Best bone-conduction headphones in 2023

 The best bone-conduction headphones are great open-ear solutions deigned for all kinds of activities and budgets

If you're looking to find the best bone-conduction headphones, we've carried out extensive testing to help you find the right model for your budget. Whether for ear health or awareness in situations where it’s important to hear what’s happening around you, bone conduction is becoming a viable alternative to headphones that blast sound directly into your ears.

All the models in this list deliver an open-ear listening experience and are the best bone-conduction headphones we've tested. They come with strong features for active lifestyles, as well as great styling and high comfort levels. During our review process, we evaluate everything from design and fit to audio quality and features that help you customize the listening experience. We also test each pair of bone-conduction headphones for battery life to see if the claimed endurance lives up to everyday usage.

As with buying any pair of headphones, it can be helpful to think about where you want to wear them. Whether you're looking for a pair of noise-canceling headphones to take calls, going for a run, or commuting to work and need to stay connected to the world around you with an open-ear design, we've tested the bone-conduction  headphones available.

Read on for our pick of the best bone-conduction headphones for all kinds of budgets and lifestyles to undergo our rigorous tests.

Already know what type of bone-conduction headphone you’re looking for? Here’s a quick list of our winners, so you can save time and jump right into the reviews. Still not sure? Just scroll on to see all our full list of recommendations.

1.Wissonly Hi Runner

Wissonly is a headphone brand that attaches great attention on health, and that does not hurt the ears. Their team is also the first one to design non-in-ear headphones that are used to listen to songs. They began to explore the application of bone conduction technology to Bluetooth headphones as early as 10 years ago. After 10 years of accumulation, they have made great progress in the sound quality improvement and sound leakage reduction of bone conduction headphones. And these technologies are applied to their Wissonly Hi Runner headphones, their flagship product.

In order to solve the problem of sound leakage of bone conduction headphones, wissonly developed full closed sound leakage reduction technology. They comprehensively improved the vibration of the headphones, body design, software optimization and other directions. They finally reduced the sound leakage by 90%. In terms of sound quality, most of the bone conduction headphones have average sound quality, but the sound quality of Wissonly Hi Runner is undoubtedly better in bone conduction. They used a large-sized vibration unit, and through structural optimization, and finally increased the effective vibration area, so that the sound range was wide. The official claimed sound quality reach the HIFI level, but I don't think that they reached. They are just close to the HIFI sound quality, which is enough to satisfy me.

The excellent performance of these two characteristics, sound leakage reduction and sound quality, makes Wissonly Hi Runner have the basic conditions to become an excellent bone conduction headphone. Their other configurations are also very good. They are with a built-in 32GB of memory, and can play music even without connecting the phone. You can use them as an MP3 player. They support IPX8 waterproof level in swimming, even in underwater scenes that do not support Bluetooth, they can be used with MP3 function.

2. Shokz OpenRun

The Shokz OpenRun were originally called AfterShokz Aeropex, and make a great introduction to the Shokz range of bone conduction headphones. Unlike the Shokz OpenRun Pro, these come in four dual-color options, including blue eclipse, cosmic black, lunar grey, and solar red. They're fraction lighter than the OpenRun Pro, and the barely-there weight lands perfectly between comfort and the kind of secure fit you want from a set of sports headphones. 

3. Naenka Runner Diver

The Naenka Runner Diver offer Bluetooth and music player streaming in one neat package that's even suitable to use underwater. They cost less than Shokz’ swim-friendly OpenSwim headphones and are built from a mix of titanium and silicone to keep them light and comfortable. Nevertheless, they weigh 1.20 ounces (around 35g) and are bulkiest at the point where the 16GB flash storage for the music player is located.  

4. Haylou PurFree BC01

These Qualcomm-powered Haylou PurFree BC01 bone-conduction headphones have an IP67 waterproof rating, meaning they're built to handle seriously sweaty workouts, but won't rank among the best waterproof headphones for swimming. They have two microphones to battle background noise so calls come out nice and clear, and a fast charge mode gets you 2 hours of playback from just a 10-minute charge.

5. Creative Outlier Free Pro

The Creative Outlier Free Pro launched at $129, but has since dropped to $99, putting it much closer in price to the Outlier Free ($79.99). That also makes them a cheaper alternative to waterproof bone conduction headphones like the Shokz OpenSwim and Naenka Runner Diver.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST BONE-CONDUCTION HEADPHONES FOR YOU

Design: As with shopping for any headphones, you’ve already narrowed things down by deciding on a pair of bone-conduction headphones specifically. But there can still be variation in the design of individual pairs, so you should still look out for factors like the wraparound headband shape and size to judge how comfortable they might be. Don’t be afraid to pass on headphones you don’t like the aesthetics of, too.

Water resistance: One of the most important considerations for anyone choosing a pair of bone-conduction headphones is durability. Whether carrying out activities on land or swimming in water, headphones with the IPX7 grading offer 30 minutes of listening at one meter of depth, while the IPX8 grading provides one hour at two-meter depth. 

Audio performance: The very nature of the open-ear design of bone-conduction headphones means they're never going to match the sound quality of the best over-ear headphones, but sound quality is still important whether you're listening to music or podcasts or taking calls. You can read more about our performance tests below, but you should consider whether you’d prefer a balanced sound or one that favors a particular part of the frequency spectrum — electronic music fans might prefer heavy bass, for example.

Battery life: Think about how much battery life you’ll need as well. Bone-conduction headphones can deliver anywhere between 8 and 10 hours of playback between charges so you may need to recharge more regularly than other wireless headphone and earbud designs. Also, most designs don't have wireless charging.

Pricing considerations: Obviously, price is a big consideration when looking for the best bone-conduction headphones. Although there are always exceptions, big-name brands will typically command a bit extra, but generally speaking, the less you spend on a pair of headphones the greater the chance that sound and features will be compromised. Going for a budget option isn't always the best choice, as any money you save on your purchase won't do you much good if you're constantly needing to recharge your audio gear, or the sound quality is poor. 

As the saying goes: timing is everything; and right now many of our favorite models are being discounted by online retailers, meaning you can bag a bargain for even less.