Bone conduction headphones are ideal for activities where it is vital to your safety to hear your surroundings, such as when you’re running outdoors near a busy road. That’s because they use a technology that sends audio vibrations through your skull to the inner ear while leaving your ear canals open. Shokz is one of the best brands—if not the best brand—making bone conduction headphones right now. At the high end of Shokz’s offerings are the OpenRun Pro 2 headphones—but the original OpenRun headphones are also great, and they’re currently discounted to $89.94 (originally $129.95); that’s the lowest price they’ve been, according to price-tracking tools.
If you’ve never used bone conduction headphones, they’re worth a try, and the Shokz Open are a great budget-friendly introduction. The major downside of the way they work has been that the bass doesn’t sound as good as their in-ear counterparts: You won’t get the same thumpy bass you’d get from regular headphones, but they’re still great, and the bone conduction technology adds a fun layer of novelty.
As the name implies, these are meant to be used on runs outdoors. They have a water- and dust-proof IP67 rating, are lightweight and comfortable, and, because of their design, can be worn with bicycle helmets and sunglasses. They use Bluetooth 5.1 and have an eight-hour battery life, which isn’t the best, but it’ll do for everyday exercise.
What do you think so far?
You can use these around the house, too, since they can take calls; just be mindful that they don’t block any sound. If you plan to use these in a location with loud music or a lot of ambient noise, it might be hard to isolate the sound coming through the headphones.
Originally published at Lifehacker
