JBL and Under Armour have just announced their very first truly wireless headphones at CES 2019. The name of these headphones is UA True Wireless FLASH, and these are sport wireless in-ear earphones which are also waterproof. The company says that they’re “made for runners by runners”, which is either hinting that some professional runners actually helped create the product, or that some of JBL and Under Armour employees are runners and have contributed that way. In any case, these earphones are quite lightweight, and they’re waterproof thanks to UA Storm Proof technology and an IPX7 rating.
These earphones bring the JBL Signature Sound, Bionic Hearing, and rather interesting Sport Flex Ear Tips to the table, which are supposed to offer better comfort than your regular silicone ear tips. The UA True Wireless FLASH earphones come with 5.8mm drivers which are supposed to pump out a rather rich bass to your ears, having the size of earphones in mind, of course. The company claims that the UA True Wireless FLASH earphones can deliver 5-hours of battery life while active, and they actually ship with a rugged aluminum case, which also acts as a charging dock. Together with that charging case, you can get 25-hours of listening time with these headphones, as the charging dock can recharge them a number of times before you’ll need to charge it. All in all, depending on your runs, these earphones can last you quite a long time on a single charge, and plenty more with the included case.
Now, the Bionic Hearing feature that is included in the package is supposed to enable you to hear your surroundings with some help from TalkThru and AmbientAware technologies. TalkThru Technology basically lowers the music and amplifies speech with a touch of a button, while AmbientAware mode enables you to listen to music while it amplifies background noises, you can never be too careful while running outdoors. AmbientAware can simply be activated by a double tap on an earphone. These earphones use Bluetooth in order to connect to your smartphone, though the exact Bluetooth version wasn’t listed, we’re betting it’s Bluetooth 5.0, though. These earphones come in a black only variant, at least for now, and the company also said that they’ll ship with three fitting options of the Sport Flex Fit Ear Tips.
Pricing, Availability & Perks
With every purchase of these earphones, you will get a complimentary 12-month MapMyRun Premium membership, which costs $29.99 on its own. MapMyRun is actually a part of the Under Armour Connected FItness suite of apps, so this partnership is not all that surprising, but it’s a nice addition for sure. The Under Armour True Wireless FLASH truly wireless earphones will be available on both JBL.com and UnderArmour.com websites starting on January 8, which means that you only have to wait until tomorrow in order to get a pair of these. If you’re interested, you should also know that a pair of these will set you back $169.95, which basically means these earphones are not all that cheap, but they’re not exactly the most expensive in the market either, compared to some other truly wireless earphones from JayBird, Samsung, and so on.