Jabra
Jabra Sport Pulse Wireless: intras for intensive training
Aprox. 180€ - see price -
Jabra presents its Sport Pulse Wireless as an all-in-one training aid solution. Equipped with a heart rate monitor, it allows you to organize, control and evaluate your sports training via the appropriate application. The manufacturer also highlights the resistance of its intras as well as their durability.
Our review
Ergonomics
The construction of Sport Pulse Wireless is completely different from that of "earhook" type intras like the Jabra Sport Pace. Indeed, these intras are fitted with hooks to be placed in the ear. Once inserted, you can confirm that comfort and ear maintenance are there, even during sports sessions. Objective successful for Jabra. This design, certified IP55, seems relatively robust, even if the shiny appearance of certain parts gives a slightly low-end look to the product. The Sport Pulse Wireless is also resistant to sweat, shock, sand and dust.
The cable connecting the two intras, about 60 cm long, carries a hands-free kit / remote control that allows powering up, volume control, call management, pause / playback of a track and navigation (next / previous song), as well as mute the microphone. There is also a clamp for adjusting the length of the cable as best as possible. Another good point, the cable is very insensitive to friction, impacts of steps on the ground, etc.
On the left atrium, there is a final physical touch that activates the Sport Life application. Pressing it for one second starts or pauses the workout.
Transmission takes place via Bluetooth (4.0) - an NFC chip makes it easy to pair compatible devices. An indicator light indicates the different phases of pairing with its terminal. Flat, we observed many cuts - in the presence of other objects working in Bluetooth - of the connection between the smartphone and the intras.
Sport Pulse Wireless in-ear headphones incorporate an activity sensor measuring heart rate, allowing you to fully use the Jabra Sport Life app. This application - free and available on iOS and Android - transmits voice announcements in French indicating the pace, the distance traveled or the effort time, depending on a set goal. With the cardio function, it is possible to do the Rockport and Cooper tests, allowing you to determine your orthostatic endurance to know if you are training, or to use it at rest to personalize the training zones (image below). After the effort, we can record our performance (distance traveled, time, average speed, maximum and minimum, calories consumed, etc.). The set thus makes it possible, via graphics, to know where we stand in terms of performance and to easily follow our progress over time.
The application is reactive. We also found no bug and the route displayed at the end of the race seems rather reliable. In comparison, the Runtastic app provides the same data.
The autonomy is really not huge (about 3:30) and becomes a real black spot for a helmet for experienced runners. In addition, it takes about 2 hours to recharge it ...
The bundle is quite complete: four pairs of silicone earpieces (EarGels), four EarWings allowing the intra-ear to be properly held in the ear via an appendix which is placed in the ear flap, 4 FitClips which hold the cable in place, a protective case and a micro-USB cable.
Audio
The frequency response curve of Sport Pulse Wireless is far from flat, the sound rendering being a little too focused on the bass. They are less flattered than they appear on the curve below (always a measurement effect of in-ear on the mannequin), but are still well in front, and moreover is quite soft. The voices are also on the front of the stage, intelligible without being too nasal - there is also a small bump between 1 and 2 kHz which characterizes this aspect very well. The cymbals and trumpets are by force of things also very present. No problem with wheezing, discreet if you do not push the volume to its maximum.
The stereophonic field is not very well represented and clearly lacks width, preventing precise identification of the position of the different elements of the mix. The insulation is also not very good, pushing to increase the volume in noisy environments - which, depending on use, can be annoying or even harmful for the user who does his sport indoors or outdoors. outside.
As the graph above shows, Sport Pulse Wireless generates inaudible distortion across the entire sound spectrum, since they remain below the 1% threshold. They require 187 mV to reach a level of 94 dB, which does not indicate insane power, but remains suitable for mobile devices by offering a correct listening volume.
The Bluetooth latency reaches around 210 ms, which makes these sports intras quite unsuitable for watching videos (slightly noticeable sound / image shift). On the other hand, for a sports use in musical listening, that does not matter that much, unless watching a film during its sports session in room.
The quality of the microphone, finally, is just correct, with a fairly faithful and fairly intelligible voice transmission.
Conclusion
The Jabra Sport Pulse intras offer a great service thanks to their smartphone application coupled with the heart rate monitor which is fully used. However, untimely cuts in Bluetooth in the presence of other devices of the same type, too low autonomy and an audio part that lacks linearity tarnish the picture.
Reviews
Waste of money and time.
Didn't work, called customer service, given same instructions that was in the box. Tried multiple times to pair, uninstall apps / software, reinstall, charge, recharge, used multiple devices and noooope. Just wasted my time and money. Using bluetooth is not that hard, don't know why this is so difficult.