Almost every week a new pair of truly wireless sports earbuds get released by some random  large or small company. And even though I know there are a lot of sports wireless earbuds I feel the most notable ones are the Bose SoundSport Free, Jaybird Run, and the new kid on the Block Sony WF-SP700N. Lets find out which of these are the best Sports wireless earphones and lets see if they are even worth the money?

Just to be clear, this isn’t a full review on either of these earphones… im just trying to point out the most important differences between them so I can help you with your purchase decision. If you want to learn more about either of these earphones then watch their full reviews. Deciding to go truly wireless at the gym does cost a premium. The Bose Soundsport Free which are the oldest earphones here currently retail for $200, and both the Jaybird Run and Sony SP700N retail for $180. If you want to pick either of these earphones up I’ll have links in the description below and if you use the links it really helps out the channel. I suggest you check them out cause the Jaybirds and Sony’s routinely go on sale. And also check out the new Merch shelf down below. 

First lets address build quality… there are two main pieces to wireless earphones like these, the earphones themselves and their carrying cases. With out a doubt Bose has the best build quality here. Both the earphones and case feel sturdy and premium, the earbuds magnetically align themselves when you drop them in, and the case itself has a battery gauge which quickly tells you how much juice you have left. The only draw back here is that the case and earphones are pretty big and opening the case can be a little hard. I feel Jaybird’s overall build quality is decent, my only issue is with the case. Since the earbuds don’t magnetically align themselves its pretty common to accidentally drop your earbuds on the dirty gym floor when you’re taking them out or putting them back into the case. I just want the earbuds to magnetically align to their case, its a small detail that I feel will make a big difference. And finally theres Sony… I feel the earbuds themselves are fine… but the case does feel very cheap. Especially the lid, im afraid its going to wear out of snap off. But the way you actually take the earbuds in or out of their case is pretty clunky. You don’t drop them in… you wedge them in. This just isn’t an elegant solution. 

But I actually think the Sony’s have the best fit here. First off they go in really deep into your ear canal… like they should have bought me dinner first. But they also form a really good seal that offer a lot of passive noise isolation. And since they are so light weight and low profile they stay in place the best here. The Jaybird run also fit pretty well and they stay in place good too, but they don’t go in as deep so they don’t offer as much passive noise isolation. But the Bose fit a little differently, they don’t go into your ear canal… they rest right out side it. So they actually let in a lot of ambient sound in. But since the Bose earphones are so big and stick out a lot they do tend to wiggle out of your ear more easily so you constantly have to readjust them.   

But the larger size of the Bose Soundsport Free means that the buds themselves have the longest battery life here. The Buds themselves can hold a 5 hour charge where as the Runs Buds can only hold a 4 hour charge and Sony’s buds can only hold a 3 hour charge. And all of their respective cases can hold two additional charges.

the larger size of the Bose Soundsport free means you also actually get a full set media controls on the right ear bud. You can play or pause your music, skip a track, adjust the volume, and activate your voice assistant. But the major draw back here is that its very hard to press these buttons, so hard in fact that I don’t even use them. The control buttons on the Jaybird and Sony are much easer to use in comparison, but you don’t have as much control over your music playback like you do with the Bose with out having to talk to your voice assistant. And to me thats a big deal. I would much rather use an inline controller instead of having to stop to talk to my voice assistant and hope that they get my command right… im talking to you siri. 

Sound quality wise, I feel the Jaybird run are the best sounding ear buds here. You can also fully customize their EQ through their app so you can make them sound how ever you want. But unfortunately they don’t get very loud. So even when they are at max volume they leave something to be desired. The Sony’s on the other hand do get pretty loud but unfortunately I feel they are the worst sounding earbuds here. They just have way too much bass for their own good. You can also go into Sony’s headphones app and select from a few EQ presets but you don’t have the same customizations options like with the Jaybird. Overall I feel the Bose sound just right. They get loud enough and since they have a neutral sound signature they sound pretty decent. 

But my problem with truly wireless sports earbuds like these is that none of them are perfect, even after you pay a good amount of money for them you always end up having to compromise somewhere. For the most part all of these wireless earbuds suffer from varying degrees of connection issues. Either theres a lot of latency, limited range or random connection drops. And on top of that some earphones might also have poor battery life, probably don’t fit well, or just don’t sound good. I honestly think that for the time being you’re better off getting something wired like the Jaybird X3 or the Powerbeats 3.

And I feel very strongly about this because you can get the X3’s or the powerbeats 3 for about $100 over at amazon… links for those down below. And over all you just get a better user experience. Every time I test sports wireless earbuds like these I usually end up thinking the same thing and thats “these are ok, but not as good as my powerbeats”. The X3’s and Powerbeats cost much less and they just work, they have good battery lives, they sound good, and more importantly their bluetooth connections are solid. And this is especially true for earphones that use apple’s W1 chip. Having connection issues is pretty common for truly wireless earbuds that aren’t using the W1 chip. And at CES 2018 QUALCOM announced they they were working on some new chip sets that would offer a more stable bluetooth connection for wireless earbuds that would also reduce latency and improve battery life. But to my knowledge I don’t know of any wireless earbuds that are currently using this new chip set. 

So what im getting at here is that I don’t think truly wireless earbuds for the gym are currently worth the money or the hassle. Wired earbuds like the powerbeats or X3’s aren’t all that different, but instead they cost less and you get a better over all user experience. With truly wireless earbuds you end up paying all this money and you also end up compromising a lot and to me that dosnt sound like a good deal. Now with the next apple event a few months away I wouldn’t be surprised if apple announced a truly wireless version of their powerbeats 3, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they initially retail for $300. But for right now since the powerbeats 3 are forever on sale over at amazon I don’t think you can go wrong with them.