Most headphones aren’t made to suit a person’s exercise regime weekly, but in Monster’s case, they have designed a Monster iSport Freedom Bluetooth Wireless On-ear Headphones for the people who constantly need music when exercising. For those who are aware of Monster, they are a reputable global audio manufacturer who has partnered with Brightstar Malaysia two months ago to sell their products. But is this RM1199 headphone worth the money? Read below to find out.
Design - Lightweight and sweatproof, perfect for exercising
As the name suggests, the iSport Freedom Bluetooth Wireless On-ear headphones is built in mind for the people who wants music when doing their sports activities. However, don’t get fooled by the name because quite obviously you can’t just wear it and go play extreme sports, as it will totally fall off when you go for a 100m run too so be careful with that. That being said, going for a jog or working out in a gym with the headphones is fine.
How about for other sports like football and basketball? It really depends, there is a 50-50 opinion on this but why would you want to wear that in a team game? Your team mates can't read your mind, you know.
Really nice and soft padding
The top and ear cups have a nice cushion padding for your head and ears, these aren’t just nice cushions but they are also sweat-proof, water resistant and even washable. But I find that if your hair is too silky, it might have a problem staying on your head. Other than that, the rest of the body is made of sturdy plastic, so it should survive even if it falls off.
The top padding
It's foldable!
On the left - the multifunction button on top and microUSB at the bottom for charging,
on the right - the 3.5mm headphone jack port
Tech-specs and features - An interesting way to control your songs
- Pure Monster Sound, wirelessly
- 24+ hours of battery life
- Touch sensing controls for play/pause, tracking and volume
- Pair two devices to share music
- Low battery voice prompts and indicator LEDs
- Wireless performance (Apt-X)
- 3 listening modes (wired, wireless and USB Direct Digital Audio)
- 2 Sound profiles; standard and “turbo” mode
- Built in high intelligibility mic with advanced echo suppression
- Sweat-proof, water resistant and washable
- Voice activated calls
The 3.5mm headphone hack cable and user manuals are found inside the box
Although it comes with a Bluetooh Wireless feature, it still has the 3.5mm headphone jack cable for your listening pleasure. From my experience, I have rarely used the cable because most of the time I’d just turn on the Bluetooth and just get my jam on (works flawlessly on iOS and Android). What’s more, the battery longevity is really durable and the connectivity is great too, more on that later.
At first glance, it looks like there are no buttons for play/pause and adjusting volume, but these are present and visible if you take a closer look at the right side on the outer platform. This is the new Touch Sensing control and it’s really easy to control your songs. Tap once in the middle to play/pause, tap twice to skip a song, and slide your finger up or down to adjust your volume. It’s a pretty cool technology there, but you also have a high chance of tapping the wrong place, which can get annoying sometimes. All instructions on the Touch Sensing features are in the user manual.
There are also two sound profiles called standard and “Turbo” mode, but it’s very strange that the user manual didn’t mention how to activate it (#youhadonejob). Luckily, the Internet always has the answer and it turns out that you have to press the multifunction button twice and you will hear a short beep sound. Honestly, the difference is super minimal between the two modes, so that’s quite an odd feature to have that doesn't really have much impact.
Performance - A monstrous battery and audio performance
Despite that, the audio quality and battery performance are actually amazing. The battery can go on for 24 hours straight (on paper) and it took me two weeks to completely deplete the battery. It also only needs two hours to fully charge. As for the audio quality, it’s not to say it’s perfect since Bluetooth is still lacking that sound quality, but I’d say it’s commendable enough.
One thing about the iSport Freedom headphone is that it gives a nice bass boost for most songs. Even though the bass boost is obvious, it’s not that over saturated like Beats from Dr Dre, as the treble, highs, mids, and lows are quite balanced. Overall, music like rap, hip hop, kpop, pop, electronic songs, rock and especially metal shine their best with the headphone, other genres are not underwhelmed so that's also good.
It’s also recommended not to wear it too long for more than 30 minutes because your ears will eventually be gasping for air and straining your ear cup. So in that sense, it’s not a good idea to watch a movie, binge on a TV show, or even play games for too long with the headphone. I tried it and trust me, it’s just not worth it.
In case if you're wondering if there's a sound difference on iOS and Android, the answer is no, same goes with either the Bluetooth or using the 3.5mm headphone jack cable. It's worth mentioning that the Bluetooth also works on a laptop.
Conclusion - Quite expensive for a Bluetooth headset
Even though the audio and battery performance are awesome, the price tag is another thing. This 'monster' costs RM1199 but with fairly good reason. It probably has something to do with the Touch Sensing technology, the sweat-proof padding, and the fact that it can function as a wireless headphone. Oh well, you do get what you pay for for the most part.
We don't really review a lot of headphones on our website, but for comparison - the Edifier W855BT Stereo Bluetooth Headphone is a much more affordable option for RM439 if you're tight on budget. Otherwise, getting sports-ready earphones is a viable choice as well. Personally, I prefer using earphones whenever I go jogging but that's me. So if you prefer headphones for sports activities, this is actually one of the better choices in the market.
So what do you think? Did we miss out anything else? What other similar sporty headphones do you know and use? Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more reviews at TechNave.com.
COMMENTS