Sony's LinkBuds have been a great mid-priced option in the earphone realm for some time now They are super compact and the sound is quite good

However, thanks to rumors on The Walkman Blog, we now have some idea what the successors to both LinkBuds and LinkBuds S will look like, and what they will be called Unfortunately, we also know that they may be delayed, so we may not see them as soon as we might hope

There appear to be two new models of LinkBuds, the Linkbuds Open and the LinkBuds Fit The former replaces the older 1st generation model with a funky round design with no sealing, and the latter replaces the LinkBuds S and silicone ear tips So how does this compare to the older version?

Nothing concrete at this time (as expected) However, there are a few things that we believe will be realized in the new model Battery life is likely to be noticed, with an improvement from the very average duration of the previous generation Sound quality should also receive attention, but we won't know where that is headed until it is announced

The most interesting aspect of the leak, however, is the new naming convention, which marks a move away from the traditional “alphabet, dashes, and long numbers” name Sony had given its headphones This is a welcome change to the formula, although it remains to be seen if the inevitable new version of the WH-1000XM5 will stick [With any luck, it will rank among the best wireless earphones