Shure SE535 vs Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200

The Shure SE535 makes for a good, if unremarkable, Earphone for people with a $250 budget.

The Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200, however, is merely mediocre at its $119 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $250 and $85 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Shure SE535 and Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200, however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

While the Shure SE535 wasn't able to make it to the very top of any roundups from sources that perform quality hands-on testing, it still got featured in a large number of them. The Verge, Techradar, CNET, Head-fi, What Hi-Fi?, Reviewed, and inews.co.uk have all deemed it worthy of a place on their respective shortlists.

As for the Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200, it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at PCmag, SoundGuys, and Wirecutter (NYTimes) enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Earphones, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Shure SE535 got its highest, 9.4, rating from The Verge, while the Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200 earned its best, 8, score from PCmag.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Earphones on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Earphones being 7.3 out of 10, whereas the Shure SE535 and Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200 managed averages of 8.6 and 7.9 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct Shure SE535 vs. Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3200 comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.