Review: Jabra Sport Coach Wireless Earphones

Known for a wide range of headphones and headsets, Jabra have released the innovative Sport Coach wireless sports earbuds that combine the features of sports earphones with a fitness tracker. Here’s our look at the new product.

In-ear, wireless headphones from well-known companies are still somewhat far and few in-between. There are a few newer names in the game such as Jaybird along with the ubiquitous Beats by Dre PowerBeats 2. Enter the Jabra Sport Coach as an option from a firm that specializes in delivering sound directly into the ear.

Design

The Jabra Sport Coach has a very functional and modern design. The earbuds of the unit are connected by a lightweight grey-coated wire that has the earphones control center on its right side. You can use it to turn the volume of the earphone up and down, power them on or off, mute yourself in on the phone, and pause music.

The earbuds have a well-thought out design that include Jabra’s soft EarGels for the part of the earphones that go in the ear and their unique EarWings that fit into the contours of your ears to keep the headset in place. The EarWings are available in blue, red and yellow and can be readily switched out once worn. The right EarWing can be slipped to the side to expose to expose a USB charging plugin.

Fit

Our favorite feature of the Jabra Sport Coach is the fact that it is totally in-ear and does not have an over the ear portion. This makes it great to wear with either everyday use glasses or sunglasses with discomfort. The EarWings do their job remarkably well and keep the earphones firmly affixed to your ears during even the most grueling of runs.

The Jabra Sport Coach comes with three pairs of EarWings and four pairs of EarGels. Since not all ears are created the same you can experiment with what is provided to get your optimal fit. We found that the EarWings that came on the earphones worked well for us. We did go up from the medium sized to the large sized EarGels for a better in each fit however.

Sound Quality

The Jabra Sport Coach boasts Dolby Audio. It is sharp and clear and good enough for any environments of low to medium background noise. However, since it does not have a noise cancelling feature the Jabra Sport Coach does not completely drown out loud ambient noise. The highest volume on the heatset is somewhat lower than that on comparable earbuds such as the Beats PowerBeats 2. The level is still loud and really as loud as anyone should go without risking hearing damage and / or sound distortion.

Most songs played on the Jabra Sport Coach have a bass level of about five on a scale of five to ten. If you are looking for more of a thump then you will have to adjust the equalizer settings on your phone’s music player. Compared to the PowerBeats2, the Jabra Sport Coach pumps at a bass level of about 70%.

Microphone

We used the microphone on the Jabra Sport Coach for a series of phone calls at the office. The people on the other side of the line understood us clearly and heard no sound distortion or echoing. No worries about making or taking phone calls with these earbuds!

Coaching

The big value add of the Jabra Sport Coach is the TrackFit motion sensor built into the headset and its integration with the free Jabra Sport Life App. Put the two of these together and you can probably get rid of your FitBit or other activity tracker.

If you’re not an advanced fitness person the Sport Life App can definitely assist in your wellness quest. It does everything from simply track distance via GPS (think Runtastic) to monitor your pace, calories burnt and cadence. The app also has a fitness test along with suggested cross training workouts. If you’re like us and all round gym rats then you can add your own workout into the app.

A nice English-accented female voice comes on to motivate you though your workout by letting you know everything from the time you’re moving to your distance moved. When engaged cross training, an audible timer start sound when you finish your set (heard through the Jabra Sport Coach of course). As your rest period’s end approaches, a countdown is to your next step is heard.

Notifications

The female voice that acts as your motivator in the Sport Life App pops up from the time your switch on the Jabra Sport Coach. In no more than two works at a time she will let you know when the Jabra Sport Coach is connected to your phone, disconnected from being out of range or has a low battery. We loved these notifications are they ensured that we did not have to take the earphones out to check the light on them in all of these scenarios. We’ve know of no other wireless earbuds that give apt notices so well.

Battery Life and Range

The Jabra Sport Coach lives up to its marketing information when it comes to the all import wireless headphones features of battery life and range.

The battery life of the Jabra Sport Coach is roughly 5.5 hours on a full charge. It takes about 90 minutes to charge via the supplied USB cable connected to a 120 V wall outlet.

The range of the Jabra Sport Coach is about 50 feet which is average for a current set of wireless earphones.

Durability

After well-over twenty hours of use in the gym and running with sweat dripping along the way, the Jabra Sport Coach has proven itself to be a sturdy product that hasn’t given us any problems whatsoever.  Jabra says that it is sweat and weather proof (not that we want to try a rain test on it) and is built to US military standards for rain, shock, sand and dust. From what we’ve seen unless you try pulling the connecting wire apart the Jabra Sport Coach should last for a long time.

Final Thoughts

At a price point of $149.99, the Jabra Sport Coach is $50 less than the ever popular PowerBeats 2.  It is definitely a tougher unit that has a great set of value adds. Throw in what is essentially an automated personal trainer and you have some earphones that are definitely worth checking out!