Jabra Sport review

The Jabra Sport headset exhibited a slightly limited Bluetooth headphone range; we found that we needed to put our MP3 player in an arm strap rather than a trouser pocket to ensure a consistent signal. You don’t get much control over where the earpieces sit: the earbuds are designed to rest just outside your ear canal and be held in place, supported by thick hooks that go around the back of your ears. Unfortunately, the hooks were far too thick to fit comfortably behind the ears of those with a small head: we had to jam them into place, pushing our ears out uncomfortably and making for an insecure fit. This is a problem given that the set is designed for sports use: it took less than two minutes of stair running before one of the earpieces came loose.

Allowing for the slight lack of detail that results from A2DP Bluetooth transmission, the headset’s audio quality was surprisingly good. Treble and high mid-range tones had an oddly crunchy sound and could be a little harsh at low volumes, while the bass sounded a bit distant, but music was well balanced in general, with no one element of the sound drowning out the others. It’s worth noting, though, that that the position of the earphones made a big difference to the sound’s characteristics.

The limited comfort is a great shame, because the headset is easy to set up and use, with voice prompts to guide you through the very simple configuration process and a bare minimum of buttons to flummox your fingers. Other features include volume controls, track skipping, a microphone for taking calls and even an FM radio. The Jabra Sport also supports audible workout status updates from the Endomondo GPS tracking smartphone app.

If your ears are the right size for it, this is a feature-packed and reasonably priced headset, but our experience suggests that those with smaller heads will find it doesn’t fit.