Bose SoundSport Wireless  Headphones Review

The Bose SoundSport Wireless have a sleek sporty aesthetic. They come in a few different colors to match your taste and look premium and well-designed. Unfortunately, they're a little bulky and protrude out of your ears once you have them on, which is a little disappointing.

The Bose SoundSport have a comfortable earbud tip design. They don't fully enter the ear canal, removing the pain that some listeners often experience with in-ear headphones. Also, their Stayhere+ tips are a bit more comfortable and open than the Stayhere+ tips of the SoundTrue Ultra In-Ear and the QuietComfort 20. Unfortunately, they sometimes shift around while you're walking, which can cause slight discomfort and frustration, especially when it affects the audio.

The Bose SoundSport Wireless have a mediocre control scheme. They provide call/music, track skipping, and volume controls, but lack good tactile feedback. The buttons are fairly large and heavily rubberized to make them sweatproof. Sadly, this also makes the buttons hard to push, especially the volume controls, unlike the more clicky and responsive in-line remote found on the AKG N200.

Like most in-ear headphones, the Bose SoundSport Wireless are very breathable headphones. They trap a little bit of heat within the ear canal due to their design, which makes the notch of your ears a little warmer, but it's a very negligible rise in temperature that shouldn't make you sweat more than usual.

The Bose SoundSport wireless are easy to carry around in a pocket, bag, or purse. They're a little larger than regular in-ear models, but the cable isn't too long or thick and doesn't take too much space. This makes them very portable even if they're a little larger than some other wireless in-ear headphones.

The Bose SoundSport come with the same small, circular soft pouch as the wired SoundSport In-Ear. It's a decent case that will shield your headphones from scratches and everyday wear and tear. However, the soft fabric won't protect the headphones from water damage or heavy physical stress.

Update 06/28/2021: Some users have reported issues with the headphones' build quality, ranging from the rubber casing falling apart to the charging port cover ripping off. Although we don't test for durability over time, your unit may be prone to breakage over time. That said, the scoring of this box hasn't changed.

The Bose SoundSport have a satisfactory build quality. The earbuds are dense and made of tough plastic that shouldn't get damaged by a couple of drops. The audio cable has a decent thickness, and the in-line control module is coated with a layer of rubber to make them sweatproof. Unfortunately, the cable isn't flat or additionally rubberized to be more durable. They're also not as sweatproof as expected and may get damaged by regular exposure to humidity, which is disappointing.

These headphones feel quite stable in the ear. The Stayhere+ tips fit well within the contours of your ears and should stay in place during runs or moderate workouts. Unfortunately, they aren't quite as stable as headphones with an ear hook design like the JBL Endurance Sprint or the Powerbeats3.

• Bose SoundSport Wireless headphones
• Earbud tips (x3)
• Micro USB charging cable
• Carrying case
• Manual

The Bose SoundSport Wireless have a very well-balanced and neutral sound profile. They have a tiny bit of extra bass, but it shouldn't be overpowering or boomy at all. Overall, they'll be well-suited for a very wide variety of genres and contents.

The frequency response consistency of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is very good across multiple users and re-seats, ensuring consistent delivery of bass and treble. Provided you achieve a good fit and seal with the included tips, you should experience the same sound every time you use these headphones.

The bass accuracy of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is excellent. These headphones can produce very deep thumps and rumbles. The entire bass range is virtually flat, resulting in a very well-balanced bass, with a tiny amount of kick and punch.

The mid accuracy of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is superb. The slightly recessed mid-mid range could nudge the vocals and lead instruments towards the back of the mix by giving a bit more emphasis to bass/kick instruments. Overall, however, vocals and instruments in this range should be fairly detailed and present.

The treble accuracy of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is great. Low-treble is flat, neutral, and consistent. This ensures that vocals and lead instruments have a well-balanced presence and articulation. Mid-treble and high-treble, however, are a bit less consistent, which could make the sibilances (S and T sounds) a bit uneven.

The peaks and dips performance of these headphones is very good. Almost the entire range is fairly flat, with only a few sharp peaks in the treble range which may cause some sounds to come across as slightly piercing or harsh, though it likely shouldn't be too noticeable for most people.

The imaging of the Bose SoundSport is excellent. As shown in the graph, its group delay is consistently below our audibility threshold even in the high-treble region, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. This is in contrast to some other Bluetooth headphones we have measured, such as the Google Pixel Buds, which have high group delay in both the bass and treble ranges. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our SoundSport test unit were very well-matched, resulting in accurate and clear placement and localization of objects and instruments (footsteps, voices, drums) in the stereo image.

Like most in-ears, the soundstage of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is poor. One of the key factors in creating a good soundstage is activating the resonances of the pinna (the outer ear). Since earbuds/in-ears don't interact with the pinna, their soundstage tends to be small and located inside the listener's head, as opposed to in-front like a loudspeaker. However, since the SoundSport are relatively open earbuds, their soundstage will feel more open and spacious than that of closed-back in-ears.

The weighted harmonic distortion of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is great. All frequencies fall within good limits, which should result in a clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. We expect these results to only be valid and accurate when using these settings.

The noise isolation of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is very bad, though this is expected due to their semi-open earbud design. They won't do anything to block the low rumble of bus or plane engines, and will barely help with blocking out background chatter. While these won't help block out background noise, they can be good if you want to stay aware of your surroundings while listening to music or audiobooks. However, since they still block your ear canal, they won't be as open as the AfterShokz Trekz Air which will be a better option if you really do need to monitor your environment while running outdoors.

The sound leakage of the Bose SoundSport Wireless is good. As a rule of thumb, closed-back in-ears leak the least, and open-back over-ears leak the most. Earbuds sit kind of in between, which is also the case with the SoundSport. Their leakage is present only in the treble range, meaning sounds leaking out of the Bose will mostly consist of S and T sounds (speech, cymbals) and will be very thin. However, the overall level of the leakage is moderately loud, so if you blast your music/podcasts in a quiet environment, chances are people around you would hear some of the leakage.

These headphones have an in-line microphone on the wire connecting the left and right drivers.

The recording quality of the SoundSport's integrated mic is sub-par. The high LFE (low-frequency extension) means your voice will sound thin, while the low HFE will make speech sound muffled and airless. This will have a subtle but negative effect on the understandability of speech recorded with the microphone.

The noise handling capabilities of the Bose SoundSport Wireless' mic is okay. While the person on the other end of the line should hear you fine in quiet environments, your voice will likely get lost in even moderately noisy situations.

The Bose SoundSport Wireless have a mediocre overall battery performance. Their 6-hour battery life is unremarkable, and they take 1.5 hours to charge, which is fairly long considering their short battery life. On the upside, they have an auto-off timer to help conserve battery a bit. For wireless in-ears with more battery life, look at the JBL Everest 110, the Anker SoundCore Spirit X Wireless, or the Sony WI-XB400.

The Bose SoundSport Wireless use the same app as the QuietComfort 35 and SoundLink Around-Ear II, which looks sleek and stylish but only provides a disappointingly small list of features. You get an auto-off timer you can set at different intervals, a bare-bones in-app media player, and the battery level status. Unfortunately, there's no equalizer, room effects, or any other experience-enhancing features that would set this app apart from the others.

Update 03/03/2022: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'Android Latency' at 196 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in 136 ms of latency on Android. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

The Bose SoundSport Wireless support NFC and multi-device pairing, which is great. It means you can easily pair them to an NFC-capable device or pair them to both your work PC and phone to easily listen to audio from both. While these headphones have fairly high latency on PCs, their iOS and Android latency is much lower, which is good. It's worth noting that some apps seem to compensate for this.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only.

The Bose SoundSport Wireless have no wired option. If you want a similarly designed wired in-ear, then check out the Bose SoundTrue Ultra In-Ear or the wired Bose SoundSport In-Ear.

These Bluetooth-only headphones aren't compatible with the Xbox One.

The Bose SoundSport Wireless don't have a dock. If you want headphones that are versatile and have a dock, try the SteelSeries Arctis 7. However, they're over-ear gaming headphones that aren't as compact and easy to bring with you on-the-go.