Plantronics BackBeat FIT 500 Wireless On-Ear Sport Headphones with Sweat-Resistant Nano-Coating Technology - Teal | Perfect for Running, Gym Workouts & Outdoor Activities

I was looking for a pair of headphones for working out but I can't stand the in ear design of most fitness headphones. These are a pretty good alternative, they're fairly comfortable to wear for a workout and after breaking them in a little, they have a comfortable but firm amount of head pressure. Still, they might not be the best for very vigorous workouts or sports with a lot of head movement, just due to the nature of on-ear headphones. They do seem pretty sweat resistant and are pretty easy to clean.Battery life is great, I go about two weeks between charges working out 4 or 5 times a week for about 45 minutes. The easy to use physical power switch is part of this, you can't accidentally leave them on as easily as software buttons.They work with every Bluetooth device I've tried, pairing is also pretty reliable but suffers from the usual Bluetooth problems. Two devices can be connected at once and this also works pretty well with these. The Peloton cycle tablet works with these without any audio delay (a common problem with it and other headsets).Now the one downside: They only support the SBC codec, which has broad device compatibility but is the lowest quality codec available. Comparing these to just about any halfway decent wired headphones, the audio quality is obviously worse. They do sound decent for Bluetooth headphones overall but they are held back by the low quality codec. AptX or LDAC provides much better audio but is not supported with these. A real improvement would be adding some higher quality codecs, anything other than SBC would be appreciated.If you're used to bluetooth headphones, these will sound fine but pretty much any headphone with a higher quality codec is going to sound better when compared. If you have a recent Android phone (8.0 or higher), an LDAC headphone such as the I've been using these for about 3 weeks now for lifting. Upon first using them I was unimpressed with the bass, so I left them on running with music playing for about 30 hours straight hoping it would burn in the speakers and improve the sound like I've successfully done with many other headphones and speakers. No dice.So the pros: Sound quality is OK. They certainly reproduce sound better than a cheap pair of earbuds (I'm looking at you Apple). Battery life is great too, as is the location of the controls. It's very easy to adjust the volume or pause/skip tracks. Bluetooth range is very good as well. I leave my phone sitting on a workbench of my garage while working out and never get any cut-outs, which is more than I can say for other bluetooth headsets I've owned. I've had these on for up to an hour too and they are still comfortable. That's probably because of the weak clamping they provide though.The bad: As I mentioned, the bass is weak. That's fine if you want to listen to "regular music" but when working out I want to hear something that thumps, and these don't deliver. Also, as I mentioned the fit could be tighter. I have to be careful when getting down on my back or leaning forward, if I move too quickly they'll shift. I also like to be able to lift one speaker off my ear and press it back against my head above my ear when someone is talking to me, basically leaving one speaker on my ear and one pressed against my skull which allows me to listen to people talk while still listening to music in the other ear. These don't clamp tight enough for that, I have to remove them when my wife or daughters come in to jabber at me during my workouts. To be fair, I have a medium sized head but the other on-ear and over-hear headphones I've owned always allow me to cock one speaker off my ear like that.I can't speak to the waterproofing. I'm a heavy sweater and make sure to wipe the earpieces down with a damp cloth after a workout, but my last set of wired non-waterproof headphones were still working fine after 6 months of using them so I maybe I didn't even need the waterproofing.I am extremely satisfied with these headphones for the price. I'm not an audiophile, but I wanted headphones that wouldn't slip while working out or running. These are great. Sounds good, noise cancellation is good. Easy to use.My only complaint after using them for about 3 weeks is the battery indicator. It tells you the battery status each time it's turned on, and it will say it's "battery high" at any level from 100% to 50%. Today it was at battery medium at like 40%, and it started chirping "battery low" after 45 minutes of use.It may be getting roughly the right amount of expected battery life (I use it 1.5 hours a day and I probably charge it once every 10 days). If you buy, I recommend charging it when it hits 50%.These are, hands down, the best headphones I have ever owned. They're built for exercise, and they work very well for that. Unless you're doing something extremely rough and tumble, these will hang on better than any other set I've ever owned. The battery life is genuinely astounding: I charged these once for 30 minutes and got a whole month straight of 1-hour daily workouts before the battery started to run out of juice. I don't know where they put the batteries for this thing, because you'd think that something that can run for that long without so much as breaking a sweat would need some beefy batteries or would at the least be really heavy, but no: these headphones break the laws of physics. They're compact, lightweight, sound great, feel great, and are built to handle a rough workout. You'd think they'd compromise somewhere, but no, these don't even really cost all that much.And the best part? You can use these are normal headphones with the included cable.UPDATE: 5/16/2020They still work perfectly. Not a single hiccup to date.These are my first pair of over-ear Bluetooth headphones. I thought I would feel a bit silly wearing a big, lumpy pair of Cyberman earmuffs on a run or around the gym so have always steered towards an earbud or neckband style. And after a few weeks of use, I can say with experience that I do in fact feel a bit silly wearing them – but despite that, they’re pretty great. They’re so much more comfortable than any in-ear device I’ve used. They don’t start aching after an hour of wear and they never slip or pull out during a workout. I ran a 10km on my first use and didn’t feel them once, which is a marvel. The ear cups are a little small but they still sit snugly and comfortably. They have a much longer battery life, pair quickly and reliably, and the controls are easily accessible. The sound quality seems fine to me, although I’m not a connoisseur and have never really had an issue with the sound quality of any device. They also come in at a pretty reasonable price, which is important when you sweat as heavily as I do and burn through headphones so quickly. These feel reliably solid while not breaking the bank. So my only problem is with how they look. Even among other over-ear headphones, they look particularly unstylish because of how the band sticks out on each side of your head. Other brands and models seems to follow the shape of the head more naturally. We’ll see how the sweat-proofing holds up over continual use but for now I’m very happy to recommend them to anyone who’s not too worried about how they look.I do a lot of rowing up the gym and got tired of earphones slipping out and cheaper headphones sliding off. That and the audio quality of the cheaper headphones and the bass-less earphones were almost painful to listen to - if I could even hear them over the volume of the gym's music, let alone the rowing machine.These are simple - the handy controls on the left are perfect for on-the-go, when you don't want to stop or take two hands off whatever you're doing. The sound is crystal clear, amazing quality and the pads fitting. Thankfully, the band is a little tight too, and with no cables to be pulled on they don't slip off your head every now and then, making them perfect for High Intensity Interval Training, especially considering how sweat resistant they are. I've even used them in turkish hot rooms for listening to audio books.Battery life is amazing, I've been using them for a while and never had the battery dip below high. Five, six hours and still on high. Easy to charge alongside any other USB device.. And if you really want to you can plug them into your phone. Would recommend, just be cautious that covering the left ear or having your phone in your right pocket can sometimes create a lot of interference, never enough to stop it. May be the spotty bluetooth connection of my old phone, but has never been a massive problem.Battery life is insane, you will rarely need to charge these if you only use wireless headphones for the gym, even multiple times per week I haven't charged my set since I bought them weeks ago. It also tells you what the battery life is when you turn them on so you will not forget to charge them when needed - mine somehow are still at "high" level. Sound quality is good, not great, but that was expected for headphones of this type. Fit is comfortable and they are not scratchy/itchy like some over-ear headphones can be. They have a tendency to fall forward on my head as I run if I don't position them 100% correctly, but once i find the sweet spot they stay put. I have a smaller than average head so this may not be an issue for others with a more average size.Initially when I purchased these headphones I was really happy with them but it didn't take long for things to start going wrong. I would say within 3 months of fairly heavy, sweaty use it became difficult to turn them off the headphones would constantly say 'power off power on' repeatedly until they did eventually power off. I could have lived with that but the problems didn't stop there. The bluetooth had an annoying habit of randomly dropping and when it did it was a battle to get it re-connected- very frustrating mid-workout. Eventually after less than a year the on/off switch gave up altogether and they were impossible to turn on...or off..or pair sometimes when I plugged them into charge this would boot them to power up but not always. I got so frustrated with them I just binned the. Amazon were unable to help as it was via a 3rd party seller and outside the time limit I could have returned them. They're pretty expensive for headphones so I was pretty p***ed about it. I have bluetooth earphones from mpow at $17 that have lasted longer. Pretty poor.My old headphones had gave out on me and i needed to find new headphones and then I stumbled upon this. I needed a good headphone for the gym and casual use. I have never had headphones that have fit me so well, whenever I go jogging it doesn't come off and no matter how quickly I move the earphones stay put. Also the bass of these headphones are amazing and with it being such a low priced product it makes it an easy buy.