Philips A7607 bone conduction headphones assessment

Philips has been delving into the world of bone conduction headphones over the previous couple of years, and the A7607 is its newest try at serving up a worthy different to fellow sporty bone conductors from the likes of Shokz.

The A7607 do a number of issues proper. They provide a design that is primed to be match for powerful exercises, pack a pleasant further characteristic for runners and night-time train followers, and crucially wish to punch out the form of sound to make them a worthy gymnasium or operating companion.

At $199.99/£157.95 although, these bone conduction headphones do not come low cost, so does Philips provide sufficient right here to persuade us that these are a greater match for train than equally priced rivals? We put them to the exercise take a look at to seek out out.

Design

• LED security lights
• Weighs 38g

Philips delivers its open ear design in a trend that the majority different bone conduction headphones do, by way of a neckband design that rests across the head, inserting the arms simply in entrance of the ears to ship audio to your inside ear with out sealing them up.

At 38g, they are not the lightest bone conduction headphones on the market, however they do not really feel cumbersome in any respect to put on, even throughout longer exercises, and are snug to don with glasses and caps as nicely. The truth is, the match right here is de facto safe, in order that they really feel tremendous safe it doesn’t matter what exercise you might be doing.

Bodily controls are dealt with in an identical method to Shokz’ headphones, with a number of buttons on high of the part that sits in entrance of the ear, letting you tinker with quantity, skip audio, activate your good assistant and take calls. That does imply there’s microphones on right here too, and Philips consists of two to deal with all of your audio instructions and cellphone calls.

One thing you do not see on a number of headphones is the built-in security LED gentle Philips consists of, which encompasses the again of the headphones and might be set to glow or strobe, providing you with somewhat visibility enhance on these evening time or early morning outings.

To make them match for train each indoors and out of doors, the A7607 is slapped with an IP66 sturdiness ranking giving it some good safety in opposition to mud and water, and making them good for a wet run and extra rugged use.

As for what you get within the field, Philips bundles the headphones with a small carry bag, some earplugs to assist higher isolate sound – good for while you’d reasonably not be listening to the surface world – and the proprietary charging cable that you’ll want to get them powered again up.

Battery life

• 9 hours battery life
• 2 hour charging time
• Quick charging mode

In bone conduction headphone phrases, the A7607 guarantees some fairly good numbers right here. Philips says you may rise up to 9 hours off a single cost, providing an hour greater than the Shokz OpenRun Pro.

While you do get low on battery, there is a quick charging mode that’ll provide you with an hour of listening time from a 15-minute cost. It is not fairly the quickest quick cost charge, then, however helpful to have nonetheless. While you do hit empty, it’s going to take 2 hours to get again as much as 100 per cent.

The form of battery you get right here completely will depend on how loud you hearken to your audio and likewise placing these operating lights in play as nicely. We’d say the numbers fall barely wanting their quoted most when listening at louder volumes, and is extra across the 5-6 hour mark.

Efficiency

Philips delivers its bone conduction sound from a dynamic driver setup channelling sound by way of your cheekbones to the inside ear with out protecting them up.

The general sound high quality we might say was somewhat underwhelming and positively not the class of the perfect bone conduction headphones we have examined. It felt somewhat muted, not notably clear and detailed, or very balanced.

With a mixture of bass-heavy exercise playlists, some podcasts from streaming providers like Apple Music and Spotify, the A7607 fared higher dealing with dialogue and voice than it did for listening to music with them.

That does imply should you’re set on utilizing them to deal with calls, they do carry out nicely on that entrance at the least. As we talked about, Philips employs two microphones right here – each designed to counteract exterior noise and wind – they usually positively do assistance on that entrance. Voices on the different finish of the road have been simple to listen to and we have been nicely heard by our callers too.

They carried out nicely when it comes to providing steadiness between headphone and exterior sound, even when utilizing them close to busy roads and in windier situations.

Nonetheless you do must have them at increased volumes to get essentially the most rewarding audio right here – and that creates a few points.

Not solely do they provide a shorter battery life while you crank issues up, however in addition they leak sound (as might be the case for bone conduction headphones), so they are not ideally suited to be utilizing in your practice or bus commute should you worth protecting your audio non-public, but additionally wish to hear them at their finest.

Verdict

The Philips A7607 get a number of the important thing issues proper to make them a pair of bone conduction headphones which are match for extra rigorous train use. They’re snug to put on, keep put in additional intense use and the operating gentle is a pleasant contact as nicely.

Finally although, the sound high quality would not fairly match as much as that workout-friendly design and simply feels barely undercooked while you evaluate it to what else is on the market within the bone conduction house at this worth. Particularly should you wished one thing you should utilize inside and out of doors of that exercise time.

It is a disgrace as a result of there’s loads to love concerning the design, in addition to Philips making an attempt to suppose out of the field when it comes to including extra worth and use to bone conduction headphones. Sadly it misses the mark in crucial division.