Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsYup, they're waterproof!
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019
I'm comparing these to the CX 6.00 BT and the HD1 Free from Sennheiser mainly which I have left my individual reviews for those individually in the past. All 3 of these I run from 0630 to when ever lunch is, charge during lunch (30min), then back for another 4hrs. With the other two with the better Qualcomm aptX, I could get 7hrs then did level out to an honest 6hrs without charging in the middle. I can't speak of the full run time of these yet.
I use these mainly (only?) at work which is pretty physical. The CX 6.00 BT were purchased back in April 21, 2018 so they went through a summer of sweaty work without shutting down. This summer, which was more mild; Not at all. As soon as I started to start dripping with sweat you'd hear the truncated "Power o..." notice and wouldn't come back on for hours so I tried these.
Waterproof, the reason I bought these: Day one of full usage, they went through a very rough day and never shut down. Impressed already, but...we'll see, right? Day two I had them on while I split some flanges which poured a flood of water all over them and they still kept going, something I'm sure the CX's were never built for, even right out of the box. We'll see about long term, but for right now I'm checking the "waterproof" box and not just water resistant. I don't see a difference physically (internally potted?), and I don't use the earbud "wings" since I wear them upside down and over my ear so they don't dangle (the correct way IMO).
Sound: They sound just like the CX 6.00's with podcasts. With music they sound the exact same too, as they should. It's not listed here but they in fact also have the Qualcomm apt-X and apt-X Low Latency compatibility. So I'm happy with these being just like the CX 6.00's but water proof. However, They're neither are near as good as the HD1 Free with fidelity with music quality, which some would argue with any bluetooth set but I lost golden ears years ago and I hate wires. I can still tell the HD1 are clearly better for music but I would not use those for working out or working for nothing (We got to move these color Teeveeeeee's!). These are NOT great for music, are not flat tonally but they are pretty good with music. Just a tad painful (tinny) above my phone's 60% volume with pretty much anything (I don't listen to rap).
Fit: I don't like the included tips and always buy Comply foamies with them. As mentioned I also don't use the "wings" since I wear them upside down and those don't work since the post is not centered. Flip 'em over the ear, cinch up the clasp, and they fell fine in general. It's only when I'm looking up and down a lot that one side decides to fall off my ear and I deal with it until I can to a point I can flip it back over. I know, "normal" is to have them dangling but that is so awkward looking and catch on everything in tight spaces. If you just jog, my normal would still be better and should never come off the ear...or you just have massive ear rings with everyone else's normal.
Call quality: Very good! No matter how you wear these both sides have a clear conversation. Even with just the battery side in and the control node in a shirt pocket; Same quality. I thought the mic was in the control node, but no matter how I wear them, which is in, over ear or not people hear me just fine. The one situation I have is with the phone in my back pocket and the headset's battery over the ear/control in the shirt pocket, and that's when the connection breaks up every now and then. Very randomly though and hard to repeat.
BT Connection Distance: Line of sight is a good 35ft and not much more. It'll let you know by starting to break up before it loses connection. When you do keep going, "Lost Connection" is said and it searches for a reconnect. Upon so, "reconnected" is said.
Controls: answer the phone, next, back, and it's not in the directions but there's some hidden stuff that I can't repeat yet. Sometimes I press a button while on pause and it tells the Battery Life Left ("between 2 and 4 hours left"). Then some other times it tries to access my phone's voice activation (Samsung S9+). Might be connected to the later, but it's tried to redial the last caller; "re-dialing!". The one thing I've never gotten it to do is FF or RW, which it should. So I'll make that stuff...
Con: The controls/instructions aren't clear. There's functions there that aren't noted at all in any of these headsets and the lack of any FF/RW functions aren't there at all. I am a heavy Podcast listener and I really want to skip 4 minutes of ads some have or rewind something I missed.
Overall, these are my go-to BT earbuds on a daily basis. For me, nothing is 5 or 1 star unless deserving them 100%, so for these to have 3 stars is pretty good. They're NOT 5 star but are very good. I gave a star ding on some expecting Sennheiser sound quality in a Sport BT earbud. They can't work magic, yet. Thumbs up, buy these over the CX 6.00 and pretty much anything else if you workout or jog. They have wires, sure, but those short wires don't tangle and keep them on your head and not in a random bush or rolling under a piece of equipment like those entirely wireless ones.
