Design
The WIT is not a hugely revolutionary design, but is solidly made. The body of the earpieces is a satin plastic finish, and the back decorative plates are made from brushed aluminum. The cable is soft coated, with a plastic remote dongle with satisfyingly tactile large silicon buttons that are easy to feel. The buttons are a standard 3 button affair, with the top and bottom being volume control, and the center being controlling play/pause, on/off, and pairing. One thing to note is that the center button has no functionality as a Siri control for iOS. Holding down the center button will turn off the headset. The WIT is sweat resistant, so you should not need to worry about shorting it out if you are the perspiring type.
Ear fit and Isolation
The WIT is an earbud/in ear design, which means there is a silicon tip fitted to the nozzle that goes in your ear canal, while the rest of the bud that contains the driver rests in the outer ear. The design is very comfortable, though the drawback is that isolation is not great. This is a good thing if you are running outside and still need to hear your surroundings, but not such a good thing if you are listening in a noisy environment. To secure the WIT on the ears, there are built-in bendable ear guides made from metal and jacketed in a durable silicone. With the ear guides properly fitted around my ears, I found that I could get a secure and comfortable fit from the WIT, and had no problem running on the elliptical machine.
Charging and Battery Life
The WIT is rated at 8 hours of charge, which in my testing I found to be accurate. Charging is done via micro USB, for which a cable is included, and takes about 2 hours at the most. When the earphones are about to die, the voice prompt announces “battery low”. The WIT will take a charge from an external battery pack, but I would not recommend charging the earphones off a cellphone USB wall power adapter, as it may put out too much voltage.
Connectivity and Headset Use
The WIT was able to maintain a steady and quick connection to my iPhone, which when established is announced by a voice prompt in the form of a British woman stating “your headset is connected”, immediately followed by a single beep. As a headset, calls came in clear and people on the other line could hear me clearly, though the microphone on the dongle tended to pick of a bit of wind noise. As far as Bluetooth noise goes, the WIT has some white noise that is noticeable in the background, but for the environments in which I listen to the WIT (i.e. in gyms and on the street with loud music), this fuzzing noise is rarely bothersome. For those of you to whom this would be a concern, be aware that the WIT exhibits this issue.
Sound
The WIT was quite a surprise to me, because I thought that at its low price, it would sound like a harsh mess. On the contrary, I found it to be a wireless earphone with a nicely detailed and present midrange and vocal presence. There is some upper midrange glare that I find is often characteristic in low cost headphones and earphones, but it does not rear its head in often enough to be much of an issue. Treble is fairly neutral, with good attack and decay. Bass is a bit of a shortcoming due to the fact that the earphones sit in the outer ear, and do not form a tight seal in the inner ear. There is some decent midbass and upper bass punch, though sub bass is rolled off. I would have liked more mid bass and sub bass, as having a powerful driving beat is something many of us, myself included, look for in an exercise earphone like the WIT. As I listen to bass-heavy genres such as dance, house music and drum & bass when I do cardio exercises, and hip-hop for weight training, an equally powerful bass slam to match the WIT’s articulate midrange would round out these earphones perfectly.
Summary
Overall, I enjoy Smartomi’s WIT, and I regularly use it for my both routine workouts and as a walking around earphone. With a more powerful bass punch, the WIT would be a perfect workout earphone in my book. Considering its low price and plentiful 8-hour battery life however, the WIT is great value for money, and gets a strong recommendation from me for anyone looking to buy an affordable Bluetooth exercise headset. The fact that the WIT exists as a Bluetooth earphone with this good of a midrange, an excellent 8-hour battery life, and a sub-30-dollar price tag indicates that the market for Bluetooth audio is truly in its element today, and is rapidly maturing. For the average consumer, there are now so many choices of excellent Bluetooth devices to be had at any sort of price range, with any feature one could want. The future looks bright for high quality Bluetooth audio devices at great prices, and the WIT certainly establishes itself among them.
The WIT is not a hugely revolutionary design, but is solidly made. The body of the earpieces is a satin plastic finish, and the back decorative plates are made from brushed aluminum. The cable is soft coated, with a plastic remote dongle with satisfyingly tactile large silicon buttons that are easy to feel. The buttons are a standard 3 button affair, with the top and bottom being volume control, and the center being controlling play/pause, on/off, and pairing. One thing to note is that the center button has no functionality as a Siri control for iOS. Holding down the center button will turn off the headset. The WIT is sweat resistant, so you should not need to worry about shorting it out if you are the perspiring type.
Ear fit and Isolation
The WIT is an earbud/in ear design, which means there is a silicon tip fitted to the nozzle that goes in your ear canal, while the rest of the bud that contains the driver rests in the outer ear. The design is very comfortable, though the drawback is that isolation is not great. This is a good thing if you are running outside and still need to hear your surroundings, but not such a good thing if you are listening in a noisy environment. To secure the WIT on the ears, there are built-in bendable ear guides made from metal and jacketed in a durable silicone. With the ear guides properly fitted around my ears, I found that I could get a secure and comfortable fit from the WIT, and had no problem running on the elliptical machine.
Charging and Battery Life
The WIT is rated at 8 hours of charge, which in my testing I found to be accurate. Charging is done via micro USB, for which a cable is included, and takes about 2 hours at the most. When the earphones are about to die, the voice prompt announces “battery low”. The WIT will take a charge from an external battery pack, but I would not recommend charging the earphones off a cellphone USB wall power adapter, as it may put out too much voltage.
Connectivity and Headset Use
The WIT was able to maintain a steady and quick connection to my iPhone, which when established is announced by a voice prompt in the form of a British woman stating “your headset is connected”, immediately followed by a single beep. As a headset, calls came in clear and people on the other line could hear me clearly, though the microphone on the dongle tended to pick of a bit of wind noise. As far as Bluetooth noise goes, the WIT has some white noise that is noticeable in the background, but for the environments in which I listen to the WIT (i.e. in gyms and on the street with loud music), this fuzzing noise is rarely bothersome. For those of you to whom this would be a concern, be aware that the WIT exhibits this issue.
Sound
The WIT was quite a surprise to me, because I thought that at its low price, it would sound like a harsh mess. On the contrary, I found it to be a wireless earphone with a nicely detailed and present midrange and vocal presence. There is some upper midrange glare that I find is often characteristic in low cost headphones and earphones, but it does not rear its head in often enough to be much of an issue. Treble is fairly neutral, with good attack and decay. Bass is a bit of a shortcoming due to the fact that the earphones sit in the outer ear, and do not form a tight seal in the inner ear. There is some decent midbass and upper bass punch, though sub bass is rolled off. I would have liked more mid bass and sub bass, as having a powerful driving beat is something many of us, myself included, look for in an exercise earphone like the WIT. As I listen to bass-heavy genres such as dance, house music and drum & bass when I do cardio exercises, and hip-hop for weight training, an equally powerful bass slam to match the WIT’s articulate midrange would round out these earphones perfectly.
Summary
Overall, I enjoy Smartomi’s WIT, and I regularly use it for my both routine workouts and as a walking around earphone. With a more powerful bass punch, the WIT would be a perfect workout earphone in my book. Considering its low price and plentiful 8-hour battery life however, the WIT is great value for money, and gets a strong recommendation from me for anyone looking to buy an affordable Bluetooth exercise headset. The fact that the WIT exists as a Bluetooth earphone with this good of a midrange, an excellent 8-hour battery life, and a sub-30-dollar price tag indicates that the market for Bluetooth audio is truly in its element today, and is rapidly maturing. For the average consumer, there are now so many choices of excellent Bluetooth devices to be had at any sort of price range, with any feature one could want. The future looks bright for high quality Bluetooth audio devices at great prices, and the WIT certainly establishes itself among them.
