JayBird Bluebuds X Review
Headphones SG on 24th Aug 2015
Overview
The Jaybird Bluebuds X are a set of sweat-free, water-resistant Bluetooth earphones designed for dual fit, making them the ideal choice for those who like to go running or work out in the gym and are looking for something to which they can listen, in which all those pesky cables are absent. They are not exactly cheap — they now cost around S$240 (down from S$330 when it was first launched in Singapore).
That being said, the Bluebuds X, when combined with comply foam tips, is by far the best sounding, longest lasting, bluetooth headphones we have ever tried and in our opinion it's worth every single cent. They are available in 3 colors - Camouflage (new for 2015), Midnight Black and Storm White.
Lets take a look at the review from Jim's Review Room
Design and comfort
The Jaybird Bluebuds X don’t look like your regular set of earphones, as you will immediately notice. A single cord, which rests behind the neck, connects the pieces. Near the left side is a built-in remote control, with three buttons (volume control, skipping tracks and power) that enable you to control the music playback and handle the calls that interrupt your exercise routine. Although the buttons are easily accessible, it is way to fiddly, mid-run, to distinguish the lengths of the presses.
Behind one earphone, enclosed in a plastic casing, is the microUSB charging port. The phones are made sweat- and water-resistant by Liquipel nano coating.
The package also includes:
- a small hard case box
- a micro USB charging cable
- three pairs of honeycomb-style ear tips and cushions (small, medium and large) - that said, we absolutely recommend you to get yourself a pair of comply foam tips (sport, comfort, isolation) as these silicone tips that come with the Jaybird Bluebuds X simply does not do this little baby justice!
To prevent the cord from getting tangled or rubbing against the skin, you can keep it hanging low or above the ear, or tighten it with the two fit management clips that also come in the package.
Although the cord is doubtlessly more secure when you wear it above your ear, it takes a while to get it into place. You really have to persevere in order to get the best fit. Besides, the two clips are so small that they can be very easily misplaced; it is best to keep them in a small box on a shelf when you are not using them.
Getting the right combinations of buds and tips often requires trial and error. On our first run, on which we wore the phones with the cable beneath the ears, they fell out in just a few minutes; the second run, however, was done in rainy, windy weather, and the phones stayed in place. It also took constant rejigging to keep the phones in place in spite of sweat. When worn underneath a jacket, the cable posed practically no nuisance at all.
Sound quality
Most sports headphones are either bass-heavy — for more upbeat music — or lacking in power or clarity, making them indistinguishable from cheap earphones. The Bluebuds, however, are different; they are definitely near the bass end, but that does not overpower the sound. The treble is crisp and clean, with warm mids, and the result is a rich audio in which you barely notice any distortion.
If you want to listen to an audio book rather than a thumbing playlist, the excellent sound remains in place for that purpose too; leaking din is kept to a minimum. These are good for more than just listening to music in the gym; they are a great pair of earphones for any purpose.
Bluetooth performance
JayBird products use Bluetooth 2.1 HDR rather than the more battery-efficient Bluetooth 4.0. They also use Shift Premium Bluetooth Audio, as they call it, which maintains the high sound quality by compressing the audio. White noise — random signals whose power spectral density remains at a constant level — is eliminated by PureSound technology.
To set up Bluetooth connectivity, simply hit the central button on the control. You will hear a voice telling you when the power is on. To see if you are connected, hold down the button. Jenna (the name for the voice) also tells you when the battery will die in twenty minutes.
So far, we have tried the Bluebuds out with two brands of smartphones — the iPhone 5 and the HTC One Mini — both indoors (in the gym) and outdoors, and we have not experienced any dropouts even in the most rainy and blustery weather. The Signal Plus technology, which extends the radius within which you can be from the music source, also works excellently well. When we went two rooms away from the one in which we left our phones, the connection remained true and clean. Finally, we should mention that the Bluebuds have passive noise isolation, meaning that the user hears a minimum of outside sound.
Battery life
Battery life is eight hours, almost twice as much as that of the Plantronics Back Beat Go. We tested them by keeping the headphones turned on and using them for an hour per day, and they made it through a whole week! They should last much longer still if you are sensible enough to turn them off except when you are using them. The Bluebuds also drain a minimum amount from smartphone batteries — again, we tested this product by syncing it up to the iPhone 6 with the Nike Running app for an hour, and the battery power in the phone decreased by a mere five percent!
Our Verdict
The Bluebuds X rank among the best-sounding wireless earphones that we have tried out. They are also by far the pair of bluetooth headphones we have tested that claims to have the longest battery life at 8 hours (it was around 7 hours when we tested). That said, the fiddly, temperamental fit is somewhat disappointing with its stock silicone ear tips, but once we bought our own Comply foam tips miraculously resolved itself - the headphones fit snugly in my ears.If you are on the fence about thinking whether you should buy the JayBirds Bluebuds X, don't forget that these are among the best earphones packaged with excellent sound, great battery life and microUSB port for charging nicely tucked away.