Review: Jaybird Vista Wireless Earphones
Background
I’ve been using an old iPhone 6S for sometime as I didn’t like the lack of a 3.5mm audio jack on the newer phones. It meant using an extra adaptor for wired headphones which would be something else to go wrong, or to switch to wireless earphones.
The earphones Apple push are of course their own AirPods, and I did not like the look of them one bit. When wearing them you could just as easily be wearing electric toothbrush heads in your ear. They are considered by Apple to be consumables that need replacing every couple of years due to the lack of a replaceable battery, and of course it means something else to use power. For a company pretending to be ‘green’ it’s not helpful.
I could to a degree ignore this; but I know with those sticks protruding from my ears I’d knock them out and would end up losing one or both fairly quickly no matter whether the fit is any good or not.
My previous experience of wireless audio were some ‘bone conducting’ ones which really did not work as well as I’d hoped. They were basically behaving as tiny speakers that needed to be loud enough for the sound to reach the bones in the ear. They didn’t work the way they’re made to sound like they should work, and I just didn’t like wearing them with my prescription glasses. So I’d stuck with my Sennheiser MM 30i earphones; though as a runner they weren’t the best. One of the most notable problems would be the way the cable would bounce around whilst running, or when tucked into my FlipBelt they would sometimes got pulled out over time as the FlipBelt hungrily ate it.
Over time I found sweat got into the insides of them and this prevented the controls from working — I could no longer take calls, change audio tracks, use Siri, or change the volume. When the cable started to go wrong too I started to look at what options there were. It would be preferable, despite my doubts, to go down the Bluetooth route to make it easier when I next upgraded my phone.
The timing was perfect as my friend Emma, who is known as the award-winning ‘Lipstick & Trainers’ in the blogging world, had just been reviewing some wireless earphones she’d been gifted. Knowing what social media is like these days, you might immediately think “Oh, they were gifted so she’s bound to be positive about them”. Though she’s not like that: she has integrity, and would say what she thinks about products without bias. I really doubt she’d be using them weeks later if they were no good. Hers is always an opinion I can trust, so I decided I’d a buy a pair. Could they be better than the AirPods?
The Earphones
They’re available in three different colours: White, Black, and Mineral Blue. Usually I’d go for black without hesitation, and would usually avoid white. However, I realised that these being small devices that maybe a bit of colour to them might be good in case I needed to find them. So I went with the Mineral Blue colour, and in my opinion they look great! They’re also light-weight, which helps with the comfort side of things.
They come in a protective case that uses magnets to keep the earphones in place, and charges them at the same time. The case can charge the earphones several times without needing to be recharged itself using a standard USB-C cable.
The earphones themselves are kept waterproof by the amount of rubber used in them. This is removable and changeable with three different sized ear pieces so they’ll fit any size of ear. Well, maybe not Dumbo’s… but he’s not real (sorry!) so that’s okay.
Each earphone can be used on their own, or as a pair: both have a button on them and turning on one will turn on both. One press will play or pause your music, and if you’re receiving a call it will answer or during one will hang-up. Double-tapping whilst listening to music will skip to the next track, and when receiving a call it will reject it. One long press will end the call.
There’s no volume control, and I thought that would be a big deal. How often did I genuinely change the volume before though? When it worked, I can’t remember when I ever used the control on my Sennheiser ones for anything more than what the Jaybird Vistas are capable of. I usually set the volume before I head out, and then it’s right consistently.
Tech Specs
- Noise-isolation: Passive
- Impedance: 23 Ohm +-15% at 1KHz
- Speaker sensitivity: 103.5 +-1.5dB at 1KHz
- Output 12 mW RMS (with level limit)
- Audio Format: 16-bit Stereo
- Codec: Bluetooth SBC Implementation
- Response Bandwidth 20Hz - 20kHz
- Driver size: 6 mm
- Play Time: 6 Hrs + 10 Hrs in the case
- Charging time: 2 Hrs
- Quick charge: 5 min = 1 hour playtime
- Charging: Via charge case with USB connector
- Input power: DC 5V 1A
- Type: Lithium Ion
- Battery voltage: 3.6V
- Energy Voltage in Watt Hrs Per Battery: 0.19 Wh
You’ll notice that the noise cancellation is passive: this means they rely on a good fit to block out external noise.
Tests
As soon as they arrived, my first test was to see what they sounded like. They were good at blocking out other sounds, and the quality of the audio was at least as good as my Sennheiser earphones. They were easy to use, and answering a phone call worked well — the person I’d received one from was able to hear me clearly also. I’ve made several calls using them since, and in each case (even whilst running) they’ve been clear enough.
For my first run in them I went out for a nice gentle recovery run for five miles (having run the first race of the 7th Leicester City Winter 5K Series the night before, which you can read the review of over on my regular blog). They sat comfortably, and despite my worry of them falling out mid-run: they did not. They sat in my ear, and I didn’t really notice they were there. The only reminder was that although I couldn’t hear my footsteps, I could hear the vibration from each impact as I ran. After a mile I no longer noticed this and was focused on the podcast I was listening to. As this is what the bulk of my runs are: so far, so good.
My second test was a long run: they’re something that a lot of us runners will do at the weekends, and it’s good to know that they’ll be just as good after a dozen or so miles as they would be after the first mile. As it was Remembrance Sunday I decided it’d be nice to visit as many memorials and parades as I could fit in, and try to draw a poppy with my route. In doing so, this test was going to be around 13.5 miles — so at an easy pace this test would be 100 minutes.
Again I noticed I could hear the vibrations of each footfall conducting through to my ears and amplifying the noise of them. I’ve not really noticed it with other earphones except for when I’ve pushed them further into my ears; so that may just be a fitting thing, and using a different earpiece may solve that. This time I was listening to music and found the quality of the sound to be good, and even after 100 minutes they didn’t feel uncomfortable; nor did I need to put them back in (I often needed to do that with the Sennheiser ones as they’d fall out). So I’d count this as a pass.
My third test is the one that I felt would challenge them the most. Speed work. Would they stay in my ears when I’m working hard with a lot of movement? They sat that securely, that between that and the effort put into the run I did not notice the earphones at all. Obviously they were there as I could hear the music; but that was the only sign of them there. It was also nice to not feel any cable tugging between my ears, and my phone.
As these earphones are rated as IPX7 for waterproofing it means they should be able to cope with rain or water splashes for at least 30 minutes. This is England, specifically the Midlands, so it wouldn’t be too long to wait for a run in the rain. Sure enough they passed the test with flying colours during a downpour — they continued working and hasn’t caused any issue with their operation. The actual exposure time was over 30 minutes also, so I suspect in rain they’d actually last much longer.
Another concern I’d had was battery life — not just the life of the earphones; but what drain it might have on my phone battery. For this I wanted to be a little more scientific and wanted to consider what factors affect battery life between tests.
As temperature has a bearing on power consumption I would perform these tests in a room of consistent temperature. I will also turn on air-plane mode to reduce the number of factors that can affect battery performance. In terms of playback, I’d be consistent with listening to The British History Podcast, and would repeat the same episodes between tests.
It took a further 30 minutes on the Sennheiser test for the power to reach 98%. Although more data should be required, we can roughly extrapolate that it would have taken several hours to reach the 95% that the Vistas reached in 2 hours.
What does this tell us? You might think “oh the Jaybird is draining power quicker so it must be bad”. I don’t think that is the case though, it’s more a case of showing what impact using Bluetooth has over using an 3.5mm audio socket. In this case it’s also much better than the Bluetooth of old: with the implementation of Bluetooth 5.0 it means it’s able to use a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mode which is why we can see a relatively small drain on power over a two hour period. It’s this same technology that makes streaming audio to more than one BLE device possible.
Conclusion
Of the various earphones I’ve used with my iPhone 6 and other iPhones over the years, these are by far the best by providing comfort, durability, and quality in one extremely small package… albeit one at a price. Are those factors worth the price tag? For me, I’d say so.
I’m glad I trusted my friend’s recommendation, and strongly recommend these too for anyone looking for some new earphones for use whilst playing sports or using casually without being chained to your phone.
Eight Weeks Later…
After a couple of months of using these earphones they’re still going strong and I’ve not been able to find any issues with them. They’ve gone through weekly recharge cycles, and have been tested almost daily against all sorts of weather — sometimes in torrential rain. It seems they’re actually very good!
