«Музыка наполняет занятия спортом энергией и драйвом, но путающиеся шнуры и выпадающие амбушюры способны сбить настрой даже самых мотивированных спортсменов. Чтобы сохранить стремление к новым рекордам, мы выпустили свои первые полностью беспроводные наушники для атлетов — Under Armour True Wireless Flash», — говорит Евгений Конов, генеральный директор Harman Россия.
UA True Wireless Flash созданы инженерами JBL для покорения новых спортивных вершин и готовы следовать за своим владельцем при любых погодных условиях: наушники защищены от воздействия воды и пота по стандарту IPX7 благодаря технологии UA Storm. Модель укомплектована набором амбушюр, а также специальных накладок с ушными упорами разных размеров для идеальной посадки в ушах любой формы. Все накладки сделаны из потостойкого материала, предотвращающего выпадение и натирание даже при длительной тренировке. За правильный звук в новинке отвечают специально настроенные 5,8 мм динамики, гарантирующие насыщенные басы для создания правильного ритма любых занятий.
Для обеспечения безопасности во время пробежек и тренировок наушники оснащены сразу двумя фирменными технологиями JBL, активируемыми нажатием одной кнопки: TalkThru позволяет приглушить музыку и увеличить громкость речи окружающих, а Ambient Aware добавляет к звучанию наиболее громкие шумы, которые могут служить на улице сигналом к повышенному вниманию. Аккумуляторы наушников рассчитаны на 5 часов беспрерывной работы, а при использовании наушников с прочным алюминиевым зарядным кейсом ресурса хватит на 20 часов без подключения к стационарной розетке. Встроенный микрофон позволит всегда оставаться на связи и принимать звонки даже во время занятий.
Наушники UA True Wireless Flash от JBL доступны по рекомендованной розничной цене 11000 рублей.
JBL UA True Wireless Flash (by Samsung/Harman)
Review from PCmag
Few tech pairings have worked so well recently as JBL and Under Armour, as exemplified by the new JBL UA True Wireless Flash earphones ($169.96). They offer a secure fit and a waterproof build, making them suitable for exercise, along with ambient audio modes so you can hear your surroundings without removing the earpieces or even pausing your music. From an audio standpoint, they deliver powerful lows and sculpted highs that ought to provide just the type of motivation you want when working out. Add to this list solid battery life and 12-month premium MapMyRun membership, and you have our Editors' Choice for exercise-focused true wireless earphones.
Design
Like most true wireless pairs, the Flash earpieces are chunky but lightweight. The design is mostly black, with some red flourishes, and the Under Armour logo emblazoned on the outer panel. The earpiece presses gently against various parts of the ear—this, along with stabilizing fins, allows for an exceptionally secure fit. The fins are separate from the actual silicone eartips, and the earphones ship with three total pairs of tips (S, M, and L) and three pairs of fins (S, M, and L). Once you get the right combination, it's hard to imagine these falling out, even during vigorous exercise.
The logo on either ear is a button. Most of the controls are handled by the right ear's button, including play/pause, call answer/end, track navigation, and mute. The left button is used to sync with the right earpiece, and also to summon your phone's voice assistant.
One press of the left ear's button puts the earphones in Talk Thru mode, which allows you to clearly hear who you're talking to without removing the earphones—music playback continues, but at a lower level. Two taps of the button puts you in Bionic Hearing mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings and also lowers your music levels a bit. Many users will find it difficult to hear a real difference between the two modes, though Talk Thru more obviously tamps down your tunes.
With an IPX7 rating, the earphones can easily withstand heavy rain, be rinsed off, and even submerged in water. The included charging case, just to be clear, is not waterproof. If you place your wet earphones in the case, it will not go well.
The case does seem sturdy, however. It measures roughly 3.4 by 1.2 by 1.7 inches (HWD), with a brushed metallic contour. A sporty lanyard is fastened to a loop on one end, and the drawer housing the charging dock slides out the other end. Like with all charging cases, the earpieces snap into place magnetically. Red LEDs on the earpieces light up when charging, and LEDs on the outside of the case give you an idea of how much battery life the case has left. Below this status display, there's a covered micro USB port for the included micro cable.
JBL claims five hours of battery life, which is better than average for the true wireless realm. The charging case holds an additional 20 hours of battery life, which is great, but your overall results will depend on your volume levels and overall usage choices.
The earphones also come with a 12-month premium MapMyRun membership (which otherwise costs $29.99), which compares your workouts and keeps track of sleep and nutrition data.
Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the earphones deliver powerful low frequency depth. At top, unwise listening levels, the bass doesn't distort, and at more moderate levels, the bass is still intense. Thankfully, it's also balanced out with some crisp high frequency presence.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the UA True Wireless Flash's general sound signature. The drums on this track get pleasant added bass depth—it's not over-the-top thunderous, but it's noticeable. The lows are balanced out nicely by some boosting and sculpting in the high-mids and highs, allowing the acoustic guitar strums and higher register percussive hits to shine.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives ideal high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its punchy edge, while the vinyl crackle that is usually relegated to background status is pushed forward a bit in the mix—there's plenty of high frequency boosting here, in other words. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with powerfully anchored lows—the boosting isn't invasive, but the bass is strong. This is a sound signature that'll appeal to bass lovers who don't want to sacrifice balance.
For orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the lower register instrumentation is pushed forward in the mix, but then, so are the higher register brass, strings, and vocals. This is a scooped sound signature, with rich lows and boosted highs. It's not for purists, but it offers a clean, powerful listening experience that will likely be ideal for exercise motivation.
A couple of issues: When music is at low volumes, the earphones make an audible hiss sound. It doesn't doesn't seem to raise or lower with volume levels, so listening to most music at moderate levels will overcome much of its presence. In addition, navigating to new tracks often lops off the very beginning, which also goes for audio prompts from your phone, like text messages. These aren't deal breakers, but they're worth noting when the earphones in question are $170.
The built-in mic offers better than average intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded clearly, without much in the way of distortion or typical fuzzy Bluetooth audio artifacts. Phone audio comes through both ears, which is a rarity in the case of true wireless call audio.
Conclusions
When it comes to wire-free earphones built for exercise, you can't do much better than the JBL UA True Wireless Flash. We're also big fans of the JayBird Run XT, which feature adjustable EQ, but we're giving the Flash our Editors' Choice for longer battery life and a slightly more exercise-focused design. If you're looking for great Bluetooth in-ears for exercise, but don't want a cable-free model, meanwhile, JBL's UA Sport Wireless Pivot model is also worth looking into.
