adidas Sport FWD-001 in Ear Bluetooth Earphones - Night Grey

Product Information

The fit feels plush and comfortable, more so than the Z.N.E. 01 ANC, and the FWD-02 Sport maintain those cushy comfort levels over extended periods of time. In terms of hardware aesthetics and design, Adidas FWD-01 comes in three colors — the company sent its “Night Grey” variation for review. The other colors are “Light Grey” and the multi-toned blue, coral pink, and grey “Signal Coral.” They aim to offer fitness fanatics the ultimate set of collar earphones featuring a rugged sweat-proof design, more wing tip options than can easily be counted, and a marathon-length battery life. If you’re in the market for a solid pair of running or gym headphones with a marathon battery life then the Adidas FWD-01 are a solid choice. They offer decent audio quality by gym-headphone standards and come with a lengthy 16-hour battery life and fast-charge support.

While they aren’t the prettiest gym headphones around, when it comes to functionality they easily match competing sets from the likes of Jaybird. Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You'll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel. We are a collective bunch of geeks who love to share our passion with the rest of the world. Just like the Beholder we have adopted as our mascot, we have both depth and width of geeky topics we cover.When it comes to the audio performance, I feel Adidas and Zound have made some decent-sounding headphones. While I can’t speak for the Z.N.E. 01 model, I was a fan of the ANC version, and the performance of the FWD-02 Sport displays similar characteristics: big bass, lots of energy and smooth delivery.

The issue I’ve encountered is that they tend to move around in the ears. The up and down motion of running shifts the position of the earbuds a little, leading to an impact on the seal and music suffering from some leakage. I’ve attached the biggest wing-tips, and it’s only been an issue when vigorously moving about – in the gym, it was fine. Note that attaching the wing-tips can take a little while –it’s a fiddly process of positioning the rubbery elastic in the right place. Setting that caveat aside, under that range, these earbuds had no trouble connecting. And since I did my cycling — I’m not much for running — with my phone in a bike mount, these earbuds stayed connected with near-lossless audio throughout.Being Adidas’ first-ever range of audio equipment, the FWD-01 does a decent enough job in the audio department, though it doesn’t yet match up to the likes of Jaybird or Bose, both of which have been in the industry for much, much longer. The base preset EQ is pretty solid, which is by default bass-forward, which certainly pumps some adrenaline in your workout. As such, bass-heavy genres such as EDM and hip hop will no doubt benefit from it. But if that’s not for you, there are other EQ presets available in the app, or it can be manually edited, giving you a bevvy of audio options. What’s surprising is that the IP rating isn’t higher. Given the FWD-02 Sport have been designed in consultation with Adidas Runners, a community of international runners, the IP rating is rather bog-standard. Features

adidas sport headphones blend intelligent, ergonomic design with incredible sound to support you every step of the way from warm-up, to workout, right through recovery. The earbuds themselves are the same way. There was just enough flex in the ear tip wing to keep the earbuds in place without putting too much pressure on the outer ear. Meanwhile, the earbud tips are squishy and comfortable too. So wearing this in-ear all day didn’t present any trouble either. Finally, Adidas includes a fold-to-close carry case. Adidas made that from a mesh material and even added a slot specifically for the charging cable. But it’s also small enough that the accessories just barely fit without being difficult to place inside. So, unlike many other companies’ included carry cases, this one from Adidas doesn’t take up much more extra room than the earbuds themselves would.That doesn’t mean they’re perfect though. Some users are not going to appreciate the extra bass, just for starters. Especially those who identify as audiophiles. And for those that don’t use on-source AI assistant or Spotify, the app and customized buttons — aside from equalization features — are going to feel useless. As are the buds themselves if you need more range or don’t have or want to buy an extra USB-C charging cable. Since the latter inclusion is so short. The fabric also covers the button housing found in both the left- and right-hand lines. And there are textures on the earbuds themselves too, though that only makes them more comfortable to grip for placing in or taking out. There are no buttons at all on the earbuds. The only interactive element there is the embedded USB-C port. The Transparency mode sounds natural enough, opening up the area around the user for more situational awareness of the goings-on at your sides and behind you.

The Adidas Headphones app (for Android and iOS) immediately recognizes the paired earphones and leads you through a tour of their features and customizable options. The aforementioned Action button can be set up through the app, and different actions can be assigned to single, double, and triple presses, but customization is limited to voice assistants and Spotify controls. Perhaps the app's most useful feature is the built-in five-band EQ, with several adjustable presets, as well as a user preset labeled Custom.

sold out on in the UK at the time of writing. That’s the bad news – the good news is that they’re available to buy on Adidas claims that these earbuds should last over 16-hours. My usage saw around 16-hours and 20-minutes.