Wireless earbuds have become a fairly common product in the market over the last few years. We have seen them go from in-the-ear, over-the-ear and now off-the-ear is the latest attempt from brands. Sony is a big name in the audio circuit with the WH and the WF-1000 series of headphones and earbuds, respectively leading the market.
Now, the Japanese giant is ready to play around with different forms, which is why we get the new Float Run earbuds launching in the market for Rs 10,990. Premium earbuds need to offer quality sound, comfort and endurance to last for over a few days. Does the new Sony Float Run tick these boxes and still offer a refreshing twist to listeners? We used the earbuds for more than a few weeks and here’s what we found.
Unique Twist To Earbuds Design
The first thing you notice about the Float Run is the unique design. It has a band which goes over your neck while the earbuds (white in colour) sit off the ear. Sony claims these earbuds focus on comfort with the lightweight design and tend to agree with those assessments.
The rubberised finishing of the band and the holding portion looks solid and we don’t feel it will break up anytime soon. You have the controls on one side of the band which might be hard to control while wearing the Float Run on your ears.
The name of the product suggests Sony is targeting the running clan and we tested it during our own runs to see if the earbuds can work as a reliable option in this segment. There is a definite learning curve with the form factor, purely because of the way the earbuds dangle in front of the ears.
Sound Matters But What Else?
The fact that Sony has opted for an off-the-ear design means sound has a different outlook for the wearer. You get to hear everything around you, and yet enjoy the music playing through the Float Run. The earbuds don’t support noise cancellation of any level, so it is safe to say that Sony has given us the ultimate version of the transparency mode, which is nothing in between you and the ambient sound.
The earbuds have a 16mm driver but there is no way to tune the settings because the Float Run doesn’t support the Connect app which feels slightly limiting for these earbuds.
While we tested the earbuds, we noticed that listening to music and talking to another person can be a funny experience, as your voice is much louder than you’d want it to sound.
New Effort That Needs More Tweaks To Work
It is interesting to see brands try out new form factors but the effort from Sony does feel like a product that is in first-gen. Sony Float Run costs Rs 10,990 and for that the music part feels limiting, even though you can use them reliably for phone calls, and the battery life gets a boost because some features are not available. We are happy to see new experiments and can’t wait to see what Sony offers with the second-gen Float Run model, and whether it can have enough takers, purely because they like to run with something comfortable with music playing over the ears.
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