Despite increased exposure, it’s probably not unfair to still call bone conduction headphones a very tiny niche. So much so that till this day, the way it works is commonly misunderstood, and judged harshly. That brings us to the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus.
If someone was presented with a pair of bone conduction headphones, it would probably be not too surprising if they aren’t too pleased with the sound quality you can get from it. But what if someone who is a fan of bone conduction headphones had a similar opinion?
What Am I Looking At?
Before we go any further, we should probably understand what bone conduction headphones are. As the name suggests, these transmit sound by vibrating your bones, sending the signals straight to your inner ear, bypassing your eardrums altogether. Ordinary headphones, or even canalphones, transmit sound by vibrating the air, with the signals going through your ear canal and eardrums.
This often results in a trade-off of sorts. On one hand, with ear canals free, you can also hear what’s going on around you in addition to your music. But on the other, sound quality is often left wanting.
The Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus, mouthful of a name aside, is marketed as one such example of bone conduction headphones. In addition to being good for runners who want a good sense of situational awareness, it also works for swimmers. To that effect, as long as you plug it up properly, it has an IPX8 rating, making it water resistant up to 1.5m and 40 minutes.
Like any other headphones that you can get today, you can take calls with this pair of bone conduction headphones. That being said, the microphone is one point that can compromise its IPX8 rating. Which is why it has a plug specifically for it attached on the right side.
Controls are done via three buttons, with the middle button doing most of the work, having commands that involve quintuple presses. The other two, in comparison, are fairly simple, dealing with song skips forward and back, as well as adjusting the volume up and down.
If you are indeed taking the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus for a swim, and don’t have an equally water-resistant phone, you’ll be glad to know that these headphones also have 8GB of storage built in.
What’s Good About It?
For the most part, the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus does everything that it claims to do. Though to be fair, many of the plus points that I’ll be attributing to this pair of headphones would apply to most other bone conduction headphones of this design.
Unless you have hearing difficulties, one of the main reasons you would want bone conducting headphones is to be able to both listen to music, and also have unimpeded situational awareness. In this regard, the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus gets more than just a passing grade, something that most canalphones and their ambient modes struggle to achieve.
While the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus clamps on to your temples, you probably won’t feel the discomfort until you’re at the tail end of a marathon. The band at the back also doesn’t actually rest on your neck. Rather, it’s floating slightly above, letting you tilt your head back quite a bit before the transducers shift in position a little.
Speaking of which, the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus also allows for the position of the transducers to be adjusted slightly. This is not something that you see often in headphones of this type, but to be fair, this will likely only be a useful feature for those with exceptionally small heads. Alternatively, you can pull them back and use them like air-conduction ear headphones.
What’s The Catch?
Which brings us to the primary issue with the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus. One common issue with bone conduction headphones is sound leakage, which is not completely avoidable given the nature of the product. That being said, it is more of an issue with this pair of headphones compared to of its competitors out there. You can do what I mentioned earlier and use it like open ear headphones to reduce sound leak, but this defeats the purpose of getting a pair of bone conduction headphones in the first place.
There are other minor gripes that I have with these headphones, such as the mic plug being much harder to plug in than it is to pull out. In fact, it dislodged itself a couple of times from just my adjusting of the transducers. To be fair, you’re probably not doing that much adjusting while you’re swimming, but when the waterproofing gets unplugged so easily, it’s still cause for concern.
And finally, the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus uses a proprietary connector for charging and file transfer for its built in media player. Which, on one hand, is understandable considering its swim-friendly nature, as magnetically attaching chargers are easier to wipe dry compared to good ol’ reliable USB-C. But on the flip side, if it gets misplaced or damaged, getting a replacement not as straightforward as just getting another USB-C cable.
Should I Buy It?
If you’re an avid swimmer and would want to bring your music with you, then the answer is probably a yes. Bone conduction headphones are already uncommon as they are, and waterproof versions are a niche within a niche. If you’ve been recommended something else already, your best course of action would be to try them both out, and decide which you like the sound of more.
If you’re just looking for bone conduction headphones in general, then your options open up a bit. At that point, the Creative Outlier Free Pro Plus would be a worthy consideration simply because of its price which, at the time of writing, is listed as RM370 on the brand’s official store on Lazada. That being said, this is listed as a promotional price, with an original price of RM700 instead. When it does return to said price, other options will be more enticing.
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