Clip-style earbuds are everywhere right now, and Sony has thrown its hat in the ring with the LinkBuds Clip, which went on sale in India on July 13 at INR 18,990. Internationally, the buds carry a price tag of $229.99 (or £229.99).
The whole point of the open-ear, clip design is that it leaves your ear canals largely unobstructed. Instead of jamming a silicone tip deep into your ear, the LinkBuds Clip hook onto the outer ear, so ambient sound flows in naturally. That makes them ideal for cyclists, runners, or anyone who wants to stay aware of traffic, colleagues, or a train announcement while still enjoying their music.
To keep things comfortable across different ear shapes, Sony uses a flexible clip paired with what it calls Air Fitting Cushions. The idea is a secure, low-pressure fit you can wear for hours without the fatigue that comes from wedged-in tips.
Under the hood, each bud packs a 10mm driver and supports the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. Sony’s DSEE audio enhancement engine is on board too, aiming to restore some of the detail lost when you stream compressed tracks.
Battery life is genuinely solid for an open-ear design: 9 hours on a single charge, stretching to 37 hours total once you factor in the charging case. Connectivity runs over Bluetooth 5.3 with Multipoint, so you can stay paired to two devices at once — say, a laptop and a phone — and switch between them without fiddling in the settings.
Because open-ear buds leak sound by nature, Sony has built in three listening modes to help you tune the experience:
- Standard for everyday listening
- Voice Boost to make dialogue and podcasts clearer
- Sound Leakage Reduction for quieter, more considerate use in shared spaces
Call quality gets some attention as well. The LinkBuds Clip use dual microphones, a bone conduction sensor, and AI-powered noise reduction to isolate your voice from background chaos. And with an IPX4 rating, they’ll shrug off sweat and light rain — handy given the active crowd this design is aimed at.
In India, the buds are available across a wide net of channels, including Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, select Croma and Reliance stores, Sony Centers, and Shopatsc.com. It’s an aggressive rollout that suggests Sony is serious about grabbing a slice of the fast-growing open-ear market before rivals lock it down.
The bottom line: if you’ve been curious about clip-style earbuds but wary of no-name brands, the LinkBuds Clip bring Sony’s audio pedigree, respectable battery numbers, and thoughtful software to a category that badly needed a heavyweight entry.
