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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 headphones you can actually wear underwater, choose POPUX Bone Conduction Headphones; if you need an everyday open-fit earbud that keeps you aware of traffic and taps into an AI app, choose Defunc True Basic.
• POPUX Bone Conduction Headphones — biggest strength: a true IP68 swimming rating plus 32GB of built-in storage, so you can leave your phone on the pool deck. Biggest trade-off: the bone conduction design and open-ear fit mean less isolation, and the 25g titanium band is a very different wearing style from a bud.
• Defunc True Basic — biggest strength: a patented semi-in-ear MultiTip fit with silicone ear wings, Bluetooth 6.0, and an AI assistant app driven by quad microphones. Biggest trade-off: IPX4 only, so sweat and splashes are fine but swimming is not.
• Pick POPUX if your workouts happen in water, in rain, or in a gym where you want a phone-free MP3 mode.
• Pick Defunc True Basic if your day is commuting, walking, office work, and calls, and you want your ears to stay open to the world.
• Quick rule: water and long battery → POPUX. All-day wear and AI features → Defunc.
The POPUX pitch is refreshingly narrow: it's a swimming headphone first. The IP68 rating is the headline, and it's a rating you genuinely can't fake — it covers underwater use, rain, and even the shower. That alone puts it in a category most earbuds don't compete in. Around that core, POPUX built a fairly complete sport package: a 25g titanium alloy frame that resists deformation, an adjustable strap for different head shapes, and physical buttons so you can play, pause, skip, and take calls with wet hands or mid-stride.
The second thing that stands out is the 32GB of on-board storage, which POPUX describes as roughly 8,000 songs. That's the difference between a swimming headphone and a useful swimming headphone — you don't need to leave a phone near the water or worry about Bluetooth range through water. You load your music, you swim, you listen. Bluetooth 5.4 is there too, with multi-point switching between a phone and a laptop, so it doubles as a normal open-ear headphone when you're dry.
Sound is delivered through a bone conduction driver with a 1-ohm impedance, and POPUX claims surging bass and clear treble with a noise-cancelling mic for calls. In my opinion, the honest framing is this: bone conduction trades bass depth and isolation for safety and water resistance. You'll hear your surroundings and your music at the same time. Battery is quoted at up to 10 hours in Bluetooth mode and 6 hours in MP3 mode, with a 10-minute top-up giving 2 hours — and the spec sheet lists a 12-hour average life and a 6-hour charge time, so expect a full charge to take a while.
Who should buy it: swimmers, open-water athletes, triathletes, and anyone who wants music during a shower or a rainy run without a phone nearby. Who should skip it: if you want deep, sealed bass and total noise isolation on a plane or a train, this isn't the design for you.
Defunc True Basic goes the opposite direction. It's an everyday earbud built around comfort and awareness rather than water resistance. The patented MultiTip semi-in-ear design with soft silicone ear wings is the centerpiece — it sits lightly in your ear instead of sealing it, so you stay naturally aware of traffic, announcements, and coworkers while music plays. Defunc says the wings add stability without creating ear pressure, which is the classic complaint about sealed buds during long sessions.
Designed in Sweden with a clean, lightweight aesthetic, the True Basic is clearly aimed at the commute-work-walk loop. Bluetooth 6.0 is the newest version here, promising faster pairing, lower latency, and steadier connections, with a 10-meter range. There's a charging case with a 13mm bass driver inside the buds and a 16-ohm impedance, plus touch controls and passive noise cancellation — which, to be clear, means the fit blocks a little sound rather than actively cancelling it.
The real differentiator is the Defunc AI App. Defunc pairs it with OpenAI's language model and a built-in Chat AI voice assistant, so you can do hands-free Q&A, translation, brainstorming, and content creation through the earbuds, with multiple AI voice modes. Four microphones (two per bud) handle voice pickup and calls. Total playtime is up to 22 hours with the case, and IPX4 covers sweat and splashes — fine for workouts and commutes, not for swimming. The buds are described as white in the title but the model number reads TRUE BASIC Ⅱ (Blue), so check the variant carefully before ordering.
Who should buy it: commuters, walkers, office workers, students, and anyone who takes a lot of calls and wants their ears open. Who should skip it: swimmers, heavy sweaters doing long outdoor sessions in downpours, and anyone who wants big passive bass from a sealed fit.
Side-by-Side: Which Should You Choose?
• Best for phone-free listening → POPUX Bone Conduction Headphones. The 32GB of storage and MP3 mode mean no phone required at all.
• Best for all-day comfort and open-ear awareness → Defunc True Basic. The MultiTip semi-in-ear fit and silicone wings are made for long, pressure-free sessions.
• Best for calls and AI features → Defunc True Basic. Quad microphones plus the OpenAI-powered Chat AI app are features POPUX simply doesn't offer.
• Best for battery endurance → Defunc True Basic. Up to 22 hours with the case beats POPUX's 10-hour Bluetooth / 6-hour MP3 figures.
• Best for the newest Bluetooth → Defunc True Basic. Bluetooth 6.0 edges out POPUX's Bluetooth 5.4 on paper.
• Best for wet-hand controls and rain → POPUX Bone Conduction Headphones. Physical buttons work when your hands are wet; touch controls on the Defunc are less forgiving.
• Best for a lightweight sport fit → POPUX Bone Conduction Headphones. At 25g with a titanium frame and adjustable strap, it's built to stay put through intense movement.
If I had to pick one for myself, I'd take the POPUX Bone Conduction Headphones. The reason is simple: the IP68 rating and 32GB of internal storage make it genuinely useful in situations where the Defunc can't go at all — swimming, showers, rainy runs — and it still works as a normal open-ear Bluetooth headphone the rest of the time. The Defunc True Basic is the better everyday bud for commuting, calls, and AI features, and if that's your whole life, buy it instead. But the POPUX does something the Defunc fundamentally cannot, and that's worth a lot in my book. Check the current price on Amazon before you commit, since both are easy to find there.
Yes. POPUX carries an IP68 swimming rating, while the Defunc True Basic is IPX4 — sweat and splash resistant only. If you plan to submerge either pair, only the POPUX is built for it.
IPX4 covers light rain, sweat, and splashes, so gym sessions and commutes are fine. Heavy downpours or swimming are outside its rating, and I wouldn't push it.
No. The 32GB of built-in storage and MP3 mode let you load songs directly onto the headphones, so you can leave your phone behind — which is exactly why they suit swimming and phone-free running.
The Defunc True Basic, on the numbers: up to 22 hours total with the charging case versus POPUX's up to 10 hours in Bluetooth mode and 6 hours in MP3 mode. POPUX offsets that with fast charging — 10 minutes for roughly 2 hours of playback.
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