While the sound quality may put off some, the $130 price tag, useful feature set, and high build quality will draw in just as many.

The Haylou PurFree BC01 Bone Conduction Headphones do precisely what they set out to do. They provide a decent level of volume and quality for bone-conducting headphones, allowing you to listen to music without losing track of the world and people around you. They're incredibly hard-wearing, really comfortable, and can even be connected to more than one device at once. The short charge cable and lower sound quality might put you off, but there's more than enough to love about these headphones.

Sports headphones aim to provide a comfortable audio experience that won’t be disturbed by the jolts of strenuous activity. The Haylou PurFree BC01 Bone Conduction Headphones are a set of sports headphones that promise performance on par or better than the most popular competitors' offerings, for a considerably cheaper price. Can the new offering break into the niche market previously cornered by larger companies? Today we’re taking a look at the Haylou PurFree BC01 Bone Conduction Headphones

While on paper these headphones certainly seem to mostly match up to Shokz-brand Bone Conduction headphones, do they actually perform as intended? Haylou compares the headphones with Shokz OpenRun headphones, and the comparison works in the BC01s favor. They offer better Bluetooth, charge quicker, feature a built-in dedicated chipset to handle connectivity, and cost around the same price. But, aside from the claims on the box, does it perform well in the real world?

As with any headphones designed for use during sports, the key factor is comfort and stability. More than anything, the headphones need to stay in place and do so comfortably. After all, you’re supposed to be able to wear them for an entire workout session without taking them off. Thankfully, the BC01s perform pretty well in this area. The band sits comfortably around the ears and doesn’t shift out of place too badly even if you’re jogging or jumping around. The rubberized material covering the outside of the device is quite grippy and even resists persistent attempts to dislodge them.

So far, so good, and it keeps getting better. Not only are these headphones incredibly comfortable and sturdy, but they’re also ridiculously hard to damage too. They can be twisted into pretty much any configuration, and they’ll always spring back into their original shape. Even severe twists don’t seem to actually do them any harm. Combined with the IP67 rating, they can stand up to a decent amount of punishment, including using them while in the shower or swimming (assuming you don’t plan on swimming down too deep.)

The BC01s feature only three buttons to control all of their various functions. The volume up and down buttons also turn the headphones on and off, as well as put them into pairing mode. There’s also a function button on the left side of the headphones that you can use to pause or skip music, as well as answer calls and even bring up your phone’s digital assistant. These functions are all relatively intuitive, so you can probably get them memorized within a few minutes of picking them up.

There’s also the inclusion of magnetic charging, meaning that your cable will be held in place by magnets. This is great from one perspective, ensuring that your headphones are likely to stay connected properly and therefore will charge fully. The only problem is that the cable also attaches itself to anything metal, so you have to be careful not to let it suck onto your PC case or something. One other minor complaint is that the cable is annoying short, and since it’s a proprietary cable, there’s not much chance of swapping it out for a longer one any time soon.

As mentioned in the marketing material, the Haylou PurFree BC01 Bone Conduction Headphones have a battery life of around 8 hours. In reality, that is a pretty big understatement. Whether it’s the low-power Bluetooth 5.2 capabilities or some other wizardry, the little 165mAh battery has kept these things running upwards of 10 hours of constant music playback. It also reaches full charge in around 1.5 hours, which is fast enough for most cases, especially with the first 10 minutes of charge giving you upwards of 2 hours.

There’s also an added feature that isn’t the most common for sports headphones. You can actually connect the BC01s to multiple devices at once, swapping between the audio playback completely on the fly. This works pretty well, though you do have to jump through some hoops to actually turn the feature on. It’s sort of difficult to imagine too many scenarios where the feature would actually come in overly useful, but if you want to connect your headphones to say your phone and your laptop then I guess it’s at least a viable option for you.

Of course, this is where it might all start to fall apart for the BC01s. Like all bone-conducting headphones, you lose out on quality by bypassing your eardrums and sending music through your cheekbone. That’s relatively obvious with the BC01s, especially if you’re already used to listening to music through something with a high sound reproduction quality. On the other hand, these headphones aren’t aiming for high sound quality, they’re aiming for decent sound quality, combined with the ability to hear things around them, packaged in a pair of headphones that won’t become dislodged easily.

These headphones do the job beautifully, so the quality of sound is mostly forgivable. There is even a pair of high-quality earplugs provided in the box that you can use to hear your music more clearly in a high-noise environment. Truthfully, these plugs make the sound quality even worse, turning it into a muffled mess of slightly hard-to-hear music and speech. Realistically it doesn't even matter, because the BC01s thrive in the niche of providing audio backing without preventing you from hearing your surroundings.

There are some key benefits to the Haylou PurFree BC01 Bone Conduction Headphones skipping your eardrums. Firstly, it makes it much safer to wear headphones in public, since you can still hear if people are approaching you or calling for you. This can come in especially helpful if you’re concerned about listening to music while jogging or walking, preventing you from noticing danger around you.

One unsung benefit of the ability to listen to music while hearing people around you could be for those on the autistic spectrum. As one of those people, it has been immeasurably helpful when going out and about, or even just interacting with other people, to have relaxing music playing quality through the bone-conduction headphones. Not only is it incredibly soothing, but because of the way the headphones work, people around you won’t be able to tell unless you’ve got the volume at maximum.

A massively important factor with any headphones or earbuds these days is microphone quality and noise isolation. Realistically, they need to be able to pick up audio from your mouth without making you inaudible to anyone you happen to be talking to through them, because otherwise you’re left having to swap out your headphone anytime someone calls you.

The BC01s actually come out quite well, beating a lot of wireless earbuds in microphone quality. Sure, you wouldn’t want to record a podcast with the mic, but it’s great at making sure that your voice comes out as understandable on a call. Even outside near a busy road, it’s mostly possible to hold a normal conversation, which is an impressive feat.

Overall, the Haylou PurFree BC01 Bone Conduction Headphones perform an outstanding job. They deliver a decent volume level and sound quality while staying in place under pressure and without causing unnecessary discomfort. They also stand up to a lot of punishment and run for a shockingly long time, making them ideal for extended exercise sessions or even just throughout a work day. While the short charging cable and the low sound quality may put off some, the $130 price tag, useful feature set, and high build quality will draw in just as many.

A gaming, cybersecurity, and technology writer who has been building computers and tinkering with software since he was a teenager. William has been a professional freelance writer since 2016 and has been involved with prestigious websites in the past, including TechRaptor.net and Hacked.com

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