Sena has announced their Sena 5 series which comes in 3 different model types. The 50S and 50R are largely the same model with different hardware designs.
What is the difference between these models?
These units are a step up above the 30k but I’ll outline first what’s different between the Sena 50S and Sena 50R.
What is the difference between these models?
These units are a step up above the 30k but I’ll outline first what’s different between the Sena 50S and Sena 50R.
Interface
- Sena 50S uses Sena’s classic circular dial to navigate through the headset menus.
- Sena 50R uses a 3 button system to navigate instead of the circular dial
Included Accessories
- Sena 50s comes with 3 different mics: boom mic, wire boom mic and wired mic
- Sena 50r comes with 2 different mics: boom wired mic and wired mic
- Sena 50s clamp kit includes an AUX port for a non-bluetooth MP3 player (Sena 50R does not have this port)
- Sena 50s clamp kit also includes a built-in 3.5mm earbud port should you want to use your own earbuds instead of the included speakers.
Battery Life
- Talk time Sena 50S is 9 hours with Mesh Intercom | Sena 50R is 8 hours with Mesh Intercom
- 14 hours in Bluetooth intercom | Sena 50R is 8 hours with Mesh Intercom
That’s it, it’s largely hardware design and personal preference that should influence which model you purchase out of these two.
Worth upgrading from the Sena 30k?
Yes and no, there is really only four factors in my opinion that influence this. Firstly, Sena have upgraded their speakers included with the 50 series units. The new speakers are a good sight more bassier and having a higher maximum volume level then the ones included with the Sena 30k. The new iteration also comes with Mesh intercom 2.0 and uses Bluetooth protocol 5.0 which improves your connection stability and audio transfer. The new models now also include a WiFi adapter which allows your units to wirelessly update their firmware and will also manage charging the battery.
Finally, you have the battery life improvement though this only applies to the Sena 50s model. You will gain about an hour battery life (9 hours, up from 8 hours) and both the 5 series are able to be charged to full capacity faster than the Sena 30k (half an hour faster overall).
