Sony LinkBuds WF-L900 Headphone (Dark Gray)

5 reviews for Sony LinkBuds WF-L900 Headphone (Dark Gray)

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Ryan A (verified owner) – 7 April 2024

   I have use several ear buds that do and don’t provide noise cancelling by fitting tightly in your ear. These tight fitting buds are great but make my ears itchy. I found that I used buds more often when walking the dog and having all ambient sound cancelled was frustrating and dangerous as I couldn’t hear what was going on around me or people walking up behind me, so when I saw these linkbuds they look like exactly what I was looking for. Well, having used them for several weeks now I can say that they are very comfortable, although getting the fit right with the various wing sizes took a bit of time, however once this was done that are great. I now walk the dog and listen to the radio and can hear everything, I have the radio low and I don’t even adjust the volume when talking to people. I don’t walk in fear that I have other walkers or cyclist behind me without me knowing. If you listen to anything while walking or doing an activity these are great. As they are so comfortable I wear them during the day to take handsfree calls etc. and when I wake up early to listen to audio books and podcasts in bed. Highly recommend for specific use cases. 7 people found this helpful

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Reeno (verified owner) – 12 May 2024

   I received my Linkbuds yesterday, so these are just early thoughts, but overall I’m impressed. Packaging: They come in the recyclable modular cardboard packaging now favoured by Sony. Compact and fits through a letterbox. Includes different size ear hooks and a USB-A charge cable Setup: The ear hooks can be interchanged from four different sizes, and whilst they’re a little fiddly to change, it’s easy enough. They went into pair mode right out of the charge case, but you can initiate pairing to further devices by replacing them in the case and pressing the pair button (far preferable to the normal way of having to press both buds for 10 seconds). Fit: Comfortable and secure once you have the right hooks. I’d probably not trust them for cycling only because of the risk of brushing your ear and one falls on the road, but for pretty much any other use these are just right. Sound: Surprisingly good, particularly since there’s almost no attenuation of background sound with them on. Bass is a bit light and the audio lacks depth, but that’s not why you buy these – they’re to ensure you can still hear what’s going on around you. I find them perfect for Teams calls, because I hate that isolated sound that comes from using regular earbuds when you speak – you’re never sure how loud your voice actually is. These fix that beautifully. Obviously noise cancellation would be better in a very noisy environment or on public transport, but for desk use or out walking, these are spot on. Conclusion: The Linkbuds are now my go-to earbuds for videoconferencing and outdoor activities. I’ll continue to carry a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds for travel or serious music listening, but these will easily get just as much use. 20 people found this helpful

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   S. Hazelden – 19 May 2024

   ▬ Introduction ▬▬▬ Before you even think about pressing that purchase button, it’s important to know what you are wanting in a pair of in-ear headphones and whether these tick all the boxes. If SOUND QUALITY is the most important aspect you are looking for, then there are other better options available on the market, such as Sony’s ‘WF-1000XM4’ in-ear headphones which aren’t too far off in price compared to these LinkBuds. What these LinkBuds DO offer is the ability to have more of an awareness to your surroundings whilst being able to listen to music or take calls and in doing so, does compromise on the sound quality a little. I already own a decent pair of wireless earphones; however, the reason why I decided to purchase these is so I can listen to music at work whilst still having a sense of my surroundings as cars get moved around a lot near me. ▬ Box Contents ▬▬▬ The packaging is very small and contents are compactly and very neatly placed inside: • LinkBuds. • Charging case. • USB – USB-C cable (very short). • Various ear loop size attachments (XS, S, M, L & XL). • Instruction manual. ▬ Set-Up ▬▬▬ First step is to give the earphones and charging case a full charge before use; simply make sure the earphones are in the charging case and link the case to a powered source via the included or your own USB-C cable. Whilst they are charging, get a head start by downloading the ‘Sony | Headphones Connect’ App in Apple’s App Store or Android’s Play Store. Whilst it isn’t a necessary download to use them, it does allow you to wirelessly update the earphones firmware and adjust/customise various settings. Once charged, the set-up process is very straight-forward; as you take the LinkBuds out of the charging case, they automatically turn on and you just search for them like you would for any other Bluetooth device. When you open the App, it will guide you through linking them with the App and from there you can turn on/off various settings and some which you can customise. The app will also give you an up to date status of remaining battery for each earphone and charging case. ▬ Main Features (Pros & Cons) ▬▬▬ – Speak-to-Chat: This is a handy feature should you start talking to someone; the earphones will detect this and pause the music you are currently playing, allowing you to fully hear them. There are options to resume your music after so many seconds the earphones stop detecting vocals (minimum is 5 seconds). The downside is you literally can’t sing without the earphones pausing your music, so if you like singing, you may want to disable this feature. – Tap Functions: There are pre-set categories to choose for each earphone (L/R); this could be anything from adjusting volume, skipping tracks and voice assist functions etc… I was disappointed to see you can’t manually customise the options within the categories. – Wide Tap Area: This increases the detection area from tapping the earphones directly, to being able to pick up tap commands from nearby areas such as the cheek. I found this at times to be too sensitive; when I was talking to my friend over the phone, I had a quick chomp on some food when the earphones confused it as a tap command and hung up on my friend; we tried this several times and it happened each time. The features are quick to enable and disable through the app, so depending on my situation, I’ll adjust to my needs. ▬ Sound Quality & Battery Life ▬▬▬ Whilst the overall sound quality is compromised, presumably due to the ring design, I wouldn’t say it’s bad at all. OF course, other headphones within the same price range are better, but I don’t feel like I’m getting a bad audio experience. Whilst the sound isn’t flat, it doesn’t deliver much bass, so if you love bass, these ain’t for you. I can’t comment exactly how good the microphone quality is; however, when I was talking with my friend, we were able to have a fluent conversation without him asking me to repeat my words, so based on that, it’s good enough to do the job. Battery life will vary depending on how many features are enabled and the volume you have the earphones set at. Whilst on a full charge the earphones are supposed to last up to 5.5 hours with the charging case holding up to 12 hours additional charge, but that could be less depending on your use. Considering how small these earphones are, I’m surprised that they can even deliver 5.5 hours of use, that’s pretty impressive. The charging case can give you a further 1.5 hours on a quick 10 minutes charge! ▬ Final Thoughts ▬▬▬ The LinkBuds definitely have its pros and cons, so it’s just a matter of seeing which outweighs the other for your needs. If you’re wanting some compact earphones that gives you some flexibility and provides you with a bit more spatial awareness, then these may be right for you. 127 people found this helpful

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   alandj (verified owner) – 25 May 2024

   Positives: – Decent sound. – Sound has bass, just doesn’t hammer your ears due to their open design (probably good for your ears). – Controls are okay-ish. – Great for wearing around the house and doing chores whilst you still want to interact with the family or keep an ear out for something. Negatives: – They are really uncomfortable to wear. It gets better after a while, but even after a week or so of regular use, they aren’t what you’d call super comfortable. I’d suggest starting with the smallest loops and working your way up (I don’t have small ears, but I do use the smallest fitting loops, but I guess it depends upon the shape of your inner ear). Another reviewer mentioned that you’ll spend all your time swapping the fitting loops to get the correct size and they are not wrong (in the first few days, at least). – Battery life sucks. Sony seems to have a real problem with their battery technology; their neck speaker also has a poor battery life. Depending on how much you use them, you’ll need to charge the case every few days (even with fairly light usage). – I’ve had a few issues with glitchy sound coming from them. – You need to use the case to put them into pairing mode. – They are not worth £150. If I’d paid that for them, I’d have definitely sent them back. I think the £75 I spent on them is a bit steep. – They don’t have ‘proper’ multi-point connect. Sony has this bizarre feature where you can connect to one device for audio whilst connecting to another device at the same time as a headset. Pretty much all other headphones and earphones that I have which support multi-point connect will connect to two devices for both (obviously only playing audio from one at a time). This means that if you want to play a movie from your tablet, you have to hijack the connection to these headphones and then if you want to play some audio from your phone, you have to use the phone to take over the connection. Not the end of the world, but at this price, you’d expect better. – The controls (which I think must use the microphone to trigger) have triggered when I’ve eaten some foods or even sneezed. Overall, they are a good idea for the use case of pottering about your own home whilst still being able to hear things going on around you. If Sony wanted to improve the design for outside, there’s no reason they couldn’t include a removable plug for the hole to help increase the isolation slightly (though I expect it wouldn’t make a huge difference). They’d also be much, much more comfortable as an ear-hook design. But sadly, for my ears at least, their fitting design is really uncomfortable. — Update: unfortunately, due to connection glitches (mostly whilst walking with them) which seem to be increasing in regularity, I’m having to return these for a refund. Such a shame, because the idea was great, but the execution was poor. One person found this helpful

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   V Craven – 19 November 2024

   There has been a tendency in recent years to focus on noise cancellation as the holy grail of headphone technology. However remaining vaguely connected to the outside world when moving about us also essential from both a safety and awareness perspective. Sony have clearly been thinking about this and the Link Buds are their solution. And what a great solution. Teeny tiny with an unusual polo mint design that fit neatly in your ear but due due to the “hole” keep you “linked” to the outside world. Notwithstanding this the sound from the buds is clear and well balanced and has a good airy quality. You remain connected to your surroundings and if you start talking the sound is muted while you are talking. Tap on your jaw bone near your ear and functionality is enabled in a very cool and organic way. Other Sony innovations like 360 sound etc are also enabled and a close integration with Spotify. They work well for phone calls. You could pretty much wear these all day and night if you chose – although battery life will restrict. Really excellent implementation of a go anywhere do pretty much anything head set. 10 people found this helpful