- Synseer’s HealthBuds claim ‘hearing, heart and health monitoring’ perks
- An in-ear infra and ultrasonic operating system takes your heart rate
- The catch? The price – plus the $30 monthly subscription fee on top
When it comes to health tracking features there’s pretty much nothing that the best smartwatches can’t do, but audio company Synseer aims to be the next fitness tracking contender, with its new HealthBuds wireless earphones.
Like the newly released Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, they’re fitted with heart and ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) abilities, but you also get hearing health tech (the kind you’ll only find in Apple‘s top-tier AirPods Pro 2.
Synseer’s HealthBuds are launching today (March 10), and while they sound innovative on paper, there are a few catches you need to know about – and a subscription fee that leaves me with more questions than answers.
Synseer’s HealthBuds claim to pack simultaneous heart and hearing health tracking, which is already a step up from a number of the best earbuds – with the exception of the aforementioned PowerBeats Pro 2, Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds and a few others. The HealthBuds are designed for around-the-clock fitness tracking, meaning that they operate in the background while you’re taking a call or listening to your favorite songs.
Using an in-ear infra and ultrasonic operating system to detect changes within the ear, the HealthBuds are Synseer’s first personal health device designed to be an ‘affordable’ option for fitness tracking headphones. I’ve seen a lot of outrageously-priced pieces of tech, but none of them comes close to what you’re about to find out.
A subscription fee on top of an already hefty price tag?
The HealthBuds are available to preorder now and will start shipping later this summer, and according to Synseer you’ll be eligible for a discount if you lock in a preorder now. Instead of paying $799 (which is around £620 or AU$1,260), those who preorder the HealthBuds can claim them for $399, which is… better, but far from the ‘great value’ price tag Synseer mentions in its press release.
And that doesn’t even scratch the surface, because on top of that fee, you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription of $25 (normally $30). What additional benefits does this buy, specifically? We’re not sure – Synseer hasn’t disclosed the details yet.
It’s a big ask – especially from a relatively unknown audio company – to demand hundreds of dollars for a brand new set of earbuds, then stipulate an additional monthly fee equating to $300 a year, at the discounted rate. You’d expect a fitness subscription to offer benefits such as advanced fitness tracking and maybe hearing aid technology, but it seems as though Synseer is already offering that through the HealthBuds themselves, so the subscription benefits remain a mystery. And let’s not forget that AirPods Pro 2 offer specific iOS ecosystem benefits such as Find My, head-tracked spatial audio using Apple Music (although the music service is not free, it’s true) audio sharing and so on when paired to your iPhone, all for $249.
How can Synseer compete? Will accuracy be enough? If the company’s HealthBuds do indeed prove a reliable health device (something to take the place of medical-grade appliance) then perhaps. It’s impossible to tell right now. Perhaps Synseer has something extra up its sleeve, otherwise it could be a case of misguided pricing. I’m keeping my ears peeled for more information (which is admittedly thin on the ground at present), but as things stand, Synseer has yet to sound as sincere as you’d hope, for this kind of money…
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
