When I first agreed to take a look at the Edifier W360BT Wearable Bluetooth headphones, I was a little sceptical about their design. They’re extremely odd, and a far cry from traditional in-ear wireless headphones that you see on the market today. And that’s because of the neck band design. The W360BTs are supposed to be worn around the back of the neck, giving some form of strain relief from your ears, which is a problem for some wireless headphones that rely on a cable between the two ear capsules. And for the most part, it works well.
The whole thing hasn’t been designed to be particularly sturdy. I’m sure if you put some light force into it, you could easily bend the neckband out of shape. But on the flip side, if they were to be made from a more premium material like metal, weight is just going to be added to the back of the neck.
All of the controls are housed inside of the left hand side of the neck strap too, keeping unwanted weight away from the ears. There’s a switch for power, and three buttons for skip track and play/pause in the middle. The strangest thing though is the cables to the ear capsules come out of the bottom of the neck strap rather than the top. Not sure why this is but would have surely made sense to send them straight up to the ears.
Nothing here is extendable either, not that I know of other products like this that are, but it’s a one size fits all kind of deal. It’s great for adults, but for kids with smaller necks, I’m not so sure.
The actual fit on the ear capsules is very comfortable. I’m currently using the middle earbud size for my ears. They come with three, a small medium and large so try them out to find your best size. There are even holes in the back of the headphones too for some sound passthrough, so if you’re jogging on the street, you’ll still be able to hear traffic. Not so good if you’re in the centre of London though on your way to work as the traffic can get loud.
Music quality for the most part is pretty decent too which was surprising for such a strange design, but Edifier in the past has shone through for us. These are no different, producing a nice amount of bass that doesn’t feel too over the top unless you’re pumping some proper heavy EDM into them. Mids and highs do suffer a bit but that’s probably to do with more the headphones design as the vents will probably affect the soundstage of instruments. After all, these are technically classed as open back headphones. To be honest, sound is great all around in general pop music, but lacks a bit of refinement when it comes to things like classic orchestral tracks.
The cost of these headphones isn’t bad either. I’ve found them online for around the £45 mark which is pretty good in my opinion. If you’re wanting a headphone setup for your commute, then definitely check these out. Oh wait, they’re still around my neck. See, told you they were light. For more information, head over to the Edifier website.
