Philips A7607 bone conduction headphones evaluation

• Design
• Battery life
• Efficiency
• Verdict

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 quite a lot of issues proper. They provide a design that is primed to be match for powerful exercises, pack a pleasant additional function for runners and night-time train followers, and crucially wish to punch out the type of sound to make them a worthy gymnasium or working companion.

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

Design

• LED security lights
• Weighs 38g

Philips delivers its open ear design in a vogue that almost all different bone conduction headphones do, via a neckband design that rests across the head, putting 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 effectively. The truth is, the match right here is basically 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 the same method to Shokz’ headphones, with a number of buttons on prime 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 telephone calls.

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

To make them match for train each indoors and outdoors, the A7607 is slapped with an IP66 sturdiness score giving it some good safety towards 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 if you’d slightly not be listening to the surface world – and the proprietary charging cable that it is advisable 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 possibly can rise up to 9 hours off a single cost, providing an hour greater than the Shokz OpenRun Pro.

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

The type of battery you get right here fully relies on how loud you hearken to your audio and likewise placing these working lights in play as effectively. We’d say the numbers fall barely in need of 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 via your cheekbones to the inside ear with out overlaying 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 significantly 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 if you happen to’re set on utilizing them to deal with calls, they do carry out effectively on that entrance a minimum of. As we talked about, Philips employs two microphones right here – each designed to counteract exterior noise and wind – they usually undoubtedly do assistance on that entrance. Voices on the different finish of the road have been simple to listen to and we have been effectively heard by our callers too.

They carried out effectively 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 greater volumes to get probably the most rewarding audio right here – and that creates a few points.

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

Verdict

The Philips A7607 get quite a lot 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 working gentle is a pleasant contact as effectively.

In the end although, the sound high quality does not fairly match as much as that workout-friendly design and simply feels barely undercooked if you evaluate it to what else is on the market within the bone conduction house at this worth. Particularly if you happen to needed one thing you should use inside and outdoors of that exercise time.

It is a disgrace as a result of there’s so much to love in regards to the design, in addition to Philips attempting to assume out of the field when it comes to including extra worth and use to bone conduction headphones. Sadly it misses the mark in an important division.