Plantronics - BackBeat FIT 2100 Wireless Bluetooth In Ear Headphones (Poly) - Sweatproof & Waterproof Workout Headphones - Hear Your Surroundings/Train Safely-Connect to your cell phone via Bluetooth

I have been through a few different buds for running. I've used the Braven Flye Sport Power, Sony WF-1000XM3, old Apple wired buds, and the AKG wired buds that come with Samsungs now (which actually are a pretty good fit, btw).I have an issue that I want the best sound for my music. This means good sound with good bass, and good bluetooth connection.I started with the Sony's. They have amazing sound and stay in your ears in the office, but struggle to stay in your ears when running, bending over, etc. They also tend to cut the bluetooth connection often, even on the correct settings. I did like that they pick the bluetooth connection back up very quickly, compared to other wireless like the Braven's. But they cut out often when outside. I also had them fall out a few times.Plantronics Backbeat fit: I was very hesitant to try these for a few reasons. 1) The wire on the back. The bravens had one similar, and it would bounce and tug constantly. It would pull on my ears, and also work it out of my ears, even though they went up and over. The Plantronics Backbeat do not bounce or pull, and stay in place. 2) The second hesitation was the earbud covers. I like this design. It is similar to the old Apple buds that never fatigued my ears, because of the shape they would just sit their naturally. But, on my Braven's the cover was removable and would move around and come off. On the Backbeat, they are held in place (glue?) and don't move. Perfect! 3) My 3rd hesitation was definitely sound. I wanted something loud and clear enough for good music, especially without noise cancelling. I am pleasantly surprised by the great sound of these! They may not be the top-of-the-line Sony or Sennheiser, but they stay in place, are comfortable, and sound great!Battery lasts a pretty long time. The buttons are easy to use (I find the Sony soft-touch controls less easy to use than these, as these have a very slight 'button press' feeling that I like).My ears don't fatigue. I am not a fan of gel or foam buds that expand in your ears. I've tried several types, including the aftermarket ones that you can buy that are supposed to be amazing. I have never been happy with them. They make your ears feel "full" the whole time you're wearing them, and they make my ears sweat, and eventually have all lost grip and fallen out. These plantronics have none of those issue for me. Last, when you want to take them out for just a few minutes, they rest nicely over your ear or around your neck, which is convenient for exercise.Bluetooth: These do lose connection sometimes. This is a common issue with using bt outside. But, the bt drops have been less offensive with these. For one, they are not "true wireless" (separate buds) which I believe helps. Also, they pick the signal back up quickly when it does drop. I find it less annoying than other ones I've used. For reference, I keep my phone in my left pocket.I will say also, I don't hate wired buds and will use them unlike some other reviewers. I often have preferred wired buds over some wireless, to be honest. I like the old apple ones and actually have a lot of great things to say about the AKG that come with samsung now. But, now that I found these Plantronics, I will not even think about using my wired buds for activity.The Plantronics Backbeat are my go-to for running, and worth every penny!

I used the original Backbeat Fit headphones for many years and loved them. Five or six years - I don't even know how long anymore. I went through a couple of sets in that time. So I've had a lot of experience with this brand and I absolutely loved the originals.When I bought these I kind of freaked out about many of the reviews. But I remembered on the originals they had a ton of bad reviews too. So, I figured the same here.I just bought two pairs of these, one for my wife and one for me. My wife's pair was completely dead on arrival. It couldn't be turned on and it couldn't be charged. I tried over and over to get it charging but nothing worked. The red light never came on when plugged into the charger. They have now been returned.My pair would charge - but only intermittently. Yesterday it was plugged into the charger for more than 14 hours and the red light was on the whole time - indicating it was being charged. The original version would charge up in just an hour or two. But this one was plugged in all day and finally after 14 hours the red light went off indicating they were fully charged.However, when I turned them on - they said "Battery is HIGH". But literally 3 minutes later, it said, "Battery MEDIUM". Then a minute or two after that it said, "PLEASE RECHARGE" and they shut off! So 14 hours of charge got me about 7 minutes of runtime. That's a FAIL.That pair has now been returned as well.Speaking of charging - one really annoying thing is that there is just one light - Red. It stays on while they're charging. When they finish charging it goes off and there is no light. On the originals, when they finished charging the light would turn blue - which was very helpful as it let you know they were plugged in and actually connected to the charger cord.You know how often these chargers are plugged in but not really connected... well, with this new generation of headphones - you'll never know if they have fully charged or if they simply didn't really connect to the charger.Another downgrade is the voice that informs you of the headphone's status. In the original version the voice was crystal clear. In these new ones, it sounds staticky for some reason. Although the sound of whatever I was listening to was fine. But it's just weird that they couldn't get this voice right - which used to be fine years ago. (You usually expect things to get better over time - but not these. They've gotten worse).The Buttons: On the original Backbeats, they had 4 buttons. One for volume, one for playing and pausing, one for rewinding / answering calls and one for turning them off and on/getting battery status. This new generation however, only has two buttons. It was pretty annoying because it was impossible to get the headphones' status. You can obviously turn them off and on, you can pause and play and you can change the volume but you can't rewind and you can't get the battery status .So, you have to go onto your device, press and hold the Bluetooth connector icon, wait for the bluetooth screen to come up which will display the percentage of battery left. HOWEVER, it always displayed 100% - even after I had used them for a couple of hours! So it never displayed the actual usage.The buttons on these new headphones are pretty nice. They're more virtual than tactile - meaning they operate merely from a light touch. That's kind of cool but on the other hand kind of annoying. On the older ones, they didn't do anything until you actually pressed them. That gave you a chance to feel where your finger was on them to make sure you were about to press exactly what you wanted. On these though, you just touch them and whatever function is assigned to them is activated.The actual build quality is very nice. They look like they'd hold up very well over time. I'm just really disappointed that in the end, no matter how good the external build quality seems - they're just unusable because they can't be charged or turned on. Because of that I have to give them 1 star. They really deserve 0 stars - since they ultimately don't work at all. They look nice though.UPDATE 5/12/2021 -- they died after just 7-8 months. The previous version that I had owned several pairs of, I still have two of those that have lasted 4 years so far... and still going strong.

I had the previous model for quite a long time. But after many years they broke (because I used to create a nod from them so that the cord behind didn't hang, which why they got worn finally) and I decided to buy something new. I found that there are a lot of cheep bluetooth headphones costing ridiculously cheep (~20euros) and having great reviews in Amazon. I bought some of them (Vava manufacturer) and dropped out in two days. The sound was way worse than previous BackBeat FIT model (old one). So I realized that it's always bad to economize on quality and ordered the BackBeat 2100 (happily the just appeared on the market).I can say that I'm extremely happy.The first thing that amuses me is that the cord behind the head is a bit shorter now and the angle for headphones it is different which makes it almost lie on the back of my head instead of hanging far from the head (this always annoyed me in the previous model - that's why I started tieying it into node).The second thing is the same deep and rich sound. I can compare now - I can say that the sound is almost the same as Apple headphones (if not the same) - I don't hear any difference. The music is pleasant to hear again.The third thing is controls - the surface for buttons is made bigger and it's easier to switch volume and tracks now. There is a slight delay in switching volume and tracks (wasn't in the previous model) but it's not terrible.As a bottomline: the headphones are still brilliant for any physical activity - they will never fall out from the ears. The sound is great and controls are convenient. I'm happy to have them and will recommend them to everyone.(btw I saw some Bose models - they look ugly and cumbersome on the ears - BackBeat looks much better)