Blueskysea (Eyoyo) LF-18 bone-conducting headphones

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not for me

I was sent these bone-conducting headphones for review.  They are sold on Amazon as Blueskysea, but mine are branded Eyoyo LF-18. I have tried Eyoyo LF-19 bone-conducting headphones and had all sorts of problems with them.  These are better but are still not right for me.  Others seem to get on fine with them, but they simply don't work well on my head.

The idea is a very good one: the "phones" sit on your cheekbones just in front of the ear and the sound is transmitted to the middle ear through the bones, leaving your ears free to hear outside sound.  It's useful for environments where you need to hear what's going on around you (cycling, for example) and also useful for people with certain types of hearing impairment.  These LF-19s work to an extent, but I don't find them really usable.

I should say that these are a good, well made product.  They're nicely packaged and accessorized with a standard micro-USB charging lead, an extra silicone tension-band to help with grip if needed, a pair of foam earplugs and - utterly bizarrely - a small bottle opener key-ring.  They're a sensible size and rest where they should on  my cheekbones, connection via NFC and standard pairing was simple, the connection is good and strong and battery life is good.  The control buttons are well placed and, with one exception detailed below, work well.  So, if they suit you they should do you well. Sadly, I had problems with them

Firstly, they grip very tightly which makes them pretty uncomfortable on the cheekbones and they're not that comfortable on the tops of my ears either.  The sound isn't that loud even at full volume and the bass is pretty weak.  They leak so much sound that I can't use them when anyone else is in the room –which I think is an endemic feature of this type of headphone.  Also, the pause/play button works fine once, but if I try to use it more than once it won't activate "play" again and I have to tap "play" on the phone itself.  Turning the phones off and on again means it will work again…once, but not again until I turn off and on again.  I don't know whether this is just a fault with the pair I was sent or a design issue, but it is a nuisance.

So, not right at all for me.  I've given the phones three stars because the build quality is good and I recognise that some of the problems I have may be personal to me.  I'd recommend reading some other, more favourable reviews as well before deciding, but personally I can't really recommend these.