Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

EDITED on4/25/17 to add sound quality after it was pointed out it was lacking. Other than that, nothing about my experience with these has changed. My experience with these over the last couple of weeks has been mostly positive but they still bring the BT baggage I am hoping to leave behind some day soon. I’ve logged over 30 miles of running with them plus an assortment of other exercises. I purchased these with no compensation from Phaiser. With that here is my impression of these: Design: Great. Right out of the box the silicone tips with flanges that were installed fit well and don't cause soreness after a few hours of use. I’ve never had any earbud fit right out of the box before. YMMV. While these aren't noise cancelling, the fit is so snug that ambient noise is greatly reduced. Normal conversation volume is barely perceptible using the stock ear tips. Included in the the box is the largest assortment of ear tips I've ever seen come with a pair of BT earbuds including a medium pair of Comply fit ear tips as well as individual silicone tips in three sizes and two more with flanges or hooks or whatever you want to call them. Another reviewer noted that these make the user look like Frankenstein and I can’t get that out of my head. I’m not self conscious about how I look in these but I can see what they mean. To me comfort overrides aesthetics, so these get top marks for that. I didn’t like any of the cord management accessories that were supplied, so I put a small rubber washer/grommet on to make it easier to snug them up for runs, as the cord would bounce and be distracting. I included a picture to show what a simple solution it is. The magnets for keeping them secure when not in use was a nice touch but I found the weight of the earbuds was too much for them when bending over and they would fail to hold. Not a big deal, but still a missed opportunity. The charging port is located on the right earbud under one of the magnets which swivels up out of the way to reveal the micro usb port. Battery life: The best I’ve had is 5 hours, so two days of exercising for me. 5 hours is adequate for the compact size of these but the bigger problem for me was the bluetooth battery indicator widget on my phone showed that the BHS-730’s only indicated battery levels for 100 ,90 and 50 percent with power low warning coming soon after the 50% mark and powering down soon after that, like within 10 minutes. This is so vague as to be useless in relying on the widget for an estimate of how much charge was left on the earbuds. This to me is a big drawback, as the only way I can rely on the BHS-730’s to last a workout of two hours is to charge it every time after I use it. I don’t want to have to think about did I charge it before the last workout? Did I use it for any non-workout activities? How long? How much did I actually use it between the last charge up and now? Blah! When charging these the indicator light is on the end of the controls, inline with the cord and turns off when completely charged. It can be hard to see as it’s on the end and very faint. A darker room helps to see it. as it acts like a tiny flashlight. Connectivity: Absolutely the best pairing experience I have had with any bluetooth earbuds. Every time they connect within seconds and I’ve never had to go to bluetooth settings to manage the pairing. High marks for this! As noted above however the bluetooth will drop out sporadically and for no obvious reason other than Bluetooth 4.1 still can’t deliver a seamless signal. I wear a belt to hold my phone when I run, armbands are not an option for me, so there can't be more than two and a half feet between the BHS-730’s and the phone and the signal still drops out. Very annoying. I had better luck putting the phone on a table when doing circuit training, easily putting 15 feet between me and the phone. Line of sight…sigh. It's worth noting that I've experienced some BT devices that I refer to as "aggressive". What I mean by this is that if they are on they will connect with my phone, even when it's on the other side of the house. I have a soundbar for our tv that I stopped using the BT function on because even when it wasn't in BT mode it would still connect to my phone, overriding wired earbuds. These 730's are like that and so I turn them off after each use. Fortunately they do so reliable every time, unlike some others that cost over $100. I imagine turning them off also helps me get more usage per charge. Controls: The inline audio controls are simple and responsive with good tactile distinction so you can easily determine which button you have grasped. It’s the standard layout of three buttons in a row: volume up, play/pause and volume down. Volume up and down can fast forward/rewind and skip forward and back respectively depending on how you tap the buttons. Two taps to skip forward and backward, tap and hold to fast forward/rewind. The play/pause answers calls, will invoke Siri on an iPhone, and powers the earbuds up and down. The mic is located on the controls as well. Sound: Nothing to complain about but I'm not an audiophile. I don't have big opinions about the amount of bass or tinny sounds. Often when people complain about that kind of stuff in other audio equipment, it doesn't bother me. I have a pair of Beats headphones which are supposed to be super bass-y, but they are fine to me. Also my Bose mini link sounded good, but not dramatically better than my JBL Charge 2. My point is most earbud manufacturers know that there is a certain range their product needs to land in to pass muster. These do capably for the price. Summary: I’m conflicted about BT earbuds in general. It's clear that wireless is the future of audio connection to our mobile devices but connectivity is still an issue in BT 4.1. There are a lot of good things to say about these earbuds but they suffer from the connectivity issue that every other BT earbud I've tried has. Whether $120 Jaybird X2's or sub $30 ones flooding the market now. I consider $120 too much for earbuds as most of what I listen to it podcasts but thought I would give them a shot in the hopes that they would perform better than the $30 ones. That wasn't the case. Better design and fit yes but spotty connectivity without line of sight. Maybe BT 5.0 will resolve this, maybe Apples W1 chip will. All I know is that the most reliable connection is still the wired one. That said, I am happy with the BHS-730’s. They are the best I’ve tried yet, they are sub $50 and they work good enough to exercise in, which is all I can use them for due to battery limitations. Future iterations will hopefully resolve some of my gripes with these but I think this company has a winning product on it’s hands. I'd like to give it five stars but feel it needs a little polishing up hardware and software wise. Pro’s: Good fit, very snug Seamless pairing Smart controls Decent battery life Good price Roomy case for storage Decent sound Cons: Lousy battery estimate in widget BT signal still drops out sporadically