I love Shokz bone conduction headphones. I’ve said this before. On a 30-mile kayak run, in the grocery store where I don’t want to bump into people, or just tooling around at home, I love being able to listen to just about anything while keeping my spatial awareness. Amazon is selling my favorite set, the OpenRun Pro 2, for $120 in the Prime Day sale. That’s $60 off the retail price.
To be specific, the “Rose Gold” color option (mostly grey, gold trim) is on sale for that price. If you prefer something a little less feminine, the standard grey, off-blue, white, and orange versions are $125, still a great discount. Best Buy and Walmart are matching that price, and neither requires a subscription like Amazon does.
I’ve been using Shokz headphones for the better part of a decade, and the OpenRun 2 for almost two years. They’re fantastic, offering deeper bass, longer range, and much longer battery life than earlier models, while still offering a charge up with a standard USB-C cable (very handy on a trip). While these are not swimming headphones, they do offer basic water and sweat resistance — I’ve dunked them in the Delaware River a couple of times while kayaking and they’re still going strong.
Keep in mind that these are for utility and exercise, not hi-fi music. You can certainly listen to music on them, but if you want any kind of noise reduction or noise cancelling, look elsewhere. The idea is to keep your ears clear so you can hear around you and listen to your device at the same time — cyclists love ’em for that reason. I mostly listen to audiobooks and YouTube with the OpenRun Pro 2, though I also use them for the odd phone call or meeting.
If you’re not sure whether you want bone conduction headphones, then you can go for the more affordable OpenMove. This older design is also on sale for just $50. The audio isn’t as good and it doesn’t last as long on a charge, but it also uses USB-C, which many budget designs do not.