How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-09-27 · 6 min read · Independent comparison
• SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear — biggest strength: a genuinely connected headphone. Bluetooth 5.2 multipoint, aptX-Adaptive, dual mics with echo cancelling and noise suppression, app control, 10 hours of playtime and a 5-minute top-up that buys about 90 minutes.
• SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear — biggest trade-off: it is not a swim headphone. IP55 covers sweat and light rain only, and the manual side of that rating is explicit that you should not rinse it under a faucet. No built-in music storage either.
• Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming — biggest strength: IP68 and 32GB of onboard memory. You can submerge it 2–5 metres, switch to MP3 mode and listen with no phone in the building.
• Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming — biggest trade-off: as a daily Bluetooth headphone it is the simpler device. Physical button controls, no app, no multipoint, and a 2-hour charge for its 10 hours of playback.
• Pick SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear if your training is land-based and your priority is sound quality, calls and switching between phone and laptop.
• Pick Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming if your training happens in water and you refuse to leave your music on the poolside.
SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear is built around the idea that a bone conduction headphone should be a real headphone first and a sports accessory second. The driver is a bone conduction unit, but the rest of the spec sheet reads like a proper wireless headset: the QCC3044 chip, Bluetooth 5.2, multipoint pairing so your phone and laptop can both stay connected, and aptX-Adaptive for lower latency and more stable streaming. Latency is stated at 85 milliseconds, which matters if you ever watch video or take a call rather than just listening to music.
Who should buy it: runners, cyclists, commuters, office workers and gym-goers who want their ears open to traffic and colleagues, and who take calls mid-session. Anyone who wants one headphone for the whole day. Who should skip it: swimmers. IP55 is sweat-and-light-rain protection, and the product's own guidance is not to rinse it under a tap. If your workout is in a pool, this is the wrong tool no matter how good the rest of it looks.
Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming: Who It's For
Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming is designed the other way around: the water comes first and everything else supports it. The headline is IP68 — fully submersible to 2–5 metres — combined with 32GB of built-in storage and an MP3 mode. That combination is the whole point. Bluetooth does not travel through water, so a swim headphone that depends on your phone is a swim headphone that stops working the moment your head goes under. Rhyfell sidesteps that entirely: load your music once, leave the phone in the locker, and keep listening through your turns.
The storage is generous and the transfer spec is quick — 32GB with roughly 18MB/s transfer, which the brand frames as enough for 8,000+ songs moved in minutes. Playtime is 10 hours, and the frame is 28 g in liquid silicone with a fit explicitly developed around swimmers, so it should hold steady through high-intensity sets rather than shifting on every push-off. Bluetooth 6.0 handles the dry-land side — running, walking, hiking — with quick pairing and stable sync. Controls are physical push buttons, which in my opinion is the right call for anything with wet hands. The theme list (fitness, hiking, running, sports, swimming) tells you it is meant to move between pool and trail.
Who should buy it: swimmers, surfers and triathletes, plus anyone who wants a phone-free music player strapped to their head. Who should skip it: people who mainly want a headset for calls and laptop switching. There is no app, no multipoint, and no microphone spec to speak of, so it is a listening device, not a communication device. It also takes 2 hours to charge versus SUUNTO's 1.
• Best for swimming → Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming. IP68 to 2–5 metres plus MP3 mode is the only way either of these works underwater.
• Best for calls and meetings → SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear. Dual mics, cVc echo cancelling and noise suppression, and 15 km/h anti-wind handling.
• Best for sound quality and latency → SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear. aptX-Adaptive, Bluetooth 5.2, an 85 ms latency figure and an optimised frequency response curve.
• Best for phone-free training → Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming. 32GB onboard with no phone required at all.
• Best for device juggling → SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear. Multipoint keeps two devices connected and switches between them, with app-based control.
• Best for charging convenience → SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear. 1-hour full charge and a 5-minute top-up for about 90 minutes of use, versus 2 hours for Rhyfell.
• Best for wet, hands-on control → Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming. Physical push buttons beat touch and app control when your fingers are wet or gloved.
• Best for all-day land use → SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear. 30.6 g with weight-optimised distribution, silicone and titanium alloy, built for long wear.
If I had to buy one, I would buy SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear. In my opinion it is the more capable headphone for the way most people actually train — outdoors, in traffic, on calls, moving between phone and laptop — and the 10-hour battery, fast charge, multipoint and mic array are features I would use every single day. The catch is honest and simple: it is not a swim headphone. If you swim laps and want music in the water, Rhyfell Bone Conduction Swimming is the only one of the two that can do the job, and its 32GB of storage makes the phone irrelevant. Land athlete: SUUNTO. Water athlete: Rhyfell.
how to bone conduction headphones work
They use a bone conduction driver that sends vibrations through your cheekbones or jaw to the inner ear, bypassing the ear canal. Both headphones here use that driver type, which is why your ears stay open and you keep hearing traffic, whistles and pool noise.
how to wear bone conduction headphones
The transducer sits against the bone in front of your ear, not over or inside it, and the band hooks around the back of your head. The Rhyfell frame is 28 g in liquid silicone and shaped for swimmers, while SUUNTO's 30.6 g design uses weight-optimised distribution for long land sessions.
how to use bone conduction headphones
Pair over Bluetooth for normal listening, or load music to memory and switch to MP3 mode when you are in the water. Rhyfell has 32GB onboard for phone-free swimming; SUUNTO pairs via Bluetooth 5.2 multipoint and is managed through the SUUNTO app.
For Rhyfell, no — 32GB of internal storage and MP3 mode mean you swim with no phone at all. SUUNTO Sonic Open-Ear is Bluetooth-only and IP55 rated for sweat and light rain only, so it is not intended for pool or open-water swimming.
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