The most effective wi-fi exercise headphones for 2024

Connectivity: Wi-fi | Type: In-ear with wingtip | Assistant help: Google Assistant, Siri

Read our full review of the Beats Fit Pro

The Beats Fit Pro got here out on the head of the pack due to their snug, safe design, good sound high quality and transparency mode, amongst different issues. As my colleague Billy Steele detailed in his review of the Fit Pro, the buds’ wingtip design units them aside from different Beats earbuds and makes them significantly good for operating and different exercises. The buds are pretty small and light-weight, and the wingtip on every is versatile sufficient to hug your ear properly with out placing an excessive amount of stress on it. This helps them really feel safer while you’re transferring round so much be it throughout a morning jog or whereas taking a HIIT class. The buds are additionally IPX4 rated — not the very best quantity of safety I encountered, however sufficient to maintain the buds working nicely even throughout my sweatiest classes.

Because it had been, the Beats Match Professional stayed put throughout each single exercise. Nonetheless, adjusting their place on the fly can result in one in every of my few gripes with the buds: unintended presses of the onboard controls. There have been quite a lot of occasions after I went to regulate a bud and I ended up pausing my music within the course of as a result of the buttons are really easy to set off.

Sound high quality is stable and significantly nice for exercising due to its punchy bass and total balanced profile. Spatial audio help is nice to have, and whereas Adaptive EQ means you may’t alter the EQ your self like you may with different buds, it does make for constantly good audio high quality. It’s additionally one much less factor to play with out of the field, which I anticipate many individuals will respect; these earbuds are a real unbox-and-go possibility. ANC can also be robust and transparency mode will turn out to be useful for many who typically run, cycle or in any other case train exterior. It was probably the most natural-sounding transparency mode of any earbuds I attempted, and it’s straightforward to activate or off both with onboard controls or from the management panel in your iOS or Android smartphone.

Talking of, the Beats Match Professional work significantly nicely with iPhones due to their built-in H1 chip, however Android customers can obtain their companion app to entry issues like fast pairing, management customizations and a battery standing indicator. I didn’t get into element concerning the setup course of as a result of, nicely, there isn’t a lot of 1. However I’ll say that, upon unboxing, I used to be shocked how low cost the charging case feels. Whereas it offers an additional 21 hours of charging on prime of the buds’ promised six hours of life, the construct high quality seems like an actual step down in comparison with the buds themselves. Except for that and the contact controls, although, the Beats Match Professional provide an entire package deal for athletes, one which can be utilized all day along with coaching classes. Plus, their customary $200 worth isn’t too cost-prohibitive, they usually can typically be discovered on sale for much less.

Connectivity: Wi-fi | Type: In-ear | Assistant help: Siri, Google Assistant

The Jabra Elite 8 Active nearly bested the Beats Match Professional, however finally the latter received due to their wingtip design and extra natural-sounding transparency mode. However apart from these two issues, the Elite 8 Lively are simply pretty much as good, if not higher, than the Match Professional.

Firstly, the Elite 8 Lively has one of many highest sturdiness scores of any earbuds we examined. Rated IP68, it’s protected towards every kind of mud and particles and it’ll survive being submerged in water at excessive stress. Jabra additionally subjected the Elite 8 Lively to military-grade testing, defending them from extreme humidity, excessive temperature, rain and altitude. That is extra safety than most want, however it’ll probably give some folks peace of thoughts to know that these buds can take a beating.

That further safety doesn’t make the Elite 8 Lively cumbersome or unattractive as one would possibly assume. These buds are a number of the most snug I attempted, with a light-weight design and a safe match. The soft-touch end on the buds and their charging case provides a stage of luxurious that the majority othersI examined didn’t have, too. There are onboard controls as nicely, they usually’re not as straightforward to unintentionally press as these on the Beats Match Professional.

The Elite 8 Lively has an important sound profile out of the field however you may alter the EQ inside the companion cell app. The app has six preconfigured settings to select from too, and I discovered myself utilizing Bass Increase and Energize most of all whereas exercising (they’re fairly comparable with robust bass, however Energize emphasizes highs a bit extra). The Elite 8 Lively undoubtedly has a bonus over the Beats Match Professional for anybody who prefers to customise EQ, or needs to have totally different sound profiles relying on what they’re doing. On prime of that, these buds help spatial sound with Dolby Audio.

The Elite 8 Lively help adaptive noise cancelation, they usually do a superb job of analyzing your surroundings and blocking out interferences. “HearThrough” is Jabra’s model of transparency mode, and it’s the setting to make use of when operating exterior in a metropolis or an space with a lot of site visitors. Sound isn’t drowned out by wind on this mode both since HearThrough is designed to neutralize wind noise whereas additionally letting you keep conscious of your environment. I ran in some significantly windy climate whereas testing these out, and I had constantly good listening experiences each with HearThrough and ANC activated.

As for battery life, the Elite 8 Lively will get eight hours on a cost with ANC turned on, and a further 24 hours when using their charging case. You may rise up to 56 hours of complete use in the event you’re not utilizing ANC, which is outstanding. The case additionally helps wi-fi charging, a characteristic that the Beats Match Professional’s lacks, and it additionally feels extra substantial.

Finally, you may’t go incorrect with both the Beats Match Professional or the Jabra Elite 8 Lively. However Jabra’s buds provide a bit extra customization and sturdiness than the Beats Match Professional, and never everybody will want the latter’s bonus options. Nonetheless, in the event you’re an athlete who likes to mess around with sound profiles or need a number of the most sturdy wi-fi earbuds out there at the moment, the Jabra Elite 8 Lively are those to get.

Connectivity: Wi-fi | Type: In-ear | Assistant help: Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant

The Jabra Elite 4 Active provide the most effective worth for the cash of any choose on our record. For $120, you get an IP57-rated design, stable sound high quality with adjustable EQ, good ANC, the identical HearThrough transparency mode that the Elite 8 Lively have, app connectivity and a complete of 28 hours of battery life. These had been a number of the best buds for me to “choose up and go” with, whether or not it was for an impromptu stroll across the block, a sweaty HIIT session in my basement or an hour of labor wherein I actually wanted to dam out distractions and get issues carried out.

Just like the Elite 8 Lively, the Elite 4 Lively is tremendous snug and Jabra has actually gotten the onboard controls proper on this sequence of buds. The buttons are usually not really easy to press that you just unintentionally set off them everytime you alter the match, they usually present satisfying suggestions while you truly do deliberately press them. Sound high quality and ANC are spectacular, and I mainly by no means needed to fear about operating out of battery.

The primary variations between the Elite 4 Lively and the costlier Elite 8 Lively are that the latter have a better IP score, voice steering, spatial sound help with Dolby Audio, an extended total battery life (56 hours with the charging case) and that satisfying soft-touch end. The IP score and prolonged battery life are the 2 predominant options that would compel some to spend the additional cash on the Elite 8 Lively as an alternative. Additionally, spatial audio is sweet to have if in case you have the buds semi-permanently positioned in your ears consistently pumping out tunes, whatever the exercise. In any other case, although, you’re getting a ton of fantastic options with these $120 earbuds.

Connectivity: Wi-fi | Type: In-ear with hook | Assistant help: None

In case you have lower than $50 to spend, the $30 JLab Go Air Sport are an important possibility. I didn’t have excessive expectations going into testing these buds, however I used to be shortly impressed by their consolation and sound high quality. A lot of headphones designed for exercises have this hook that wraps across the prime of your ear, and it does assist the Go Air Sport keep securely connected to your head. The hooks listed here are fairly versatile and have a soft-touch end, which provides to their consolation (I attempted just a few equally designed buds with a lot stiffer hooks that had been a ache in additional methods than one.) Admittedly, this design will take some getting used to in the event you’re new to it, nevertheless it’s a surefire technique to get a bit of further stability throughout excessive depth exercises.

Sound high quality is fairly good on these buds as nicely, though not practically as balanced as that of the Jabra Elite 8 Lively or the Beats Match Professional. I additionally respect which you could cycle by way of three totally different EQ modes — Signature, Balanced and Bass Increase — utilizing the buds’ onboard controls. There’s no app to fuss with, and that was a pleasant change of tempo after largely testing buds with some type of app connectivity.

You may anticipate eight hours of playtime on the Go Air Sport, plus one other 24 hours of battery life with its charging case. Whereas the USB-A cable constructed into the underside of the case is helpful, I really feel prefer it ought to be a USB-C connector as an alternative (it’s the 12 months 2024, in spite of everything). The case can also be on the cumbersome aspect; you may nonetheless throw it right into a backpack or purse simply, nevertheless it’s not as svelte as circumstances you’ll see on costlier buds.

Connectivity: Wi-fi | Type: Open-ear | Assistant help: None

I used to be apprehensive about open-ear headphones, particularly throughout exercises. However the Shokz OpenFit pleasantly shocked me from the primary time I put them on. Earbuds with open designs like this permit for extra situational consciousness, with the purpose being to let noise in reasonably than block it out. The OpenFit buds do an important job of this with out skimping on sound high quality or consolation.

The buds themselves nearly float over your ear cavern and Shokz’s soft-finish “dolphin arc” hook is versatile sufficient to securely wrap across the prime of your ear with out placing an excessive amount of stress on it. There’s a bud-like portion on the different finish of the hook that acts as counterbalance, leading to a dependable match that by no means faltered throughout all types of actions together with operating, power coaching and indoor biking. Granted, none of these workouts contain shaking your head up or down or aspect to aspect an excessive amount of; perhaps don’t put on the OpenFit to take heed to head-banging loss of life metallic (in the event you can’t management your self).

Sound high quality is stable contemplating the design, and the OpenFit will get fairly loud as nicely. These buds have Shokz’s Direct Pitch know-how, which makes use of reverse sound waves to optimize the gap and angle from the buds to your ear canal. The corporate claims this helps maintain the sound directed in the direction of your ear and reduces audio leakage. In my testing, I discovered that to be true to a sure extent. The OpenFit had the most effective sound high quality and total quantity out of the entire open-ear units I attempted, however in the event you crank the amount as much as the max (or shut), the individual subsequent to you’ll undoubtedly hear what you’re listening to. Total, these are an important possibility for anybody who doesn’t discover in-ear buds significantly snug, or those that simply choose to have extra consciousness of their environment whereas figuring out.