GRACE NOTES

Beem United is back with a wireless Bluetooth earphone that survives a massive workout on a single charge, while remaining comfortable and secure. For the price, it’s a decent option to grab on your way to the gym or your own pain cave home gym.

The BeActiv E300 earphone ($99.99) uses a neckband design. At first, I wasn’t sure this was the best design for an “active” product, but after using it for hours on the bike, I’m sold. The neckband is soft and very flexible. At one end of the neckband is the controller. It’s quite simple to use - just a power button and volume up and down, which double for taking calls and track play/pause. Thinner cables extend out to the earphones. Other designs eliminate the neckband, but usually have much thicker cables connecting the earphones for durability. It’s purely personal preference, but I liked the thinner cables on the E300. It feels like there is less weight in my ears and they were quite comfortable.

The earphone uses a 10.66mm dynamic driver. The built-in battery takes 1.5 hours to achieve a complete charge, and it will play for up to 6 hours on that charge. Not exactly the best playback times seen, but one could appreciate the lightweight design and sacrifice some playback time to keep down the weight of the product. The backs of the earphones have magnets so they stick together when not in use. I really appreciated this when I was interupted and needed to quickly take them out of my ears; no risk of them falling off into the equipment I was using.

The E300 features aptX with Bluetooth 4.1 for the latest in connectivity. It pairs quickly and easily upon power-up; simply hold the power button for about 4 seconds and a voice prompt guides you through pairing. This evaluation was done using a Samsung Galaxy S9+ as a playback source.

The E300, like all earphones, relies on a proper fit to get the most bass out of it. I found that even with the best-fitting eartips (4 options are included) there wasn’t as much bass as most listeners would prefer. The mid-range had a touch of harshness but only at the loudest listening levels. The high-end was natural and smooth. Overall, the E300 was easy to listen to for hours with no listener fatigue.

For an affordable wireless workout earphone, the E300, available in blue, orange/camo, or white, is good for the price. It lacks a deep, impactful bass, but is comfortable, stays secure during a hard workout, and won’t break the budget. All in all, the Beem United BeActiv E300is a great value earphone.