Introduction
I have been testing the Nank Runner Diver2 Pro head phones for a while now. These are waterproof bone conducting headphones for running and swimming. They also have a 32GB capacity to store your music.
Initial Thoughts
I hadn’t heard of the brand Nank (or Naenka) before receiving them for this test. As far as I was aware the bone conducting headphone market was basically monopolised by Shokz.
On receiving the Nank Runner Diver2 Pro headphones I thought the packaging looked a bit cheap. When you compare packaging of items to things like smartphones then the aesthetic standards are high. While it may help you pick the item off a shelf, the packaging doesn’t affect their performance, so I can hardly reduce the rating because of this.
In the package you get a pair of headphones, some silicone earplugs, a set of audio improvement inserts, a silicone strap, magnetic charger and an instruction manual. I appreciate the thought that has gone into the audio improvement inserts. I imagine if I had designed something like that I would definitely want them to be sold with the headphones, but I have hardly used them. They seem to be something that you are likely to lose, rather than regularly use. But, again, something else unnecessary that you will probably just lose.
The charger does what it’s supposed to, charge. Not much else to say on that really. I haven’t found a use for the silicone strap yet. The instruction manual doesn’t say how it is supposed to be attached, although it probably would end up making the headphones hug the head a bit more if that is what you require.
On getting the Nank Runner Diver2 Pro headphones in my hand they seemed a bit chunky, in comparison to other top end headphones of their kind. They have been covered in a rubbery coating, which I think is the waterproofing outer element of the headphones. The headphones are a dark grey with some lighter grey trim. They look fine, but I suppose there is only so much you can do with the round the head format.
This hasn’t started well yet has it :/
On Test
Once on the Nank Runner Diver2 Pro headphones fit me well. They don’t bend my ears or put any unnecessary pressure anywhere. Headphone fit is a fairly personal thing. My head is on the larger size, not like Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, but probably in the upper percentile of head circumferences. My partner has a smaller head than mine, and the headphones seem to fit her quite well too. So from this cross section of society they seem fairly adaptable. I have worn the headphones on runs of up to 4.5 hours, and longer amounts of time wearing them throughout the day. They haven’t had any adverse effects on my ears at all.
The box claims a battery life of 10 hours, which seems accurate. I haven’t had any issues with the battery going flat too fast and it seems to drop in percentage by the expected amount (i.e. 10% per hour). It charges up reasonably fast too.
I have found that the length of time required to press the power button to switch the headphones on and off quite unnecessary. The on press is 3 seconds, which is fine, but the off press is 5 seconds, which does feel like quite a while. Why can’t the on and off press both be 3 seconds? A 3 second press doesn’t do anything when the headphones are switched on anyway. I am being quite petty here, but I also find the voice over when the headphones switch on, off or pair strange. It’s a slightly fake sounding computer generated sound (I profusely apologise if this is someone’s actual voice).
I do like the physical buttons for volume and other functions. They’re easy to find and aren’t too sensitive that you may accidentally press them. They are situated just underneath one of the arms of the headphones and are in a position that you won’t be accidentally pressing anything.
The Nank Runner Diver2 Pro headphones also have what they describe as a noise cancelling function. This is a passive noise cancelling mode (i.e. it blocks the ear) instead of an active version (which you find in expensive noise cancelling headphones). It does work to some degree, just not all that well. This works by articulating the earbud. It wasn’t abundantly clear from the manual how this worked, so here’s some photos of it.
Sound quality, that’s the biggie with headphones. These aren’t a patch on over the ear headphones. But then, they were never going to be as good as over the ear headphones. They don’t transmit the sound in the same way into your ear. Having said that the sound quality definitely isn’t bad. Music comes through well, and don’t sound tinny. It is probably unfair to compare them to over the ear headphones, as those will be much worse for running in.
The Nank Runner Diver2 Pro headphones have an inbuilt microphone, allowing hands free calling. No one has complained that they can’t hear me so it must work well. So I can’t use it as an excuse for my poor pronunciation for getting lessons wrong on Duo Lingo.
There are two features I haven’t tested on the headphones, the inbuilt MP3 player and their underwater performance. I don’t own any music, instead I use Spotify, so end up carrying my phone with me and using the Bluetooth connection function. I also never go swimming, so I haven’t tested their sound quality under water. I have had no issues with them getting wet when running, so I feel I have tested the waterproofness to at least a limited degree.
Conclusions
The review so far may come across as fairly negative. It probably is a bit but I am trying to be critical to pick out features. However, I have been very impressed by the headphones during the test. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting much from them. Being a brand I had never heard of with some big names already floating around I was expecting these to be a slightly cheaper alternative, with some extra gimmicks, like being fully waterproof for swimming. I have been very pleasantly surprised. The key requirements for headphones for me are fit, sound and battery, and these perform well in all of these respects. They also feel suitably robust, while still being lightweight. The only real negatives are the on/off button press (but this is more of an annoyance and doesn’t really affect the functionality).
About the author: Harry Holmes is a fell and trail runner living in the English Peak District, competing in races across the distance spectrum from all out 1 mile up-and-down fell races to 50 mile ultra events. He has won over 100 races (the actual number is unknown as he stopped counting years ago) and is currently trying to reinvent himself as an ultra runner.
