August EP614 Sports Earphones Review

August EP614 Sports Earphones Review

The guys at iDaffodil/August have very kindle provided me with yet another audio product to review. In general, I have been very impressed with the value for money of these products. Check out my reviews of they DAB clock radio and their small wireless speaker.

This time I am reviewing the EP614 Bluetooth Sport Wireless Earphones. You can also get these direct from iDaffodil. I was provided with the model with a white cord, though there are others available with black and red cords. A micro USB cable is provided, as are several sizes of silicone ear-tips. These are priced at £17.

Design and Features:

The over-the-ear design is perfect for sport and means that I couldn't find a way to knock them out of place. The headphones come with a remote on them with which you can control music playback (pause and play) and skip forward and back a song. Long pressing the skip forward and back buttons also allows you to adjust the volume. As usual, learning what buttons do what is always a little challenging at first - but, maybe if I'd read the included manual I'd get the hang of these things quicker.

The idea of wireless earphones it that you can put your phone in your pocket if running or on the floor if in the gym and forget about it. The playback controls and volume controls allow you to do just that which is great. You won't be able to look at the remote when wearing these due to it being quite near the right earbud, so the low number of buttons helps in this respect.

Weight:

The earphones are light and the remote's slight weight means it can be tucked into your t-shirt which means that the wire doesn't move when running. The only part that reminds you have them on is the over the ear hooks but these are a necessary evil for sports headphones.

Siri and the in-built remote:

The remote can also be used to take calls and there is an in-built microphone which is great. However, the lack of compatibility with Siri is a disappointment: you can speak to Siri through the microphone and hear him/her through the earphones, but you can't activate Siri by pressing the call/pause button unfortunately. This therefore meaning you need to touch the home button on the phone to use Siri, therefore negating the use of the headphones for Siri.

Audio quality and levels:

I was extremely surprised at the sound quality on these - it is very, very good. They sound as good as any non-Bluetooth earphones I've tried which is a testament to their quality considering how compressed some bluetooth earphones sound. The Bass could have been a bit better but this can be adjusted in software on your phone with an equaliser, so it isn't the end of the world.

The audio level of these can go up to a deafeningly loud volume. However, the noise isolation isn't great on these, even at low levels. This makes it unsuitable for using them for commuting on public transport for example. I would also have liked for the minimum volume to be lower - as it is, even when these are on the minimum volume there is some noise spillage.

Bluetooth and Battery life:

These are my first wireless earphones in about 5 years and the technology has clearly moved on. I will reiterate how good these sound - especially for Bluetooth headphones. I was particularly impressed that these are bluetooth 4.0 meaning that battery life is great. I was also impressed that on my iPhone I can clearly see how much battery is left on them when the earphones are connected. This avoids me having to guess whether I can get through the day with these or not.

As far as the battery life is concerned, I have yet to get these to run out of battery after five hours and they have no advertised battery life. I can definitely recommend these as far as the battery life is concerned. The bluetooth also surprisingly isn't too taxing on my iPhone battery life either which I am very impressed by.

Overall: 

As sports earphones these are almost perfect - great built quality, great sound quality, good battery life, they stay in securely, good controls and even the ability to take calls. However, the fact they aren't compatible with Siri and the noise isolation which isn't great loses these half a star. £17 for these is a bargain.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

These headphones were provided by iDaffodil/August free of charge in exchange for this review. This does not affect my opinions of the product and the review is an honest appraisal.