True wireless earbuds are a dime a dozen nowadays, so it’s tough to stand out amongst the pack. When I saw the Sennheiser Momentum Sport wireless earbuds way back at CES 2024 and got a full walk-through of the features, I knew I had to try them.
These aren’t ordinary sports earbuds: they have features you’d typically expect to only get with a smartwatch or fitness tracker built right into the earbuds themselves. Combining this knowledge with Sennheiser’s reputation for amazing audio quality and noise cancellation and I had a feeling these would become a fitness fanatic’s dream pair.
What Are The Sennheiser Momentum Sport True Wireless Earbuds?
These wireless earbuds are optimized for fitness with features like an integrated photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensor and body temperature sensor that can each output critical data to popular fitness apps and devices. The heart rate data connects and integrates with popular sport devices and apps, like Apple Watch/Health, Garmin Watch/Connect, Strava, and Peloton.
The stand-out feature, however, is that they are also the first non-Polar product to offer access to Polar’s biosensing capabilities and data analytics like body temperature. With this information, you get real-time insights during training and deeper offline analysis via the Polar Flow app ecosystem.
While working out, walking, or running, the earbuds are designed to help minimize footstep noise, breathing, and other body-borne distractions. This is thanks to an acoustic relief channel. They also employ a semi-open design for natural environmental awareness. An adjustable Transparency mode, Anti-wind mode, and Adaptive Noise Cancelling mode let you adapt as your surroundings change.
The new acoustic system features a redesigned transducer. The buds are IP55 sweat and water resistant with a shock-proof chassis and come with clog-resistant ear tips.
The IP54-rated, Qi-enabled carrying case stores up to three additional earbud charges, extending the playback time from up to six hours to 24 total hours. A quick charge feature provides up to 45 minutes of playback after just 10 minutes of USB-C charging.
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport true wireless earbuds officially launched in early April 2024 and they sell for $400. They come in Polar Black, Burned Olive, and Metallic Graphite.
Sennheiser Momentum Sport Review
Having already seen these earbuds in person at CES 2024, I knew what to expect. But that didn’t make them any less stunning once I unboxed the pair.
Tons of accessories come in the box: the charging case and earbuds, three sets of eartips (small, medium, and large), four sets of earfins, a short USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable, and a belt loop for the case.
While they charged, I downloaded the Sennheiser Smart Control app. After choosing the right sized eartips and fins, I ran the required firmware update in the app, which took about 20 minutes to complete. (There have been several other firmware updates released throughout the duration of my review). I went through the app guide to get familiar with the features and functions, then it was off to the races.
Listening Via the Sennheiser Momentum Sport Earbuds
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a decent set of buds offering clear and concise sound both indoors and out. I didn’t notice a huge difference when tapping into modes like anti-wind while going for morning walks on especially windy days. But it was still pleasant to listen to music and podcasts from a variety of sources, including SiriusXM and Apple Music. I took a few calls with these buds as well, and they work wonderfully.
Listening to some of my common go-to tracks for headphones and speaker reviews, I noticed an immediate difference when I switched audio resolution from standard to high resolution, which affords 24-bit/96kHz aptX adaptive (listening to a lossless Apple Digital Master of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” from Apple Music). The tune sounded less harsh and more balanced in this mode. This will impact battery life, but if you want the best sound quality possible, it’s worth it.
When comparing them to the OnePlus Buds 3, the OnePlus earbuds sounded crisper but also slightly more muffled. The Sennheiser Momentum Sport buds offered a more pronounced but slightly harsher sound. It comes down to personal preference. I found with the Momentum Sports, I had to really play around with the equalizer to find the right custom preset for each tune or type of tune.
Using the on-bud control is the usual combination of taps, double taps, and triple taps along with touching and holding for volume control. If you remove a bud, audio will automatically pause, a nice touch if you’re listening to a podcast, for example, and stop to chat with a neighbour or the person at the local smoothie shop. You can also customize the sensitivity in the app if you find that you’re accidentally switching tracks when you don’t mean to do so, or the audio adjusts every time you put your hand near your ear to brush away your hair or adjust the fit.
I never had an issue with battery life, charging them and placing them in the case to pull out for my weekly weekend morning walks and occasional weekday afternoon strolls. They would remain charged for weeks of 1.5 hours or so of walks per week before I ever got a battery low notification. If you wear them for a one-hour workout every day, you’ll easily get through almost an entire month without recharging, as long as you place them back in the case each time. Keep the case on a wireless charging surface and you’re golden.
Health Tracking With the Sennheiser Momentum Sport Earbuds
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds can track health metrics beyond what you’d expect from true wireless earbuds. This includes heart rate and body temperature in real-time.
As the first non-Polar product to work with compatible Polar devices, I paired them with the Polar Vantage V3 smartwatch (separate review coming soon) and downloaded the Polar Flow app.
It’s simple to pair from the watch itself: put the earbuds in your ears and turn them on. Open General Settings on the Polar Vantage V3, select Pair and sync, then Pair sensor or other device. Momentum Sport should automatically pop up: select it and voila! The two devices are paired. You can also pair the earbuds directly with the Polar Flow app and track from there, without a smartwatch needed.
After the initial pairing process, I ran into some issues with subsequent pairing, whereby it would work at times and not others. It would constantly find my heart rate then lose it and repeat this cycle over and over through a half hour walk.
I could never figure out the issue, but at times, things went smoothly. While going for a walk or doing another exercise, you can hear your progress through the earbuds. This includes your heart rate zone, and accomplishments along the way, like when I have walked a full kilometre, how long it took, and what my average heart rate was.
During my regular weekend morning walks, I seemingly consistently teeter on the edge between heart rates zone because the buds would advise me that I was in heart rate zone two, then three, then two, then three, again and again, sometimes up to a dozen times in a row. If you’re doing a workout like HIIT, running, or cycling, chances are you’ll maintain a specific heart rate zone for longer and this won’t be an issue. But for a steady state workout like a brisk walk, the repetitive updates about your heart rate zone fluctuating can be irritating.
As noted, you also see body temperature, collected through the buds. Since you use the Polar Flow app, there isn’t really a necessity nor any major advantage that I could find to using these buds with an actual Polar smartwatch. I eventually abandoned the connection altogether as I didn’t find that it worked well enough or offered enough additional insight to be worth the frustration. It’s a valiant effort to offer this pairing, but unless you’re deeply entrenched into the Polar flow ecosystem already, chances are you won’t use it. Meanwhile, the heart rate and body temperature data is a nicety, but chances are you have a smartwatch that measures that already, so it’s not a dealbreaker.
Should You Buy the Sennheiser Momentum Sport Earbuds?
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a nice-looking, good-sounding pair of true wireless earbuds with some added features that kick them up a notch above others. Whether or not you should buy them relies on if you’ll even use those. The wireless charging-enabled, rugged case is a nice touch as well, great for adventurers and travelers.
For the price, comparing these buds to many others in the space that cost half as much, it’s a challenge to justify buying them. Will you be happy with them? Yes. Can you get other earbuds for less that look and sound just as good? Yes. You might find that you have to play around quite a bit with the settings to get the sound exactly as you want. The good news is that app is pretty comprehensive, and there’s a lot you can adjust to tweak the sound and settings exactly to your preferences.
The main value here is if you don’t own a smartwatch (or smart ring) and have no intention of getting one. Or, as a back-up if yours dies. Another scenario might be serious runners who don’t want to carry any extra weight, a bulky smartwatch included. With these buds, you can still check heart rate zones to maintain your goals without any devices but the buds in your ears. Then use the Polar Flow app to see your training progress.
Thus, there’s value in the buds themselves being able to track your heart rate and body temperature. But for most of us, we already have wearables that do this. It’s icing on the cake, but the price delta compared to other earbuds in its class doesn’t justify that much sweetness unless you’re a serious runner who will find value in the extra features.
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport true wireless earbuds are available for $400. Keep an eye out for Black Friday or holiday deals to potentially get them for less.