I have reviewed many brands of truly wireless earbuds and all of them are in-ear passive noise cancelling type of earbuds. This time, I’ve got one that isn’t the usual in-ear passive noise cancelling, but instead prides itself to be Always Aware, letting in the outside environment.
With eartips shaped like the AirPods, Plantronics designed one meant for active individuals, calling it the Backbeat Fit 3150, with a suggested retail price of S$249.
Unboxing
The Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3150 comes in two colors – black or blue. The unit I have is the black one.
Unboxing the Backbeat Fit 3150, you get:
- Backbeat Fir 3150 earbuds
- Charging case
- Micro USB cable
- Quick start guide and documentation
Tech specs
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Bluetooth version: 5.0 Headset
- Music playtime: 8 hours (16 hours in charging case)
- IP57 waterproof rating
Build quality and features
The build quality of the Backbeat Fit 3150 looks like it was meant for sports use. Everything is covered in rubber to protect against sweat. The only plastic on the earbuds is the buttons used for media controls.
As for the charging case, it sadly charges with micro USB and instead of the clamshell or slide mechanism, it utilises a zipper. It’s like those good old days where we keep our earphones in a zipper hard shell case. The charging case is exactly that. The case itself has a nice smooth rubbery grip to it, again is good for active individuals with sweaty hands after workouts.
The funny thing about the Backbeat Fit 3150 is that when it is placed in the case, the right earbud is on the left side of the case, and the left earbud is on the right side. A little unintuitive, but it is easy to get used to it.
The Backbeat Fit 3150 comes with a companion app called ‘BackBeat’.
The app allows you to customise the media controls to use tap instead of pressing the button so if you are a fan of tap controls, this is for you. You can even rename the headset if you find the name ‘PLT BBFIT3150’ too SKU-ish. Although, there is an EQ option, you do not get an EQ setting like the Jaybird app, instead you get three choices of a certain sound – Signature Balanced, Bright, and Bass.
Pairing and connectivity
Pairing the Reflect Flow to your phone is fairly easy. You remove the both earbuds and the name ‘PLTBBFIT3150’ should appear in your Bluetooth settings. The earbuds are seen as one unit in your Bluetooth. But you can change the name in the app to whatever you like.
Having Bluetooth 5.0, the connection was really stable and I barely experienced any audio dropouts. And if you want to use the Backbeat Fit 3150 on one ear, you can use either earbud.
Battery life
Battery life is great on the Backbeat Fit 3150. With 8 hours on a single charge and another 16 hours in the case, it should last you for a marathon. Quick charging is also available where by a 15-minute charge gives you up to 1.5 hours of play time.
Fit
The fit of the Backbeat Fit 3150 is definitely very secure due to its ear hooks. There is even ear hooks to fit the earbud securely in your ears.
Despite the fins and hooks to provide a good fit, I find that the ear tips do not go into my ears as deep as I would like. Basically, my Apple EarPods sits deeper and snug in my ears than the BackBeat Fit 3150. The main reason for this occurrence is because of the ear hooks. How the ear hooks its on your ears will result in how the ear tips rest in your ear.
Then again, the Backbeat Fit 3150 was designed for people who want to hear the outside world. But having said that, the fit is very comfortable. Even with the ear hooks, I don’t feel like I have any earbuds on.
Sound quality
I believe I may not have the most accurate representation of the sound coming our from the Backbeat Fit 3150 because I am not getting the best seal in my ears. Having said that, allow me to share my experience with the sound and what I believe the sound would be if I had a good seal.
As the Backbeat Fit 3150 is marketed as an open-fit design earbuds, you should not expect a great deal of bass. When compared to the standard wired Apple EarPods, the bass on the EarPods was stronger than the BackBeat Fit 3150 due to its imperfect fit in my ears. But manually pushing the earbuds into my ear to simulate a proper fit, I found that there is actually quite a fair amount bass response at the low end frequencies. As for the mids and highs, they sound clean and detailed. Mids were more forward on the Backbeat Fit 3150 than the wired EarPods.
Overall, I would say that the sound quality of the Backbeat Fit 3150 is a bass boosted and forward sounding EarPods, which to me, is a good thing. But sound quality really depends on the fit you get.
Conclusion
Open-fit earbuds are not for everyone especially if you want a certain degree of noise cancelling when you commuting. But for runners who want a good sense of their surroundings, the Backbeat Fit 3150 is surely more secure than AirPods, and provide natural and non digitalised external environment noise in.
Using it for my workouts, I start to appreciate wearing open-fit earbuds in my ear because it feels more comfortable as there is nothing kind of plugging in your ear canal. The ear hooks also provide great security and I do not have to re adjust the placement of the earbuds unlike the in-ear ones than can dislodge slightly due to sweat. Materials used on the Backbeat Fit 3150 seems to be meant the extreme and rugged activities so durability is not a concern for me.
At S$249, it is not the most affordable, so the purchase decision really comes down to your use case of such an earbud.
Where to buy
You can buy the Backbeat Fit 3150 from many online sites in Singapore such as Qoo10 and Courts at a lower discount price of S$199.