Suunto Wing 2 Headphones

Review by Erin Trail

Suunto has improved their line of open ear headphones with their latest Wing 2 offering.

Details

• Up to 12 hours of battery life
• IP66 sweat- & waterproof
• Included powerbank provides up to 24 hours of charge capacity
• Head movement controls
• 5 minute fast charge
• LED lights for better visibility

Detailed Review

I’ve been using the Suunto Wing 2 Headphones on bike rides, runs, walks, and during weight lifting sessions.

The Suunto Wing 2 Headphones have some really nice, unique features.  The headphones have a LED strip that lights up (and can blink), making the wearer more visible in low light conditions.  This is a nice safety option, although I find that it is more useful for runners than cyclists, as the LEDs are most visible from a side profile. The LED lights are customizable as well – with different blinking or flashing speeds based on your movement and preference.

The Suunto Wing 2 Headphones also comes with a battery bank, which can be really useful while traveling or when you have limited power options.  The headphones insert into the power bank and the LEDs blink in accordance with charge levels.

I also own the Shoks OpenRun Pro 2 Mini and have been directly comparing the Suunto Wing 2 Headphones to the Shoks for battery life, comfort, and sound.

I liked the sound quality of the Suunto Wing 2 Headphones.  The bone conduction is a bit “buzzier” than the Shokz, which took a while to get used to. But once I got used to the extra vibration, I found that the sound quality for both music and podcasts was excellent.  I also like the hands free functionality.  With a shake of your head, the Suunto Wing 2 will skip to the next song in your playlist.  This is especially handy when you’re riding your bike and don’t want to take your hands off of your handlebars.

I also found that the Suunto Wing 2 Headphones meshed well with a variety of headwear, bike helmets, and sunglasses.

Now the nitpicky things.

I don’t love how there isn’t a audible battery life indicator.  The battery life seems to be longer than my Shokz, but that may also be because Shokz gives me an audible battery level readout upon powering up (I typically fast charge my headphones if they’re at medium battery).  With the Suunto Wing 2 Headphones, the only audible battery alert you get is a low battery tone when the battery hits 5%.  And let’s be honest, 5% means that the headphones are going to die on my ride/run. It’s annoying.

I’m a woman with a small head, and I found the Suunto Wing 2 to be a little big for me, as compared to the Shokz Mini option.  The larger size was fine for cycling (mostly because my head is tilted downward when I ride).  The Wing 2 sizing was ok for running, although it took a bit of time to get used to a larger fit.  I could also feel the larger size headphones hit the top of my hydration pack if I looked up too much.   Weight lifting was where the larger size was most notable and annoying.  The headphones were fine when I was sitting or standing, but when I laid down on a bench or the floor, the large size became noticeable, as the back connecting wire would hit the bench and move the earpieces around. I don’t experience these issues with the Shoks OpenRun Pro 2 Mini because of it’s smaller sizing.

Finally, I would be remiss if not write about the experience I had with Suunto Customer Service.  When I got the Wing 2 headphones, they refused to connect to my phone (Samsung S23) but would connect to other devices (like my personal computer or my husband’s phone). Suunto asks that users email their helpdesk with issues, which I did.  It took 4 days (versus the promised 24 hour response time). In my email, I listed the things I did to try and get the headphones to connect.  In initial reply back, customer support basically suggested I take the steps that I had already taken.  In their second email, the suggested I contact Samsung and have them revert the OS version back to something that would support the headphones.  This is a really, incredibly bad suggestion for many reasons, but mostly because it would undo several bug fixes and security upgrades that Samsung had installed into my phone.  Since I didn’t get helpful answers via email, I went to the Suunto forum to ask for advice.  The forum is actively moderated and they have areas for new features and where users can identify bug features.  I didn’t receive any helpful comments there.  I also observed another user have a similar issue to mine and they decided to just return the headphones. I ended up leveraging my PR connections to get a workable solution from Suundo developers.  The software that the headphones shipped was unable to work with my particular phone.  They had me connect my headphones to a different kind of phone and update the Wing 2 software  This worked, but it also only worked because I had access to a second phone and could install updates from there.

This kind of thing doesn’t really affect the quality of the headphones: how they fit, how they sound.  But it absolutely affects my feelings towards Suunto as a brand and their customer service.  To be truly competitive in the US market, Suunto needs to up their customer service game.

Closing Thoughts

The Suunto Wing 2 Headphones offer high quality sound, 12 hour battery life, with some nice bonus features like LED lights on the sides of the unit for safety.  For me, these headphones fell a bit flat on the fit, as they seem to be better suited for people with larger heads. Despite this, I found them easy to use for a wide variety of activities.  I personally love open air headphones because I can listen to podcasts or music while still being aware of my surroundings and the Wing 2 delivers. Suunto has the Wing 2 headphones in 2 different colorways: black and coral orange.

Erin Trail

Trail Boss of Stoke