Jabra is well known for their bluetooth headsets that are popular with professionals. As they expand their product range, Jabra has announced newer headsets that targets a more general audience, which have been quite a hit. The Jabra Sport Coach one of the new in-ear headset that adds on to their sports oriented product line. Today, we will put the Jabra Sport Coach to the test, and see if it will really help us in getting in shape.
Getting Started
The Jabra Sport Coach catches your attention when you lay your sight on it. Its contrast in colours from the packaging allows us to focus much on the details of the earbuds, and made us wonder… How can so much technology be cramped within such a small package? The bluetooth and batteries of the Jabra Sport Coach are all built into the earbuds themselves, making the whole product extremely simple. The stylish blue we had for review is also a more popular colour, as compared to the alternative red and yellow. This colour should be popular with males sportsmen.
Jabra Sport Coach promises to make your workout a bit more interesting by providing wireless music via bluetooth from your phone to the headset. Because of its wireless nature, you can enjoy a hassle free experience during your workout, without worrying about the annoying cables that get in the way.
Jabra has also included a small carrying zipper pouch to store the Jabra Sport Coach. Within the pouch when we first opened the package is a EarGel pack, which essentially consist of 2 FitClips, 4 sets of EarGels and 3 sets of EarWings in a selection of shapes and sizes to best suit the size of the ear. After selection of the right size of EarGel and EarWing, the earbuds will fit nicely into your ear, making it very comfortable while enjoying your favourite music.
The Headset
The Jabra Sport Coach is designed to be simple and easy to use. The additional EarWing allows the earbuds to fit nicely into the curves of the ear, securing it in place. Additionally, the Jabra Sport Coach is also Sweat and Weather resistant. It is built to IP55 standards, so that you can do any kinds of exercises without thinking too much about damaging the headset.
The microUSB port is found at the right earbud. Charging can be done via any microUSB charger. A full charge can bring about 5.5 hours of uninterrupted music. Due to the small size, it is impossible to increase the capacity of the battery, but we found 5.5 hours to be adequate, as we do not usually use the headphone for such a prolonged period of time.
Control keys can also be found at the right side of the earbuds. This allows the remote control of the volume of the music streamed directly from the smartphone, as well as for initial bluetooth setup of the device.
Sound Quality
In fact, we found the Jabra Sport Coach’s sound quality to be similar to any other Jabra products. There was not any specific emphasis on how good the audio quality will be on the Jabra Sport Coach as compared to their other products. However, this is not a bad thing. Jabra products have already been providing consistent performance from all their headsets. Particularly for the Jabra Sport Coach, we enjoyed the clear highs and taut lows. This sound profile that the Jabra Sport Coach produces is excellent for sports, as it can really get one going for the extra mile when music is pumped up.
It seems that all Jabra products are just as good as one another in terms of sound quality. Of course, it is incomparable to any high end IEM, but the quality of sound that the Jabra Sport Coach produces is most definitely above average. The average user will definitely enjoy it if they were to upgrade from an ordinary earphones to these. They will hear the difference as clarity is improved, and bass can in fact be felt.
The Jabra Sports Life App
As the name suggests, the Jabra Sport Coach is a product that is catered to sports enthusiasts who want to listen to music while working out. The Jabra Sports Life App can be download directly from the Apple App Store, or the Android Play Store. A unique activation code that can be found within the Jabra Sport Coach package is required for the usage of the Jabra Sports Life App.
With the App installed, we found ourselves working out in no time at all, with its user friendly interface and interesting features. We tried out a running feature within the app, which tested the performance of a runner. A simple run allowed me to gather information such as the calories that I burnt as well as the average pace that I was moving, as well as the actual distance covered. These were not previously possible without any smartphones.
Within the App is also a feature called “Cooper test” that tests the distance that one can cover within 12 minutes. It is a great tool to use to track your performance, and see how much you are improving as the number of runs increases. It can be seen from the test that the pace has been dropping from the start, and I could probably do something to improve my endurance.
Moreover, Jabra Sports Life also has a real time audio coaching feature, which essentially is a set of circuit training activities. Now, you can actually have your personal coach telling you the different exercises to do that are the best for you. The video below shows how the feature works.
Despite all the greatness packed within the earbuds, there was a small issue that we were facing. Because of the relatively long cable that connects the left earbud to the right earbud, we found that it can actually be quite annoying and inconvenient, especially when running. The cable tends to hop around and dangles around your neck, possibly distracting you from your training.
Conclusion
The Jabra Sport Coach is a great headset to own if you are someone who works out and exercise a lot. It can also be the reason for you to finally move away from your home’s couch and do something more active. The Jabra Sport Coach redefines the working out experience, bringing great music and personalized training activities to you.
We definitely will recommend the Jabra Sport Coach to our readers because of apps that comes together with this earbuds, which makes training so much more fun. However, we felt that a shorter cable could probably improve the general usability of the headset if it was targeted to sportsmen. Despite this shortcoming, the sound quality lives up to the name of quality Jabra products. It is still a unique product from Jabra that we would love. To sum up, we felt that is it more of a quality headset than an actual sports companion.
The Jabra Sport Coach is available online at www.gowireless.com.sg and in stores (Apple premium resellers, Challenger, Stereo Electronics, Outdoor Sports Travel and other authorized resellers) at a suggested retail price of SGD248.
