Sony's Linkbuds Clip open earbuds are ideal for running, but fall short in practice

The Sony Linkbuds Clip earbuds are the company’s latest approach to keeping your ears open without sacrificing audio quality. I’ve been using the Clip buds for a couple of weeks now, and overall, I’m impressed. Unfortunately, the task they make the most sense for—running—is also the place they have the most trouble.

The features and specs of the Linkbuds Clip

Sony’s original Linkbuds, back in 2021, tried to solve the open-ear design with a physical hole in the middle of its earbuds. It was clever, but didn’t catch on. Most companies have moved to an ear cuff, clip-on style. This allows for better environmental awareness than just using digital transparency. Sony is following suit here.

You attach the Linkbuds Clip by pressing them onto the side of your ears. The rubber connecting each side is flexible enough that it shouldn’t swing free. If it does, there are additional rubber pieces in the box to help secure them. I didn’t have that problem and don’t think most people will. They fit my 13-year-old just fine.

The Clip buds get 9 hours of battery life on their own and 37 hours in total with the charging case. There’s no wireless charging on the case, but the buds are IPX4 water-resistant. To go along with the open-style, there are three main listening modes: Standard, Voice Boost, and Sound Leakage Reduction.

Running with these earbuds is disappointing

The Linkbuds Clip seem ideal for all kinds of fitness activities because of their environmental awareness. For me, that means daily running. I ran over 25 miles with them to give them a fair trial. This design also doesn’t pool sweat in my ears like traditional earbuds jammed in my ears do.

However, my biggest qualm with the Linkbuds Clip for running is the media controls. The touch controls are tough to use while on the move. 

By default, tapping twice on the right earbud will pause and play media. To skip a song, you need to tap three times. I found that to be nearly impossible to do while running an 8:30-minute mile. There’s even a four-tap gesture to control the volume. I never attempted that one.

The tricky controls were disappointing, but even worse is that after a few days, I started getting false positives. Several times over the course of a run, the buds would think that I tapped on the left one, and they would change the listening mode on their own. This was from the jostling of the running movement. I’ve experienced this with some cheaper clip-on style open earbuds too. False positives are the reason they can’t use single taps and need to start with double taps.

The Linkbuds Clip are supposed to adjust the volume automatically, based on how loud your environment is. Unfortunately, the few times this did kick in, it lowered the volume, instead of raising it, as I ran past loud traffic. Most of the time, however, the feature didn’t activate automatically. And since I wasn’t going to attempt a quadruple tap, I was stuck missing parts of the podcast until I could access my watch to control the volume again.

I’ve used the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds for a while and they don’t have any of these issues. Since they don’t rely on touch controls, there are no false positives. The physical button on the Ultra Open Earbuds is easy to feel and activate, even while running. Their automatic volume adjustment works well. It’s not flawless, but it kicks in nearly every time I think about raising the volume.

As a note, I wasn’t provided early access to the Sony Connect mobile app during my testing, so I couldn’t tweak any of the presets or change any of the settings.

Listening to music

If you don’t use the Linkbuds Clip while exercising, then using them to listen to music might be a better experience. There’s plenty of audible details even for the open-ear style. The Clip aren’t devoid of all low-end bass either, when the volume is raised over 50%. Overall, the audio quality is good. Just don’t expect the same audio quality as Sony’s 1000X in-ear buds.

I’ve found listening to spoken word like podcasts works really well with the Clip. People sound great in most of the listening modes, including Voice Boost or Sound Leakage Reduction. Music is best suited for Standard mode.

The problem regarding the audio quality is the $230 retail price. Other open-ear buds like the Soundpeats Clip1 sell for under $50 and sound nearly as good. If you’re listening to music while sitting at your desk, the Clip1 buds offer a terrific value. The Linkbuds Clip have more mid-range capabilities, but most people won’t notice without directly comparing the two.

Here’s the deal with sound leakage

Because Sony includes a Sound Leakage Reduction mode, I was curious how the Clip compares to the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds in this area. It’s impossible to tell while wearing the buds and people’s opinions are subjective, so I sat about 12 inches away from a microphone and played music at around 70% volume while sitting in a quiet room. Then I listened to the recording to hear what other people might hear.

With the Linkbuds Clip using Standard mode, I could hear just a little bit of audio in the recording—enough to tell they were on and playing something. But only minimally, and not enough to be disruptive. With Voice Boost, I could audibly hear singing and get a sense of the music style. The Sound Leakage Reduction mode helped lower the audible music, but not much more than Standard. You will be able to sit in a quiet office and listen to music or a podcast with the Linkbuds Clip. How loud you will be able to turn your music up will depend on what you’re listening to.

The Ultra Open Earbuds don’t have the same kinds of modes. At the same 70% volume as the Linkbuds Clip, you could easily hear music on the Bose earbuds. But the Bose ones also didn’t need to be turned up that loud to get the same bass levels. So, I was able to lower the volume of the Bose ones to about 50%, and I couldn’t hear any leakage in the recording.

Are the Sony Linkbuds Clip worth spending money on?

The good news is that the Sony Linkbuds Clip offer a solid open-ear listening experience. The buds are comfortable to wear for long stretches, to the point that you may actually forget you’re wearing them. The audio quality is also decent for their intended use.

The bad news is that the Linkbuds Clip buds rely on touch controls, which is a poor experience—especially while running. Pausing and skipping tracks is tricky in that context. I also encountered some false positives where my running motion triggered the listening modes to change. There are cheaper open-ear buds to consider.

There are also more expensive options. The $300 Bose Ultra Open Earbuds sound fuller, with more bass, and have better media controls with no false positives, but they retail for more. I would skip the Linkbuds Clip for running, but more stationary exercises could still work if you really want to have the Sony version of the clip-on earbuds.