I was about to recommend these. I have had them for about a year and they are awesome. Reviewers on Amazon seem to have hit/miss reviews with BT connectivity, but given my experience with the iPhone 6s, I wonder if it was something with the other peoples phones and not the headphones.
My connectivity has been fine while running, and always surprises me in the gym. I leave my phone in my gym bag now and range is no problem if I'm super setting exercises and moving to different equipment. These are my first and only pair of BT headphones, and they spoiled me to the point where I'll never go back to wired for exercising.
Thanks for the recommendation. However, pretty much anything over the ear is prone to slipping out for me. Probably has to do with the way my ears are anatomically constructed combined with excessive sweating. Gross, I know, but that's how it is.
Besides, no BT headset would relieve the battery problems.
But now I just wear them all the time, as they're so convenient. Can take calls on them, they have a remote on them, they also just scrunch up in to a pocket. Battery lasts at least all day, for me, anyway.
I've been using the same headphones (Backbeat Fit) for the past year (purchase was based on Wirecutter's review http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wireless-exercise-head...) and absolutely adore them. Solid eight hour battery, even a year after purchase.
The issue I had with these is that they're just not very loud.
And as they don't enclose the ear canal (which could be a good thing for maintaining awareness of ones surroundings) it can leave them ineffective for anything other than very quiet environments.
I'm not a Bluetooth headphone user but how does the Bluetooth affect the iPhone's battery? Also, carrying two cheap sets of headphones around doesn't sound more convenient than just using wired headphones. Is the wire really that much of a problem?
Apple's posted stats are 50 hours audio playback on the 6S over wire, 40 hours audio playback on the 7 over Bluetooth. I can attest that on my 7 the bluetooth can run down the battery a bit, but nowhere near as much as wifi, cellular or screen. How much battery drain you see in practice is probably affected by which headset you're using, what standards and codecs it supports, and if the iPhone can (presumably) burst AAC audio to the headset or not. I really should get around to reading a book on the bluetooth spec to better understand this stuff, though.
What bugs me about the iPhone 7 is that I expected if Apple was removing the headphone jack that they would add USB type C and Bluetooth 5 instead of the same-old lightning port and 4.2. In fact, it looks like there's more than one model of iPhone again, and the 6S' support for both CDMA and GSM appears to be a fluke, or they couldn't do it in time with the new antenna design. Unless I'm reading the iPhone LTE specs page incorrectly...
> carrying two cheap sets of headphones around doesn't sound more convenient than just using wired headphones
I actually carry three: the one I use every day, the spare for that one, and the other one that's more comfortable but lacks the volume for use during my commute.
This is not a big deal if you carry a satchel or purse or backpack or pretty much anything bigger than the pockets in your clothing; all three of them, plus charge cables and manuals, fit in a hard-sided case that's about the size of a can of Skoal, and which very conveniently came with the first Bluetooth earpiece I bought. If I didn't have such a preference for entirely in-ear monaural models, they'd take up a little more space, but only a little.
It's totally doable and not even inconvenient - this latter, in particular, not something which can fairly be said of wires.
LG tones are bulky in the sense that you're essentially wearing an unfashionable necklace, but it has a decent sound quality (for bluetooth), a larger battery, and are in-ear. Might want to check them out down the line.
I haven't tried that one specifically, but neckbands on wireless earbuds have always been too heavy and caused problems in the gym. If you lean back they can fall off you and then pull out the earbuds. So, that large battery isn't all good.
LG tones are bulky in the sense that you're essentially wearing an unfashionable necklace
Hmm. Interesting.
If Apple wants to continue pushing into the jewelry and personal-accessory business, this suggests an obvious direction. They tend to be good at making unfashionable things fashionable.
There were rumors about them being Bluetooth+ - proprietary extensions on top - and since they claimed to eliminate transmission delays, I was curious if the rumors were true.
http://www.jlabaudio.com/products/epic2-bluetooth-wireless-s...
Not sure if you've seen or tried these.