One thing that seems to be a constant struggle for those of us who frequent the gym is finding a decent pair of gym headphones that won’t sound distorted due to sweat after three runs. And then after that, it’s the actual price of the headphones.
You don’t want to spend a fortune, but you still want a good quality pair of headphones to get you through that workout. If that’s you, I may have found a pair.
Kinivo sent me over a pair of their Kinivo BTH260 Premium Bluetooth Headphones to check out, and let’s just say they are awesome. Kinivo is a brand I had seen previously on Amazon before when I was sick of paying upwards of $199 for Bluetooth headphones that either needed to be charged every three hours or I would lose in my gym bag and forget about. My mission was simple. Get myself a pair of headphones that will simply get me through a workout and I can throw them in my bag without one of three things happening:
- The ear tips falling out
- Getting all the way to the gym and forgetting I hadn’t charged them
- Forgetting the headphones at home period.
With the BTH260’s, I don’t have to be concerned with any of that at all. Let’s start with the fact that the entire setup of the BTH260’s is seamless. There’s no fancy third-party app needed. The hassle-free headphones connect to Bluetooth and just work, straight out of the box. So much so that the packaging that it comes in keeps it just as simple.
Inside of the cardboard box, you receive instructions, a micro-USB cable for charging, and a carrying case that you can’t miss in your gym bag, or mistakenly forget at home. The only thing missing from this is the fact the case doesn’t charge the headphones for you. But there’s obviously reasons behind that we will get into later.
The headphones themselves when I first unboxed I made the mistake of throwing over my ear, totally not understanding the concept of behind-the-ear headphones, certainly a first for me. The headphones keep it simple having the controls all self-explanatory in-line controls on one of the ear cups. While the headphones themselves aren’t noise canceling, the entire premise of these headphones seems to be geared towards working out, and if you are a runner, you would like to be aware of your surroundings so this is a good thing. The inner ear cup of the BTH260’s is a faux leather, which I always seem to damage on other “active” headphones with faux leather ear cups after the first run. Kinivo states that the headphones are sweat proof and build for the active lifestyle with water resistant technology. Now when I first saw that I thought: “Well sure, the internals won’t get damaged, but this is leather on my ears.. after sweating, and it dries, will the headphones have a tacky feeling, scrapping my ears going forward?” The simplest answer I could give is: No. I’ve gone on two-hour bike rides, five-mile runs, and these have held up like new every time.
Kinivo has managed to create a not only cheap headphone but managed to crank out a ridiculous amount of battery life into these babies. The BTH260’s can last you 25 hours on one single charge (which only takes 2-3 hours) easily trumping (for lack of better word) any current Bluetooth headphones I’ve used recently. As someone who’s used to having 8, maybe 10-hour long battery life out of a set of headphones, I’m actually pretty comfortable throwing these into my bag and going to the gym 4 days a week without even thinking about charging them. And the distance you can be on your phone can range anywhere between 15-20 feet so if you’re lifting and don’t want to have your phone in your pocket with you on every move, you’ll be fine knowing you can leave it to the side and it won’t sound distorted like most sub-$100 headphones on the market.
One thing to note about Kinivo’ s BTH260’s is these are NOT those Dr. Dre headphones in terms of loudness. Kinivo labels the headphones as having CD-quality sound with clarity and deep bass, but everyone’s ears are different. I had the headphones up as loud as possible and even though I could make out the words (partially because I knew them), there’s certainly more bass than anything else. So if you like to drown yourself in the instruments to pump yourself up on the treadmill, these headphones are certainly for you. If you rather listen to your music at a normal decibel, these would be twice as good.
In the event the headphones don’t last though, or crack and break, there is a one year limited warranty through Kinivo, but the price you’d pay in $200 pairs of headphones, you could honestly buy 3-4 of these, keep two for yourself, and give two away as white elephant gifts for the holidays.
Overall, the Kinivo BTH260’s are a cheap pair of headphones at $19.99, and they STAY in my gym bag, even if I brought a more “fancy” pair with me in my bag. I couldn’t tell you the last time I charged them, but that’s a roll of the dice that I could live with, and so could you. For more information about the Kinivo BTH260’s head over to this site today.
Source: Manufacturer supplied review unit
What I Like: Overall comfort; Price and battery life
What Needs Improvement: Would like an over-ear version
