Have you ever wanted a bit of a guiding voice in your ear while you work out? Perhaps a real-time check on your heart rate so you can train at different levels of intensity? Jabra have a new product called the Sport Pulse wireless earbuds and they can help you do just that.
Ok, I’ll confess, I did not actually go for a run with these things – sometimes a review is a stretch too far. However, what I wanted to test was the sound, functionality and fit of these earphones.
Normally out of the box I can wear almost any headphones, the Jabra Sport Pulse wireless earbuds though seem to require a genuine focus on the fit in the ear. As always three sizes of attachments come with the Sport Pulse, and more than ever you have to get it right.
Too loose and the heart-rate monitor won’t work, to tight and they are just quite awkward to wear.
Find your fit and they seem to hold quite snug.
Sound wise there’s a decent bass and quite good overall quality, as with all earbuds you have to get the fit right to ensure the audio is being delivered as designed.
The second big reason for the fit is the core feature of these headphones. Heart-Rate monitoring. With a snug fit, these things will actually detect and monitor your heart-rate for you. This only happens in the Jabra app but that can run alongside your audio, or you can control audio within the app.
It took me a few goes to get the heart-rate detected, and then while mowing the lawns “she” (the app) indicated a few times that my heart-rate was not detected – a bit of a fright to hear someone tell you that.
The app then guides you through your workout giving you milestones of performance at time and distance intervals.
Conceptually, just amazing. I can’t help but think that the next version might be just that bit better in terms of reliability in detecting heart-rate and general ease of fitting.
If you’re into hard-core exercise, these seem the ideal companion to drive you through your workout.
At $249 they are on the pricey side for headphones, but when you consider what they are able to do – it’s good value.
[schema type=”review” rev_name=”Jabra Sport Pulse wireless earbuds” rev_body=”Track your heart-rate while you workout and listen to music all at the same time..” author=”Trevor Long” pubdate=”2014-10-26″ user_review=”3.5″ min_review=”0″ max_review=”5″ ]
