These by design allow in a lot of ambient noise. They would not be good for mowing the lawn or other areas where you want to block out noise. You need the 3200 for those.
They would be great for swimming, exercising and outdoor activity. Which would be my only purpose.
I sweat a lot when I work out, and canât wear most over-the-ear, studio-style headphones (the ones I prefer), as a result. Iâm also considering getting back into swimming, but itâs boring as hellâŚIâd need some auditory input, during. These may be the perfect solution therein.
For loud activities like mowing the lawn you really should be wearing ear muffs. I have a nice pair of 3m reds that I wear over my wireless buds and then you donât have to crank them to hear over the lawnmower. You would have to turn any earbuds up to high levels without muffs and that can cause long term damage.
Simply FWIW. I had the Plantronics BackBeat FIT earbuds (with strap behind the head) and loved them for running, until they âwalked awayâ from the gym in someone elseâs pocket or bag (I had mistakenly left them on the treadmill for about 15 min.). They had good sound and lasted a good long time (well more than a year), despite lots of sweat and some rain. BUT, on the other hand, I then bought two more pairs - one on sale somewhere and another refurb here from Woot, and when the first pair walked off, I tried these two and both were dead on arrival - neither would charge (but I had held on to them for too long while still wearing the first pair and couldnât really return them). Also FWIW, I now run with Aftershokz bone conduction headphones and I really like them for ambient noise and situational awareness, but may look into these, as well.
A long, thorough review with a disappointing result. Especially since the Amazon reviews are so good (with a $85 price point). But one thing to keep in mind - right about in the middle of it he points out he bought these as a refurb and the Amazon page he flashes to shows a price of $130, over twice as much as they are here new. So might take the review with a grain of salt since itâs from someone who paid much more.
I donât have these, but might still get them. I used the Backbeat Fits for a year or two, and the earpieces look identical to those. They werenât the best sound quality, but they were decent for waterproof headphones that arenât the ear-plunger sound isolating type. (Which is rare, itâs all about ear-plungers these days!) So if you keep your sound quality expectations reasonable and are looking for a pair to use for workouts in the real world where you want to hear outside sound, Iâm hoping these will be a satisfactory true wireless option.
Thatâs the hope, anyway. I think my Jaybirds are on their last legs. Wish me luck!
From the plantronics site:
âSweatproof and IP57-rated waterproof. Waterproof in fresh water up to 1 m (3.28ft) for 30 minutes. However, Bluetooth does not transmit under water.â
I have these headphones and love them. They are my everyday headphones, I use them for listening to music all day at work (last for 6+ hours easily without extra charging) and also use them for running and working out. I specifically sought these out because I like the open-ear style so I can hear my surroundings, both at home and while on the run. I had the back-beat fit which are essentially these, but with a wire that goes around your head.
With the ear-loop, they have no trouble staying in no matter the activity and never get uncomfortable for me. They can get snagged on masks, but hopefully that wonât be a problem much longer. I charge them periodically during the day when they arenât being used, as even 10-15 minutes of topping off can get me thru an entire work day. The range is incredible, I have 3 stories and often have to run upstairs to get something and usually have no signal breaks.
These even went thru an entire wash and dry cycle (accidentally left in pocket) and survived without issues and I dropped one accidentally in a parking lot and I think one got run over but is still kicking just fine.
Downsides are the charging case is a bit big. If you move to one headphone (which I do a lot), there is some disruption depending on which earphone you put away (as one is master). There is very little you can do with the buttons on the unit, they are âprogrammableâ but only as a small handful of options, so I just use it for play/pause and volume control. You can only pair them with one device at a time, so it means a lot of bluetooth juggling between my phone/table/PC. Microphone is hit-or-miss when on phone calls, usually it works fine but sometimes people complain about my audio.
Open ear is a trade off that you need to be aware of if you are unsure if you want that. It wonât be as loud or bassy as an ear plug design. and if you run with them between quieter roads and busy roads you may have to adjust the volume a few times. You will not be able to use them when doing loud activities like lawn mowing, but that last one, I still use them for that by using earmuffs over my headphones.
For this price, they are 100% worth it.
Great review and I like Plantronics devices. Its just that Iâm not interested in buds of any sort.
Just an update for any future reference â I went ahead and got these and Iâve now run with them several times and, so far, at least, theyâve been great. Good sound and comfortable with no problems staying in the ears. Iâd recommend them.