Verdict
The Inventive Outlier Free Professional presents good, however not greatest at school bone conduction sound on land and within the water for much less cash than the swim-proof headphone competitors.
Execs
- Comfy to put on for lengthy intervals
- Simple to modify between Bluetooth and music participant modes
- Good battery efficiency
Cons
- Battery drop at louder volumes
- Sound isn’t tremendous clear
- Sound in water doesn’t higher competitors
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Constructed-in MP3 participant8GB storage to play audio information on -
IP scoreIPX8 score permits for submersion in water -
Bluetooth multipointJoin to 2 gadgets on the identical time
Introduction
The Inventive Outlier Free Professional are bone conduction headphones constructed to be your all-day headphones with a robust train slant, together with whenever you go for a swim.
Together with that swim-proof design, Inventive offers you the choice of Bluetooth and music participant streaming with extras like multipoint connectivity, a low latency mode to enhance watching movies and the promise of as much as 10 hours battery life.
They’re priced cheaper than different swim-proof bone conduction headphones together with the Shokz OpenSwim, so may you avoid wasting cash by grabbing these extra inexpensive waterproof headphones as a substitute?
Availability
The Inventive Outlier Free Professional price £159.99 / $129.99, however may be discovered for £89.99 / $99.99, making them a less expensive purchase than the Shokz OpenSwim (£139.95 / $149.95), and the Naenka Runner Diver (£135.56 / $169.99), two of one of the best performing waterproof bone conduction headphones I’ve examined.
Design
- IPX8 water-resistant design
- Microphone protector for swimming
- Silicone ear plugs included
The Inventive Outlier Free Professional undertake a well-known behind-the-neck and ear hook design related to bone conduction headphones and has a mixture of titanium and silicone within the design to make it snug to put on, however really feel like they’re well-built as nicely.
At 31.5g, the Outlier Free Professional is sweet and light-weight making them ideally suited for carrying over longer intervals. They arrive solely in a blue look with your complete design appropriate to be submerged in freshwater as much as 1.5 metres for as much as 40 minutes. The identical stage of safety isn’t on supply in saltwater, so it’s not going to be appropriate for all open water swimming spots.
Beneath the precise arm are three bodily buttons for observe skipping, for quantity management, with a button that has an enormous ‘M’ on that permits you to swap between Bluetooth and music participant modes.
For swims, Inventive has included a set of silicone earplugs to cease water from invading your ears. Additionally they embody three small rubber microphone protectors that you simply’ll have to plug into the microphone port to additional shield the headphones from moisture invading the onboard elements.
The bodily buttons are just a little too tightly positioned collectively for my liking, which makes it straightforward at instances to hit the unsuitable button, whereas getting the microphone protector plugged in earlier than a swim is a particularly fiddly course of. There’s a motive why three are offered as a result of they’re straightforward to misplace.

Options
- 8GB music participant
- As much as 10 hours battery life
- Multipoint connectivity
Together with the headphones you’re getting a proprietary magnetic charging cable that additionally doubles because the cable wanted to plug right into a USB-A port on a laptop computer or pc to tug and drop audio to utilize the built-in 8GB music participant.
That is fairly commonplace for the way most bone conduction headphones with music gamers work and the Professional is suitable with MP3, FLAC, WAV and APE file codecs, though it doesn’t assist WMA information. It’s a drag and drop method that may be a contact sluggish going at instances syncing audio over.

By way of battery life, Inventive says you may take pleasure in as much as 10 hours of battery life from the onboard 180mAh capability battery, although these numbers are based mostly on listening at reasonable volumes.
In actuality, in case you’re utilizing this near high quantity, and certain most will, attending to the promised 10 hours isn’t all the time doable, whether or not that’s utilizing the Bluetooth streaming or from the music participant. On the whole I discovered battery life nearer to 6-7 hours. A 40-minute swim with the music participant noticed battery drop by 10%. So it’s not a foul exhibiting usually.
Attaching that charging cable for a 5-minute cost does get you two hours of playtime, making it straightforward to maintain them topped up and pondering much less about how a lot battery it’s important to play with.

Inventive presents another extras right here to make them extra helpful exterior of exercise time. There’s a multipoint connectivity mode to hook up with two Bluetooth gadgets on the identical time, a comparatively simple, four-step course of to set it up in case you like the thought of having the ability to deal with calls from considered one of two related gadgets.
There’s additionally a Low Latency mode, which guarantees to offer audio and video playback with much less lag. That is activated by urgent the multifunction button 4 instances, although I actually can’t say if it improved or supplied a greater expertise.
Sound High quality
- Good however not one of the best bone conduction sound
- Name high quality
- As much as 10-hours battery life
Inventive isn’t doing something notably out of the traditional when it comes to the way it makes use of bone conduction expertise to ship sound to your ears.

Whether or not it’s over Bluetooth streaming or through the built-in participant, the general sound profile is similar. It’s positive, however whenever you’ve examined different bone conduction headphones like I’ve, it’s not breaking new floor and even matching what one of the best bone conduction headphones can supply.
The bass is muddy, the midrange sounds boxy and the trebles are harsh sounding. Whenever you go louder, these bone conduction vibrations are just a little extra noticeable. These aren’t the worst bone conduction headphones I’ve used and there are some positive traits right here, however it doesn’t match the expertise I’ve come to count on from Shokz, Naenka and Haylou in providing one thing extra balanced.

When switching to music participant mode, I piled on a bunch of drum and bass podcasts in addition to spoken podcasts and for the previous, the bassier sound is probably the most redeeming high quality although it comes on the expense of readability. Listening to podcasts was positive, however it merely wasn’t as clear as another bone conduction headphones I’ve examined.
Within the water, that lack of readability and quantity makes the expertise a much less memorable one. They do an okay job of delivering sound for swims, however there’s actually room for enchancment. It’s the same story utilizing them for calls and in case you’re searching for one of the best bone conduction headphones for very clear calls, these usually are not those both.
Newest offers
Do you have to purchase it?
You desire a extra inexpensive pair of swim-proof bone conduction headphones: The Outlier Free Professional may be picked up for lower than comparable headphones from Shokz, Naenka and presents a ok efficiency out and in of the water.
You need one of the best bone conduction headphones for swimming: Whereas they is perhaps cheaper and supply a great match for swims for lower than the competitors, the sound doesn’t match swim-proof headphones you may spend extra on for higher sound.
Closing Ideas
The Inventive Outlier Free Professional get lots of issues proper. They’re snug to put on, supply two audio streaming choices and battery life is there and thereabouts with different waterproof bone conduction headphones.
In the end although, in case you care about one of the best bone conduction sound, there are higher choices. You’ll need to pay extra, however in case you’re offered on great-sounding headphones you need to use for swims, it’s value paying a bit extra.
How we take a look at
We take a look at each set of headphones we overview totally over an prolonged time frame. We use business customary assessments to match options correctly. We’ll all the time inform you what we discover. We by no means, ever, settle for cash to overview a product.
Discover out extra about how we take a look at in our ethics coverage.
Examined with actual world use
Battery drain take a look at carried out
FAQs
If by protected, you imply can they be utilized in busy environments, then sure. The design permits for consciousness of what’s across the wearer, which is very vital if bone conduction headphones are getting used for actions resembling outside train.
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