Music soothes the savage workout
And Jabra's Sport Pace headphones can speed you up too with a steady stream of alerts
WHEN YOU’RE EXERCISING, music can coax the muscles into cooperating, and Sport Pace wireless in-ear headphones from Jabra are a great way to keep the music and the muscles pumping as you work out.
Feather-light at just 22 grams, the headset is exceedingly comfortable even while jogging, held in place by ear hooks and ear gels in three sizes, and you get a “fitclip” for adjusting the wire around your neck, another safeguard against the earphones falling off as you move.
On top of this, smart-charge technology means you get an hour of use from a mere 15-minute recharge. Fully charged, the set can be used for listening to music or chatting on the phone for up to five hours. Standby time can last five days.
People who exercise to music know how helpful this feature would be – wireless earphones are often tossed in your gear bag and recharging is forgotten until they’re needed again. The Sport Pace solves this with its quick charge-up, done in the time it takes to change into your workout clothes.
The set is sold in blue, red and yellow and I got a red model to review. The red cable makes an elegant contrast with the ear hooks and ear pads and the colour is reflective, so car headlights will pick you up while jogging outdoors at night. As for the music playback, it’s good quality for sport earphones in this price range. Once the earpieces were properly fitted, I found the bass ample and the highs and mid-tones quite clear.
Apart from the micro USB port used for charging, the Sport Pace has a button for Jabra’s sports app, volume controls, a multifunction button and a microphone for use with your smartphone. You just tap the sport button to view the exercise data anytime.
The Jabra Sport Life app, available for both Android and iOS devices, guides you through the connection to a phone.
The first time you have to enter your date of birth, height, weight and gender, and from this information the app can estimate calories burned while exercising. It also recommends doing the Cooper test before you work out to determine your fitness level. This means running as fast as you can for 12 minutes. If you can cover 2,400 metres, you’re in excellent health. People of average health get anywhere from 1,600 to 1,999 metres.
Now that it’s almost worn you out, the app has several other activities to suggest – cycling, walking, skiing, skating, walking or jogging on a treadmill and, yes, more running.
For time on the treadmill, you can just keep your smartphone within Bluetooth range (10 metres). For outdoor running, it’s suggested you pop your phone into an armband for ease of carrying.
I did a 10-kilometre test run and found that, with the app reporting my distance, duration time and current pace every kilometre, I could actually run a little bit faster. The music fades briefly as a gentle female voice reports the information.
The app also noted my pace if it changed over the minute mark, differences as small as speeding up from 5.58 minutes per kilometre to 6.09. Knowing the pace prompted me to try to go quicker too.
And listening to music is a boost to running as well, since you’re enjoying the exercise more and thus not feeling as fatigued, so you’re building up stamina.
Sweating doesn’t pose a problem, since the earphones are built to the same IP54 standards used by the US military, meaning they’re resistant to moisture, shock and all kinds of weather.
To use the Sport Pace as a wireless headset for phone calls, you tap the multifunction button once to answer and end a call and twice to reject a call because, after all, you’re hard at work!
The Jabra Sport Pace is available from RTB Technology for Bt3,690.
Key Specs
- Weight: 22 grams
- Dimensions: 18x21x32mm
- Microphones: MEMS
- Speaker: 6mm dynamic
- Operating range: 10 metres (phone-dependent)
- Bluetooth version: 4.0
- Paired devices: Up to eight, with two connected at the same time
- Supported Bluetooth profiles: A2DP (v1.2), Hands Free Profile (v1.6), Headset profile (v1.2), AVRCP (v1.4)
- Talk/music time: Up to five hours
- Standby time: Up to five days
- Pairing passkey or PIN: 0000
