Review: KEF Porsche Design Motion One aren’t perfect, but the battery life impresses
Audio wizards KEF have teamed up with Porsche Design to bring us these neckband-style earphones, so we just had to give them a blast
At first glance, the KEF Porsche Design Motion Ones look like they mean business, with a rather macho black-and-metal aesthetic. These are neckband-style earphones, meaning the makers have tackled their battery life woes by putting the cells in a rubberised neckband that connects the two earpieces. This is also where KEF and Porsche have situated the controls, the micro-USB charging port and a microphone.
The aluminium earpieces feature a clever pivoting mechanism that allows you to adjust the angle of the earphone according to preference. They’re also magnetic, enabling them to latch together when not in use, and they have IPX5 certification, meaning they’ll take a moderate spraying with water/sweat/your liquid of choice.
Bluetooth set up on my Pixel XL was painless: power the earphones on, and once your mobile device has found them, tap to pair them and a robotic voice should intone “connected”.
I tried the Motion One earphones out in the setting they’re meant for: the gym. While the earpieces themselves are comfortable, the neckband bothered me. Turn your head too far to the left or right, and the cables tug the heavy rubber band awkwardly this way and that. Not a pleasant experience.
Another, smaller problem is the little rubber cover that protects the micro-USB charging port: I couldn’t get it to fit back into the port satisfactorily. It might seem a minor quibble, but for a product that trumpets its build quality, I found this oversight baffling.
Moving on to audio quality, the Motion Ones impress when compared to other popular wireless earphones. The single-driver units deliver classical, jazz, rock, hip-hop and spoken word tracks with clarity, balance and almost no discernible distortion, despite Bluetooth’s drawbacks. The name of the game is versatility: the bass isn’t massive, but it is proportionate, bringing plenty of oomph to Run the Jewels’ back catalogue. The treble is serviceable though somewhat short of crisp in the highs. The mid-range frequencies are … well, they’re there.