Bad news for Sony fans as rumoured 2nd Generation Linkbuds appear to be delayed

Sony Linkbuds with the case
(Image credit: Sony)

If you’re a fan of Sony’s 2022 LinkBuds, chances are you’ve been looking forward to their LinkBuds 2 successor — a product that was leaked by The Walkman Blog back in March. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll be waiting for these open earbuds a little while longer than originally thought.

According to the most recent update from The Walkman Blog, Sony submitted an FCC filing on 9 August to withdraw authorisation for YY2964 (aka the LinkBuds 2), stating that “...the release time of this product will be postponed…” There is some good news though, as the document continues “Once the release date is fixed, we would like to recertified [sic] with the same FCC ID AK8YY2964.”

So while the LinkBuds 2 will be missing their 12 September unveiling deadline, the document does seem to suggest that they’re still in the works, although their ETA is now TBC.

With recent competition from the likes of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds (which we praised for their surprisingly enjoyable listen), Sony might want to spend a little more time tweaking things behind the scenes to meet its rivals head-on. And we hope it does, as the original LinkBuds had plenty going for them, and we'd love to take a revamped version for a spin.

As for what we know about the elusive LinkBuds 2 at this stage — not much. The previous leak points to black and white colour options, and a proximity sensor for automatic pausing and resuming of playback, depending on whether or not they're in your ears. Beyond that, there’s not much else to go on, for now at least.

That’s all the latest we have for the time being, but we’ll be sure to update you with (hopefully) more news on the Sony LinkBuds 2 further down the line.

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Esat Dedezade
Freelance contributor