The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i offer a comfortable and stable fit. Their old school earbud design allows you to monitor your surroundings while jogging but also lets a lot of ambient noise seep into your audio. Sadly, they won't fare well in loud environments and have mediocre sound quality.
Our Verdict
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i are best used for sports. They're not versatile enough and lack decent isolation for everyday casual headphones.
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Comfortable and stable fit.
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Lightweight adjustable earbuds.
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Poor noise isolation, by design.
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Poor audio reproduction.
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Thin and flimsy audio cable.
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Bass and treble delivery varies significantly across users.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i are mediocre for neutral listening. They have a comfortable and open fit, which gives them a decent soundstage for an in-ear model. However they an uneven, bass-lacking sound quality.
Not suitable for noisy commutes. These headphones barely block any noise. You will struggle to hear your audio in loud environments.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i are decent headphones for sports. They're moderately comfortable, and the hook design is stable enough to not fall off your ears while exercising. They also have an open fit, which lets you monitor your environment while jogging or biking.
Below-average for office use. They won't block any office chatter but on the upside, they're moderately comfortable and don't leak too much.
- 5.5 Mixed Usage
- 5.8 Neutral Sound
- 4.9 Commute/Travel
- 6.7 Sports/Fitness
- 5.0 Office
- 4.6 Wireless Gaming
- 6.4 Wired Gaming
- 5.6 Phone Call
- Updated Nov 21, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.1.
- Updated Nov 21, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.
- Updated Feb 16, 2018: Converted to Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Oct 02, 2017: The microphone has been tested with our new methodology, as explained here
- Updated Aug 10, 2017: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
- Updated Mar 01, 2017: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Jul 20, 2016: Review published.
- Updated Jul 18, 2016: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 28, 2016: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Test Results
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i have a unique earbud design. They combine the old school earbud tips with sturdy ear hooks that are adjustable and make use of premium materials. They're less versatile than the Bang & Olufsen Earset Wireless but these earbuds look high-end and will stand out; however, the cable looks a little cheaply made in comparison.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i are moderately comfortable and have a very adaptable design. You can adjust the height, and tightness of the hooks as well as the angle of the earbuds. Unfortunately, the old school earbud design doesn't fit snuggly in the ear and forces you to adjust the earbuds regularly to get a tight fit.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i have a decent control scheme. They provide call/music, track-skipping, and volume controls. Unfortunately, the in-line control module is a thin cylinder that isn't intuitive to use and doesn't provide good tactile feedback.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i are very portable headphones. They're a little larger than typical earbuds, but they're small enough to not be cumbersome to carry on your person. They'll easily fit into your pockets, purse, or bag.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i comes with a sturdy leather pouch that offers a decent amount of protection from water damage and minor falls. However, it's not a hard case and won't protect the headphones against high physical stress like accidentally stepping or sitting on them.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i's build quality is decent but has a few flaws. A lot of effort was put into crafting the adjustable hooks, and it looks and feels solid enough to last a while. However, there are a lot more moving parts on these earbuds than most, which means more potential weak points. Also, the cable is thin and feels cheaply made compared to the rest of the build quality.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i have adjustable hooks that fit around the ear and prevent them from falling off your ears while running. This makes them stable enough to be used at the gym. However, the earbud design does not always provide the best fit. So, although they won't fall off your ears, the swiveling earbuds may move about as you're exercising, which can get a little frustrating especially when it causes a loss of sound quality.
The Bang & Olufsen Earset 3i's frequency response consistency is sub-par. The earbud design means they won't have a consistent fit across multiple reseats and multiple users. They show more than 6dB of variance in the bass range and about 6dB of variance in the treble range.
Poor isolation. Due to their open design and minimal seal, these earbuds have very poor isolation. They offer no isolation below 1kHz, and above that, barely achieve more than 9dB of isolation. This is quite a contrast with most in-ears, which provide extreme amounts of passive isolation, mostly in the treble range.
Average leakage. These earbuds leak noticeably more than In-ears, and yet much less than over-ears. They barely leak below 2kHz and the profile of the leakage that happens above that frequency is also quite narrow. However, the leakage level is moderately loud. So, although the leakage coming out won't be bothersome in most situations, an audible high-pitched sound can be heard around you at high volumes.
No compatible app.
