Pick Them Up Here
| UA Sport Wireless Heart Rate Pros | UA Sport Wireless Heart Rate Cons |
|---|---|
| Heart Sensor (DUH) | Poor Sound Quality |
| Very Light Weight And Comfortable | Short Battery LIfe |
| Under Armour's Record App Is Dope | No Fast Charging |
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A heart rate sensor built into your headphones?! Well its been done before, samsung did it with their icon x earphones, bose did it with their sound sport pulse and rumor has it apple is trying to incorporate that feature into the next gen apple AirPods. and there a probably more that i didn't mention. But i think the UA Sport Wireless Heart Rate Ear Phones executes on the feature better thanmost. And today, we’re giving the Under Armour Sport Wireless Heart Rate Earphones along Over do review.
The UA Sport Wireless Heart Rate is a JBL product and currently comes in 2 color ways, Black like these and they also come in white. They are competitively priced at $149.95 which is pretty standard for sport wireless ear phones these days. Also keep in mind, if you buy these earphones you also get 12 month premium membership to Map My Run for free which is a $30 value by its self. If you want to pick these ear phonesup, i’ll have a link in the description below.
Packaging here is pretty remarkable. when you lift the lid it says “Only JBL Audio Engineering Can Meet Under Armour’s Standards For Premium Performance To Create The Ultimate Sport Headphones” Phhh I’ll be the judge of that. First you'll see the head phones laid out neatly in front of you. Under that you’ll find the included carrying case. Inside the box you'll also find a micro usb cable, 3 extra ear tips for a total of 4 different ear tips, and some documentation that you’ll need an electron microscope to read cause the text is so freaking tinny. And theres no wall wart. But other than that, packaging is pretty solid.
The ear phones them selves are a cross between the bose sound sport and the powerbeats 3. The ear tips on the UA Earphones are very similar to the ones found on the Bose soundsport, and they're meant to simply rest on the bowl of your ear. which means there isn't a tight seal and a lot of ambient noise manages to get in. which i know runners like but not so much weight lifters. But unlike the bose soundsport, the UA eartip’s don't have that extra ear fin. instead UA and or JBL decided to use an Ear Hook sort of like the one on the Powerbeats 3. Personally, I prefer an ear hook over fins cause they are much more secure. and i don't have to constantly have to be readjusting my ear phones like the jaybird X3 or Beats X. The rest of the ear phones is pretty standard. Theres a thin soft touch cable connecting the two and theres an in line controller with 3 buttons so you can control your music playback. and the buttons have a very satisfying click to them, you know how particular i am about haptic feed back on products. In general, I'm a fan of the over all design. They're light weight, they fit well, and they have ear hooks so i don't have to worry about them falling out
So, how do these sound you might be wondering. And the short answer is … ehhhhh they're so so. They sound fairly decent in the midds, but the highs can get pretty tiny and the lows aren't really there. And like i said earlier, they don't create a really good seal so you get a lot of leakage and a lot of ambient noise does manages to get in. But some people will argue that if you want great sounding earphones then you should get over the ear head phones. and technically they're not wrong, But jaybird manages to deliver amazing audio quality with they're jaybird X3, so why shouldn't other competitors? If you're looking for exceptional sound quality from your sport ear phones then you should look elsewhere.
But the UA Sport Wireless Heart Rate earphones aren't just about sound, as the name implies… they also track your heart rate during your workout. And you can check on your heart rate a few different ways. First, you can use the UA Record app to get real time readings. All you have to do is make sure the head phones are paired with your phone, open the app, and tap on track workout. and then you'll see stats like duration, calories burned, current heart rate, and which zone you're in. And you can set the headphones to tell you your current stats at certain time intervals. I set mine to every 15 minutes, Honestly the tracking feature is pretty neat. and don't worry, you can still leave the app even while its tracking your workout. But if for some reason you don't want to use the app to track your heart rate cause you want to save battery or cause you don't have your phone with you, you can still use the heart rate tracking feature by pressing and holding the touch sensitive UA logo on the right ear bud for 5 seconds. then the head phones will tell you the heart rate monitor is turned on. and at any point during your workout if you simply touch the UA logo again the head phones will audiblely tell you your current heart rate.
Accuracy on this heart rate monitor is pretty good. it consistently detected my heart rate through out the whole workout and the readings it was spitting out was in lines with what my garmin vivosmart 3, treadmill heart rate monitor and manual calculation were reporting. The reason i really like having a rate monitor in my ear is because i can still see what my current heart rate is even if I'm wearing wrist wraps or straps when i lift. cause if you're going to wear either wraps or straps you cant wear a wrist mounted heart rate monitor. and being able to see a live reading from my phone is pretty cool.
The UA Sport Wireless Heart Rate Earphones connect to your phone via Bluetooth 4.2 and have a 30 foot range with direct line of sight to your phone. They also have a battery life of about 5 hours, expect that battery to drain faster if you have the hear rate monitor turned on all the time. And sadly, theres no quick charging feature. Also, these ear phones are rated IPX5 water proof, so theyll be fine getting covered in sweat but you shouldn't submerge them in water. And like i mentioned earlier, these ear phones also come with a carry pouch. Its a silicon soft shell case that zips up. it dosnt provide much padding but this included case is still much better than the one that comes with the Powerbeats 3, Beats X, and Jaybird X3. I just don't get why those ear phones come with such bad carrying cases.
In conclusion, I really like these ear phones. I think they're freaking dope. But if you do decide to pick these up i just want to make sure you know what you're getting. These are not the best sounding ear phones out there and they let a lot of ambient noise in. Their battery life sucks so you're probably going to have to remember to charge them every time before you go to the gym. And not having a quick charging feature is a bummer. But they are very comfortable to wear and they never fall out of your ear. And the heart monitor is a really cool feature especially if you're using it with Under Armour’s record app. If JBL manages to improve the sound quality, boost the battery life and include a quick charging feature in their gen 2 version of these head phones they will have a serious knock out in the wireless sports earphone market.