Sennheiser’s new sports earbuds send heart rate, temperature to popular fitness apps

Sennheiser’s new sports earbuds send heart rate, temperature to popular fitness apps

Sennheiser’s latest wireless earbuds aren’t just built to withstand the physical rigors of a tough workout — they’re also designed to help you track and optimize it. The Momentum Sport are the company’s first wireless earbuds to integrate heart rate and body temperature sensors, and they’re compatible with some of the most popular fitness apps, including Apple Health, Garmin Connect, Strava, Peleton, and Polar.

Sennheiser debuted the Momentum Sport at CES 2024 and says they’ll be available April 9 for $330 in three different colors: Polar Black, Burned Olive, and Metallic Graphite.

The Momentum Sport can be paired directly with other fitness devices like the Apple Watch, Garmin Watch, and Polar Vantage V3 multisport watch — which might seem like overkill when it comes to fitness sensors. However, Sennheiser feels that the ear is a better location on the body than the wrist for precise measurements.

“The inner ear is an optimal, dark location with a low degree of light pollution,” the company claims in its press release, “and is one of the most stable areas of the body during physical activity.” It goes on to suggest that this lets the earbuds provide consistent biometrics, even at the peak of a workout. Body temperatures can be measured within a claimed accuracy of +/- 0.3 degrees Celsius, and heart rates can be tracked with a promised beats-per-minute (bpm) detection ranging from 30 bpm to 220 bpm.

Polar Flow users benefit even more, as the app can gather these stats in real time and incorporate them into its audio training feedback.

The earbuds have an IP55 rating for dust and sweat, while their charging case offers IP54 protection. Battery life is a claimed 6 hours per charge, with 24 total hours when you include the case. Ten minutes of quick charging over USB can provide up to 45 minutes of playback.

Cleverly, the Momentum Sport also include three-axis accelerometers, which work hand in hand with the earbuds’ touch controls — if you’re wearing gloves, the controls will still recognize tap gestures through the detection of movement.

The Momentum Sport use a vented design that lets air circulate. This should help reduce the occlusion effect (the feeling of having stuffed ears), but it may also decrease the sound of footsteps and breathing, which can be distracting. Sennheiser says the same vented architecture also helps with the effectiveness of the transparency mode, letting you hear more of your surroundings when you’re not using the adaptive active noise canceling mode.

When it comes to sound quality, the Sport use a new 10mm transducer, and they’re compatible with aptX Adaptive for higher-quality digital audio.

Sennheiser also introduced its Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds and Accentum Plus wireless noise-canceling headphones at the big electronics show in Las Vegas.