Fitness Gear Review: Bose Sport Earbuds

What is it?

Bose Sport Earbuds are wireless bluetooth headphones that are made with the active person in mind. Their StayHear™ Max tips create a tight seal so the headphones stay in your ear, while they are sweat and water resistant to endure the toughest of workouts. Their patented acoustic port design and premium, high-efficiency drivers combine to deliver big sound in a small acoustic package.

What you get:

Two Bose Sport Earbuds (fitted with medium eartips, labeled size 2), charging case, small and large eartips (labeled sizes 1 and 3), USB-C (A to C) charging cable, quick start guide and warranty card. 

Review

Earbuds:

Let’s start by saying, this is not the type of review that is going to break down audio sounds in full detail or dissect the insides of any tech. What we look for in headphones is overall sound, clarity, comfort and fit. 

We have used Bose, Apple and Sony headphones almost exclusively over the past two decades. The reason is simple: they make some of the best headphones you’ll ever use. We know what we are getting and we personally love the products. The Bose Sport Earbuds lives up to its predecessors. Except for one minor thing. 

The sound quality is excellent. The clarity and fullness of the sound makes music, podcasts and phone conversations crystal clear. The headphones sit in your ear very comfortably and don’t start hurting after hours of use. The fit and seal in your ear is very good and holds well during explosive movements (jumping, sprints) and steady movements (running, other cardio bouts). Intense exercise that causes excess sweating has little to no effect on the headphones seal. 

The right earbud is the one that does all the work. The integrated dual-microphone array located in the right earbud. The touch controls such as pause and play are also controlled only by the right earbud. 

Phone conversations are clear on both ends. The person who I am speaking to sounds great and my voice on the other ends is equally as good. 

Battery life is very good with the headphones. When you take them out of the case and put them in your ears a voice tells you how much battery you have left. We found that that battery life is excellent and never an issue for us. Bose gives the following information about charge time for their Bose Sports. 

• The Earbuds charging time takes 2 hours
• When the earbud battery level is low, a 15-minute charge with the case closed powers the earbuds for up to 2 hours
• A full charge powers the earbuds for up to 5 hours

Touch Controls: 

They have touch controls on each earbud. The right earbud, however, does most of the controls. On the right earbud, double tap to pause or play your audio (the audio also stops when the right earbud is removed from your ear). If you want to activate the voice assistant, tap and hold the right earbud until you hear a tone … release and say your request. To answer an incoming call, double tap the right earbud. To end a call, double tap the right earbud. You will hear audio in both ears but the microphone is only located in the right earbud. Touching and holding the right earbud declines incoming calls. You can also adjust the volume by swiping up and down on the right earbud. The left earbud controls one shortcut of your choice. From the Bose app you can choose whether you want it to tell you the battery level, skip forward, skip backward or resumes your Spotify session. 

Charging Case: 

The charging case isn’t wireless charging. That doesn’t bother us at all. It claims to charge the headphones up to two full times. We found this to be true, but actually feel like we get even more charge out of the case. The bluetooth button is located inside the case that allows you to connect to you device. The case has five LED lights that indicate battery life. The following represents percent battery is left by LED. 

• 1 lit LED – 0-20%
• 2 lit LED – 21-40%
• 3 lit LED – 41-60%
• 4 lit LED – 61-80%
• 5 lit LED – 81-100%

The case charges fast and uses a USB cable to the USB-C port to charge. The case is made well. The case flips open but a touch of the button that is well designed and well made. The case closes with a nice loud click and tight seal. We love the case. 

One minor thing:

As mentioned above, we have used many series of Bose headphones. There is a set of expectations that we unknowingly set when we buy Bose headphones. We expect great sound, high quality, a great fit, excellent customer service. Bose as a company is terrific — truly a pleasure to deal with.  The Bose Sports check all of those expectations boxes … except for one. The right earbud gets loose from time to time during exercise. This doesn’t happen all of the time (and never with the left earbud) but it has never happened with any of their previous models. The medium tips are the only tips that fit my ear so swapping to another size isn’t an option. I have compared the weight of each earbud (.024 ounces each) just to find the root of the issue, but there is no difference. It could very well be my ear size that causes the occasional problem. Again, it’s a minor thing that could just be a personal issue with the earbuds. It does not happen all the time.