We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-09-26 · 6 min read · Independent comparison
If you want featherweight all-day comfort with marathon battery life for running, cycling and gym work, choose EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones; if you need a genuinely waterproof bone conduction set you can swim with, choose Hostena Full-Coverage Liquid Silicone.
• EEXXYZ biggest strength: 5g per bud with flexible ear hooks, plus a charging case that pushes total playtime to 90 hours.
• EEXXYZ biggest trade-off: Despite the "bone conduction" wording in its listing, the feature copy describes air conduction and open-ear design — and there's no waterproof rating listed, so I wouldn't swim in them.
• Hostena biggest strength: IP68 waterproofing rated for dives up to two meters, full-coverage liquid silicone, and 32GB of built-in storage so you can swim phone-free in MP3 mode.
• Hostena biggest trade-off: Only 8 hours per charge, a 2-hour charge time, and Bluetooth simply doesn't work underwater — you must switch to MP3 mode in the pool.
• Pick EEXXYZ if your training happens on land and you want the lightest possible fit with almost no charging anxiety.
• Pick Hostena if water is part of your routine — swimming, surfing, kayaking, diving — and you want audio that survives it.
The EEXXYZ set is built around one idea: get the earbud off your ear canal and make it disappear. Each bud weighs just 5g, and the housing is open-ear by design, so nothing presses into your ear. The flexible hooks are described as skin-friendly and shaped to hold through sprints, jumps and sweaty sessions — and they're called out as compatible with glasses, which matters if you run in prescription frames or sunglasses. The enclosure is ABS plastic in Titanium Black.
Battery is where this one pulls ahead for land athletes. You get up to 5 hours per charge, and the 400mAh case extends that to a claimed 90 hours total. A 1.5-hour Type-C charge tops everything back up. Bluetooth 6.1 is listed with 50% more stable connections and 2x faster pairing than earlier versions, plus open-lid auto-pairing across iOS, Android and Windows. Touch controls handle music, calls and voice assistants, and the mics use noise reduction for calls. Range is stated at 10 meters.
Hostena Full-Coverage Liquid Silicone: Who It's For
Hostena goes the other direction entirely: this is a bone conduction headset engineered around water. The headline is IP68 waterproofing, rated for dives up to two meters, with a full-coverage liquid silicone body that the listing says sits comfortably against swimming goggles and a cap. Because it's bone conduction rather than in-ear, your ear canal stays open — the pitch is staying alert to hazards in a public pool or open water while music plays.
The clever part is the 32GB built-in memory card, said to hold over 8,000 songs across MP3, WMA, WAV, APE and FLAC. That's the whole point: Bluetooth 6.0 does not transmit underwater, so the listing repeatedly tells you to switch to MP3 mode when swimming. You load files by connecting the magnetic charging cable to a computer. Battery is 8 hours of continuous use with a 2-hour charge and up to 90 hours standby. Weight is 3.68 ounces for the unit, and specific uses listed include swimming, surfing, diving, kayaking, running, cycling and motorcycling.
Who should buy it: swimmers first — lap swimmers, open-water swimmers, surfers, divers and kayakers who want music without a phone nearby. Also a reasonable pick for teens and adults who want one headset for pool and gym. Who should skip it: anyone who mainly wants long wireless listening sessions with a charging case, because 8 hours per charge and no case is a different proposition. Note the noise control field lists "None," so don't expect active noise cancellation.
• Best for all-day, low-hassle battery life → EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones (90 hours total with the case vs 8 hours per charge).
• Best for swimming and water sports → Hostena Full-Coverage Liquid Silicone (IP68, two-meter dive rating, MP3 mode for underwater use).
• Best for the lightest possible fit → EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones (5g per bud).
• Best for phone-free workouts → Hostena Full-Coverage Liquid Silicone (32GB onboard, 8,000+ songs, no Bluetooth needed).
• Best for running and cycling on land → EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones (secure hooks, glasses-friendly, aware-of-surroundings design).
• Best for the newest Bluetooth spec → EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones (Bluetooth 6.1 vs Bluetooth 6.0).
• Best for gym-to-pool versatility → Hostena Full-Coverage Liquid Silicone (listed for swimming, surfing, diving, kayaking, cycling and more).
• Best for quick top-ups → EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones (1.5-hour charge vs 2 hours).
In my opinion, most people shopping this category are land athletes, and for them I'd buy the EEXXYZ Open Ear Headphones. The 5g weight, hook-based fit and 90-hour case life solve the two things that actually annoy open-ear users: pressure and constant charging. I'd only steer you to the Hostena Full-Coverage Liquid Silicone if water is genuinely part of your week — that IP68 rating and 32GB of onboard music are the reasons to pick it, and they're real advantages the EEXXYZ set doesn't claim. If you swim, buy the Hostena. If you don't, the EEXXYZ is the one I'd reach for.
how to bone conduction earphones work
Bone conduction drivers vibrate and send sound through the bones of your skull to your inner ear, bypassing the ear canal entirely. That's why bone conduction sets like the Hostena leave your ears open — you hear your music and your surroundings at the same time. Traditional in-ear models, by contrast, seal the canal.
how to wear bone conduction earphones
You rest the transducer pads against your cheekbones, just in front of your ears, and hook the band or arms over your ears for stability. The Hostena's full-coverage liquid silicone is shaped to sit alongside swimming goggles and a cap. Fit matters more than pressure — you want contact, not a tight clamp.
how to use bone conduction earphones
Pair them over Bluetooth for normal listening, then switch to the built-in MP3 mode when you're in the water, since Bluetooth signals don't travel underwater. The Hostena stores files on its 32GB card and you load them via the magnetic charging cable connected to a computer. The EEXXYZ set, meanwhile, pairs over Bluetooth 6.1 with open-lid auto-pairing.
how are bone conduction earphones different from regular earbuds
They don't go inside your ear, so there's no tip pressure or itching, and you keep full awareness of traffic and people around you. The trade-off is that open designs leak more ambient sound in. If you want a sealed, noise-blocking listen, neither of these is that product — the Hostena even lists noise control as "None."
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