Top 5 Budget Wireless Headphones for Sports | Articles | Audio and video equipment

Dur­ing sports, music sets the rhythm or dis­tracts from heavy phys­i­cal exer­tion. It sets the mood and increas­es your pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. At the same time, even dur­ing intense exer­cise, the head­phones should not fall out of the ears.

We have select­ed 5 mod­els of in-ear head­phones with a neck­band or lan­yard that pro­vide a secure fit. Read on to find out which mod­els are includ­ed in our rat­ing and what inter­est­ing things they have to offer.

Pho­to: cnet.com

How was it evaluated

When com­pil­ing a rat­ing of bud­get wire­less head­phones with a lan­yard for sports, we took into account the fol­low­ing para­me­ters: auton­o­my, mois­ture pro­tec­tion, Blue­tooth stan­dard, micro­phone and Hands-free mode for mak­ing calls, weight. We eval­u­at­ed each mod­el rel­a­tive to oth­er head­phones from the list accord­ing to one of these para­me­ters. The max­i­mum score for each char­ac­ter­is­tic is 5 points.

autonomy

If the user reg­u­lar­ly plays sports, it is desir­able that the head­phones work on a sin­gle charge for at least 4–5 hours (to avoid dai­ly charg­ing). The bet­ter the auton­o­my, the high­er the score.

Moisture protection

For sports, mois­ture pro­tec­tion is impor­tant. Those mod­els who are not afraid of sweat and rain will get a high­er score.

Bluetooth standard

The high­er, the faster and more reli­able the con­nec­tion (and, accord­ing­ly, the high­er the score).

Hands-free mode

Thanks to this mode, you will not miss an impor­tant call while exer­cis­ing. For the pres­ence of noise reduc­tion, the score will be high­er.

The weight

The lighter the head­phones, the less notice­able they are dur­ing sports (the high­est score is for the light­est mod­el from the selec­tion).

Best budget in-ear neckband headphones for sports

In the fea­tures of each mod­el, we have indi­cat­ed the fre­quen­cy range, imped­ance, sen­si­tiv­i­ty and speak­er diam­e­ter. Let’s explain what these char­ac­ter­is­tics mean:

• the fre­quen­cy range is the­o­ret­i­cal­ly indica­tive of the qual­i­ty of music repro­duc­tion. The far­ther apart the bound­aries of the range, the bet­ter. But there is no sin­gle stan­dard for mea­sure­ment. Most wire­less head­phones have a fre­quen­cy range of 20–20,000 Hz.
• Sen­si­tiv­i­ty — the high­er, the loud­er the sound. There is also no sin­gle stan­dard for mea­sure­ment.
• The diam­e­ter of the speak­er — the larg­er, the bet­ter the sound and the rich­er the low­er fre­quen­cies.
• Man­u­fac­tur­ers indi­cate imped­ance (resis­tance) in the tech­ni­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions — the head­phone requests for the pow­er of sound sources (smart­phones, play­ers, com­put­ers) depend on it. The imped­ance man­i­fests itself as fol­lows: low-resis­tance mod­els (16–50 ohms) can work with ordi­nary portable equip­ment like mobile phones. High imped­ance head­phones require addi­tion­al ampli­fi­ca­tion. But now any wire­less head­phones have a built-in ampli­fi­er, so you can ignore this para­me­ter.

JBL Tune 115BT

JBL Tune 115BT is the most afford­able mod­el from our top. Pho­to: jbl

Auton­o­my:

Bat­tery capac­i­ty — 160 mAh. Music play­back time — up to 8 hours. A full charge takes 2 hours. There is a fast charg­ing func­tion — 15 min­utes is enough for an hour of work.

Mois­ture pro­tec­tion:

Not

Blue­tooth Stan­dard:

4.2

Hands-free mode:

There is

The weight:

19 g

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• fre­quen­cy range — 20–20000 Hz;
• imped­ance — 16 Ohm;
• sen­si­tiv­i­ty — 102 dB;
• dynam­ic speak­er diam­e­ter — 8.6 mm;
• sig­na­ture JBL Pure Bass sound with rich low fre­quen­cies;
• 3‑button remote con­trol with micro­phone, you can adjust the vol­ume and con­trol play­back;
• flat, tan­gle-free cable and mag­nets to keep wires from dan­gling;
• 6 col­ors: blue, coral, black, turquoise, white, grey.

JBL Tune 115BT cost from 1,216 rubles.

Pros:

• fast charg­ing;
• do not fall out of the ears dur­ing sports;
• the abil­i­ty to con­nect to two sources at the same time;
• good pas­sive noise iso­la­tion;
• car­ry­ing case includ­ed.

Minus­es:

• out­dat­ed microUSB port for charg­ing;
• incon­ve­nient arrange­ment of keys on the remote con­trol (it is dif­fi­cult to under­stand by touch which but­ton is under the fin­ger);
• short-term dis­con­nec­tions occur;
• weak micro­phone (dur­ing walk­ing or jog­ging, the inter­locu­tor does not hear well);
• there are reviews about the break­age of clothes­pins for fix­ing the wire.

Sony WI-C400

Sony WI-C400 can trans­fer tracks with one touch using NFC. Pho­to: rtings.com

Auton­o­my:

The man­u­fac­tur­er does not indi­cate the capac­i­ty of the bat­tery, but it lasts for 20 hours of music play­back. A full charge of the ear­buds takes 4.5 hours. There is sup­port for fast charg­ing — 10–15 min­utes is enough for 1 hour of music play­back.

Mois­ture pro­tec­tion:

Not

Blue­tooth Stan­dard:

4.2

Hands-free mode:

There is

The weight:

35 g

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• fre­quen­cy range — 8–22000 Hz;
• imped­ance — 46 Ohm;
• sen­si­tiv­i­ty — 103 dB;
• dynam­ic speak­er diam­e­ter — 9 mm;
• built-in con­trol pan­el (4 but­tons for switch­ing tracks, adjust­ing the vol­ume, play / pause and even start the voice assis­tant) and a micro­phone;
• 4 col­ors: black, red, blue and white.

The cost of Sony WI-C400 is from 2,950 rubles.

Pros:

• hold a charge for a long time;
• 15 min­utes of charg­ing gives 1 hour of work;
• there is NFC for trans­fer­ring music with one touch;
• adjustable wires;
• con­ve­nient man­age­ment.

Minus­es:

• microUSB for charg­ing;
• not suit­able for movies and games (notice­able sound delay);
• thin wires;
• no stor­age case
• poor sound­proof­ing.

Honor Sport AM61

Hon­or Sport AM61 is the light­est mod­el from our top. Pho­to: hon­or

Auton­o­my:

Bat­tery capac­i­ty — 135 mAh. Music play­back time — up to 11 hours. A full charge takes 2 hours.

Mois­ture pro­tec­tion:

IP52 (sweat, light rain and water spray resis­tant).

Blue­tooth Stan­dard:

4.1

Hands-free mode:

There is

The weight:

5g (with­out cord)

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• fre­quen­cy range — 20–20000 Hz;
• imped­ance — 32 Ohm;
• sen­si­tiv­i­ty — 98 dB;
• dynam­ic speak­er diam­e­ter — 11 mm;
• rub­ber arc-mount;
• mag­net­ic fas­ten­ing — head­phones can be con­nect­ed around the neck and not be afraid to lose them;
• remote con­trol with 3 con­trol but­tons (vol­ume con­trol and mul­ti­func­tion­al — answer / end a call, pair­ing with a source / with a sec­ond source, and oth­ers);
• 3 col­ors: black, blue, red.

The price for Hon­or Sport AM61 starts from 1,990 rubles.

Pros:

• pro­tec­tion against dust and mois­ture IP52;
• reli­able and com­fort­able fas­ten­ing in the ear;
• good auton­o­my;
• the abil­i­ty to pair with two devices;
• case includ­ed.

Minus­es:

• micro USB
• poor sound insu­la­tion;
• the sound is aver­age even for the price seg­ment;
• weak micro­phone;
• voice prompts in Chi­nese or Kore­an.

This mod­el has a twin broth­er — Huawei AM61 Lite.

Xiaomi Mi Collar Bluetooth Headset

Xiao­mi Mi Col­lar Blue­tooth Head­set sup­port aptX audio codec and pro­vide decent sound qual­i­ty. Pho­to: firstpost.com

Auton­o­my:

Bat­tery capac­i­ty — 137 mAh. Music play­back time — up to 8 hours. It takes 2 hours to ful­ly charge.

Mois­ture pro­tec­tion:

Not

Blue­tooth Stan­dard:

4.1

Hands-free mode:

Yes

The weight:

35 g

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• fre­quen­cy range — 20–20000 Hz;
• imped­ance — 32 Ohm;
• sen­si­tiv­i­ty — 100 dB;
• dynam­ic speak­er diam­e­ter — 14.3 mm;
• a com­bi­na­tion of 2 types of emit­ters for bet­ter sound qual­i­ty — rein­forc­ing + dynam­ic;
• push-but­ton con­trol — switch­ing tracks, vol­ume con­trol and mul­ti­func­tion­al key (play / pause, answer / hang up a call, call a voice assis­tant);
• mag­net­ic head­phone mounts;
• sup­port for aptX, AAC audio codecs
• 3 col­ors: black, gray and gold

Xiao­mi Mi Col­lar Blue­tooth Head­set cost from 3490 rubles.

Pros:

• decent sound;
• con­nec­tion qual­i­ty — no sound delay when play­ing video;
• good micro­phone.

Minus­es:

• microUSB port;
• no car­ry­ing case;
• hard to open the cap from the microUSB con­nec­tor;
• voice prompts in Chi­nese.

Huawei FreeLace Pro

Huawei FreeLace Pro has amaz­ing bat­tery life. Pho­to: www.gsmarena.com

Auton­o­my:

Bat­tery capac­i­ty — 150 mAh. Music play­back time — up to 22 hours. A full charge takes 1 hour.

Mois­ture pro­tec­tion:

IP55 (rain and sweat are not ter­ri­ble)

Blue­tooth Stan­dard:

5.0

Hands-free mode:

Yes + high-qual­i­ty sound trans­mis­sion due to noise reduc­tion with three micro­phones dur­ing calls

The weight:

34 g

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• fre­quen­cy range — 20–20000 Hz;
• imped­ance — 32 Ohm;
• sen­si­tiv­i­ty — 100 dB;
• dynam­ic speak­er diam­e­ter — 14.2 mm;
• active noise can­cel­la­tion;
• trans­paren­cy mode, allow­ing you to hear the sur­round­ing sounds;
• AAC and SBC audio codecs;
• 4 con­trol but­tons: vol­ume con­trol, play/pause (accept/reject on call), launch voice assis­tant and pow­er key
• sup­port for con­nect­ing to two devices;
• 4 col­ors: black, white, pink, green.

Huawei FreeLace Pro is the most expen­sive mod­el in our selec­tion (from 5,990 rubles).

Pros:

• active noise can­cel­la­tion (ANC);
• USB Type‑C con­nec­tor;
• reli­able fix­a­tion in the ear;
• mois­ture pro­tec­tion;
• con­nec­tion to two devices.

Minus­es:

• no case for stor­age and trans­porta­tion;
• hiss­ing when play­ing music at max­i­mum vol­ume;
• spe­cif­ic ear pads, for which it is prob­lem­at­ic to find a suit­able replace­ment.

Results

The in-ear head­phones with a neck­band or lan­yard from our top received the fol­low­ing rat­ings:

Huawei FreeLace Pro has the high­est rat­ing, but it is also the most expen­sive mod­el in our rank­ing — it costs about twice as much as oth­er head­phones.

JBL Tune 115BT is the most afford­able option with fast charg­ing sup­port and dual audio con­nec­tiv­i­ty.

Sony WI-C400 has an NFC mod­ule for trans­fer­ring music with one touch and hold a charge for a long time.

Hon­or Sport AM61 is the light­est mod­el from the selec­tion with mois­ture pro­tec­tion and pair­ing with two devices.

Xiao­mi Mi Col­lar Blue­tooth Head­set pro­vide good sound qual­i­ty and voice trans­mis­sion dur­ing calls.