Mojawa Run Plus bone conduction headphones review – 5 new great features!

REVIEW – The Gadgeteer reviewed the Mojawa Mojo 1 and Mojo 2 bone conduction headphones and found new models provide improvements and new features. The Mojawa Run Plus has enhanced sound, rapid charging, an IP68 rating, and 32 GB of memory. I have one to review – read on to see what I think!

What is it?

The Mojawa Run Plus are bone-conduction headphones that work on the principle of vibrating the mastoid part of the temporal bone and conducting the soundwave through the bone material to the cochlea and then to the auditory nerve. The cochlea is the conch shell-looking organ that gives a person the ability to hear and balance. The cochlea is normally activated by soundwaves that enter the ear canal and vibrate the eardrum, which in turn causes the bones of the middle ear to amplify the sound and transmit these sounds to the cochlea.

The bone-conduction method has some advantages and drawbacks. The advantages are that the ear canal remains open so that external sounds can still be heard, the fidelity of the sound does not depend as strongly on the seal and fit of the headphones, and the ability to cause damage to the eardrum is eliminated and the ability to cause hearing loss is reduced. The disadvantages are that the sound quality is not as high as it is for normal earphones and headphones and there is no attenuation or noise cancelling of the outside environment. The Mojawa run plus bone conduction headphones resemble many other models of this type on the market and look very similar to the Mojawa Mojo 2 headphones. They feature a soft silicone-wrapped headband that permits one-size-fits-all convenience. The headphones connect to a device by Bluetooth 5.2 and can be used as a wireless headset for two-way communication. The headphones can also be loaded with up to 32 GB of music files for playback without a supported device.

What’s in the box?

• Mojawa Run Plus bone conduction headphones
• Carrying Bag
• Earplugs and case
• Warranty Card
• USB magnetic charging cable
• English language user manual
• Multilingual user manual

Hardware specs

• Multifunction button: yes
• Battery type: Li-Polymer Battery
• Charging: Magneticly coupled Cable
• Compatible codecs: AAC/SBC
• Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz
• Microphone sensitivity: 38 ± 3dB
• Muitpoint paring: Yes
• Battery Capacity: 150 mAh
• Waterproof: IP68
• Volume Touch Control: Yes
• Weight: 29.7g
• Battery Life: 8 Hours (75% Volume) , 10 Hours (50% Volume)
• Charge time: 50 minutes
• Voice Assistant button: Yes
• Compatible formats: MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, M4A, APE
• Call Environmental Noise Cancellation: Automatic Noise Suppression
• Sensitivity: 110dB ± 5dB
• Bluetooth Version: 5.2
• MP3 Storage: 32GB
• Fast charge: Yes
• EQ (on app): Yes

Design and features

Unboxing

The Mojawa Run Plus comes in a magnetically closed retail box. The magnetic closures are not accessible with the retail plastic wrap and so are only opened once the product is purchased.

The back of the box shows a different view of the headphones and highlights some of the features.

Once the magnetic closures are separated the headphones are presented in a plastic tray. Under the tray are the instructions, charging cable, earplugs, and cinch sack carrying case.

Design

The Mojawa Run Plus looks almost identical to the Mojawa Mojo 2 bone conduction headphones. These are also similar to many other products on the market that wrap around the back of the head, anchor at the back of the temporal bone behind the ear, loop over the top of the external ear for support, and have a transducer on each temple in front of the tragus (the triangular piece of cartilage in front of the ear opening).

The parts of the Mojawa headphones that contact your head are hard plastic but you would never know it from wearing the headphones. The smooth contoured surfaces are hardly noticeable when being worn.

Like the Mojawa Mojo 2, the Run Plus has a physical button integrated into the back of the left transducer. Pressing and holding this turns the Run Plus on and off. Continued pressing after the headphones turn on will enter them into pairing mode.

The single button has to have a lot of pressing combinations to enable the Run Plus to operate. In addition to all of the functions that it had for the Mojo 2 now there is a function to switch between internal memory mode and Bluetooth Mode. This is accomplished by a Click and Hold press.

The oval button on the left starts and stops music with one click, advances to the next track with two clicks, and rewinds to the previous track with three clicks. When the Bluetooth device gets a call the headphones can answer and end the call with one click as well. The ability to answer calls is retained even if the Mojawa Run Plus is connected to two devices or if the headphones are in internal memory mode.

The touchpad behind the right ear is a capacitive input. sliding the finger up or down slowly changes the volume by about 7% and quickly it changes the volume by about 19%. The full volume is indicated by a high tone and the lowest volume is indicated by a low tone. When in Bluetooth mode, double-clicking the touchpad behind the right ear activates the voice assistant on the paired device. When in internal memory mode the double-click changes between normal, shuffle, and single-loop playback.  The playback mode is announced in the selected language. Note that the app allows the device language to be changed to and from English or Chinese.

The Mojawa logo behind the right ear also illuminates based on the operating conditions.

• powering on – briefly illuminates
• Flashes slowly – when not connected or when charging at the normal rate
• Flashes quickly – when paring or when charging at a fast speed
• Flashes three times quickly – low battery
• Flashes three times slowly – very low battery

The inside of the right touchpad has contacts for the USB cable. There are four contacts on this rather than the two on the Mojo 2 because this is a fully functional USB port, not just a port for charging the batteries. The cable is only 16-1/2 inches long. It has a lay flat silicone cable and two small agents to couple it to the Mojawa, and anything else that is ferromagnetic. The cable may break, as it seems all custom cables do, but Mojawa does sell replacements for $9.90 each. I wish they made a USB-C female to the bespoke pogo adapter. At least that way any number of USB-C cables could be used. There is some software and hardware between the memory card internal to the Mojawa Run Plus Headphones and the USB port, but both my PC and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, running Android 13, were able to mount it. Since I have the most music on my phone it is a real benefit to be able to build my swimming playlist off of my existing music store.

The plastic behind the right oval button has two microphone ports in it. This is for the Sound+ AI-SVE noise reduction for improving speech and reducing wind noise in calling scenarios.

The introduction indicated that there were five new features compared to previous models. These are:

1. Improved technology for producing more substantial bass. A company presentation states that sound reproduction is improved by 80%
2. Improved battery life – now 8 to 10 hours versus 6 to 8 hours.
3. Improved water resistance – now IP68 versus IP67
4. 32 GB of internal storage
5. Audio decoding and frequency response range upgrade. Most bone-conduction headphones only support the most basic SBC encoding. In addition to SBC, The run plus also supports AAC encoding, and the frequency response range is also established at around 20-20000Hz.

Setup

The Mojawa Run Plus Bone Conduction Headphones can pair to two devices simultaneously.  First, pair one device by holding the power down on startup. After the pairing is successful power off the Mojawa Run Plus and then pair the second device in the same manner. The audio will come from whatever device is streaming at the time, except if a call comes in it will pause the audio and allow the listener to answer the call.

Mojawa also makes an app for their products. The app is a way to purchase the products (sadly, not the charging cables) but also allows adjusting the EQ and installing updates. The EQ modes are balanced, swim, bass, and vocal.

Bass obviously boosts the lower frequencies and voices the mid-ranges. The swim seems to provide loudness. The Mojawa Run Plus Headphones do sound different in the water but I’m not sure if the swim setting makes them sound more like they do in the air. Because any sound energy transmitted to the water will be carried to the ear canal with much more energy than it would be if listening in air, and because the energy transfer between the Mojawa and the bone is more efficient, the headphones get a substantial volume boost.

While I was evaluating the headphones a firmware upgrade became available. Updating the firmware took about 5 minutes. I can’t tell if there were any improvements to sound or to power management, but it is good to know that continual improvements are still being provided to the user base.

The app also has a menu item to view the user manual.

Performance

Bone conduction headphones are an entirely different approach to listening to audio than conventional air-driven speakers. They may not be able to match the best air-driven speakers but based on what they can do I feel that it is a worthy trade-off. Let me explain –  In my opinion, for portable sound reproduction, there is still no comparison to open-back over-the-ear headphones. This type of device most accurately duplicates the effect of hearing natural sound. However, these headphones are not always the best choice for the environment that you are in. An open back means others can hear your audio. These headphones are often on the larger side and many of them are wired. If headphones are being used while exercising then wired open-back headphones will not be enjoyable, even if they are the best sounding.

For a long time, I have been using the V-MODA Forza Metallo Wireless Bluetooth headphones as my workout set, because I know I won’t lose them while running and they sound great. However, they can be a bit too noise-isolating and they only sound so-so if they are not properly seated in the ear canal. When exercising, sweat can make keeping the headphones properly placed a challenge.  Now that I’m using the Mojawa Run Plus headphones I no longer have to worry about poor audio quality or being too isolated from my surroundings. They are very consistent. The transducers sit firmly on my temples no matter how much I bounce or jump. The Mojawa Run Plus may have been named that because in addition to running the headphones are also designed to be used during swimming. I tried them on in the pool and took a couple of quick strokes with them and it was a whole new experience for me. I’ll have to provide an update if I’m able to use these on vacation or when next spring hits. (The water temp was 58°F when I took this picture.)

The audio is not as full as when I’m listening using in-the-ear or over-the-ear headphones with transparency mode, but the ambient noise is much more detectable using the Mojawa Run Plus. For situations like playing games or exercising, it probably makes sense to be more focused on the ambient sound and less focused on the music, while still being able to enjoy the music. I listened to the songs in the V-moda review to compare the performance of the V-moda with the Mojawa Run Plus. I listened for subtleties, like the conversation below the orchestra on There’s No Underwear in Space by The Claypool Lennon Delirium, the first hit of the bongos in the intro to La femme d’argent by Air, and the full breadth of tomes in the arpeggios in Bahia by John Coltrane. Overall the soundstage of the bone-conduction headphones is very strong in the mids but all of the parts are there. If your device permits it, try listening with a deep V-shaped graphic equalizer.

I completed a few telephone calls with the Mojawa and the speakers and microphone sounded great according to me and my caller. The Mojawa did not eliminate the sound of wind when I was facing a strong gust, but overall the calls were clear. The ability of the Mojawa to transmit the audio directly into your head and the strength in the mid-range frequencies works very well for vocal audio and makes using the Mojawa for two-way audio a very strong feature.

The Bluetooth range on the Run Plus is also fantastic. I was well over 170 feet away and not even in the line of sight before the signal was lost.

The performance of the battery was also fantastic. I tested the unit at about 79% (according to my Windows computer) and it lasted for almost 9 hours of listening to podcasts (in a few sessions). Charging for 5 minutes charged the battery to 40% and the remainder of the battery was charged in a total time of 40 minutes.

What I like

• Battery life
• Bluetooth performance and paring
• Suitability for swimming

What needs to be improved

• Sound quality is very good for bone conduction but not yet audiophile-level

Final thoughts

The Mojawa Run Plus are perhaps the best-sounding bone conduction headphones available on the market today. The improved sound achieved by the technological improvements made to the drivers, combined with the improved battery life, industry-leading water ingress protection, and onboard memory makes these headphones well-suited to support your active lifestyle. Given the technical capabilities of the headphones, they are a great value compared to the features offered by the competition.

Price: $159.90
Where to buy: Mojawa (Use code AFF10 to save 10%) and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Mojawa.