Sony announces loopy LinkBuds, hopes you'll never take them off

True wireless earbuds with a "transparent" design

Try as it might, Sony wasn't able to keep the wraps on its latest audio product. The newly official LinkBuds are just too strange-looking to remain a secret, but now they're official. These $180 ring-shaped buds are intended to help you listen to the audio of your choosing without completely missing out on the real world. Sony is so confident these holey earbuds will help you stay connected that it thinks you should wear them all the time.

Adaptability is the name of the game with the LinkBuds. The open design allows you to hear your surroundings, but only if you want to. LinkBuds have Adaptive Volume Control built-in to compensate for background noise, ensuring you can enjoy your tunes without being deaf to the world. They support Sony's Speak to Chat feature, automatically pausing music when you open your big mouth. So, you can listen to music or play a game with the sound up, and then immediately switch to having a conversation in real life.

Sony is pushing LinkBuds as a product that young, connected folk will just wear around all day. As such, they were designed to be small and lightweight, going so far as to ditch touchpads. Instead, you control the buds by tapping in front of your ear where an embedded motion sensor will register your "taps." I'm skeptical of this, to say the least. The rated battery life is a little on the weak side due to the compact design: just 5.5 hours with another 12 hours in the case. They have the same V1 processor from the flagship WF-1000XM4, and Sony promises high-quality audio with DSEE and AI-powered voice pickup. However, there's no support for the superior LDAC audio codec—the LinkBuds are SBC and AAC only.

The LinkBuds are available for purchase today from various retailers today. We'll have a review of the LinkBuds soon—stay tuned if you're on the fence.

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