Having the word ‘fit’ in the name of a device can serve different purposes. It can simply be a perfect ‘fit’ or a perfect ‘fit’ for your fitness-focused lifestyle. Sony plays it well with LinkBuds Fit that is designed to give you the comfort and experience of a top-drawer pair of earbuds as well as become a companion in the gym. It’s, in fact, worth comparing it with the likes of AirPods 4 (ANC) and Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro. Punching far above options from Nothing or Noise, Sony LinkBuds Fit wins the heart and ears with its sound quality as well as... fit.

LinkBuds Fit is equipped with Sony’s Integrated Processor V2 same as the flagship model WF-1000XM5

Strong design elements

A common quibble among wireless earbud users has to do with active noise cancellation. People who travel a lot like to buy wireless earbuds that have strong ANC. Then there are those who don’t care about ANC. What Sony is offering is advanced noise cancellation that sits between the two extremes. This can well be the dark horse candidate in the wireless audio market because of the way it blends the strengths of the sealed ear design with the benefits of unsealed designs. If you have an Android phone, this is perhaps the most sensible pair of earbuds to buy, unless, of course, you are moving within the Samsung ecosystem.

There are some future-forward features. For example, the earbuds offer advanced noise cancelling, Bluetooth 5.3, support for LDAC and LC3, Bluetooth multipoint as well as spatial audio via Sony’s 360 Reality Audio platform.

Further, you can run a virtualiser through the Sound Connect app that will allow you to perceive music as if it’s coming from different sound sources, like a cafe or living room.

To control, you can make use of the earbuds’ wide area tap to change tracks, toggle and see your passthrough modes or activate Spotify tap. This feature allows you to poke at your own head instead of the earbud. So if you want to track forward, you can tap the area in front of the earbuds a couple of times. It’s effective because you don’t compromise the seal, or create that weird sucking sensation or introduce noise in the ear canal when you whack the earbud.

Each bud is small and light. That’s what enables this interesting design to work because if there were even a little bit more mass, the ear tips and ear fins wouldn’t have been successful. The ear tips don’t get inserted deep into the ear canal. Instead, they sit right at the top of the opening to the ears. LinkBuds Fit is, in fact, better compared to many unsealed earbuds rather than sealed ones. It’s unfair to compare them to high-performing ANC earbuds like the WF-1000XM5. The ear tips are a single piece of silicone material that pops on and off on a very short nozzle just like on Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro.

Advanced noise cancellation

Having a single material means no ripping or other common failure points points while having no hardened inner ring means there’s less that can go wrong when you remove the ear tips. It also means there’s not much pressure being applied to the ear canals.
On the flip side, there are the typical gripes, like the absence of wireless charging and average battery life.

The buds sound good, offering consistent bass

Sony says the LinkBuds fit should run for 5.5 hours with advanced noise cancelling on and eight hours with it off. The case holds 15.5 to 24 hours of additional battery life, depending on your use of ANC and listening volume.

If it is strictly active noise cancellation that you are looking for, we recommend Sony WF-1000XM5; otherwise, this is the perfect go-to device for Android users. This is for some level of noise cancellation, and when it comes to transparency mode, there is excellent audio quality.

Make the call

Though these earbuds deviate a bit from our sound preference curve in a few places and the bass is slightly boosted but overall, we feel most people will enjoy the sound, especially if you’re listening over LDAC.

The sound quality is noticeably better than earbuds from Nothing or even some options from Sennheiser. On a track like Back to Black by Amy Winehouse, the LinkBuds reproduce deep tones while allowing plenty of room in the mix for the higher-frequency percussion and vocals. On orchestral tracks, the earbuds give the brass instruments a bright shine while ensuring that the instruments are well separated.

The earbuds work with the Sony Sound Connect app (available for Android and iOS). Overall, the app feels modern and the features are well organised. It lets you set adaptive noise modes, set multipoint connections and manage settings.

The app’s EQ is not very basic. It comes with a few presets and two custom EQ settings. When you customise the EQ, you can access five bands, ranging from 400Hz to 16kHz.

The buds occupy the middle ground between sealed and unsealed designs. If somebody has a difficult time wearing earbuds in general, this pair may help. It is definitely worth its price, especially if you are an Android user.

The companion app allows users to tinker with EQ settings and toggle some of the advanced features on or off

At a glance

Device: Sony LinkBuds Fit

Price: Rs 18,990

High notes

○ Powerful sound

○ Excellent design

○ Good app support

○ Clean separation between instruments

Muffled note

○ No wireless charging