Bragi Dash Pro review

Since the release of Apple’s AirPods back in 2016, wireless earbuds have hit the market in droves, with everyone from Sony to Samsung looking to get in on the wireless earbud action. The issue is that they all essentially look the same, and offer similar features, making it hard to decide on a pair to buy.

Bragi’s Dash Pro wireless earbuds look to buck that trend, offering impressively high-tech wireless earbuds that offer features we’ve not seen on any other pair of earphones on the market. We’ve been blown away by the Bragi Dash Pro earbuds, and it’s not hard to see why. Find out more in our Bragi Dash Pro review or, if they’re not your cup of tea, take a look at our selection of the best wireless earbuds available right now.

Bragi Dash Pro: Pricing and Availability

The Bragi Dash Pro, while some of the most advanced earbuds on the market, are also amongst the most expensive consumer-facing wireless earbuds available right now at £299.99/$329.99 from Bragi along with Currys PC World in the UK, and Amazon in the US.

That’s almost double the price of Apple’s hugely popular £159 AirPods, and far more expensive than other popular earbuds including Jabra’s £149 Elite 65t earphones. In fact, the Dash Pro costs the same as a pair of personalised Snugs True Wireless earbuds, though Bragi’s option has many more features on offer.

Bragi Dash Pro: Design and build

The Bragi Dash Pro earphones aren’t neckbuds like Apple’s BeatsX and RHA’s MA650 Wireless earphones. Nope, like Apple’s AirPods, the Bragi Dash Pro earphones are completely wireless, providing a clean, discreet look that won’t get tangled when not in use. It’s not necessarily a new trend, but we think that Bragi has learnt from the mistakes from earlier entrants into the market and provides something unique with the Dash Pro.

Despite looking a little bulky when in the palm of your hands, the Dash Pro earbuds fit perfectly into your ears and are barely noticeable when worn. They’re impressively discreet, far from what’s on offer with popular wireless earbuds like Apple’s AirPods (remember the toothbrush memes?) and Earin’s M1s, with both noticeably protruding from the ears.

They go further in-ear than other earbuds we’ve seen, offering a snug fit while also providing exceptional noise isolation. The Dash Pro earphones come with a handful of eartips, allowing you to find the ideal fit for your needs. Whether it’s providing extra grip and water resistance for use when exercising or using memory foam eartips that enhance the overall audio experience, Bragi has you covered.

You won’t notice any buttons on either bud, and that’s because the earbuds feature touch-sensitive panels for interaction. While you might sigh while reminiscing about other earphones with terrible touch input, we can happily confirm that it isn’t the case with the Dash Pro. That’s something we’ll go into more detail about below, though.  

When your Bragi Dash Pro earbuds are not in use, you can safely store them in a premium Bragi-branded charging case that, along with protecting your buds, provides 25 hours of charge. It’s nicely designed too; it’s metallic, curvy and even features a slit that allows you to check the battery life of the earbuds (which pulse when charging) without opening the case.

It’s not perfect though; the case is fairly bulky, especially when compared to the AirPods case, with it requiring its own pocket for safekeeping during our day-to-day use. It doesn’t have the smoothest opening action either, with us having to exert quite a bit of force to slide out the interior compartment despite being lined with soft microfiber cloth.

But with such an impressive range of features available, we’re happy to overlook the slight flaw in the case design.

Bragi Dash Pro: Features and audio quality

The Bluetooth 4.0-enabled Bragi Dash Pro earphones offer much more than the ability to play music wirelessly (although they do that well) – in fact, we think they’re some of the smartest earbuds on the market at the moment, and it’s not hard to see why.

Let’s first talk about the Bragi app; it’s the heart of the Bragi ecosystem, and is used to not only customise the swipe controls but to set up Alexa, control audio output, view tracked exercises and more. Going through the setup may be overwhelming initially, but you’ll get used to the features of the app fairly quick – we did, anyway! It’s well-designed and is way more useful than other companion apps we’ve used in the past, that’s for sure.

It’s time to discuss the elephant in the room; swipe controls. While swipe controls are generally a terrible idea, we must admit that it works well with the Dash Pro. The earphones can easily distinguish not only between swipes and taps, but swipes in different directions. Though there is admittedly a learning curve, a combination of taps and swipes allow you to control music output, start exercise tracking and more without having to look at your smartphone.

As well as tapping and swiping, you can use your head to control the earphones. It’s called the 4D menu, and is activated by looking down, up and then forward for a few seconds. Once active, you can ‘look’ from left to right to browse a variety of functions, from exercise tracking to song-skipping, and simply nod to select it. It doesn’t have to be an over-the-top action either; a simple nod should be enough to be picked up by the earphones.

The draw for many will be the Dash Pro’s ability to intelligently track not only running, but cycling and even swimming thanks to IPX7 water resistance. You can set the earphones to automatically detect exercise, or you can access it by swiping on the left earbud or via the 4D menu. You’ve got options!

It uses the HR sensor alongside a suite of built-in tech to monitor your activity, and it’ll even store it locally if you don’t have your phone connected while exercising. The app provides you with fairly standard tracking information including distance, calorie consumption and even length measurements if you’re wearing the earphones while swimming. An added bonus for iOS users is the ability to sync the data provided by the earphones with the Health app, providing a more holistic overview of your health data.

It also offers 4GB of built-in storage for your local music library, meaning you can leave your smartphone at home when exercising!

The earphones also sport Amazon Alexa support, bringing the hugely popular virtual assistant to your ear whether you’re on iOS or Android. The beauty of Alexa is that it can be used alongside Siri or Google Assistant (depending on the OS) rather than simply replacing the default option. It performs much in the same way that it does on the Amazon Echo, though some features, including messaging and drop-in, aren’t present, so don’t ditch your Dot just yet.

The Dash Pro also features an intelligent hearing test utilising Mimi Defined technology, allowing you to create your own custom hearing profile. Once you’ve taken the test once, the music processing tech in the earbuds dynamically adjust the audio output to match your hearing range, and the results are staggering.

You can adjust the level of adjustment via the Bragi app, and it’s when you switch between the varying levels of intensity that you notice just how amazing the enhanced audio sounds compared to the standard output. You’ll experience your favourite songs in entirely new ways – not bad for a pair of wireless earbuds, eh?

With all that tech, the battery life must be terrible, right? Wrong. Despite the small form factor, the Bragi Dash Pro earbuds can be used for up to five hours on a single charge, and popping them back into the carry case will charge them back up in around an hour. The carry case holds enough charge for an additional 25 hours of playback for a total of 30 hours of playback before a charge is required.

Charging the carry case isn’t a particularly labourious process either; it features a microUSB port and an LED to indicate battery level, with the case generally going from full-to-flat in around 90 minutes via wall charger. As expected, it takes noticeably longer to charge if you plug the cable into your laptop or PC USB port.

And, finally, let’s discuss audio quality. As you’ve probably worked out by now, the Bragi Dash Pro earbuds sound phenomenal, especially after you’ve taken the Mimi-powered hearing test and personalised the output of audio for your ears.

The audio is clear and crisp with a balanced range, making the earphones ideal for a range of music, from classical to rock. There’s noticeable bass, but it’s not as booming as what’s produced by the BeatsX, though whether that’s a good or bad feature will depend on your personal taste.

There’s also an impressive level of passive noise cancellation, with us able to comfortably listen to our favourite tunes while on the tube, on the bus and generally out-and-about in loud environments.