These are fairly unique, open-ear style earbuds which take the open-ear concept to a new level. The LinkBuds Open, also known as the WF-L910, are the.
The LinkBuds Open, also known as the WF-L910, are the second generation version of the original Sony LinkBuds. These are fairly unique, open-ear style earbuds which take the open-ear concept to a new level by literally having a hole in the middle of the earbuds for ambient sound to pass through.
The second generation model has an updated design, new driver, second generation audio processor, Spatial Audio with head tracking, and longer battery life. Priced at $200, these earbuds still cost a pretty penny. Let’s see if they are good enough.Design
The design of the LinkBuds Open is the star of the show. The earbuds have an unconventional dual pod design that they share with their predecessors. Unlike most other earbuds that have the driver and the electronics in a single shell, the LinkBuds Open need to have two distinct pods since one of them has a hole right through it.
Sony has altered the design of the earbuds in several ways over the LinkBuds. The units are now 2mm shorter in length as a result of the smaller driver module. The back of the earbuds that houses the electronics now has a rubber cover around it, which also features supports to secure the earbuds in your ears. The rubber covers are removable and you can swap them out for different colored ones. There aren’t different sizes available so this is truly one-size-fits-all.
Turn the earbuds and you get to see the driver arrangement. Unlike other earbuds that are located deeper inside the shell and have their sound piped through a port pointed directly towards the inner ear, the LinkBuds Open driver is ring-shaped and outputs through a dotted ring directly in front of it. This also means the driver doesn’t fire directly into your inner ear but rather into a wall on the side, and the sound then eventually makes its way in. That might sound weird but that’s how we hear most sounds naturally.
The LinkBuds Open don’t have any external buttons on touch targets. Instead, you have to tap the area just in front of your ears. This also means the gestures are simplified on the LinkBuds Open as you can only tap and not tap and hold as on other earbuds. There is also no single tap gesture available and the minimum is two taps, which also limits the range of gestures you can assign.
In terms of build quality, the LinkBuds Open feel well-made. Most of the outside is covered in the rubber cover, which feels intentional in order to protect the earbuds when they inevitably fall out of your ears. The earbuds don’t go too deep in your ears so they also generally stay cleaner than in-ear models. Lastly, the earbuds are IPX4 certified for splash resistance.
Moving on to the case, the LinkBuds Open have a new design compared to the original model. The case is smaller with a shape that looks like two pebbles stacked on top of each other. The white model has a glossy finish and marbled pattern on top, which is a bit hard to see. The lid now closes magnetically instead of with a latch and the earbuds also stay in place magnetically. As with the previous model, the case does not support wireless charging.
The LinkBuds Open are available in three colors, white, black, and a limited edition violet, which is made in collaboration with Olivia Rodrigo. This variant also enables a different color theme in the Sony app along with two exclusive EQ presets.Comfort
Comfort can be a divisive topic with earbuds due to the differences in people’s ear shapes and sizes. However, one thing in-ear style earbuds assure the user is that the earbuds won’t fall out, even if they might not be very comfortable. However, with open-ear style earbuds, the question is not just of comfort but also whether or not the earbuds actually stay in your ears.
With the LinkBuds Open, I can unfortunately say that they simply do not stay in my ears. I’ve looked at all of Sony’s promotional material as well as the manual on how to wear them and have come to the conclusion that my ears simply aren’t the required shape or size to hold these earbuds the way they are designed to be.
At first, this was hard to swallow, as I’ve never had issues with older style open-ear earbuds (or earphones as we used to call them). Even the original AirPods, which many people struggled with, fit like custom made IEMs in my ears.
As such, the LinkBuds Open being completely unable to fit my ears was a bit of a shock. I cannot overstate how futile it was trying to wear these earbuds; I may as well be trying to make them stay in place on a completely flat wall. They fall out as soon as I let go.
If you look at Sony’s promotional material, you will see people with ear cavities large enough to house the two pods of these earbuds fully within their concha and also have antihelix curves that perfectly grip on to the rubber support tip. My ears aren’t big enough for this to happen so I simply cannot wear the LinkBuds Open the way they are intended.
The solution for me was to shove the driver portion of the earbuds deeper into the ear, which then caused the upper portion to fit better. This had repercussions on the sound quality but at least I could wear the earbuds outside without having to worry about them falling out.
As such, there is no point discussing comfort for me. I’m sure it’s great (or not) if I could wear them the way they were intended but the way I ended up wearing them caused discomfort after a few minutes as there were too many hard plastic bits inside my ears where they aren’t supposed to be.
