I’ve become a huge fan of truly wireless headphones — and am certain they will accompany me on longer and longer bouts of distance biking and running as the weather improves.
In the universe of wireless headphones, the true wireless genre — that is, earbuds that communicate both with each other and with your device via Bluetooth — stands in a unique position. It provides complete freedom of any wires, which in turn paves the road for an amazing experience, honestly. After Jaybird sent me a pair of their newly released Run XT headphones, I took advantage of the only 50-degree day we had in New York these past few weeks and took a break from the Daily Beast office to run along the Hudson River. The freedom of movement astonished me, and the waterproof design of the XTs, as well as Jaybird’s signature silicone tip and fin design, meant the earbuds stayed secure throughout. I’ve become a convert: When I go running, I will always want to use truly wireless headphones. It’s so easy to pop them in and get going — and they sync to your device automatically.
Having said all that, truly wireless headphones suffer from the same technological plateau all tech suffers from: battery storage capacity. Having to transmit to each other and to a device simultaneously, as well as nowhere to store additional power, means these headphones can give me four hours of play time — the case they click into doubles up as a travel case and charger that provides an additional eight hours of play time. The highly rated Bose SoundSport truly wireless headphones, as another example, provide five hours of play time as well as ten additional hours in their carrying case. But honestly, neither of those is enough for me. As I’ve said, my all-in-one solution needs to give me much more battery. The wired wireless headphones certainly don’t feel as great as truly wireless headphones, and sometimes tug at my neck or at each other, but they also give me powerful sound and last all day — the Jaybird TARAH Pros last upwards of 15 hours.
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Of course, there are the very famous truly wireless headphones from Apple, the AirPods. These magical and uniquely designed truly wireless earbuds give you five hours of playtime and claim 24 hours total with the carrying case. I sweat too heavily to wear anything without fins or at least a foam tip, but I see these all over the Daily Beast office and on every street corner otherwise. If I wasn’t a sweaty man, I’d definitely lean into the hype despite being a Google Pixel man myself.
If you’re looking for go truly wireless and don’t already have AirPods, the Jaybird Run XTs and Bose SoundSport editions are my recommendations as a great starting point. Find out what’s it like to be truly free of wires.
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