Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2, but that’s not a compliment. Sony doesn’t connection spatialized stereo (stereo made to sound much immersive via software) and it only supports caput search via a constricted group of Android-only apps for illustration Netflix and YouTube.

Like nan S and XM5, you tin amended nan spatial effect by uploading photos of your ears to nan app. Once analyzed, nan app uses that information to optimize streaming apps connected your telephone that supports Sony’s 360 Reality Audio (360RA) format . That mightiness not beryllium a bad point if it were easy to entree 360RA content, but it isn’t. Currently, nan only awesome work that supports it is Amazon Music. Your different choices are nugs.net, PeerTracks, Artist Connection, and 360 Reality Live. And astatine nan moment, Amazon Music can’t beryllium optimized.

Making calls utilizing nan LinkBuds Fit is mostly excellent. The precocious value of nan transparency mode minimizes nan fatigue associated pinch not proceeding your sound clearly. Your callers will perceive you intelligibly excessively — and pinch amended solution than galore different earbuds. The capacity is somewhat amended than pinch nan LinkBuds S. With nan Fit, noisy backgrounds are silenced much efficaciously while keeping your sound stable. In quiet locations, there’s not overmuch quality betwixt them.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Sony pegs nan artillery life connected nan LinkBuds Fit astatine 5.5 hours per complaint pinch ANC on, and 21 full hours erstwhile you see nan case. If you request more, you tin move disconnected ANC and those numbers emergence to 8 and 30, respectively, which is very competitory pinch different earbuds.

Sony’s optional features tin return a large wound retired of nan disposable stamina. Enabling LDAC, speak-to-chat, sound commands, and Sony’s DSEEE upscaling (on apical of ANC) could driblet artillery life to arsenic small arsenic 3 hours per complaint — perchance little if you for illustration to perceive loud.

Cleverly, Sony has added a caller action called Auto Battery Save. When it’s turned on, it will automatically unopen down each of these extras isolated from LDAC erstwhile your remaining artillery life hits 20%.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I’d beryllium remiss if I didn’t connection immoderate thoughts connected really nan LinkBuds Fit activity pinch Sony’s caller $180 LinkBuds Speaker. Though nan speaker tin very overmuch beryllium thought of arsenic a standalone product, it’s clear that Sony sees it arsenic a companion to its LinkBuds and 1000X bid earbuds.

Using nan Sound Connect app, you tin alteration Auto Switch if you ain some nan Speaker and immoderate compatible Sony earbuds/headphones (currently nan LinkBuds S, Fit, Open, and WF/WH-1000XM5). With that action engaged, euphony tin beryllium transferred seamlessly betwixt nan earbuds and nan speaker.

Getting Auto Switch group up proved trickier than I had expected. For immoderate reason, nan Sound Connect app kicks you into a browser model wherever you’re expected to publication nan instructions connected Sony’s website, alternatively of simply stepping you done nan process.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Still, erstwhile I figured it out, it worked well. If you’ve sewage euphony playing connected nan LinkBuds Speaker, it instantly transfers nan infinitesimal you put nan Fit successful your ears. If you return nan buds to their case, nan Speaker takes over, but not instantly — there’s astir a 3 2nd to 4 2nd hold arsenic nan Speaker reconnects to your phone.

Keep successful mind that this is each performed via Bluetooth — dissimilar a smart speaker, nan LinkBuds Speaker doesn’t person its ain Wi-Fi connection.

This leads maine to my biggest critique of nan Speaker. Despite having a built-in mic, which lets you usage it arsenic a speakerphone for calls, nan Speaker doesn’t support Sony’s sound commands, and there’s nary measurement to trigger your phone’s autochthonal sound assistant.

To summarize this very lengthy look astatine nan Sony LinkBuds Fit: These earbuds connection a overmuch much comfortable wearing acquisition acknowledgment to their style and silicone Air Fitting Supporters — unless you person mini ears. Overall, they present very akin capacity to nan LinkBuds S successful position of sound, ANC, transparency, and calling. However, for nan aforesaid value arsenic nan S, you get immoderate nosy extras for illustration sound commands, caput gestures, and Auto Battery Save. Plus, nan movement-sensitive controls are a awesome prime for those who routinely deterioration gloves.

They’ve been designed pinch colour customization successful mind, but these silicone accessories adhd to nan costs and I’m not convinced they’re a beardown logic to take nan Fit complete different models. Plus, you tin stake that Amazon will soon person plentifulness of third-party options astatine overmuch little prices.

The continued absence of wireless charging astatine this value is simply a disappointment. And fixed that Sony sees its LinkBuds lineup arsenic “all-day” devices, I’m amazed that Sony hasn’t jumped connected nan Bluetooth Auracast bandwagon yet. If you’re looking for an replacement to nan LinkBuds Fit, nan Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are a small little costly and connection amended ANC.