The Naenka Runner Professional are cheaper alternate options to the Aftershokz Trainerz that provide stable sound, good battery life and a built-in music participant so you permit your telephone behind.
Professionals
- Gentle, snug design
- Good sound high quality
- Works for swimming
Cons
- Flimsy charging cable
- Audio drowned by busy roads
- Larger battery drain when utilizing music participant
Availability
- UKRRP: £119.39
- USARRP: $165.90
- EuropeRRP: €132.82
Key Options
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Bone ConductionSends audio in direction of the ears by way of vibrations by means of the cheekbone
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Constructed-in 8GB MemoryCan retailer as much as 1500 songs on its inside reminiscence
Introduction
The Naenka Runner Professional are bone conduction headphones designed for train that ship audio to your ears whereas nonetheless preserving you conscious of your environment.
Together with streaming out of your telephone over Bluetooth, in addition they pack in a music participant with 8GB of storage to tug and drop your audio. They’re additionally slapped with a water-resistant ranking that makes them secure for swimming in case you’re after some musical motivation within the pool.
Aftershokz is the title synonymous with sporty bone conducting headphones proper now, however the much less identified Naenka may have provide you with a pair to present them a run for his or her cash.
The Naenka Runner Professional is that can be purchased for a reduced worth of £93.60 from Naenka’s web site and $118.99 from Amazon US.
Design
- IPX8 waterproof design
- Weighs 33g
They are saying imitation is the sincerest type of flattery and with the Naenka Runner Professional, you’re principally getting one thing that appears lots just like the Aftershokz Aeropex and OpenMove bone conduction headphones. I’ve in contrast them side-by-side with the Aeropex and whereas they’re not an identical, it’s clear the place Naenka has bought its design inspiration from.
The pleasingly mild titanium alloy body sits on prime of the ears with the speaker components sitting in shut proximity. In the meantime the skinnier finish of the body sits raised above the neck and has a pleasant flex to it. It’s mild at 33g and it didn’t budge throughout runs and residential exercises. When donning it for swimming, it does battle to sit down comfortable underneath a swim cap, although it didn’t transfer round or really feel like a nuisance to put on within the water.
The explanation you possibly can put on it within the water is as a result of it’s been slapped with a IPX8 waterproof ranking. Which means it’s secure to be submerged in water. Naenka makes use of an uncovered magnetic charging port that helps maintain the headphones’ look streamlined and waterproof. Nevertheless, the proprietary charging/switch cable that clips into it’s fairly flimsy and simple to knock misplaced. So it pays to double examine it’s undoubtedly securely clipped in earlier than you flip over for mattress.
Subsequent to that charging port is a single LED mild that flashes blue to point when it’s in Bluetooth mode, and stays clean if you’re in music participant mode. Under which are a set of bodily controls. It’s right here the place you possibly can flip the headphones on, play and pause music, reply/grasp up a name and lengthy press to launch your telephone’s sensible assistant.
There’s additionally devoted quantity controls that may be lengthy pressed to skip tracks and whereas all of those buttons are fairly carefully grouped collectively, they’re simple to find on the transfer when you get to know the place they sit.
Options
- Bluetooth 5.0 with a ten metre vary
- 8GB storage
Naenka delivers sound utilizing bone conduction expertise, which works by delivering vibrations by means of your cheekbones up in direction of the ears however not into the ears.
Which means you’re getting an open ear design, which nonetheless means you’re letting some sound round you in. Early bone conduction headphones struggled to ship robust sound high quality and supplied an uncomfortable tickle when channelling that vibration as much as the ears. Fortunately, that’s not the case right here.
Naenka provides you the choice of two listening experiences. The primary is a fairly customary Bluetooth streaming one, letting you pair it to smartphones. I attempted it with an iPhone and a Realme Android telephone and had no issues pairing or suffered any form of connection drop outs with both telephone.
If you don’t have your telephone or different music streaming system close by, you even have the choice to switch music to the headphones. There’s 8GB of storage providing room for roughly 1,500 songs, and it’s suitable with WAV, FLAC, MP3, APE and WMA file codecs.
It’s a drag and drop affair right here, so that you’ll must seize the USB bundled cable to easily transfer your music over to the headphones. The flimsy nature of the magnetic cable and port means it’s finest to do it on a flat floor because it’s very simple to knock the cable misplaced when transferring music over. It doesn’t quickly switch that music over once I moved some podcasts and music over from my MacBook.
If you wish to entry the music participant, you possibly can hit the facility button on the headphones to effortlessly change between the 2 modes. This can be a huge plus as a result of the AfterShokz XTrainerz as compared does embody a built-in music participant additionally, however doesn’t provide Bluetooth streaming.
On the battery entrance, there’s a 230mAh capability battery that’s slated to ship round 6-7 hours when listening to music, and I discovered they’ve the capability to ship that and perhaps extra relying on how often you’re utilizing them in Bluetooth mode. From an hour’s price of operating, it dropped by 10% from 100% battery.
Switching to the music participant mode, and the drop appeared to be barely lower than that for a forty five minute swim, although total with the music participant in use, battery appeared to be round half of that 6-7 hours battery life and extra like 2-3 hours. It’s not fairly class main for bone conduction headphones however it felt ok on the entire.
Sound high quality
- Good sound for bone conduction
- Doesn’t leak sound terribly
With bone conduction headphones it’s important to be prepared to make some compromises by way of the sound high quality you’re going to take pleasure in. In any case, it’s about delivering audio however in a manner that you just’re nonetheless conscious of your environment.
The Runner Professional’s pack a 16mm speaker driver that Naenka says guarantees ‘dynamic stereo sound high quality’. Whereas they’re definitely not going to blow you away, they’re up there with the sort of efficiency you’ll get from Aftershokz’ prime finish bone conduction headphones.
They don’t roar with bass, however there’s ample bass response right here. They’re not tinny and there’s an excellent prime quantity as nicely. The extent of readability and element make them an excellent match for vocals and podcasts, however they nonetheless did justice to extra up tempo drum and bass, home playlists and podcasts I are inclined to hearken to for train.
At prime quantity you do nonetheless get that trace of that tickle you usually get with bone conduction headphones, however it wasn’t sufficient to place me off cranking up the amount proper up.
Sound leakage is one other drawback with bone conduction and in case you do have them up loud in comparatively quiet environments, these near it is possible for you to to listen to. For those who’re in mildly busy environments it’s much less of an issue, however you’ll get some leakage.
After I was out operating close to busy roads, they do get drowned out by site visitors. In much less busy areas and operating towards smaller spots of site visitors they maintain up nicely, and it doesn’t really feel like a battle to listen to what’s enjoying.
It’s extra excellent news if you get within the water. Naenka does present a set of ear plugs to enhance sound high quality whereas swimming, however I didn’t discover utilizing all of them that vital in my pool swims. They match what Aftershokz Trainerz provide in sound efficiency for swimming and that’s really an excellent factor as a result of the Xtrainerz are a few of the finest sounding waterproof headphones obtainable proper now.
Submerged and lifting your head above the water, there’s no horrible murkiness in sound and also you get audio efficiency that total is surprisingly sturdy and well-rounded contemplating it’s being dipped in water. I’ve taken them for a bunch of swims and there have been no points with how they function or perform afterwards, so they appear to carry up nicely on the sturdiness entrance too.
Do you have to purchase it?
You need Bluetooth headphones and a music participant Not like AfterShokz’ Xtrainers, you possibly can change between Bluetooth streaming and music participant modes if you wish to use these headphones with out your telephone or for swimming.
You need one thing with stellar sound Bone conduction headphones means sacrificing fine quality sound, which you may get from headphones that do price much less.
Ultimate Ideas
The Naenka Runner Professional are cheaper alternate options to the Aftershokz Trainerz that provide stable sound, good battery life and a built-in music participant so you permit your telephone behind.
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