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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want a pair of open-ear headphones built to survive actual swimming, choose MARLALL Bone Conduction Swimming; if you need a headset for calls, meetings and all-day voice work, choose Hostena Meetings Open-Ear Headphones.
These two look similar on the surface — both are bone conduction, both are open-ear, both charge magnetically — but they solve completely different problems. One is a waterproof MP3 player for the pool. The other is a Bluetooth headset with a boom mic for talking. Picking the wrong one is an easy mistake to make, so let's break down what each one actually does well.
• MARLALL's biggest strength: a true IPX8 waterproof seal plus 32GB of built-in storage, so it plays music underwater with no phone anywhere near you.
• MARLALL's biggest trade-off: Bluetooth does not work underwater — swimming only works in MP3 mode, and you have to load files onto the internal memory yourself.
• Hostena's biggest strength: a rotatable noise-canceling boom mic, one-touch mute and Bluetooth 5.4, all aimed at making you sound clear on calls.
• Hostena's biggest trade-off: no waterproofing is stated anywhere in its specs, so it is a dry-land headset — pool laps are not on the menu.
• Who each is for: MARLALL is for lap swimmers and water athletes; Hostena is for people on calls, driving, studying or working all day.
This is a specialist tool, and it is honest about it. The headline feature is the IPX8 rating, which the specs describe as resisting water immersion. That is the whole point: swimming, snorkeling, surfing, and any other activity where you would normally leave your phone in a bag on the deck. The ergonomic ear-hook design spreads pressure around the ear instead of pressing into it, and the overmold liquid silicone is described as skin-friendly and ultra-soft, which matters when you are wearing these for a full swim session rather than a ten-minute walk.
The second thing to understand is how music gets to your ears. There is 32GB of internal storage, and you play from that in MP3 mode. Bluetooth is simply not supported underwater — the specs say it plainly, and that is physics as much as design. You manage playlists by connecting the magnetic charging cable to a computer, which gives you direct access to the internal storage. One caveat worth knowing before you buy: music from a phone app cannot be copied straight onto the memory card, so you will want your files as actual audio files on a computer. Battery life is quoted at up to 7 hours of continuous playback from a 1.5-hour charge, which covers plenty of pool sessions.
Hostena Meetings Open-Ear Headphones: Who It's For
Hostena went the other direction entirely. This headset is built around your voice. The boom microphone rotates through multiple angles so you can park it right where it picks you up best, and the noise-canceling algorithms are designed to filter out wind, traffic and office background noise so the person on the other end hears you rather than your surroundings. There is also a one-touch mute — press the button and you are instantly silent, no digging through software settings mid-meeting.
The open-ear, bone conduction design means nothing sits inside your ear canal, so there is no pressure building up over a long day. The specs specifically call out people who wear a bone conduction headset for work calls for extended periods, and with a claimed 24 hours of average battery life and a one-hour charge time, that use case holds together. Bluetooth 5.4 handles the connection, and multipoint pairing lets you connect two devices at once and switch between them — laptop for a call, phone for everything else, without re-pairing. Magnetic charging works the same convenient way as the MARLALL: bring the headset near the charging port and it snaps into place.
The trade-offs are equally clear. There is no waterproof rating in the specs, so treat this as dry-land equipment — desks, cars, classrooms, commutes. At 29g it is slightly heavier than the MARLALL, though still light enough for all-day wear by the design's intent. And the plastic enclosure and push-button controls are purposeful rather than premium. Who should buy it? Anyone whose day revolves around calls, online classes, driving and voice notes — the boom mic and mute button are the reason to pick this one. Who should skip it? Swimmers, obviously, and anyone who wants a purely musical experience without a mic boom in front of their face.
• Best for swimming and water sports → MARLALL Bone Conduction Swimming. IPX8 sealing plus 32GB of internal storage is the only way either of these plays music underwater.
• Best for calls and meetings → Hostena Meetings Open-Ear Headphones. The rotatable noise-canceling boom mic and one-touch mute are built for exactly this.
• Best for battery life → Hostena. 24 hours average versus MARLALL's up to 7 hours of playback, though the two are measured for very different kinds of use.
• Best for pool-side simplicity → MARLALL. No phone, no signal, no problem — the music lives inside the headset.
• Best for multitasking across devices → Hostena. Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint pairing covers two devices at once; MARLALL's Bluetooth is for dry-land listening, not underwater use.
• Best for all-day comfort while talking → Hostena. The open-ear design is explicitly aimed at long call sessions, with no ear-canal pressure.
• Best for outdoor awareness → both, honestly. Open-ear bone conduction keeps your ears free on either model, so you hear traffic while running or your surroundings while hiking.
• Best for charging convenience → a tie. Both use magnetic charging cables, so neither makes you fiddle with a tiny port.
In my opinion, the right answer depends entirely on what you do with your ears — so here is how I would decide. If I swam laps regularly, I would buy the MARLALL without hesitating: IPX8 plus 32GB of built-in storage is a combination that actually solves the underwater music problem, and nothing about the Hostena's spec sheet touches it. If my day is meetings, calls and driving, I would buy the Hostena, because the boom mic, mute button and 24-hour battery are the features I would use every hour. For most people reading this, the deciding question is simple: is the water involved, or is the microphone involved? Answer that and the choice makes itself. If price is the last thing on your mind, check the current price on Amazon before you commit.
how to bone conduction headphones work
Bone conduction drivers bypass your eardrum and send vibration through the bone in front of your ear, which your inner ear reads as sound. That is why both of these keep your ear canal completely open — you hear your audio and your surroundings at the same time. The Hostena spec sheet describes it exactly this way, noting it reduces the discomfort traditional earbuds cause.
how to wear bone conduction headphones
how to use bone conduction headphones
For the Hostena, pair over Bluetooth 5.4, connect up to two devices, and use the push-button controls for calls and the one-touch mute. For the MARLALL, load audio files onto the 32GB internal storage through the magnetic charging cable connected to a computer, then switch to MP3 mode for swimming — Bluetooth is not supported underwater.
Do these headphones work for both swimming and calls?
No, and that is the key difference between them. The MARLALL is rated IPX8 for water immersion but is MP3-only in the water, and it needs its microphone dried after swimming. The Hostena has the noise-canceling boom mic and mute for calls, but no waterproof rating is listed in its specs, so it stays on dry land.
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