The BackBeat Sense headphones deliver good quality audio in a lightweight frame.
The Backbeat Sense headphones support Bluetooth streaming to two paired devices — but not simultaneously — with a very lightweight design. They’re (more or less) the slight budget alternative to the truly wonderful Backbeat Pro headphones I reviewed last year.
In terms of controls, the right earcup is where the microUSB charging port hides, along with the call/answer button on the cup section itself, and the on/off switch for the headphones themselves. It’s a solid switch, but it did take me a little work to recall where it was, because it sits rather high on the cup itself. On the left earcup there’s a rocker wheel for adjusting volume, as well as play/pause and track skipping buttons on the cup itself.
The Backbeat Sense headphones borrow a trick from the Backbeat Pros, because they’ll automatically mute if they detect they’re no longer on your ears. At least that’s the theory; like the Backbeat Pros the reality can be a little different. I hit a few instances where they failed to mute when removed, or failed to restart when placed back on my ears.
Most lightweight headphones tend to utilise a fully fold-down design to minimise the amount of space they take up, but Plantronics hasn’t taken that approach with the Backbeat Sense. The inclusion of the soft adjustable band makes that impractical. Instead, all they’ll do is fold downwards and then into the supplied canvas case, which is rudimentary but workable. While they charge over microUSB, there’s no supplied charger to keep them going.
Plantronics rates the Backbeat Sense headphones as good for up to 18 hours of playback. My own tests suggest that’s entirely feasible, and there’s a nice touch here as they’re capable of power-free playback with the supplied 3.5mm audio cable if you do happen to run out of charge while listening.
The real meat of any headphones is in the audio they deliver, and here the Backbeat Sense headphones don’t disappoint with a crisp and clear sound. They’re not full circumaural cans, so there’s a certain amount of noise leakage and they do take a little adjustment to get the optimal position on your ears, but once that’s done the basic equalisation on the Backbeat Sense is very pleasing indeed. Bass is crisp without being automatically thumping and muddy, while vocals on a variety of tracks came through clearly. They’re not the greatest headphones — and you wouldn’t expect that at this price point — but they’re entirely suitable to their asking price.
As full A2DP compliant Bluetooth headphones, they’re also suitable for taking and making phone calls. Assessing that kind of functionality is always rife with variables — it’s not going to be the Backbeat Sense’s fault if you’re on a flaky network cell — but in my conversations over the Backbeat Sense’s inbuilt audio, callers reported no issues with my audio clarity, and I could hear them easily. It’s still very weird to be talking to absolute thin air with a pair of headphones on, however.
At $249, the Backbeat Sense headphones hit a solid sweet spot in terms of audio clarity, portability and pricing. It would be nicer if they were fully folding headphones, although the band design does make that unlikely for a next-generation Sense headset, but beyond that they’re a very solid option. You might even say that they… make sense.