Jaybird Freedom Bluetooth sport earphones

The Jaybird Freedom is a set of wireless earphones that connects to a phone or music player over a Bluetooth connection.

The earphones are designed for listening to music and taking phone calls while the user exercises or plays sports.

Connecting (or 'pairing') the headphones to a smartphone was easy, and sound quality was excellent across the full dynamic range (from soft to loud) for music. Everything was clearly defined whether we listened at low or high volumes, making playing all genres of music a pleasure.

The in-built microphone performed well when making phone calls and the user's voice could be heard easily by recipients. However, as with other wireless devices, being in noisy environments and places with lots of signal interference decreased performance markedly.

To ensure the headphones stay in the user's ears when they're exercising, the package includes a set of Gecko Tip ear-tips that can be swapped for the attached ones, and we found them significantly better. The American version of this product also comes with clip-on silicone ear cushions that nestle in the ear's bowl but, inexplicably, they are missing from the UK version.

The battery should last six hours and as it's connected by power-hungry Bluetooth to a smartphone the headphones could well last longer in use than the phone to which they are paired.

However, while sound quality was great, the absence of the silicone ear cushions makes the British version of this product seem poor value. The manufacturer tells us the next UK version will have them but was unable to tell us when it would be available.