New Balance Fitness Evolved Headphones NB639 Review

The name of this gadget doesn't tell the whole story. It's a pedometer. It's a pulse monitor. It's a set of headphones that include earhooks and earbuds. It's a simple, lightweight gadget to tell you your steps and calories burned and take your pulse. It's a nice addition for a walking workout. You can download your step, distance, and calorie burn data to your computer via a USB plug. But you can't view your data on the device itself. You rely on the voice to tell you how many steps you've taken, distance, time and calories burned.

The NB639 is modular. You can use the earbuds provided, with or without the earhooks. They include a couple of different sizes of ear cushions to get a better fit. I have small ear canals, so this is very important for me. The earphones/hooks are made by iHomeAudio.

But you can also use just plug in whatever earphones/earbuds you prefer to the NB639 dongle. If the iHome earphones don't work for you, just plug in the ones you prefer. I like that feature.

I can't tell if it's a design feature or the review sample I was sent has a defect, but the wire to the left earbud is much shorter than the wire to the right earbud. I haven't seen a design like that before, and I don't like it. The earhooks generally worked well for me. But with my small ear canals, I prefer to wear headphones while walking rather than earbuds anyway, so after a couple of walks with the iHome earbuds, I switched them out for my favorite cheap headphones. I prefer them because I can hear ambient noise better than with earbuds -- better for walking safety.

The earphones plug into the pedometer/pulse monitor dongle, which then plugs into your own music player (iPod, etc.) This is not provided. You can also use it without plugging into a music player.

The pedometer dongle has a clip so you can attach it to your shirt, jacket or waistband. It is lightweight. It is designed to be used to track workout walks/runs and not to track total daily steps.

To start your workout, you hold the on/off button on the back for three seconds until the indicator light blinks slowly. The unit will then start saving your workout information, and it greets you with a welcome and "Let's start!"

You may never hear from the friendly voice again unless you double tap the face of the device. Then she will tell you your total steps, distance, time elapsed and calories burned.

To stop your workout, you again press the on/off button for three seconds. Unfortunately, you should remember to get a final double-tap reading before you end your workout, as it doesn't tell you your totals when you turn off a workout.

Also, you need to remember to turn off the workout promptly when you end, or your average speed for the workout will be inaccurate.

There is no memory function on the unit itself to review past workouts. You have to download the data to a computer via a USB stick to see past workouts.

The unit's battery recharges via the USB stick.

After your workout, you can download your pedometer data via a USB stick to your PC or Mac. You run the HeartPal software to set goals and view your workout data.

I was pretty disappointed that it doesn't record your heart rate measurements taken with the pulse monitor. The name suggested to me that it would, but it doesn't.

What you do see is your workout history, called "My Runs," which you can view by day, week, or month. For each day you can see steps run or walked, distance run or walked, average speed, miles, duration, and calories consumed (by which they mean burned, not eaten.)

The NB639 was pretty accurate as a pedometer, and it detected appropriately that I was walking rather than running. The calories burned seemed to be accurate for the distance. The distance is based on your height, by which they estimate your stride, so it is going to be an estimate rather than a measurement. I found it to be as accurate as any device using that method.

You can set goals for how much distance, time or calories you wish to burn and by whatever time period of days, weeks, or months.

The interface is easy to use and simple to understand. You can email your workout data as a .jpg image to friends.

The heart rate pulse monitor can be used at any time you have the unit turned on. You press the heart rate button once and the voice greets you and tells you that checking has started. It beeps for several seconds during which you need to hold your thumb on the sensor steadily. The orange LED light blinks while it is taking the measurement.At the end, it announces your heart rate. But it doesn't give your percent of maximum heart rate or what heart rate zone you are in.

The heart rate accuracy wasn't bad, although it varied from the heart rate I got via a chest strap heart rate monitor by six to 10 beats per minute during a workout.

Holding your thumb on the sensor steadily can be a problem if you don't slow down or stop. But that is always the trade-off when using a pulse monitor rather than a chest strap monitor. And it beats taking your pulse by hand.

My biggest beef is that the readings aren't recorded for downloading.

Bottom Line on the NB639
As my eyes age, I see a real advantage to having audio data. If you want a pedometer to track workouts only and you want only audio data, this is a convenient device. It is also useful for tracking your workouts on your PC or Mac with basic workout data.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.