Bragi Dash Pro

Long before the airpods became synonymous with ‘truly wireless earphones’, there was the original posterchild for the segment — the Bragi Dash. Its successor, the Dash Pro, launched recently in India through HeadphoneZone, is, by far, the most feature-rich pair of truly wireless earphones I have checked out so far…but the price is likely to deter most.

Seeing the Dash Pro for the first time, the glossy plastic and the generic looks may not come off as particularly premium, but the solid construction feels well worth the price. Despite being fairly diminutive, they sit a tad heavy in the ear and are best for casual music listening rather than wearing all day… and depending on the fit in the ear, may work for intense workout sessions. The Dash Pro is waterproof in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes, good for swim sessions and using by the poolside. Battery life is plentiful at nearly five hours, and the charging case gives you five extra charges.

Pairing with an iPhone or Android via its companion Bragi app, you can adjust sound settings and explore the fitness features. Yes, that’s right — these small earphones not only pack in the usual Bluetooth hardware, battery and speakers, but they also include accessories for tracking fitness metrics. Controls are via touch gestures, taps and long presses and you can operate a lot of the functionality without launching the app. However, the touch controls are a bit fiddly, and the headphones occasionally suffered the same connectivity issues that plagued most truly wireless earbuds.

For the price though, the Dash Pro just had to nail the audio quality, and while the sound is adequately good across music genres at low and high volumes, it lacks spirit — the bass lacks in warmth and the soundstage just passes muster, even though the mids and highs were well balanced.