How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want a lightweight everyday open-ear headphone with adjustable bone-conduction transducers and a built-in mic for calls, choose Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight; if you need a headphone you can actually wear in the pool with 32 GB of onboard MP3 storage, choose MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction.
• Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight — biggest strength: adjustable transducers plus Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint, so you can fine-tune the fit to your own ear shape and stay connected to two devices at once, all at a 1.12-ounce weight.
• Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight — biggest trade-off: IPX5 only, which covers sweat and rain but is not built for immersion, and there is no onboard memory, so it always needs a Bluetooth source.
• MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction — biggest strength: IP68 sealing with 32 GB of internal memory and a 29 g build, so it plays music underwater in MP3 mode with no phone involved.
• MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction — biggest trade-off: Bluetooth does not work underwater, so swimming is MP3-mode only, and there is no microphone-friendly noise control or active feature set — plus the mic needs drying after a swim.
• Who each pick is for: Creative Outlier Free+ for runners, gym-goers and commuters who want one pair for everything above water; MARLALL for lap swimmers and snorkelers who want music in the water.
The Creative Outlier Free+ is an open-ear bone-conduction headphone built around two ideas: staying aware of your surroundings, and fitting a wide range of heads. The adjustable transducers are the standout detail. Instead of a fixed position against your temporal bone, you can move them to sit where the vibration actually reaches you — which matters, because bone conduction is very sensitive to placement. In my opinion that adjustability is the single most useful spec on this sheet.
The rest of the package is aimed squarely at land training. Titanium memory alloy and silicone give the band a secure hold that Creative says stays put through workouts, and the 1.12-ounce weight is genuinely light for a headband-style design. Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint lets you pair two devices at once — laptop and phone, say — and the built-in mic handles calls and even voice assistants with a three-press shortcut. Battery life is rated up to 10 hours, with a 10-minute top-up giving up to 2 hours of playback, and the magnetic charging cable is a nice touch for quick sessions. Low latency mode keeps audio and video in sync for shows and gaming.
Who should buy it: runners, cyclists, gym users, and anyone who wants an aware-mode style of listening where traffic, training partners and gym announcements still come through. Who should skip it: swimmers. IPX5 resists sweat and rain but is not an immersion rating, and there is no internal storage — so the moment you submerge it or leave your phone on the pool deck, it stops being the right tool.
The MARLALL is a different animal. It is a bone-conduction headphone with an IP68 waterproof rating and a nano-coated sealed design, explicitly built for swimming, snorkeling and boating, with liquid silicone that resists pool and saltwater damage. At 29 g it is among the lightest things you can put on your head, and the adjustable straps are there to keep it from slipping when you push off the wall.
The feature that actually defines it is the 32 GB of onboard memory. In MP3 mode you load your own tracks onto the headphone itself — the sheet mentions capacity for roughly 8,000 songs — and the magnetic charging cable doubles as the way to connect to a computer for playlist updates. That is the whole point: Bluetooth signals cannot travel underwater, so swimming is MP3 mode only. Bluetooth 5.4 is still along for the ride on dry land, with a 10-meter range for calls, music and workouts, and it should be more interference-resistant than older versions.
Who should buy it: lap swimmers, snorkelers, and people who boat or train near water and want music without a phone. The open-ear design also keeps you aware of your surroundings, which is a safety argument for swimming and biking. Who should skip it: anyone who mainly wants a daily driver for calls and streaming. There is no noise control listed, the mic needs drying after a swim to keep calls clear, and if you never get in the water you are paying in complexity for a feature you will not use.
• Best for swimming → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. IP68 plus 32 GB of MP3 storage is the only combination here that works underwater.
• Best for everyday workouts, runs and commutes → Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight. Bluetooth 5.3, multipoint, a built-in mic and a 10-hour rating cover the whole day above water.
• Best for fit customization → Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight. Adjustable transducers let you tune the contact point; the MARLALL relies on adjustable straps and a fixed driver position.
• Best for staying phone-free → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. 32 GB of internal memory means no source device at all in MP3 mode.
• Best for calls and voice assistants → Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight. Built-in mic plus multipoint pairing and a three-press assistant shortcut.
• Best for water and sweat resistance → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. IP68 versus IPX5 is not a close call if you get submerged.
• Best for low-latency video and gaming → Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight. Its low latency mode is designed to keep audio and video in sync.
• Best for the lightest possible wear → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. At 29 g it is the lighter of the two, and the silicone is described as skin-friendly with zero pressure points.
• Best for two-device switching → Creative Outlier Free+ Lightweight. Multipoint on Bluetooth 5.3 is something the MARLALL sheet does not list.
My Verdict
Ambient aware mode is a feature that pipes outside sound into your ears so you can hear traffic, announcements or training partners while music plays. With open-ear bone conduction, this happens naturally: the drivers sit outside your ear canal and vibrate against your temporal bone, so your ears stay open and aware without any electronic mode at all.
how to turn off aware mode bose headphones
On Bose headphones, aware mode is switched off through the Bose Music app or by cycling the noise-control button on the earcup. That said, the two headphones on this page do not have an aware mode to disable — the Creative Outlier Free+ lists passive noise cancellation only, and the MARLALL lists no noise control, because both rely on open-ear bone conduction for awareness.
how to turn on aware mode on bose headphones
Bose users typically toggle aware mode in the Bose Music app or with a dedicated button press. Neither the Creative Outlier Free+ nor the MARLALL works that way. Both are open-ear designs, so you hear your surroundings continuously — there is nothing to switch on or off.
how to turn off aware mode on jlab headphones
JLab headphones usually toggle ambient or aware mode with a button press or through the JLab app. Again, that does not apply here: the Creative Outlier Free+ and the MARLALL are bone-conduction headphones with no aware mode setting, since their open-ear fit keeps you aware by design.
One practical note before you buy: neither product page here shows a price, so check the current price on Amazon using the button on this page and compare it against what you actually need — a swim-proof MP3 player or an all-day aware-mode headphone.
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