TL; DR
- Sony LinkBuds Clip launched in India at Rs. 18,990 with an open-ear clip-on design.
- Bone conduction sensor, dual mics, and AI noise reduction address the segment’s call-quality problem.
- Three listening modes, a 37-hour battery, Gemini integration, and IPX4 water resistance are included.
Open-ear earphones have been on a quiet but consistent rise in India. Shokz has built a loyal base around bone conduction, while Bose came in with the Ultra Open with a slightly premium price.
Sony, which started this conversation with the original ring-shaped LinkBuds in 2022, is now entering the more contested space with a proper ear-clip design. It launched the LinkBuds Clip in India on July 13.
Sony LinkBuds Clip: Key Price & Availability
I want to be direct about the ₹18,990 ask. Shokz’s OpenFit Air does open-ear for significantly less. It does not, however, have bone conduction-assisted call clarity, DSEE, Gemini, or scene-aware listening.
If calls are a meaningful use case and you are already in the Android ecosystem, the premium is defensible. Available in Green, Greige, Black, and Lavender, the LinkBuds Clip can be bought from Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Sony Centers, Croma, and Reliance Digital.
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Sony LinkBuds Clip: Key Features
The most practical feature here is one that doesn’t make it into most headlines. I have used open-ear earphones before, and the consistent weak point is call quality; voice pickup becomes a mess in ambient noise.
Sony addresses this with a three-layer system: dual microphones, Precise Voice Pickup processing, and a bone conduction sensor that captures voice vibrations, filtering out background noise based on inputs from all the systems.
On the listening side, the earbuds come with three modes: Standard (balanced for everyday use), Voice Boost (enhances speech clarity), and Sound Leakage Reduction, which optimizes ventilation-hole placement and minimizes how much audio bleeds into the room. This seems like a thoughtful addition for people with social anxiety.
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DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) works in the background to restore high-frequency detail lost to audio compression during wireless transmission, which matters more with open earphones.
Battery life is rated at 9 hours per charge for the earbuds and 28 hours in the case, which accounts for a total of 37 hours. A 3-minute quick charge delivers one additional hour. IPX4 also covers sweat and light rain, but I’m a bit skeptical about the harsh Indian weather conditions.
A 10-band equalizer gives you more control over the sound quality. Scene-based listening modes that auto-adapt to walking, running, or gym sessions are available through the companion Sound Connect app. The earbuds also support hands-free Google Gemini integration.
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