Open-ear or in-ear earbuds for running: which to choose
The difference in two sentences
In-ear buds go into the ear canal and seal it with a tip, so they block the noise around you. Open-ear buds sit on or in front of the ear and leave the canal free, so you hear your music and what is going on around you at the same time.
Why it matters on the street
When you run on the street, in a park or on a cycle path, you only hear cars, cyclists and people calling out if your ears are not sealed. That is why many runners choose open-ear buds: the music stays, and so does your awareness of traffic.
On a treadmill or in the gym, with no traffic, in-ear buds are just as suitable, especially if you want quiet.
How they stay on
Open-ear sport buds hold on with a hook or a clip. The TESNA GOG100 have a hook with a flexible titanium core, made for sprints and jumps. The TESNA GOJ05 also have hooks and weigh 8.1 g a bud, for long runs. The TESNA S7 use air conduction, with directional drivers that aim the sound at your ear.
Sweat, rain and battery
Check the IP code: IPX4 means splashes and sweat, IPX5 water jets, and IP55 adds dust protection. The GOJ05 are IPX4, the GOG100 IPX5 and the S7 IP55.
For battery life, look at one charge and what the case adds: the GOJ05 last 8 hours plus 24 from the case, the GOG100 10 plus 32, and the S7 12 plus 36.
Sound: what you gain and what you give up
In-ear buds seal the ear canal, so the bass stays in and music sounds full even at low volume. Open-ear buds leave the ear open: the sound reaches you from a small driver aimed at the ear, and some of the bass is lost to the air. In a park or on a track the difference is small; next to a busy road you will notice it.
To make up for it, the TESNA open-ear models use large drivers for their size: 16.2 mm in the GOG100, 14.2 mm in the GOJ05 and 17 mm directional drivers in the S7, which aim the sound at your ear and less at the people around you.
A practical tip: do not turn the volume all the way up to drown out the traffic. If you can no longer hear the cars, you have lost the very thing you chose open-ear for.
Comfort over long distances
On a ten-minute run almost any bud is comfortable. The differences show after an hour: in-ear tips can feel like pressure and a "blocked" ear, and your footsteps come through as thuds, because the sound travels through your body and stays trapped in the ear canal. With open-ear the canal stays free, so there is neither the pressure nor that effect.
Weight matters too. The GOJ05 is 8.1 g a bud, the GOG100 9.4 g and the S7 9.9 g. A few grams sounds like little, but over a half marathon you feel it on the hook with every step. If you run a lot, start with the lightest model.
Check the position as well: the hook should sit behind the ear without pressing, and the driver right in front of the ear canal, not above it. A few millimetres out means less sound.
Calls on the move
Many people run with the phone in a pocket and take calls on the way. With open-ear buds your own voice sounds natural, because your ear is not blocked and you do not speak louder than you need to. In the wind, the microphone matters more than the driver: a model with more microphones separates your voice from the noise better.
All three models in this guide connect over Bluetooth to iPhone and Android and use the SBC and AAC codecs; the S7 also supports LC3, the new Bluetooth LE Audio codec, on phones that have it.
In short
You run on the street or in the park: choose open-ear. You only run on a treadmill and want quiet: in-ear is fine. Among the TESNA open-ear buds, the GOG100 suit sprints and the gym, the GOJ05 long distances, and the S7 anyone who wants the people around them to hear as little as possible.
Every model is in the shop, under open-ear sport earbuds.