Jabra SPORT PULSE Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds Review
Editor rating
3.9/5 on March 3, 2016 Reviewed by: Peter Alexander
PROS
- Very comfortable
- Durable construction
- Excellent complementary software
- Good sound quality
CONS
- Bad seal resulting in a lot of sound leakage
- Below average battery life
VERDICT
The Jabra Pulse wireless earbuds are a great product that managed to really surprise us with its excellent comfort and durable construction. It’s also nice to see Jabra actively supporting their products and providing timely updates to fix critical issues. Unfortunately, problems with sound leakage are something that users have to live with, unless they want to invest into aftermarket ear tips and hope they will seal better than the originals. Overall, we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these Bluetooth earbuds to anyone who wants to combine fitness tracking features with excellent comfort.
The Jabra Pulse earbuds are the perfect example of functional innovation done right. They are packed with advanced technology, such as Dolby sound enhancement and biometric heart rate monitor. Jabra is essentially squeezing two separate products – Bluetooth headphones and heart rate monitor – into a single device to give end users a fantastic fitness experience. Our review should give you a good idea of how this product performs in real life and help you decide if the built-in heart rate monitoring is more than just a gimmick.
Design and build quality
The Jabra Sport Pulse Wireless earbuds are fitted inside a robust carbon fiber case that is IP55 certified to resists sweat, rain, dirt, and harsh temperature changes. The same standard is also used by the US military, which should give you some idea about the durability of these earbuds.
We really like how the Pulse fit and stay comfortably in place even during strenuous exercise. This really helps to keep the focus on the activity itself, rather than worrying about the earphones falling out and possibly getting damaged.
The in-line playback controller with built-in microphone lets you keep your phone safely in the pocket every time you want to adjust the volume or skip to the next song. The sound quality of the microphone during voice calls is great and the other party could clearly understand what we were saying even during our testing in a busy gym.
The main attraction of these earbuds is, of course, the in-ear heart rate monitor that works in conjunction with Jabra Sport Life application. Together, they help you get the most out of your exercise by helping you stay in the target heart rate zone and motivate you with personalized audio coaching.
Sound quality
Our initial impressions regarding the sound quality were anything but positive. The earbuds sounded very muffled and the entire frequency range felt rather off. Indeed, when we check online, we have discovered that Jabra have released a driver update that addresses all of our concerns.
With the update installed, the Jabra Pulse open-up and the sound signature changed for the better. Lows are relatively weak compared to many other gym headphones, but they are very accurate and don’t overshadow mids, which are slightly emphasizes to create a very dynamic listening experience that doesn’t cause any fatigue.
The only real problem is the lack of good seal and the resulting sound leakage and lack of noise isolation. When you are in a noisy environment, you are forced to crack up the volume and there’s no denying that the sound quality suffers.
What’s in the box
The Jabra Pulse earbuds come with 4 sets of replaceable ear tips (or EarGels, as Jabra calls them), 3 sets of EarWings to provide you with the best fit possible, and also 1 FitClip for cable length adjustment.
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