Everyone might be talking about the Apple AirPods ($18.00 at Amazon) and the iPhone 7's ($288.00 at Visible) lack of a headphone jack, but for a pair of true wireless earphones you can get right now, look no further than the Bragi Dash. At $299, not only is the Dash a truly wire-free Bluetooth earphone pair (there's no cable connecting the earpieces, which are separate from each other), it's also a fitness tracker that counts steps and measures heart rate. Add an included hard shell case that doubles as a backup battery, and the Dash seems to do it all. But while audio quality is solid, it rarely sounds as good as $300 earphones should. And while step counts are accurate, heart rate measurements were a bit off in testing. That said, if you want a wire-free headphone pair that doubles as a reasonably capable fitness tracker, the Dash is worth a look.
Design and Features
Available in black or white, the Dash's ( at Amazon) in-ear design almost looks too large to stay firmly in place without the aid of a cable, but it does, even during vigorous exercise. A word to the wise: Spend time determining which eartip size is right for you—a secure fit while running or swimming (the earphones are fully waterproof) depends on this.
The eartips themselves are innovative. Bragi actually calls them "fit sleeves," and the XS tip looks like a typical silicone eartip, but the others (S, M, and L) look like eartips attached to mini swimming caps. These caps wrap tightly around and cover the contour of the Dash earpieces, and their thickness and gripping material are what ultimately provide the stable and secure fit needed for intense exercise.
The Dash is controlled by taps and swipes, or by holding your finger against the surface of an earpeice. There are also some actions, such as accepting or rejecting an incoming call, that can be achieved by simply nodding or shaking your head. The control process works quite well, but it takes a while to sort out what does what, and which ear to use. The left ear primarily controls fitness tracking, while the right ear controls audio playback, volume (which works independently of, not in conjunction with, your mobile device's master volume level), and track navigation.
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Bragi estimates battery life to be just three hours, which is underwhelming. That said, the included carrying cases doubles as a charging station. It connects to your computer via micro USB and carries an additional five full charges worth of juice. The case itself has a removable, slide-shut cover, with the micro USB port on the far end. Other than the charging case and cable, the only other included accessories are the four eartip pairs.
Compared with the virtually automatic pairing process of most Bluetooth earphones, pairing the Dash is quite involved. Multiple versions of the pair appeared on our Bluetooth pairing menu, and you have to follow voice prompts and tap on the earpieces to successfully complete the process. It's not a huge drawback, as you only have to pair once, but it's not ideal. After the initial pairing, however, the earpieces automatically connect when you put them in your ears, pause music when you remove them, and go into sleep mode after an extended period of downtime.
The Dash also has 4GB of internal storage, which can be used to load music files and play them locally rather than streaming via Bluetooth. The tracks need to be MP3 (with a maximum bitrate of 320kbps) or AAC/M4A files. The advantage here is being able to leave your phone somewhere else and still listen to music, which is helpful if you're going for a run or doing some laps in the pool.
App
A Bragi Dash companion app is available for Android, iOS, and Windows 10 devices, and it's essential if you want to tap into everything the earphones offer—particularly fitness tracking. However, you don't need the app to simply listen to music.
A Macros section allows you to customize gesture responses—this section will be expanded in further updates, but is currently limited to activating the nod (to accept calls) and shake (to reject calls) controls. You can calibrate the earpieces to make sure they recognize when you are shaking or nodding your head.
It's telling that there are no audio EQ controls in the app—most wireless earphone apps offer EQ and not much else, while Bragi has chosen to focus almost solely on fitness and functionality with its app.
Fitness Features
You can name your Dash, access tutorial videos and the manual, update the software, and contact Bragi Support in the app's Settings menu. You can also create a profile with your gender, weight, height, and running step length to better track your fitness.
As far as fitness tracking goes, we compared the Dash with the wrist-worn Fitbit Charge 2 ($149.95 at Fitbit) . Step counts were surprisingly consistent between the two devices, so you can definitely use the Dash to track exercises like running and walking. Unfortunately, heart rate measurements weren't nearly as accurate. Often, the Bragi Dash was several beats per minute off from the Charge 2, which we know to be accurate based on comparisons with manual readings.
We couldn't get the Dash to report fitness stats on demand by tapping the left earpiece. But it does report duration, steps counted, and heart rate every ten minutes automatically. After a workout, you can view your stats in the app itself. You can also connect the Dash to Runkeeper.
Audio Performance
Let's get back to the audio. The Dash utilizes an audio transparency mode that can be controlled in the app, or with swipes on the left earpiece. In this mode, ambient mics allow you to hear the room around you. Our experience with this was intriguing—there's an ever-so-slight delay in the ambient audio, so that if you're tapping on a keyboard, you hear the initial strike (muffled) and the ambient mic's signal milliseconds later. This is nitpicking, but some will find the short slapback delay annoying.
Intelligibility through the mic on calls is more solid than you might expect for a system that has no cable with which to place the mic closer to the mouth.
Also noteworthy: The Dash creates a high frequency in-ear hiss that is not terribly loud or annoying, but certainly audible. It's akin to the sound noise-canceling headphones often create, but the Dash has no active noise cancellation circuitry. The earpieces do manage to passively reduce a decent amount of ambient room sound when the monitor mics aren't turned on.
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Dash delivers powerful low frequency response, and at top, unwise listening levels, the drivers don't distort. At more reasonable levels the bass response is still quite strong, but it isn't wildly exaggerated—the Dash doesn't dish out deep lows to the extent that many exercise-focused earphones do.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track without much deep bass in the mix, gives us a better idea of the Dash's overall sound signature. The good news is that it doesn't invent deep bass where it doesn't exist—the drums on this track sound almost flat compared with how they typically sound on heavily bass-boosted earphones. The treble response is peculiar—everything has a very crisp, clear sheen, but the high-mids and highs often feel overly tweaked or sculpted. There's also some sculpting going on in the low-mids, which sound boosted in spots and lend Callahan's baritone vocals some extra richness. The result is a distortion-free, clear sound signature, but there's no denying the Dash provides nothing close to flat response.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets plenty of high-mid presence to highlight its attack and push it to the front of the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with a strong sense of body, but they don't have quite the rumble that mega-bass fiends will be looking for. Generally speaking, this is a sculpted and tweaked sound signature that gives the high-mids and highs prominence, and also boosts some of the lower frequency realms without pushing the deep sub-bass range too far.
Conclusions
What to make of the Bragi Dash? It comes down to your priorities—if you're all about fitness tracking and a cable-free, waterproof design, it could be worth the rather high price of entry. Audio performance is solid, but we expect a bit more from a $300 earphone pair. And you can use the Dash for tracking basic fitness metrics, but for accurate heart rate measurements, you'll want to stick to a dedicated tracker. Samsung's Gear Icon X Earbuds are another intriguing option we haven't yet tested. Or you can wait it out for Apple's AirPods, though they don't have any fitness features.
There are plenty of wireless, exercise-focused earphone pairs we recommend in the meantime, including the JBL UA Wireless ($79.00 at Amazon) , the Bose SoundSport Wireless ($126.66 at Amazon) , the Jaybird X2 ($0.00 at Amazon) , and the JBL Reflect Mini BT ($0.00 at Amazon) . However, none of them completely lack cables at all. Most of them won't do well in a swimming pool. And they all lack the ability to track your steps. The Bragi Dash is far from perfect, but it still seems like a leap forward in terms of innovation and design. We're looking forward to the next version.
An innovative product on multiple levels, the Bragi Dash is a truly cable-free wireless earphone pair that doubles as a fitness tracker.
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