Sennheiser Momentum Sport – headphones for sports with heart rate monitor and body temperature sensor

Wireless headphones for sports should offer the user a secure fit and at least basic moisture protection. However, Sennheiser decided to go further by adding a heart rate monitor and a body temperature sensor to the new Momentum Sport model. I will tell you how useful these innovations are and whether the headphones are comfortable to use in this review.

Технічні характеристики Sennheiser Momentum Sport

Package contents

The headphones come with additional silicone tips, cartilage retainers, a lanyard for carrying the case on your fingers, and a charging cable.

Design, convenience, case

Sennheiser Momentum Sport have an in-ear fit and can be classified as a medium-sized model; they are not very massive, but still protrude slightly from the ear.

The headphones have a teardrop shape, they are quite ergonomic and fit comfortably in the auricle. To increase the reliability of the attachment, there are cartilage clips, 4 pieces of which are included for different ear sizes. For running headphones, this is very important, and it is worth noting that with the right tips, Sennheiser Momentum Sport hold very well.

The ear cushions are made of very soft silicone, and if you choose the right size, you can hardly feel them during long use. The same goes for the cartilage retainers.

What may not be very convenient is carrying the headphone case with you. In the review of Momentum True Wireless 4 I already complained about the size of the case, but now I will consider it almost compact. The case for Momentum Sport is even bigger.

There’s a reason why the manufacturer added a small lanyard to the kit so that you can carry the case on your finger. I’m not a fan of this solution, but in this case it’s appropriate, because the device really doesn’t fit in every pocket.

Overall, the dimensions of the case are 67.7×64.8×30 mm, with a weight of 78.4 grams without headphones and 91 grams with them. The dimensions are not its strong point, but it has high-quality materials – a rubberized bottom and lid – and it will be difficult to damage even if dropped.

It’s also interesting that the lid is also attached not by a mechanical hinge, but by a rubber insert that starts at the bottom of the case and also covers the USB-C charging port. It’s a pretty simple but effective solution. The lid itself is securely fixed to the other half of the case with magnets, and the headphones are also securely attached, they do not fall out even if the case is shaken quite a bit.

The materials and design of Sennheiser Momentum Sport allowed the headphones to be certified according to the IPX5 standard, which provides protection against water droplets, so you can run and play sports in the gym with the headphones, but it is better not to swim. Interestingly, the case is also IPX4 certified and has moisture protection.

Connect, set up, measure heart rate and body temperature

The headphones use Bluetooth 5.2 to connect to smartphones and other devices, and to configure them, you will need to install the proprietary Smart Control app. In it, you can change a number of options, such as the equalizer or active noise cancellation (ANC). The latter also offers additional settings, you can choose to completely cut off noise, filter the wind, or turn on full transparency, which is desirable when jogging.

Interestingly, based on the purpose of the headphones, Sennheiser has implemented two control methods. The first one traditionally allows you to touch the outside of the headphones to perform certain actions. A long press in Momentum Sport is assigned to change the volume and it cannot be changed, it seems that the manufacturer decided that this is the most important thing during sports. And double and triple presses can be assigned to actions of your choice, such as play-pause and track switching.

The second control method is somewhat unusual and requires tapping your finger on the head near the right ear. The settings show quite clearly where you should do this.

The headphones support simultaneous connection to two devices, as in other new models of the manufacturer, there is no automatic switching. That is, if you are listening to music on one device, you must first pause it and then turn it on on another device. During a phone call, the headphones transfer the sound to the smartphone on their own.

Another interesting feature of Sennheiser Momentum Sport is the ability to measure heart rate and body temperature. Each earbud has a built-in heart rate and temperature sensor, which makes measurements even more accurate than on sports watches. Due to the thinner skin thickness, closer capillary arrangement, and less hair, the heart rate monitor’s optical sensor has an easier time taking readings. The same goes for temperature measurement. The readings here are really quite accurate, but the problem is that you can either see them in the Smart Control app itself or you need to buy a Polar sports watch.

That’s right, Momentum Sport sensors are designed for use with watches from only one manufacturer, in partnership with which this functionality was developed. Polar 2023 and newer models are suitable for its use, but given their not very popularity compared to Garmin or even Android Wear watches, the ability to measure heart rate and temperature will be only for reference for most potential buyers of these headphones. The Sennheiser Smart Control app itself does not record, synchronize, or analyze this data in any way.

So, unfortunately, there is no way to integrate Momentum Sport with third-party sports services or watches yet. And it’s unlikely that it will appear, which makes the heart rate and temperature measurement functions somewhat redundant. After all, the sensors cannot be turned off, they are constantly working when the user is wearing headphones, and it turns out that they only drain the batteries more.

Sound, noise reduction, microphones

The headphones use SBC, AAC, aptX, and aptX adaptive codecs for audio transmission, and they have Sennheiser’s TrueResponse 10 mm dynamic drivers built in for playback. They provide good, smooth sound with tangible bass, but not as punchy as the Momentum True Wireless 4. And although the low frequencies can be made even more tangible with the Bass Boost option, it just drowns out the frequencies more in general, which, in my opinion, worsens the sound. At the same time, without it, the detail and width of the imaginary scene here is in no way inferior to Sennheiser’s flagship wireless headphones. Still, the company holds its own, even in headphones that are designed to listen to music mainly on the street or in a noisy gym.

The active noise cancellation system in Momentum Sport uses 3 microphones on each earbud and we can say that it is not very aggressive, does not create strong anti-noise, so the user still cannot count on almost complete noise cancellation, as in the best TWS models, including Momentum TW 4. However, ANC is enough to listen to music in public transport or in a noisy gym.

As a headset for phone calls, Momentum Sport turned out to be even better than the older model in the line, they transmit voice quite well in a quiet room and do not turn it into a robotic version when there is strong extraneous noise nearby. It seems that my, and not only my, complaints about the performance of the microphones in Momentum True Wireless 4 were heard by the manufacturer, for which it is a big plus.

Battery life

The earbuds have slightly different battery capacities due to the presence of additional sensors: 75 mAh for the right earbud and 72 mAh for the left earbud. Another 850 mAh is built into the case. 

However, the battery life of Momentum Sport can only be described as normal, not high. The headphones provide 5.5 hours of music playback with active noise cancellation and an additional 24 hours of battery life from the case. With similar battery characteristics, Momentum TW 4 batteries last much longer, so the ability to turn off the heart rate and temperature sensors to increase battery life would be nice. I hope that Sennheiser will implement this option.