I bought the Plantronics Backbeat FIT headphones after years of running with wired up earphones. I’d finally decided that enough was enough, and I needed something wireless that could just be connected via bluetooth rather than dealing with a wire being tucked in.
I did a bit of research, and ultimately it was cost that came into play. Now these still felt pretty pricey at £74.36 (Bought on Amazon Feb 2019) and I’m not one to spend on something like this usually! However, I knew I would be getting a lot of use out of them with the upcoming marathon training and it felt like a good investment. The others that I had my eye on were over £100…
I settled on the Plantronics Backbeat FIT because the reviews seemed good and I liked the look of the hook over the ear – they looked comfortable to wear and seemed like they would be secure enough. I’d tried some bone conducting ones at a running convention, and I wasn’t overly impressed by how they felt or sounded. Not much more than that went into the decision to be honest.
These headphones are very flexible though, and they’re also described as durable and waterproof with an IP57 rating. I honestly haven’t tested them in water as I’ve only just realised it says they’re waterproof… That said, it’s only up to 1 mtr in fresh water and for 30 minutes.
The listen time is rated at up to eight hours from a single charge. A 15 minute charge will give you up to an hour of music listening, and there’s apparently 14 days standby time.
So how do they fare?
Comfort of the Plantronics Backbeat FIT
The shape of these Plantronics Backbeat FIT headphones fit around the ear very well and the earbud sits in my ear comfortably. The length of material between each ear is plenty, and you can see on the photos that I have a lot of space left. I have a small head, so I think this would fit most people if not all.
You would think that the excess at the back would be annoying whilst running, but honestly I don’t even notice it. Most of the time I am wearing a buff so it is all kept in under that anyway, but when going without I don’t notice the movement.
The maximum amount of time I’ve used these at once is between 2-3 hours, and I can definitely say that they haven’t hurt my ears. I’ve also worn them at the gym, and on planes and on holiday.
Charge / Listening Time
I thought I’d do a little test for this so I charged the headphones up fully and then made sure to write down every time I used the headphones and how long for when I did each run.
So at 10:30pm on the 4th July I had full battery. I find it difficult to tell how long the charging actually takes because there’s nothing to show what stage the battery is at. You just have the light to show it charging. I can confirm though that if you only have 20 minutes or so, you will get enough charge for a couple of hours. I charged mine in the car using a USB port a few times!
Times used:
- 7th July – 1 hour
- 9th July – 1 hour
- 11th July – 1 hour 24 minutes
- 13th July – 2 hours 15 minutes
- 14th July – 51 minutes
- 16th July – 1 hour 34 minutes
- 18th July – 1 hour 40 minutes
So that gives 9 hours 44 minutes in total. More than the expected 8 hours! I don’t really know what can affect the listen time, but overall I’ve been super pleased with the length of charge I’ve had out of these.
I would say 95% of the above was podcasts through the Podcast Addict app. It’s all I really listen to. I didn’t use the headphones for calls in this time, and it was all running outside.
This is the only test I did but it definitely feels like I’ve always been getting a good amount of charge and listen time from them. Every time you switch on they tell you how much listen time is left, so that’s useful.
Quality of Sound
I’m going to make it clear now that I don’t really have any knowledge behind quality and what makes a good pair of headphones. For me, the telling point is that I can clearly hear all music/podcasts through these, and they don’t seem to be affected by the pounding movement of running.
Sometimes they can seem a little quiet when on really busy roads with a lot of cars, but I think that’s to be expected unless you get noise cancelling ones. I’ve used these in all kinds of weather though, and even torrential downpours didn’t ruin the quality.
Negatives
You can answer calls through these with a touch of a button. Great stuff. I’ve only tried this a couple of times admittedly, but the call just wasn’t clear. That could have been my signal where I was running, but it just didn’t work for me. Not an important feature to me.
I honestly don’t have any other negatives for the Plantronics Backbeat FIT headphones that I can think of. Maybe I’ll update this if more appear. So far they’ve been going for 9 months with no problems.
Let me know if you have any favourites!
