Edifier Comfo Run

Verdict

The Edifier Comfo Run offers good, but not exceptional open-ear sound, with better-sounding options out there available for less.

Introduction

The Edifier Comfo Run joins a growing list of open-ear headphones for fitness lovers that opts for air conduction over bone conduction, delivering sound in a safer fashion.

Along with a design that’s fit to stay comfortable all day long, Edifier promises deep, powerful bass, up to 17 hours of battery life and a companion app to tinker with the sound profile.

On paper, the Comfo Run seems to tick all the key boxes to make them an ideal pair of open-ear sports headphones that are also a bit of a bargain with its sub-£100 / $100 price tag.

Availability

The Edifier Comfo Run is available now via Amazon where it sits at the affordable price of £79.99 / $79.99. That makes it cheaper than a whole host of other open-ear, neckband-style sports headphones, including the Shokz OpenRun (£129.95 / $129.95), the OpenRun Pro (£159.95 / $179.95) and the Suunto Sonic ( £129 / $149).

Those headphones use bone conduction, so compared to similar air conduction sports headphones, the Edifier are cheaper than the JBL Soundgear Sense (£129.99), which can be worn either as wireless buds or as a neckband. However, they’re not as cheap as the Soundpeats RunFree air conduction headphones, which cost just £49.99 / $49.99.

Design

• Nicely weighted neckband design
• Includes physical buttons
• IP55 water resistance rating

The Comfo Run gets a lot of things right in terms of being headphones you’ll want to wear for the gym or a run. They weigh just 34g and that weight comes from a nicely flexible frame wrapped in silicone to provide a comfortable resting point. While pleasingly light, they don’t jump around and it’s a very similar feeling to using headphones like the Shokz OpenRun and the Haylou PurFree BC01.

It comes in the single black look and it’s a relatively svelte design, though hardly stands out from a sea of other Shokz-inspired headphones. On the right side you’ll find three physical buttons. Two are dedicated volume buttons, which can be held down for a couple of seconds to skip back and forwards through tracks. The button between them summons your smartphone assistant, answers and rejects calls, play and pauses audio and enables a gaming mode.

Typically, most neckband-style headphones keep the middle multi-function button away from the volume controls for good reason. It’s tricky to differentiate between the buttons because they’re so tightly packed together, especially if you’re working out at an intensity. For things like adjusting volume and handling calls, they work absolutely fine, when you’ve got to hold those buttons down for a little longer, things become more challenging and you don’t have scope to adjust how those assigned controls in the companion app.

To help make them better suited to exercise, Edifier has certified them with an IP55 rating, which means they have some resistance to water splashes and dust. So, think of sweat and light rain and not dunking them in water. That’s not the strongest water resistance rating you’ll find on a set of sports headphones, but it does at least offer some welcome added protection and I’ve had no issues taking them out for rainy outdoor workouts or using them for sweatier indoor ones.

Features

• 17-hour battery
• Tracks your steps
• EQ presets

There are some interesting extras that Edifier includes here. The first is a game mode to reduce latency for when you swap workouts for working out your digits. There’s also a pedometer, which instead of using built-in sensors on the headphones uses your phone’s accelerometer to track your steps. It doesn’t seem to save step totals anywhere as far as I can see and is a bit slow to update totals in real-time as well.

In terms of battery life, Edifier talks big numbers. It promises up to 17 hours off a single charge and has a quick charge feature that gives five hours of listening time from a 15-minute charge. It’s a proprietary charging setup with the magnetic port sat on the underside of one of the headphone arms and the cable isn’t super long either. 

The battery life you enjoy depends entirely on volume and the preset you’re using. Go loud and bassy, and battery life will be shorter than at moderate volumes in Classic mode. I found an hour’s use at a loud volume and with the Bass Boost mode saw battery drop by 14%. It was less with the Classic mode, but 17 hours seems a touch ambitious, especially at louder volumes, which you generally will likely have to.

Sound Quality

• Bass-forward profile
• Offers two sound modes
• Useful quick charge mode

The Comfo Run uses air conduction to deliver audio to your ears, and while it’s not unique in taking this approach, it’s now being seen as a way to build on bone conduction technology where there can be limitations with overall sound quality compared to traditional headphones. 

These are essentially placing two 16.2mm drivers in close proximity to your ear, which Edifier claims produces natural sound with deep, powerful bass. There are two onboard microphones that use algorithms to boost clarity when you want to take calls.

I’ve tested a lot of fitness-focused open-ear headphones that look like the Comfo Run, both air conduction and bone conduction-style, so I certainly know what a good pair sounds like, both at the top end and at the more affordable end. Keep in mind that the Comfo Run sits closer to the more affordable price, and I expected some limitations in performance. While I think the Comfo Run delivers in some areas, I’m not convinced they’re offering the best performance at this price.

Starting with the good and there’s plenty of scope to the volume, the sound is big in open-ear terms. There are two sound modes available in the basic Edifier ConneX companion app. Classic mode is the default that offers a profile that should work for most music. There’s also a Bass Boost mode, that’s pretty much self-explanatory.

It’s a case of matching up audio that best suits these modes and you have to do that from the app as there isn’t support to do it directly from the headphones. In the Classic mode you get a balanced sound profile, where bass isn’t too overbearing, though they don’t sound as clear as headphones like the Shokz OpenRun and Haylou PureFree BC01. 

Mids generally are quieter than the bass and treble frequencies, where the latter has a more grainy quality to it.

Switch to that Bass Boost mode and it does that expectant job of bringing bass to the forefront, but it’s a little too prominent in the mix and also boomy as opposed to being nice and tight. Mids and trebles take a backseat along with the overall balance, particularly on bassier tracks. Putting a bigger emphasis on bass performance comes at the expense of a really balanced sound profile.

Trying to retain those more likeable qualities when you’re outside with more competing sounds is always the major challenge for open-ear headphones and the Comfo Run is no different. I’d say the balance of hearing your sounds and environmental sounds mostly works well, as long as you’re willing to crank that volume up. Otherwise, it’s a struggle to hear your audio over exterior sounds.

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