More Sony headphone leaks have come our way. Yesterday it was the WH-1000XM5, and today it's the follow-up to the LinkBuds wireless earbuds.
But here's the thing: if these pictures (from SnoopyTech, via The Walkman Blog) are correct, the LinkBuds S won't look like LinkBuds at all. Instead, they'll take a radically different design, which is, er, actually much more traditional.
Let us explain.
The LinkBuds take a bold approach to earbud design, eschewing the traditional noise-isolating style in favour of one that allows outside sounds in via a donut-shaped ring driver. The idea is to make you more aware of your surroundings.
But it appears the LinkBuds S are having none of that. They look much more like the standard earbud design seen on other Sony pairs like the WF-1000XM4 and WF-C500. According to SnoopyTech, they will allow in some background noise, letting you "seamlessly shift from ambient sound to advanced noise-canceling". Which sounds more like the Ambient Aware mode seen on the WF-1000XM4.
Touch controls are likely to be onboard, and the Sony logo appears to be engraved, rather than printed. Which looks like a potential dust trap to us.
Three colours are pictured – black, white and gold – and the model number YY2950 is visible. The charging case looks very similar to the XM4's, and it looks like it could be compatible with wireless charging too.
The FCC short-term confidentiality ends on June 21st, so we could see these launch sooner. This compares to a rumored August launch for the WH-1000XM5.
Looks like we could be in for a busy summer of Sony headphones.
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