- Oh, boy! We've got new headphones in.
These are the new Sony LinkBuds.
I'm really excited to test these out
because I did like a little briefing
before I actually got hands-on with them.
And the thing that I'm most excited about,
every other kind of like, headphones
that have been coming out recently,
I feel like there's been no change to them.
They all have sort of the same look,
the same kind of design.
This even goes for AirPods.
Like it's kind of technically the same.
But what Sony has done, kind of interesting.
So I'm really excited to open these up and test them out.
So this actually came in a really cool media kit,
and it was this awesome augmented reality experience.
Shhh. If you guys wanna see what that looked like,
check out my friend Farouk.
He did a really cool unboxing and demo of it.
Mine unfortunately, is at my parents' house
on the East Coast and it was a really heavy box,
and there was no way that I was able to fit it
into my luggage, but I did get a chance to open it there.
So I brought back the tiny box
which actually contains our LinkBuds.
Now I'm excited about this
because these have basically been re-engineered
from the ground up to give you
kind of this new listening experience.
And you'll see why this is different when we get in here.
Whoa! Look how small this is.
Wow! This is a really tiny little case. Here they are.
It's also extremely light.
Like, I don't know if in comparison to AirPods,
I think it feels lighter.
Okay, what else do we have in the box?
Looks like we have a USB cable, USB-C.
There's our charging port.
And here's the sizing rings
to make sure you have a perfect fit
when you put them in your ear.
Is there something else? Oh, some documentation.
A lot of documentation. Just gonna put the documents here.
We're gonna file those away for later.
So here we've got the goods.
So these will give you about five and a half hours
of battery life on a single charge.
But if you do use the charging case,
it'll give you an additional 12 hours
for a total of 17 and a half hours.
I kind of judge headphones is like,
can I wear these from the West Coast
to the East Coast on a single flight?
And yeah, I could, even if there's a layover.
By the time I would have the layover,
I would have them in the case,
they would already be charged up for the next flight.
So they do pass the time test.
So what makes these kind of different
is this kind of new design.
They have like this open ear system.
They've got these holes that are uniquely placed
so that you can actually hear
the surrounding world around you.
And this is something I actually really like.
And it's one of the reasons that I still use
the original version of the AirPods.
And I feel like there really hasn't been
this big overall redesign of earbuds.
They all have that same similar look.
Sony has a ton of really great high-quality,
in-ear headphones, and they sound absolutely awesome.
And I've reviewed them in the past. I love them.
I still use them. I also love their over-the-ear headphones.
And something else that I thought was kind of interesting
is if you guys are fans of Sony audio,
you guys'll know that they have some wild names
for a lot of their headphones.
Like they've got things like the Sony WX-1000XM3
and it doesn't seem like
it's a very consumer facing kind of name.
If you're like,
"Hey, yeah, check out those 4, 5, 6, 324 WX, A B C D E F G,
whatever headphones," this is different.
They've renamed them to LinkBuds. And there's two colors.
There's also like a darker kind of gray color
and these are like a very very light gray,
kind of like an almost white.
Here's what the back looks like.
And so this part kind of stays into your open ear
and this just kind of nudges itself into
a crook of your ear canal. Ear canal? Is it ear? I don't-
My ear facts, not sure.
And I like that they...wait, left and right.
I always get my left and rights confused as well.
And we'll see how this is gonna fit.
Oh, okay. All right. I like this a lot. Interesting.
Feels like it's in there pretty good.
This is the medium.
I'm smiling and they're not falling out
and I'm moving my head around!
Wow. Okay, this is a great first test.
See, here's the little rings.
Oh boy. All right. There's a lot of those.
These look like little spider eggs or something.
I have mixed them up, so now I'm unsure of sizing
but I feel like I could match them up
and figure it out because I am an intelligent person.
Looks like these are the small,
this is probably the extra large, and those are the large.
And the medium is here. And to switch the sizing,
you just kind of take the ring right off just like that.
It's very, very simple.
I think the medium was probably pretty good
but you don't know unless you try.
So it just wraps right around the edge of the headphones.
Okay. I think I might need the medium.
The medium was perfect. Why did I try to fix perfection?
Here's the case. This case only charges with USB-C.
Here, of course, we have our Bluetooth pairing.
This case isn't wirelessly chargeable.
So you can't put this on a wireless charging pad
and it'll charge. So you do have to charge with it USB-C.
Now the real test is, mm, what does it sound like?
Because of this open ear system,
this kind of makes it so that there's no noise cancellation.
So if you're a fan of having headphones
that are noise canceling,
these are definitely not something for you.
These, I feel like are your kind of everyday,
walking around, just sort of existing
and still being in the present world.
I just want my music to sound good,
I want to be able to quickly connect
to whatever device I'm using,
and I want the microphone to be clear enough
that I can do calls, I can do Twitter Spaces,
just work and please fit in my ear.
Yeah, that's really, that's all I've got to say.
Oh my God, I'm gonna go take a Zoom call with these after
and see what they sound like.
Oh, this is...I feel like I'm one of the Mods
from Boba Fett.
Oh my gosh. It's like a jewelry piece.
Like, look how well these match my earrings.
If only that was a rose gold, oh!
Sony, hello! Let's talk about a rose gold collab. Can we?
(gasps) Whoa!
I just had a strange feeling.
I just played back the video of me talking.
It felt like I was standing right here
and talking to myself in my head.
I just had a weird out-of-body experience
and I'm really glad that you guys were there
to experience it because I'm freaking out.
Okay, let's listen to some music.
This is, so I can still hear myself talking perfectly fine,
and I feel like the thing that kind of is strange
whenever you have those in-ear headphones,
that real tight seal on your ear,
you can hear yourself talking inside of your head.
If you know what I mean, plug your ears and start talking.
But with this, it just seems like the music is playing,
I can still hear myself normally
as I would normally be speaking,
and I'm not distracted by the music.
Okay. Let's listen to Ed Sheeran, "Bad Habits."
Oh yeah, this sounds lovely.
I can't wait to take my first Zoom call with this.
Now that they're out, I can be like,
"Hey, you wanna see what I've got?"
These might be on par with like my old school AirPods.
And I love those things with my life.
Like I would put my life on the line
for the original AirPods.
And I think these are right up there with it.
No, this isn't a sponsored video.
They sent these to me to check out.
I have no obligation to make a video.
I was just so excited about it
because there has not been like a new style
of in-ear headphones like this.
I've seen a lot of earbuds and this is incredibly unique.
(dreamy orchestral music)
Okay. Here's the test that I wanna do. Running.
The running test so far is happening.
If you can't tell, I'm running
and they're staying in my ears.
(panting)
Great news. It's a deceivingly chilly day today.
Like, oh, it might be sunny, but mm! It's cold.
So friends, that was just a first look
at the LinkBuds by Sony.
This is definitely something I think
that is really new and unique.
And again, if you do want headphones
that have noise cancellation,
these are a hundred percent not the headphones for you.
This is the exact opposite.
This is something that allows you
to hear the world around you but also listen to your music.
I'm out of breath. Ooh, I'm out of breath.
(exhales) I didn't even run very far.
If you guys haven't already, be sure to subscribe.
I have a bunch more videos coming out
so I look forward to seeing you guys in those,
or you seeing me. Okay. It's windy.
I'm gonna go, bye.
(relaxed music)