The Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are sports-oriented earbuds. Unlike the Bose Sport Open Earbuds Truly Wireless, they have a closed-back design with a comfortable in-ear fit and stability fins to help keep them in place. Although they don't block out much background noise, some users may prefer this design feature as it allows them to monitor their surroundings while running outdoors. Their smooth, warm sound profile is also well-suited for vocal-centric content like podcasts. However, even though they have a companion app, it doesn't offer sound customization features. Their 4.3-hour continuous battery life also may not be enough to get you through your day without pausing to recharge them.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are decent for neutral sound. These in-ears have a smooth and warm sound profile. Vocals and lead instruments sound present and clear, which should please fans of content like podcasts or audiobooks. However, sibilants are a bit weak and mixes lack a thumpy low-bass. On the upside, once you achieve a good fit, they can deliver audio very consistently.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are okay for commute and travel. They have a comfortable fit, and their portable design makes it easy to bring them on the go. However, with 4.3-hour continuous battery life, they may not last through long international flights without a recharge. Also, they don't block out background noises like bus or plane engines or chatter from other passengers.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are impressive for sports and fitness. These headphones are equipped with stability fins, which ensures that the buds don't fall out of your ears during runs in the park or sets at the gym. They have a well-built and comfortable design that's easy to take with you on the move. Though we don't test for it, they're rated IPX4 for water resistance, too.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are acceptable for office use. They're comfortable, and they don't leak a lot of noise, so your music shouldn't bother nearby coworkers. However, they struggle to block out background noises, which can be distracting. Also, their 4.3-hour continuous battery life may not be enough to get you through your workday without a recharge.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs, but their latency is likely too high to be suitable for wireless gaming. They aren't compatible with either PlayStation or Xbox consoles.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are wireless-only, so they aren't suitable for wired gaming.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are sub-par for phone calls. Speech recorded from their integrated mic sounds thin, muffled, and lacking in detail. The mic also has a hard time separating your voice from background noise, so you can get drowned out if you're talking while on a busy street. They can't block out much noise around you either and while you can hear your own voice more clearly, it can also make it more difficult to hear the person on the other end of the line.
The Bose Sport Earbuds come in three color variants: 'Triple Black', 'Baltic Blue', and 'Glacier White'. We tested the 'Triple Black' variant, and you can see the label for the model we tested here. We expect the other color variants to perform similarly.
If you come across another variant of these headphones, let us know in the discussion section below and we'll update our review.
The Bose Sport Earbuds are sports-oriented truly wireless earbuds with a very comfortable and stable fit. Although they struggle to block out background noise, some users may prefer this to improve their spatial awareness when running outdoors. However, they lack sound customization features like an EQ and their continuous battery life is shorter than that of the Bose Sport Open Earbuds Truly Wireless. See also our recommendations for the best truly wireless earbuds, the best wireless earbuds for running and working out, and the best in-ears and earbuds.
The Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are better in-ears for sports than the Beats Fit Pro True Wireless. The Bose are more comfortable, better built, and have a more stable in-ear fit. If you're an Apple user, you may prefer the Beats as they have an H1 chip for seamless pairing with Apple devices, and they support Spatial Audio on iOS devices for a more immersive audio experience. They also have an ANC system that can block out significantly more background noise.
The Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless and the Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless have different strengths, and you may prefer either. The Bose are better for sports since they come with a few differently-sized stability fins and block out much less ambient sound, which is nice if you want to stay aware of your surroundings while you exercise. On the other hand, the Apple are equipped with a great ANC feature and have a longer continuous battery life as well as a case that holds a greater number of extra charges. Also, some listeners may prefer their more neutral sound profile.
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds Truly Wireless are better headphones for most uses than the Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless. The QuietComfort Earbuds have a better-balanced sound profile, a great ANC feature, and a better battery performance. However, the Sport are better for physical exercise as they're more comfortable and stable.
The Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are marginally better headphones for sport and fitness than the Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless. The Sport Earbuds have a more stable fit, so they're better suited for more intense workouts. They're also closed-back headphones, while the SoundSport Free are semi-open. However, the SoundSport Free have a more balanced, neutral sound profile.
The Beats Powerbeats Pro Truly Wireless and the Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are both impressive for sports and fitness, but the Beats are better for mixed usage. The Beats have a longer continuous battery life. However, the Bose are better-built, more stable, and they leak less noise.
The Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are marginally better headphones for sports and fitness than the Jabra Elite Active 75t Truly Wireless. The Bose have a more stable in-ear fit. However, the Jabra have a more versatile overall performance, as their controls are easier to use and they have a better noise isolation performance. They have an excited sound profile with more bass than the Bose, and they're more customizable thanks to their graphic EQ and presets.
The Jabra Elite 75t Truly Wireless are better headphones than the Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless. The Jabra have longer continuous battery life, a better noise isolation performance, and they leak less sound. They have a very thumpy and excited sound profile compared to the more neutral Bose, which some may prefer, but unlike the Bose, you can customize their sound using the parametric EQ and presets in their companion app. However, the Bose are more stable.
The Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are more versatile headphones than the Bose Sport Open Earbuds Truly Wireless. While both headphones are designed for sports, the Sport Earbuds are more comfortable and stable. They have a better-balanced sound profile and their carrying case holds two additional charges, which is nice. However, the Sport Open have a completely open-ear design that allows you to hear more ambient noise around you, which make them even more suitable for running outdoors.
The Bose Sport Earbuds Truly Wireless are marginally better for sports and fitness than the Jaybird Tarah Pro Wireless, however, the Jaybird are better for mixed usage. The Bose are more comfortable and more stable than the Jaybird. However, the Jaybird have a better noise isolation performance, leak less noise, and have a longer continuous battery life. Also, thanks to their parametric EQ and presets, they're more customizable than the Bose.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a simple and basic look with a small Bose logo on each bud. However, the buds can stick out of your ears, and overall, they seem a bit bulkier than other truly wireless headphones on the market like the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ True Wireless. If you're looking for another color scheme to match your style, they come in three color variants: 'Triple Black', 'Baltic Blue', and 'Glacier White'.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a comfortable fit. They don't weigh very much, and the ear tips don't go very deeply into your ear. Thanks to their stability fin design, they should also stay put while you're moving. Unfortunately, the buds are a little bit bulky and stick out from your ear, which some users may find annoying.
Update 03/05/2021: Bose released a firmware update which added volume controls. We have updated the review to better reflect these changes, and raised the scoring of this box.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have alright touch-sensitive controls. The right earbud lets you play and pause your music or end and answer your calls. You can also turn on volume controls via the companion app, allowing you to swipe up or down to adjust the volume on the right earbud. However, you can't remap this control onto the left earbud. While there are no controls by default on the left earbud, you can activate or disable them by using the companion app. The app allows you to remap the 'hear battery level' or 'skip track' button onto the left earbud. While you get some audio feedback when connected, the touch-sensitive buttons aren't very clicky, so you may accidentally change a setting while adjusting them in your ear. If you're looking for sports earbuds with a better control scheme, take a look at the Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless
The Bose Sport Earbuds are outstandingly portable. Like most truly wireless earbuds, they're small and should easily fit in most pockets. Their portable charging case is a bit bulky, but it should still fit easily in your bag.
The charging case is decent. It's made of hard plastic, and it locks and unlocks to help keep the buds secure. There are also magnets inside the case to hold the earbuds in place while they charge. You can use the 5-light LED battery indicator to keep track of their battery level.
These earbuds are amazingly stable. They feel more stable than the Bose Sport Open Earbuds Truly Wireless and come with stability fins to help keep them in place in your ear. They shouldn't fall out of your ears during casual listening sessions or while working out at the gym.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a smooth and warm sound profile. While they're lacking a touch of low-bass, which can be disappointing for fans of bass-heavy music genres like EDM, their neutral, balanced mid-range makes them suitable for lots of audio content, especially vocal-centric content like podcasts or audiobooks. However, they lack sound customization features to help you adjust their sound to your liking.
These headphones have impressive mid accuracy. Most of the range is quite balanced and neutral, so vocals and lead instruments are clear and present. However, the overemphasized high-mids can make some of those instruments sound honky or harsh.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have decent peaks and dips performance. While they're missing a touch of low-bass, the peak across the bass range adds punch and boom to the mix. The dip in the mid-mids nudges vocals and lead instruments towards the back of the mix, while the peak in the high-mids and low-treble can make those same instruments sound honky or harsh. The mid-treble is uneven, resulting in sibilants that are both piercing and lispy.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have excellent imaging. Their weighted group delay falls mostly below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. Also, the L/R drivers are well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, so objects like footsteps are accurately placed within the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, so your experience may vary.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a terrible passive soundstage performance, which is to be expected from in-ear headphones. By design, they don't interact with the outer ear, which is one of the key components in creating a speaker-like and out-of-body soundstage. As a result, audio seems like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed all around you. Also, they have a closed-back enclosure, so their soundstage doesn't sound as spacious as open-back headphones.
These are the settings we used to test the Bose Sport Earbuds. Our results are only valid when using these settings.
While Bose advertises an 'Active EQ' feature, we don't consider this an EQ because you can't turn it off.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a poor noise isolation performance. They don't isolate against bass-heavy noises like bus or plane engines, and they struggle to block out background voices or the hum from nearby AC units. However, this may be preferred by listeners who want to stay aware of their surroundings, like outdoor runners. If you're looking for a pair of truly wireless Bose headphones with an active noise cancelling feature, consider the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds Truly Wireless.
Update 06/04/2021: There seems to be a noise gate built into the microphone, which we couldn't turn off during our original test. However, we were able to retest the mic after fixing the noise gate. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed.
The Bose Sport Earbuds' microphone has a poor noise handling performance. The microphone struggles to separate your voice from moderate background noise like a busy street. If you need to take an important call, it's best to do so from a quieter environment to be heard clearly.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a mediocre battery performance. They only last roughly 4.3 hours off of a single charge, which may not last through your workday. However, there are roughly two additional charges in the case, which is nice. That said, battery life can vary depending on usage, so your real-life results may vary. These earbuds are also equipped with an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when you're not using them.
The Bose Music app is decent. It lets you remap the controls on the left earbud to hear the battery level or skip to the next track. You can also turn on or off the volume touch controls as well as the 'In-ear Detection' feature, which automatically answers your calls when you insert the right bud, and automatically plays/pauses your music when your insert/remove the right bud. However, even though it has an 'Active EQ' feature, it can't be turned off, and it lacks an equalizer, so you can't customize the buds' sound.
The Bose Sport Earbuds have a fair Bluetooth performance. They support Bluetooth 5.1 but don't have multi-device or NFC pairing. Their latency on PCs and Androids is likely too high to be suitable for gaming, but you should be able to use them to watch videos on iOS devices. However, some apps compensate for latency, so your real-world experience can vary.
These headphones can be used wirelessly with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, they aren't compatible with PCs using any other connection.
The Bose Sport Earbuds come with a portable charging case that holds two additional charges. It has only one input, which is a USB-C port so that you can charge the case.