The days of worrying about your headphones/earphones falling off or meddling with your Sing in the Shower Like Never Before with ICON.AI’s Stunning Smart Mirror will soon be over. To help athletes focus solely on their running workouts, Sony has unveiled a whole new breed of off-ear headphones, dubbed the ‘Float Run’. According to the tech company, the new audio devices are designed to assist runners to “go the distance through an innovative and comfortable design for a stress-free listening experience”. While open-ear headphones aren’t exactly revolutionary, Sony’s new Float Runs do introduce some impressive features, starting with how they fit into your ears.
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Sony Float Run headphones | Image: Sony
The Float Run doesn’t need to be placed inside your ear canals like most earphones; instead, these off-ear headphones sort of stay hanging just outside the ear canal without ever touching it. Sony calls this “a novel headphone style that positions the speaker near, but without touching the ear canal, leaving the ear safely uncovered while still delivering a rich sound experience.”
Design-wise, there’s nothing flashy or drastically different here. The headphones follow the same design language as most other off-ear options on the market. The whole thing is super lightweight and is held together by a thin neckband that doesn’t slip when you’re running. A small plastic block at the end rests behind your ears to ensure the speaker doesn’t sway off from its intended position and ensures a snug fit.
“The Float Run headphones focus on the runner’s form, for a comfortable and stable experience without having to compromise sound quality,” says Sony. The company even claims that the headphones have been tested on a broad range of head shapes and hairstyles and even with accessories, including hats and sunglasses. Sony promises that “whatever is worn, the stabilising neckband will keep them secure.”
Sony Float Run headphones | Image: Sony
The headphones feature a “pressure-free design that sits off the ears,” thus preventing any sweat or chafing from hampering your workout session. As far as audio and sound performance are concerned, the Float Run uses 16mm drivers and precise tuning combined with the off-ear style to help deliver a premium listening experience. The headphones hover over the wearer’s ear canal and directly deliver audio into one’s ear without ever making any sort of contact. To further immerse users, the headphones boast an “open-type design” that “eliminates the echo of the sounds your body makes, like footsteps, chewing or heavy breathing and allows in ambient sound.”
Basically, since the Float Run doesn’t actually cover your ears, it allows the wearer to be mindful of their surroundings. The design enables “music to naturally mix with ambient sound and be formed by the user’s ear shape.”
Sony Float Run headphones | Image: Sony
The Float Run comes with an IPX4 water-resistant rating and a claimed battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge via USB-C. There’s a quick charge feature too that gives the headphones an hour’s worth of juice in just 10 minutes. The Float Run comes with a neat carrying pouch to keep all the paraphernalia together in one place.
Sony promises the headphones will deliver an uninterrupted, stress-free, clean listening experience to runners. However, we’ll need to test these out for ourselves to see if they’re truly the game-changer Sony claims. Priced at AUD $259.95, the Sony Float Run headphones will be available in Australia sometime in April.
Sony Float Run headphones | Image: Sony
