Mojawa Run Plus Bone Conduction Headphones review — Massive sound under the waves

I’ve always been curious about bone conduction headphones. I’ve also had trouble with in-ear headphones and full over-the-ear headphones on long sessions as they make your ears sweat. I wanted to see if the Run Plus could alleviate that problem while still delivering a rich and whole sound profile for music. The added bonus that these babies are IP68 Swimming Waterproof was also something I needed to hear for myself. The idea of swimming laps while listening to music is an exciting prospect. The fact that I can do it with 32GB of internal storage means I won’t even need my phone. These are some lofty claims, so let’s unbox it and put it to the test.

The first thing I noticed is that there’s little fanfare to the packaging. The box announces proudly that these are IP68 for swimming, Bluetooth, and shows a picture of the headset – simple. Opening it up, it has a magnetic flap on one side, leading to the headphones nestled in a vacu-formed holder. Lifting that up I find a carrying bag, a handful of replacement tips, and a proprietary magnetic charging device that’ll connect via USB for power and data transfer.

Charging the Run Plus is as simple as connecting the magnetic cable, and it doesn’t take long – just an hour to charge it from empty to full. The instruction manual claims this will give you about 8 hours of run time at 75% volume, or 6 hours at 100% volume – something I’d be verifying for myself. Indications of battery life come from a small Mojawa logo on the side that’ll flash fast when low, flash slow when mostly charged, and simply stay on when full. With the device charged, it was time to pair and play.

Powering on the Run Plus is accomplished by holding the button on the left lobe in for two seconds. You’ll get a pleasant voice that reports the battery condition. Powering it back off, I held that same button for five seconds which put it into pairing mode, immediately coming up as “Run Plus” in my Bluetooth settings on my phone. Putting it back into pairing mode, I also paired it with my laptop, which it also accomplished with ease.

Volume adjustments are done via a touchscreen node that goes behind your ear. Sliding your finger up on the side brings the volume up. Sliding down lowers the volume. It solves the problem that a button would bring as there are no exposed openings or buttons in a rubber jacket that can wear out. Tapping this touch button twice when connected to my phone caused the assistant to spring to life. I could ask it to open my podcasts, Spotify, or any other functions just with the sound of my voice – essential when you are busy paddling.

The node that turns on the device is also how you’ll control your music. A single click is play and pause, two clicks will advance to the next track, and three clicks will back up a track. If you are using it for a phone call, a single click will answer and hang up as well. Double clicking and then holding will bring up a Mode selection, which is how you’ll access your locally-loaded media.

The Run Plus has 32GB of on-device storage. There is a Mojawa app, but you won’t need it for anything here – it’s as simple as dragging and dropping in any .mp3 media you might want to listen to, and it’ll be ready for use. Once you are in the “MP3 Mode” you’ll follow the same play, pause, and skip button presses seen above, though you’ll also add double tapping the touchpad to switch between normal, shuffle, and single loop functions if you are so inclined.

I really only have two complaints with the Run Plus – the bass response and adjustability. Let’s tackle the latter first. The headband fits my wife and I well enough, but both of us would have liked it to be a bit more snug than it is. It’s far from a deal breaker, and it’s not going to come off under any circumstances, but the audio quality improves when the band is more snug. That said, I understand – mechanical parts that can move immediately cause issues with it being waterproof. The second issue, the bass response, comes from where these rest. As they don’t fill the ear canal, they don’t have enough of a seal to pull in powerful bass. These are listed as having “Maglev bass”, though I’m not sure what that actually means. The result is that they can be a little less thumpy than you might like, but the fact that they can be used underwater makes up for that completely. Since it’s clear that’s what these were built to do, let’s do exactly that.

I’ve recently had complete reconstruction of my left hip, and water therapy was an option so I brought these along. I’m not exactly swimming laps at this point, but I’m also doing my exercises on my own now. I put these on, explained to a number of people who were suddenly very concerned about me going in the water with them that these are waterproof, and then put my head under the water…

Oh…wow. You think you know how something will perform based on all evidence to the contrary, but I’ve not been this wrong in some time. As soon as my head went under, these Run Plus headphones came ALIVE with sound. I expected a small amount of improvement to sound, but frankly it’s impossible to describe just how transformative adding water to the equation really is. Bass feels like it should be rattling the pool, and the clarity improved dramatically. I’m frankly at a loss for words – underwater they rival the best headphones on the market. If you are an avid swimmer, or just somebody like me trying to get into shape, these are the best training accessory you could possibly buy. Yeah – they’re that good.

The Run Plus comes with a 30-day money back guarantee as well as a one year product exchange. Inside the paperwork for the device you’ll also find a small black card that when scanned will add an additional 6 months of warranty to your total. You aren’t required to do a review or anything janky – just register your device under your name and you are all set.

If you are so inclined, you can pick these up for yourself right here at this link.  I didn’t know I needed these until now, but it’s making my physical therapy that much easier.

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