Suunto Wing headphones review: Adventurous awareness unlocked

For what feels like the hundredth day in a row, I’m crouching on the floor of my room, debating whether I can muster the enthusiasm to go on yet another rainy evening run. But tonight, I have a flicker of motivation — I’m testing the Suunto Wing headphones.

Though I’ve dabbled with using wired headphones in the past, I’m a long-time AirPods user and, for both reasons of complacency and reliability, have never seriously considered switching up my audio game. The Suunto Wings, however, were an enticing change of pace. With premium bone conduction, LED lights and a power bank, I was curious to hit the rainy streets and put the headphones to the test.

Suunto Wing

The Suunto Wing offers open-ear sound via bone conduction tech, which doesn’t block the ear canals, allowing for much better situational awareness when out running, cycling or hiking the wild. These are well-built, boast a massive battery life and have an additional safety feature in the flashing LEDs on the flanks.

Pros

• Safe listening for on the go adventures
• Lightweight and portable
• Easy to pair and activate

Cons

• Pricier option
• Decrease in audio quality at louder volumes
• Open-ear placement means you can feel music vibrations

After the admittedly long time it took me to figure out how to wear the Suunto Wings — the bone conduction design, as it turns out, emits sound from above your ears rather than within the ear canal — I was off, quickly discovering why the Suunto Wing is an attractive, innovative, and safe urban headphone choice, especially for a fitness community looking for quality sound while on the move.

Bone conduction design

Premium feel, especially for $199

The Suunto Wings, made from a combination of silicone and titanium, weighs in at only 40 grams. The Wings are flexible, with a rubbery texture that allows you to fit the band around the base of your head.

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A pair of Suunto Wings also includes a charging stand with a USB cable, a black storage bag, and earplugs. The earplugs are included to create a supposedly more private listening experience for those who want more immersive listening. For me, they defeated the purpose of the aware design.

Suunto offers the Wings in two colors, all black, and black with bright red speakers. The triangular-shaped charging dock is conveniently light and portable, complete with a plastic fastener to ensure your headphones don’t dislodge from the charging grooves. The right transducer features dual microphones, and a button to activate noise-cancellation technology. The left side features a button to skip or pause songs and answer calls.

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The Suunto Wing’s design is elevated with side LED lights, which you can program to flash if you plan on running in the dark.

Sound quality and fit while active

Specifically designed for movement

The Wing is Suunto’s first product to enter the bone conduction headphones market, building on its success at making some of the best running watches, like the Suunto 9 Peak Pro. With a wealth of knowledge of the running and outdoor experience market, the Wing’s design is a meaningful attempt at a headphone made specifically for what runners and bikers withstand while outdoors.

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When my music began coursing through my pair of Wings, it was an unexpected experience. With the speakers sitting along the tops of my cheekbones, the little vibrations tickled, notably as I increased the volume.

Though the sound quality of my music was not as deep or rich as in-ear earbuds, the Wing headphones are designed for movement, and after an hour on a bike or deep into my weekend-long run, the device remains as comfortable as ever. With a helmet, a baseball cap, or just a ponytail, the Wings are secure, sweat-and-waterproof, and virtually unnoticeable.

Suunto says that the Wing headphones are designed with anti-wind noise protection for up to 30mph. My windy urban adventures suggested otherwise, and I regularly turned the volume to the maximum, particularly while listening to podcasts.

Safe listening while out running

Open-ear technology means worry-free running or riding

Whether running or biking, most athletes are well aware of the internal debate between blasting music or an audiobook versus dimming audio to stay aware of honks of oncoming traffic.

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The Suunto Wing relieved my worries: open-ear technology is well worth the slight de-effect in sound quality for the assurance you can listen to music while running or biking without sacrificing your safety. This is an especially enticing feature for runners like me or bikers who run at night, as you don’t have to give up an awareness of your surroundings while working out.

I often wonder whether I could run without music, a podcast, or a book. Do I listen because I need a distraction? Or because I feel the need to constantly consume content? While I may not have an answer to those questions, the Wing headphones were, to my surprise, a happy medium for these questions.

Yes, I can keep listening to whatever my heart may desire, but I still hear the pounding of my feet on the pavement, the dinging of delivery bike bells zipping past me, and the endless whoosh of the spring wind whipping off the Hudson. My run suddenly wasn’t a choice between the world of my audiobook and the city around me–rather, I found a new blending of environments.

The Suunto Wing is also a hands-free device. Easily programmed in the Suunto mobile app, you can switch on a feature where songs are skipped and phone calls answered with just a shake of your head.

Battery life and charging times

Detail and usability are a star without sacrifice

Whether you’re headed off for hours or, like many of us, forget to plug in your devices on a nightly basis, the Wing’s potable power block ensures that your next adventure, be it on bike or foot, doesn’t go without music. According to Suunto, the Wing’s battery life lasts up to 10 hours, plus an additional 20 hours with a power bank in hand.

According to my testing, that assessment was pretty accurate. Some users are reporting a battery life closer to seven hours, but across the board, high praise goes towards the speed of the portable charger. For those set on longer adventures, Suunto says plugging your Wing headphones into the power bank for just 10 minutes will give you an additional three hours of audio.

Verdict: Awesome for adventure seekers

Ultimately, the sleek design of the Wing matches the ease at which you’ll be running down trails, biking through the streets, and living your on-the-go lifestyle, all the while listening to your favorite beats. These headphones are a strong choice for the outdoor athlete looking to groove through their next workout without losing a sense of awareness about the surrounding environment.

If you’re looking mainly for a product to listen to podcasts and audiobooks or music at loud volumes, however, the Suunto Wing struggles to maintain clear-cut audio quality — especially at higher volumes.

Top 5 songs I listened to while testing

1. Let It Happen by Tame Impala
2. Oh Devil by Electric Guest
3. honey thighs by strongboi
4. Texas Hold ‘Em by Beyoncé
5. Homemade Dynamite by Lorde (feat. Khalid, Post Malone, & SZA)