Bmani Sport with LED Review
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
This Product Bmani Sport with LED | |||||
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Awards | Best Wired Earbud | Best Budget Wireless Earbuds | Best Wireless Earbuds on a Tight Budget | ||
Price | $59 List $39.99 at Amazon | $18.00 List $17.97 at Amazon | $22 List $23.99 at Amazon | $150 List $99.99 at Amazon | $50 List $24.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score | |||||
Star Rating | |||||
Bottom Line | You get what you pay for with these buds, which is bad sound quality | Forgoing flash for a great fit and impressive sound at a great price, these wired earbuds are hard to argue with | Trades wireless ease for great sound, comfort, and a pleasantly low price | These buds offer an impressive soundstage and sturdy construction — if they fit | If you don't need noise cancelation or top-notch audio, these are a good deal |
Rating Categories | Bmani Sport with LED | UliX Rider - 3.5mm | Linsoul KZ ZSN Pro X | Jaybird Vista 2 | Amazon Echo Buds |
Sound Quality (40%) | |||||
User Experience (20%) | |||||
Noise Cancellation (15%) | |||||
Battery life (15%) | |||||
Call Quality (10%) | |||||
Specs | Bmani Sport with LED | UliX Rider - 3.5mm | Linsoul KZ ZSN Pro X | Jaybird Vista 2 | Amazon Echo Buds |
Active Noise Cancelling | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Earbud Location Tracking | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Measured Battery Life | 8.3 hr | N/A | N/A | 6.3 hr | 5.9 hr |
Waterproofing | IPX5 | N/A | N/A | IP68 | IPX2 |
Measured Weight | 0.29 oz | 0.62 oz | 1.06 oz | 0.24 oz | 0.18 oz |
Quick Charging | N/A | N/A | N/A | 5 mins = 1 hr | 15 mins = 2 hrs |
Charges Per Case | 5 | N/A | N/A | 2 | 3 |
Wired Charging Port | USB-C | 3.5mm jack | 3.5mm jack | USB-C | USB-C |
Wireless Charging Option | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Claimed Battery Life | 8 hrs | N/A | N/A | 8 hrs | 5 hrs |
Charging Carrying Case | Yes | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
Transparency Mode | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
Multipoint | No | No | No | No | No |
In-ear Detection | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Multiple Ear Tips | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Our Analysis and Test Results
While it's nice to have options at every price point, the entry-level wireless earbuds in our lineup leave much to be desired, and the Bmani Sport with LED buds are no exception.
Performance Comparison
Sound Quality
Our panel of expert listeners ran the Bmani Sport with LED through the wringer, listening to an extensive playlist before scoring their subjective sound performance. They found that these earbuds perform best at lower volumes with sonically unchallenging music like easy-listening or smooth jazz.
Songs like “Ultralight Beam” by Kanye West don't ever push these earbuds outside of their comfort zone, but they leave us wondering what it could sound like if we could hear it properly. When listening to “First Time” by Hozier, we noticed some distortion, particularly at the higher volume moments like 0:38 and the chorus at 1:03.
Though the Bmani can produce bass frequencies, they are muffled and vague, lacking any punch or depth. The mid-frequencies lack richness, and the treble tones lack crispness, becoming distorted at high volumes. It's also worth noting that these earbuds can get loud — louder than many in our lineup, but clarity tanks as you turn them up.
Soundstage
The soundstage of your earbuds is how well they offer a surround-sound-like experience. Even though not all earbuds come with this kind of advanced sound technology, we factored it into our testing as it can dramatically increase the quality of your listening experience.
These earbuds aren't very immersive, and the soundstage is distant. In general, their clarity is underwhelming, making tracks feel closed and compressed. They don't create an open or layered sonic space to explore, though you can still place instruments in space and note location changes.
To finalize the sound quality testing, we placed the Bmani's in our testing rig to measure their frequency response. Their sound quality score partly reflects how well it followed our GearLab House Curve. While these earbuds occasionally cross paths with our frequency curve in the mids and trebles, it deviates a lot, and our panel of experts still found the overall sound signature disappointing. All-in-all, these aren't stellar earbuds if your priority is sound quality.
User Experience
We tested the Bmani Sport with LED in a variety of ear shapes for form and function in order to measure their comfort and secureness. These buds don't have any app to test and thus lack an adjustable EQ or any other customizing functions.
Comfort
While their fit is not immediately bothersome, we found that their stabilization wings don't fit quite right no matter what size or shape ear you might have. This eventually causes discomfort over longer listening sessions.
Stability
Because the stabilizer wings don't fit quite right, they can come loose during physical activity. This makes them hard to recommend if you plan on running or going to the gym with these earbuds.
Customization
There is no app, so users can only interact with these buds via a simple Bluetooth connection. However, there are no instructions on how to connect, which can lead to confusion and frustration. iPhone connection proved particularly tricky during our testing and took many attempts. There are neat LED battery indicators in the case, but it seems like a party trick more than a standout feature. Overall, these buds are very bare bones.
Connectivity
Two of our primary earbud testers had connectivity troubles with the Bmani Sport earbuds, with one tester specifically mentioning that it took multiple attempts to pair with her iPhone, and it was a somewhat annoying process. To compare our experience with that of other users, we chose to crowdsource additional input by gathering info on cited connectivity issues from 1-star Amazon User Reviews. In our analysis, the Bmanis had a relatively low rate of connectivity problems, at just 0.5%.
Noise Cancellation
The Bmani Sport with LED buds don't have active noise cancellation, so we were only able to score them based on their ability to passively seal out background noise. We did this by setting them up securely in our testing rig, playing noise across the frequency spectrum, and measuring how much got through the seal.
The Bmani Sport performed okay, with bass passing through relatively easily and the higher frequency bands being blocked a bit better. Surprisingly, their passive seal was better than some of their premium competitors.
While they lack ANC, they will still block out some sound just via their seal in the ear canal. Listen to how well the Bmani Sport passively blocks out sounds in the video below.
Battery Life
We tested the battery life of the Bmani Sport with LED by setting them to a control gain and letting them play until they died.
These did well, playing for 8 hours and 15 minutes before dying, about on par with manufacturer claims. Unique to these earbuds is the ability to charge them five more times via the charging case before needing to plug them in. That's a total of almost 41 hours of playback before needing a recharge. While they don't have any other bells and whistles like wireless charging, this battery performance is on par or better than a lot of their premium competitors.
Call Quality
We tested the microphone on the Bmani Sport with LED by setting them up in our testing rig and having it play phrases out of its “mouth.” We then played various background noises simulating real-world environments to measure how clearly voices could still be heard.
Check out the videos below to listen to how these earbuds sound in these simulated environments.
During our subway noise stress test, results were still worse, with audio quality diminishing further and more background noise seeping through.
In an office setting, these buds did ok at isolating the voice, but audio quality was clearly diminished and volume levels spiked and dipped at random.
The mic struggled with high-pitched voices during our baseline test, seeming to clip when higher frequencies were projected at them. Lower-pitched voices were audible.
Should You Buy the Bmani Sport with LED?
The Bmani Sport with LED are budget earbuds with low-grade quality, making them hard to recommend. Their longer battery life and robust charging case make them seem like a good option for long listening sessions; however, their lack of comfort pretty much cancels that score out because you can't wear them long before you'd want to take them out. All things considered, we'd urge you to save your money for something better.
What Other Earbuds Should You Consider?
If you're on a tight budget, we recommend the Amazon Echo Buds 2023, which have notably better sound quality and user experience. If you're willing to spend a bit more, the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro are a much better all-around package with stellar sound quality, user experience, and call quality. If you really want good comfort with stabilization arms for physical activity, consider the Beats by Dre Powerbeats Pro, which has a very similar form factor with much better execution.