I am a fan of Bluetooth headphones. I know that there are audiophiles out there who shun them because they don’t sound as good as wired ones, but I honestly don’t care too much about that because what I love about wireless is the convenience. I love that I don’t have a tangled nest of wires to deal with or accidentally getting tangled myself in those same wires. Wireless allows more freedom of movement where I can also occasionally leave my device in a room for example while I go check on something in another room. That’s why, I’ll always be a fan of wireless headphones despite what some say about their sound quality.
With that said, the latest headphones I’m checking out come from JBL and they are the JBL Reflect Fit which are geared more towards athletic and fitness use. That means these were built for an active lifestyle. They’re sweat proof, boasting a, IPX5 rating and they make use of a neckband which keeps the whole setup secure, even during the most rigorous of workouts.
Design
The JBL Reflect Fit as I stated above make use of a neckband which I’m assuming houses a lot of the tech needed to make this thing work properly and to keep the actual earbud parts tiny. I’ve used wireless earbuds before like the Jabra Elite Sport and those things are huge compared to these. That means that the Reflect Fit buds are much more comfy, especially for those who might have smaller ears. In fact, they’ll work for most ear sizes because they come with small, medium, and large ergonomic ear tips (Freebit). I’m assuming they’re made of silicone as they’re pretty soft and comfy, but ridged enough where they stay secure in your ears.
The neckband on the Reflect Fit is made of some kind of flexible plastic I’m assuming and coated in a soft touch rubber like material. Again, it feels pretty soft around your neck because of the coating, but stays securely around your neck. The neckband also houses the control buttons which include power, enabling the heart rate monitor, volume, and music controls. It’s only 4 buttons so it’s easy to remember where they are and what they do.
The earbuds themselves are connected by wires that go to the neckband. The wires themselves have reflective strips built into them so people can kind of see you if you’re wearing these in the dark. When you don’t have the earbuds in your ears, they kind of just hang there, but can be latched together to keep them from swinging around. It would have been cool if the wires could be retracted into the neckband, but that’s not the case here with the JBL Reflect Fit. That’s probably one of the few negatives.
Sound
To me, the JBL Reflect Fit sound pretty darn good. Now I’m no audiophile and I’m sure most people out there aren’t either, but these to me sound just as good as any wired headphones I’ve used. The highs and mids sound quite good with these, though the bass isn’t very deep like you’d get with larger headphones. Still though, I tried with a variety of different music genres such as country, hip hop, rock, r&b, and classical and all of it sounded great to me.
Not only that, maybe its the way the ear tips are shaped but I could not hear any outside noises while wearing these with my music blasting.
Usage
Aside from these being wireless and sounding great, the JBL Reflect Fit also has a couple neat tricks up its sleeves. For starters, these things vibrate when you receive a call. That means that when your deep in your workout or immersed with your favorite tunes, you’ll never miss a call as the vibration is pretty strong hard to miss.
Next up and something I’ve seen on some other high end headphones, these have a built in heart rate monitor. With a press of a button, the JBL Reflect Fit will tell you what you heart rate is at. It does it fairly quickly too which leads me to believe that it may be constantly checking your pulse when it’s on.
Lastly, these things last for approximately 10 hours, but possibly longer if you don’t have the heart rate monitor active. That’s a good long while before they need to be recharged. Not only that, when they do need to be charged, they seem to charge up pretty quickly to full power. If you want to know how much charge is left, the neat thing with these is that they actually show you what’s left if you look on your phone. The Bluetooth icon shows a little battery meter next to it when these are connected. Not all wireless headphones do that so I’m really glad to see that these do.
Final Thoughts
I’m really enjoying the JBL Reflect Fit. While the Jabra Elite Sport were my favorite for a while because they had no wires and did heart rate monitoring, I think the JBL Reflect Fit just feel more comfortable in my ears. The buds themselves are smaller and I think the heart rate monitor on them work better and faster. You also don’t need a separate app to get a heart rate reading, though you’ll need one to record them.
On a design note, I like how these are made and how they stay put around your neck. The wires don’t get in the way when you’re turning your head at all. They’re great for working out and the audio sounds pretty darn good.
If you live an active lifestyle, I suggest checking the JBL Reflect Fit out.
