Soundpeats is a Chinese audio brand that wants to show you don’t have to spend big to enjoy good audio on the move. The RunFree are a pair of the brand’s air conduction headphones, and therefore firmly aimed at runners, gym lovers and anyone that wants their sound delivered in a way that still keeps them aware of their surroundings.

Priced at just $49.99/£49.99, the RunFree promise a design that will stay put when you really start to sweat, along with big bass and big battery life for less than most of the open-ear sports headphone competition. I’ve been running and hitting the gym with the RunFree to find out if they make a worthy workout companion – here’s how I got on.

Design

• Silicone frame
• Weighs 31g
• Available in four colours

It’s fair to say Soundpeats isn’t trying to excite with the look of its headphones, but crucially, they’re light at just 31g, haven’t budged when I needed them to stay put and the built-in controls are generally well integrated too.

They look like they’re made from plastic, like their RunFree Lite siblings, but Soundpeats has added in some silicone here, which makes them a touch more comfortable to wear for longer periods of exercise.

They adopt a neckband-style design, which is a look I’d associate with most bone and air conduction headphones, coming up and over the ears to place the speaker elements delivering the audio just in front of your ears. The lightness of the design gives you the feeling they’ll move around, but I’ve used them for more high-intensity workouts and the frame thankfully hasn’t bobbed around in an annoying fashion.

An IPX4 waterproof rating means they’re also able to handle some sweat and rain, and I had no issues when I swapped running outdoors for a sweatier session in the gym.

Soundpeats does a good job of keeping the profile slim while also including some buttons for controlling your music, and dual microphones to let you take calls away from your phone. The buttons are easy to reach, but are pretty close to each other, which can make it tricky to distinguish between them if you want to quickly adjust volume or skip audio.

Sound quality

• 16.2mm driver
• EQ presets and custom EQ modes in Soundpeats app

Soundpeats says it’s using what it calls ‘air conduction’ technology to deliver an open-ear headphone experience. That means you can hear your audio, but you can also hear the sound around you at the same time. It’s about offering a balance between the two.

This is similar to the method of bone conduction, but instead of sending sound through vibrations up the cheekbone towards your ears, Soundpeats uses a 16.2mm driver setup to send sound into your ear without physically blocking it up.

What you get is a sound profile that’s infinitely more powerful and well-rounded compared to bone conduction headphones, all while keeping you in tune with the world. That approach does mean these headphones leak sound and if you’re sitting in an office or a quiet train carriage with even some moderate volume, people will hear what you’re listening to.

When I was out running with them and using them in the gym, the balance between headphone sound and exterior sound was pretty good overall. That’s mainly down to having access to a series of EQ and custom EQ settings inside of the Soundpeats phone app, which I used with an iPhone 14. It mainly that lets you enhance or reduce bass, to help you find a balance that caters more to folk or electronic music, or you can just set up your own EQ profile.

What that instantly does is give you much more scope to get a sound that suits your tastes on the RunFree – and one that feels a lot more balanced than it does when you first start using them. With some small tweaks, you can get a more pleasing level of bass than you can usually expect from bone conduction headphones, and something much more rewarding in the mids and treble departments too. You’ll need to play around with the EQ modes to find something that you like, but if you’re a bass head or you prefer a sound profile with a touch more finesse, you can get something that works well here.

Taking calls on them isn’t quite as good an experience, and clarity struggles. But a bit like the fairly bland design there are always going to be some compromise, given the price.

Ultimately though, the RunFree deliver where it matters – working well for workouts and holding up admirably when you’re battling against wind, rain and other loud environments. Whether you’re listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks, the Soundpeats RunFree impress.

Battery life and features

• 14-hour battery life
• Game mode for gaming audio
• No onboard EQ controls

The Soundpeats RunFree promise some pretty hefty battery numbers, with a boast of 14 hours’ battery life on a single charge. However, I’d say that if you’re making use of those EQ modes on a regular basis and you’re listening to volumes that creep towards the top of the volume range, then you will see the battery life drop below that. It’s not considerably less, but those things will have an impact on it.

I found that an hour of listening to music with them saw the battery drop by less than 10 per cent, which seems to be about right based on the claims Soundpeats makes here. When it is time to charge, it uses a Type-C charging cable, but there isn’t any sort of quick or fast charge mode unfortunately.

Soundpeats keeps things pretty simple in terms of the extras you’re getting here. Along with the EQ features in the Soundpeats app you also get a game mode for lag-free gaming audio and – more usefully – a battery status indicator, which is useful to have if you’re using them with an iPhone.

Verdict

If bone conduction headphones have left you feeling a little underwhelmed on the sound front and you like the idea of something that offers a similar open-ear approach, then the Soundpeats RunFree will appeal.

They’re cheap, and while they don’t look particularly high grade, they don’t sound cheap and do give you scope to customise sound to better tailor to what you listen to. Add in strong battery life and a design that stays put, and there’s certainly more to like than not like about the Soundpeats RunFree.