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If you want a pair of open-ear earbuds for the gym, the run, the commute and everything in between, choose Quiksilver Open Ear; if you need headphones that actually keep working when your head goes underwater, choose SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater. Those two sentences are the whole article. Everything below is just the reasoning behind them.
• Quiksilver Open Ear — biggest strength: a proper everyday open-ear Bluetooth earbud with ear hooks, touch controls, hands-free calling and a case that pairs instantly, built for land sports and all-day wear.
• Quiksilver Open Ear — biggest trade-off: it's sweat and water resistant, not waterproof, and there's no built-in memory — so it needs your phone nearby and it isn't a swimming product.
• SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater — biggest strength: an IP68 waterproof, bone-conduction open-ear headset with 32GB of built-in storage, so it plays music with no phone and no Bluetooth at all.
• SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater — biggest trade-off: its Bluetooth signal is blocked once you're underwater, so for actual swimming you're limited to the songs already loaded in MP3 mode, and its controls are physical buttons rather than touch.
• Who each pick is for: Quiksilver if your workouts are dry — running, lifting, cycling, commuting. SAMVEK if the pool or open water is the whole point.
The Quiksilver Open Ear is a lifestyle-first open-ear earbud. The design sits on an ear hook rather than sealing your ear canal, which means you keep hearing traffic, gym announcements and training partners while your music plays. For outdoor runners and cyclists, that awareness is the entire reason to buy open-ear in the first place, and the secure-fit hooks are there specifically to stop the buds bouncing loose mid-stride.
The spec list reads like a modern daily driver. Bluetooth 5.4 with auto pairing means you open the case and you're connected — no menu diving. Touch controls handle volume, track skipping, calls and your voice assistant without reaching for your phone, and hands-free calling is genuinely useful if you take work calls between sets. There's a smart LED battery display on the case so you can see remaining power at a glance before you leave the house, and the frequency range covers a standard 20Hz–20,000Hz. Bluetooth range is listed at 10 metres, which is normal for the category.
Where it fits: running, cycling, weights, commuting, travel, treadmill sessions, and people who want one pair they can wear from the office to the trail. It's also listed for adults, teens and kids, so it's a reasonable family-friendly pick.
Where it doesn't fit: swimming. Sweat and water resistance protects it from rain and heavy gym sessions, but that is not the same as being submersible, and there's no onboard storage — it's a Bluetooth-only device, so it always needs a paired phone or tablet within range. If you want music in the pool, this isn't the tool. Note also that there's no active noise cancellation here; that's the trade-off you accept for open-ear awareness. Quiksilver backs it with a 3-year manufacturer warranty, which is a long commitment for this category.
The SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater is a specialist, and it's honest about it. The headline number is IP68 — water and dust resistance rated for submersion — which is the single thing most open-ear headphones cannot claim. The second headline is 32GB of built-in memory holding up to roughly 8,000 songs. That combination is the trick: because Bluetooth doesn't travel through water, the way you get music in the pool is to load files onto the headset and switch to MP3 mode. SAMVEK states this plainly, and it's the detail most shoppers miss when they compare swimming headphones.
It uses bone conduction drivers rather than speakers firing into your ear, so your ear canal stays open and you keep ambient awareness — useful at a public pool or in open water where you want to hear what's around you. The whole unit weighs 32g, which is light enough to forget about, and it uses a hook-style open-ear fit with adjustment straps plus physical button controls. Buttons are actually the smarter choice here: wet fingers and touch panels don't get along, and buttons give you a definite click you can feel without looking.
Battery is listed at 8 hours of average life with a 2-hour charge time, and it charges magnetically — no exposed port to leak. Bluetooth 5.4 is on board with a 10-metre range for land use: cycling, running, gym work. So it's a dual-mode product — Bluetooth on dry land, MP3 mode in the water.
Where it fits: lap swimmers, open-water swimmers, triathletes, and anyone who cycles or runs and wants one headset that survives sweat, rain and a dunking. Where it doesn't fit: people who want touch controls, noise cancelling, or who can't be bothered managing music files — if you live entirely inside streaming apps, the 32GB of storage is wasted on you, and the 1-year warranty is shorter than Quiksilver's.
• Best for swimming → SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater. IP68 submersion rating plus MP3 mode is the only combination here that works in a pool.
• Best for everyday Bluetooth listening → Quiksilver Open Ear. Auto pairing, touch controls and hands-free calling make it the smoother daily companion.
• Best for phone-free workouts → SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater. 32GB of internal storage means you can leave the phone in the locker.
• Best for calls and voice assistants → Quiksilver Open Ear. SAMVEK's spec sheet lists no calling or microphone features, and its button controls are aimed at playback, not conversation.
• Best for all-day comfort and fit security → a tie, with different logic. Quiksilver uses silicone ear hooks for grip during runs; SAMVEK uses a 32g hook design with adjustment straps for a snug, lightweight hold.
• Best for wet-finger control → SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater. Physical push buttons beat touch panels when your hands are wet.
• Best for battery transparency → Quiksilver Open Ear. The LED display on the case shows remaining power at a glance; SAMVEK quotes 8 hours of average life instead.
• Best for water resistance on land → SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater. IP68 comfortably covers sweat, rain and splashes that a sweat-resistant rating only partly addresses.
In my opinion, most people searching this comparison should buy the Quiksilver Open Ear. It does the everyday job — gym, run, commute, calls — with less friction, and the 3-year manufacturer warranty is a meaningful vote of confidence. But I'd steer you to the SAMVEK Swimming Headphones Underwater without hesitation if swimming is a real part of your routine. IP68 plus 32GB of onboard storage solves a problem Quiksilver simply doesn't address, and no amount of touch-control convenience replaces music that plays underwater. Buy for the activity you actually do most, not the one you'd like to do.
SAMVEK, clearly. It carries an IP68 water and dust resistance rating and is designed for pool workouts, while Quiksilver is only listed as sweat and water resistant. Remember to switch SAMVEK to MP3 mode underwater, because Bluetooth won't transmit through water.
Not in the water. It has 32GB of built-in storage for roughly 8,000 songs, so you load your music first and swim phone-free. On land you can use Bluetooth 5.4 as normal within its 10-metre range.
I don't quote prices here, and neither listing's specs tell you which costs more. Check the current price on Amazon for both before deciding — the gap shifts, and value depends on whether you need the waterproofing at all.
Yes. It's built for intense gym sessions, outdoor training and long runs, with sweat and water resistance. Just don't submerge it — that's SAMVEK's territory, not Quiksilver's.
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