Sound Whiz BioniQ Earbuds
Plantronics BackBeat Fit 3100
NEEDS MORE WHIZ.
THE BIONIC EARBUDS from Sound Whiz are some of the most compact true wireless headphones we’ve tested, with the entire bud sitting snugly within your ear. They come with three sizes of silicone earbud and wingtip sets, and three sizes of expandable foam in-ear tips, which is enough to accommodate most people’s ears. They also sound surprisingly good for the price. The drivers have a nice warm tone that’s good for rock and pop tracks, but don’t be expecting high resolution audio. The soundscape lacks the precision needed for high fidelity percussion and the mixing loses any aural location. Other than this, the main limitations are Bluetooth connectivity, which wasn’t the worst we tested, but still suffered from regular dropouts while exercising, a lack of sweat and water resistance, and the buttons on the buds require an inconvenient amount of force to press (which can hurt your ear). Sound Whiz don’t seem to have an app for these headphones, but they do come with a clever sweat band pocket for storage and land at a fair price. TRUE WIRELESS HEADPHONES as a whole are still flakey when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity and Plantronics has traditionally offered above average robustness using the protocol, so we were rather excited when the BackBeat Fit 3100 was first announced. However, much to our dismay, the Backbeat Fit 3100s are undoubtedly the worst performers of the entire roundup when it comes to connection stability. Not only do they regularly disconnect from a phone and each other when out and about, they even manage to drop the left ear repeatedly, even in ideal Bluetooth transmission conditions. This is a massive shame, particularly because the Plantronics BackBeat Fit 3100 offer a unique open ear design that allows you to be totally aware of your surroundings while still listening to music (an essential feature for fitness headphones). The headphone design is also one of the most comfortable we’ve ever used over long sessions with clever over ear wings that keep the earbuds secure. The controls are decent, the battery life is good and Plantronics have even done a good job with sweat and water resistance, but connectivity is so bad that getting everything else right just isn’t enough.