For the last month, I have been testing out the new Bose SoundSport wireless headphones. After running some 300km+ whilst being plugged into them, here is my summary of how they got on.

Overview

The SoundSport are super simple to operate with just one button on the right earpiece. You press this once to power them up, and if you haven’t paired it with your phone before, hold it down for a second and then they search and easily connect with your device. Once you have paired with the headphones once, when you power them up they’ll automatically connect with your device. And what’s great is that they paired seamlessly each and every time, which I haven’t always found to be the case with bluetooth speakers.

Designed with sports use particularly in mind, they are sweat and rain resistant, so you can use them anytime and not worry about breaking them.

Quick facts:

• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Charging time: 2 hours (but I found it does it much quicker than this, around 1 hour)
• Battery life: 6 hours per full charge
• Weight: 23 grams

Comfort & Functionality

The battery does last around 6 hours which I think is pretty good. If you have the volume a little lower and aren’t using the remote loads, you might even get a bit more life out of them. They charge super quick – simply plug in the USB wire and within an hour they go from zero to 100% and you’re all set.

The earbuds don’t move about in your ear at all whilst running, never falling out or bouncing around. I had read this in the odd other review, but it really was never an issue for me.

The headphones also benefit from an inline remote. This has the usual one click to pause, two clicks for next track and three clicks for previous track. It also doubles up for handsfree calling as there is a built in microphone, so one click accepts a call and you can chat away as you run – super handy for those long all day kind of runs!! It even says ‘Mum Calling’ so you know whether to pick up or not!

As you can see from the picture above, they do have a slightly wider profile then traditional wired headphones, but for all their other advantages, this is a small price to pay.

Sound wise, I found them good and perfect for the job. Of course they don’t really compare to over the ear, or super high performing in ear, but that is no surprise. I would quite often have them on max volume, and probably would have gone a click or two louder if they permitted, but actually that probably did my ears some good by not offering it up super loud when you’re in the zone and all hyped up!!

There is also the slightly more expensive Bose SoundSport Pulse wireless headphones, retailing at £199.95, which have the added feature of a built in heart rate sensor, but I personally don’t see the extra value in this, and see this extra functionality as unnecessary for a pair of headphones. I say stick with the SoundSport and save yourself the extra £50!

Verdict

This is my first experience with wireless headphones, and I must say I am a convert for sure. The soon to be obsolete hardwired headphones have always been a nuisance when out running, and there’s no going back for me!

This offering from Bose is just the job. I think the key to a great product is keeping it as simple as possible to fulfil the function, and they have done exactly that with the SoundSport. I will continue running with these, and see no reason to even try out another brand as I have no complaints.

Bose SoundSport wireless headphones £149.95