Colourful, rugged design, great sound quality in this price bracket
Chunky remote is too big and heavy
Klipsch's Image S4 earphones have been around for some time, but the audio company recently launched a rugged edition, which promises weather resistance alongside impressive sound quality -- we took them for a spin to find out how they perform.
Design
First-off, they're colourful. The rugged Image S4is are available in red, blue, orange, and yellow. That means that you can match them to your iPhone case, trainers or hat if you so desire. The buds themselves are small, and come with a rubberised coating that doesn't exist on the regular S4is. It'll probably absorb a bit of the impact in a drop situation, but you still won't want to stand on them.
The sound-isolating gel tips come in four sizes and aren't perfectly circular. Instead they're slightly elliptical, allowing for a tighter fit in the ear canal and blocking more external noise. They're comfortable for extended listening, and that tight fit also helps the bass response.
The cable is about a metre long, rubberised and slightly slippier than the cable on the normal S4is, meaning that it's less likely to catch on your clothes or bag and pull the buds out.
Read more: The best headphones for any budget in 2021
Features
About 30cm below the tips is a huge great big remote control, which also contains a microphone. It's designed large so that it's easier to hit the volume and play buttons if you're cycling or running, but in real-world used it proved more of a hindrance than a benefit. The large casing weighs slightly too much, so if you're walking or running it'll slowly drag the buds out of your ear. A small clip rectifies that, but it'd be better if it just wasn't a problem in the first place.
Performance
Sound quality is pretty much identical to the normal S4is -- which is to say it's impressive for this price range. The highs and lows are more pronounced than the midrange frequencies, and as previously mentioned, the tight fit of the earbuds allows for impressive bass response. The sound doesn't compare to earbuds costing several hundreds of pounds, but it's leaps and bounds better than whatever earphones came bundled with your phone or MP3 player.
Conclusion
As such, the rugged Image S4is are definitely worth picking up if you're looking for a mid-range upgrade to a cheap set of earbuds.
The sound quality alone makes these an easy recommendation, and the rugged construction, range of colour options and slight build improvements over the regular S4is backs that recommendation up yet further.
Now if only Klipsch could slim down that enormous remote...
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
