Welcome to my first product review!

Jabra is an international provider of headphone and speaker solutions, with brand recognition as gold standard in innovation and design (http://www.jabra.com.au/).

I was keen to give these a go, having run for over 20 years, primarily without music!

Overview

The Jabra Sport Wireless+ earphones are designed for the athlete who loves running with music, but wants to eliminate the hassle of restrictive equipment. Retailing at $129, with bluetooth connectivity for wireless freedom, built-in FM radio, weather proof design, stylish colour scheme, 1 year warranty and comfort as a priority, they ticked all of the pre-run boxes – except someone to run for you :)

The Setup

As a typical man, I ditched the ‘5 min setup’ instructions and went straight for the common sense approach, which with Jabra was easy.

The ear phones have 3 buttons, 1) power/play button 2) FM radio button 3)volume control (so not much room to go wrong), the earphones are charged by a usb cable and have a 3 hour music time/ 4.5 hour talk time. The cool voice prompts confirming power on/off make it easy to get started, so a quick pairing with Bluetooth on my phone and I was jamming with my Spotify playlist.

Jabra supply an arm band to hold your music device (my Samsung S4 was a tight fit), it's fairly light and comfortable, although my tiny biceps could do with a bit more velcro for securer fastening. The set up is amazingly fast, I spent more time waiting for a GPS signal on my watch to update my Strava account :)

The only slight drawback to the setup process was choosing from the copious amount of ear bud shapes and sizes?

On the run

The sound quality was reasonable for a set of portable earphones, even the rush hour street noise of Mosman didn't drown out my Aussie hip hop. Some of the deeper tracks with more bass sounded a bit grainy, but I didn't find it a major concern for a pair of exercise earphones. The volume control and play/stop buttons on the right ear piece are very easy to find and use by touch, and the connecting band between the 2 ear pics sits nicely behind your neck without too much annoyance. There are also the handy voice prompts if the battery is going low - if only they could remind me to focus on my run form?

Comfort was not an issue, although a slightly slimmer pair might sit better behind the ear. The ability to wear them with a running cap is hindered due to the crossover of the over-ear positioning, you can get away with a visor as the elastic rim is very thin. My original ear bud selection was a gamble, but the tear drop medium size buds worked surprisingly well for a first attempt. There was very little movement from the earphones and I never had to reposition them, even when I began to sweat (I tried multiple runs changing the ear buds).

TECH? These earphones are waterproof, shock resistant and dust proof, which worked well as my first test run was in the rain. Also the omni-directional microphone means you can easily make calls on the go as well.

User friendly? I really liked the accessibility to easily pause/play music at busy roads with the touch of a button, and the wireless technology meant I didn’t rip my ear off every time I whipped my neck around to look for traffic or pedestrians. Not to mention, without the hassle of wires, the selfie possibilities are endless as you can see!

Adaptable? I now frequently use these earphones as my standard pair, they work well when traveling on public transport, especially when on the bus and space is limited and I usually end up getting the wires caught on my jacket or bag. I also use them in the car when I want to listen to spotify as the sound quality is better than my S4 speaker.

PRO’s

CON’s

Easy Bluetooth set up and usb charging

Extensive ear bud choice

Wireless technology

Velcro strap size/comfort (for me anyway)

Easy operation on the go, with friendly voice reminders

Doesn't fit well with running cap (visor is fine)

Stylish and comfortable

Tight fit in the arm band for Samsung S4

FM radio available

The Verdict

Whether you are a music listening exerciser or not - give these a go! I see these as a great buy for their ease of use, affordability and unrestricted movement. Although sound quality may not be as good as some more expensive headphones, these are a fantastic on the go addition to your exercise attire.

(http://www.jabra.com.au/products/bluetooth/jabra_sport_/jabra_sport_)

Even the mighty Craig Alexander can’t get enough of them :)