We initially looked into the Bose Soundsport Free headphones back in our Holiday Gift Guide for 2018. They were priced at a pretty reasonable level (comparable to their previous behind-the-neck model), so we were excited to give these a go. The net/net of this purchase is a little mixed (and we’ll get there), but for a first-gen truly wireless headphone they’re worth taking a look.
A few of us owned the previous model and were very pleased with the quality. Personally I bought them for running first and foremost, but being Bose, I assumed they’d also be a serviceable on-the-go headphone for production. Again, these weren’t meant to be your studio-quality replacements, but more of a jack-of–all-trades solution.
Fast forward to the Soundsport Free. Like many folks, I was blown away with the feel of (essentially) free-floating earpieces the second I put these in my ears. It’s a funky feeling to not have any cords dangling around your neck. If you’ve never experienced truly wireless headphones this will be a moment of awakening (and might ruin other headphones).
From a functionality standpoint, they are fairly simple to use. Turn on, place in ears, activate your devices Bluetooth, and go. While intuitive to most people who’ve used anything Bluetooth, it might trip you up if this is a first experience. Bose didn’t feel that a strong instruction manual was important to include, so they direct you to download their app instead. The app isn’t necessarily required to use the headphones, but they certainly make it an annoying to NOT have the app installed.
Bose, like many companies, are really pushing consumers to download their app so they’re able to collect user data. Over 75% of the app ‘functions/features’ are manuals, feedback, a link to the Bose site. Buried within are things like — actual device settings, and ‘find my Bose,’ and adjusting the ‘shut off’ time… which we’ll get to in the below:
The Good:
- Sound quality is what you’d expect from Bose — it’s great for the price.
- Earbuds are very light weight, and with the proper size selected you’ll forget you’re wearing them
The Bad:
- Simple features like “hold power to turn off” have been completely removed from the device in favor of a ‘standby timer,’ This ‘wait it out’ functionality is the only way to power off the headphones without having a charged case on-hand.
- If it gets too cold out while wearing, they will shut off. As a Chicagoan, this is extremely annoying in the winter.
- Certain video players (YouTube being the biggest culprit) will occasionally have noticeable audio sync issues. Bose has addressed this with “making sure you have the latest firmware,” but users still occasionally experience this.
The Ugly:
- The system is set up in a master/slave format, and calls will only go through the right ear. It’s extremely annoying and a huge functionality sacrifice from the previous model.
- You have to play games to get these to sync properly with a computer. A standard process might be:
- Turn off the buds by placing them in their charging dock. Ensure your laptop Bluetooth is “off”
- Turn on the buds, and wait 10 seconds or so for the left ear to chirp (indicating both are active
- Turn on Bluetooth on your computer, and ensure it’s synced properly as ‘headphones” and not a microphone device
- If step 3 doesn’t not happen, return to step 1 until its working
So, after extensive use over the last three months, how do we feel about theses headphones? Well, all things above considered, they get the job done but they feel like a big miss from Bose. They decided to attempt a more modern/innovative product and unfortunately sacrificed some of the basic necessities to get there. It’s a little disappointing, but if you find these on sale they’re not a bad purchase. We’re happy with the sound quality – which is right on par with what one might expect from Bose.
Would love to know if anyone else’s experiences differ. Let us know in the comments.