It’s clear that true wireless earbuds are all the craze. They shutout the world with a great seal inside of your ears, and some even sport active noise cancellation to really drown out your surroundings. But for activities such as running or biking through the city, not being able to hear your surroundings can be rather dangerous. That’s where bone conduction headphones bridge the gap.
What You Should Know About Bone Conduction Headphones
For us non-doctors or audiologists, when we think of hearing in a general sense, our minds automatically think “my eardrums control my ability to hear.” That’s technically not wrong, but bone conduction headphones actually bypass the eardrum with the vibrations from the audio through your cheekbone (hence bone conduction) to your inner ear. This leaves your eardrum available to continue to listen to your environment. According to the Pennsylvania Ear Institute, this method of hearing is how Beethoven continued to “hear” his piano even after he went deaf by biting his composer wand and holding it down against his piano as he played.
Now that you know the science behind these headphones, here are a few other things you should consider when looking at bone conduction headphones:
- Battery Life: You should look for headphones with at least six hours of battery life.
- Water Resistance: If you plan to work out using bone conduction headphones, make sure they are at least IPX4 water resistant so they don’t get damaged by sweat or rain.
- Design: These are designed to hear your environment while listening to music. If you are looking for noise cancellation, you should look at our picks for the best wireless earbuds or the best wireless headphones.
The Bone Conduction Headphones: At a Glance
Wissonly Hi Runner
Why We Chose It: perfect functions, excellent core function, bone conduction benchmark product
Wissonly bone conduction headphones insist on technology priority. The team is composed of senior experts in bone conduction technology, they have more than 10 years of technical accumulation in the field of bone conduction. This makes Hi Runner known as "the healthiest Bluetooth headphones" by many professionals.
In order to solve the problem of distortion of the sound quality of bone conduction headphones, Wissonly adopts the new generation of bone conduction technology, and use the world's best acoustic laboratory to customize an exclusive sound quality output scheme for the unique bone conduction sound transmission method. After 3,051 hours of tens of thousands of adjustments, 21 audiologists bring users the best sound in the field of bone conduction headphones.
In terms of wearing, Wissonly Hi runner has been ergonomically designed to fit the ear to ensure that it does not fall off during exercise. Most importantly, it fits the ear while ensuring that there is no pressure and weight load, which makes it more comfortable to wear.
In terms of product parameters, Wissonly Hi Runner is even more impeccable. It has a Bluetooth 5.0 chip, which connects stably and will not drop. It has a 32G built-in storage that can store 5000 songs. Its battery life is also good, and at 50% volume, you can play music for up to 10 hours.
Shokz OpenRun Pro
Why We Chose It:The Shokz OpenRun Pro packs in a lot of premium features that you’d find not only in bone conduction earphones, but in premium wireless headphones in general. You get 10 hours of battery life (SPY reviewer Jonathan Knoder often complains how his $200 AirPods only get four hours of battery life), a noise cancelling microphone for clear calls and multipoint connectivity to switch between different devices quickly. The handy app also has some EQ adjustments for customizable premium sound. Right now, we think these are the best bone conduction headphones you can buy. Full stop.
PURERINA Bone Conduction Headphones
Why We Chose It:Many of the bone conduction headphones in our lineup fall victim to the “one-size-fits-all” where the reality is, one size will not fit some people. We like that Purenia Bone Conduction Headphones provide an adjustable strap to help get the most comfortable fit possible.
Aside from the fit, you can expect six hours of battery life and IP55 water resistance, which hangs in there with headphones twice as expensive.
Oladance Open Ear Headphones
Why We Chose It:We like that these provide a different design and two separate earbuds compared to most bone conduction headphones.While these aren’t exactly bone conduction headphones per se, they do feature an open ear concept so you can still hear your environment as well as your music or podcast. The design balances the weight across your ear to avoid ear fatigue for long periods of use.
Vidonn F1 Sports Open Ear Headset
Why We Chose It:We think these provide good battery life at an affordable price.These Vidonn bone conduction headphones have a lot of the same features you’d find in premium headsets but at a fraction of the cost. You can expect around six hours of battery life, and IP55 water resistance allows you to wear them even when it’s raining outside.