H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Great for the pool but a total belly-flop everywhere else

Are the H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones the best running headphones? Not by a long shot.

While they offer decent battery life, a waterproof rating ideal for swimming, and 8GB of music memory so you can listen without taking your phone, the music doesn’t sound great. The bass is non-existent and the vocals struggle. This fit is also not very secure, and the button controls are tricky.

To find out more about the headphones, keep reading this full H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review.

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Specs

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Price & availability

The H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones are available for purchase at Amazon U.S. for $199 and from Amazon U.K. for £176. This price includes a protective case, charging cable and swimming earplugs. However, you can also purchase the headphones with a charging case at Amazon U.S. for $229.

The design of these headphones is similar to the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 headphones, which are our top choice for bone conduction headphones. The Shokz are available for $179, but aren’t totally waterproof, so they can’t be used for swimming like the H2O Audios.

If you want a different style of audio gear that’s still going to let in ambient sound, you could try the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which are priced at $299. These are our picks for the best running earbuds as they’re secure and stylish without compromising on audio features.

Not so sure open earbuds are for you? Ambient sound isn’t for everyone, so you could try out a cheaper option first, like the EarFun EarClip for $89.

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Design & comfort

• Large fit
• Doesn’t feel totally secure
• IPX8

The H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones are pretty comfortable running headphones, but I can’t say they’d be my first choice when heading out for some exercise. The most important thing about audio gear for exercise is having it feel secure, and these headphones just don’t do that for me.

The headphones go over the top of both ears and wrap around the back of the head. They’re extremely flexible, and there was a lot of space at the back, so they can cater to people with wider heads. As I’ve been told when purchasing new eyeglasses in the past, I don’t exactly have a small head. But there was still too much of a gap at the back of the headphones for them to feel secure during testing. I also had to tie up my hair to stop it from pushing the headphones back, pulling on my ears.

The soft silicone finish of the earbuds makes them comfortable, as it allows them to grip securely without feeling rough. The speakers sit in front of the ears and feed the sound through vibrations into the eardrum (more on that later).

The headphones have a durability rating of IPX8, which means they’re totally waterproof for water submersion up to 12 feet for an unlimited time. As such, the headphones can be used in the swimming pool.

Included with the headset is a four-pin magnetic USB charging cable, swim earplugs and a protective case. The case is pretty big compared to the size of the headphones, so it’s a little cumbersome to carry around.

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Controls

• Button controls
• Small and tricky to use
• Switch between memory and Bluetooth

The controls of the H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones are very small. They sit behind the ear on the right-hand side. The button controls are for power, playing and pausing music, and volume. You can then hold down on the volume buttons to go to the next or previous songs.

I usually find button controls better than touch-sensitive ones for working out, as there is less chance of making a mistake when giving commands. However, with these headphones, I was often skipping too many songs at once or enabling the wrong controls.

And since the buttons are so small, it was hard to catch them without disturbing the positioning of the headset too much. The trickiest command was switching between the built-in memory and the Bluetooth connectivity. This took a fair few tries to get right.

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Connectivity

• Bluetooth 5.3
• MP3 storage
• Download music from a computer

The H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones feature a couple of different playback options, depending on the activity you’re taking on. When connected to your phone, the headphones use Bluetooth 5.3 to stream music

If you don’t want to use Bluetooth since you’re doing an activity like swimming (you can’t use Bluetooth underwater and likely won’t take your phone anyway), the headphones come with Playlist+. This means that you are able to download music to onboard memory using the USB charging cable, just like an MP3 player.

The headphones can store 8GB of music, or 2,000 songs. That can work out to 130 hours of music. The Shokz OpenSwim Pro ($180) headphones also offer this feature.

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Sound Quality

• Zero bass replication
• Static
• High volumes needed

To test out the sound quality of the H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones, I headed to my workout playlist, which features a lot of high-energy songs to get me motivated. As a bit of an audio snob, I was pretty let down by the sound quality. There is no way this sound would motivate me, and I actually found myself getting pretty annoyed by the sound around mile two of my run.

The headphones use bone conduction technology rather than propelling sound across airwaves like regular headphones or earbuds. This means that the sound is passing through the bones of your skull directly to the inner ear using vibration. I asked my best friend, who just so happens to be an audiologist, to tell me how this works from person to person, and she was able to tell me that your experience will be totally unique. The amount of pressure the headphones can exert on your head depends on your own personal sensitivity to the vibrations, volume, and fit of the headphones.

I had to turn the volume all the way up to get a decent read of most of the instruments in the tracks I was listening to. This meant that there was a little sound leakage, but also that when I took the headphones off, I could still hear a faint hum from vibrations for a few minutes afterwards. This is kind of like the reverb you experience after strumming a guitar when hooked up to an amp.

Firstly, I listened to Bejeweled by Taylor Swift, which is an upbeat pop song that relies pretty heavily on a driving bass beat. But with these headphones, there was no bass whatsoever; it was like I was listening to an isolated vocal track. This was a shame, as this song’s bassline usually helps motivate me.

Next, I listened to You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. This song has a great drum beat and uses a lot of hi-hats to provide texture to the song, and these came through pretty well through the Tri 2 Pros. But the guitar riffs and bass guitar were pretty much lost. And on top of this, the vocals sounded very static.

Finally, I tried listening to a slightly heavier song and went for In Between by Beartooth. I can acknowledge that this song is on the tamer side of rock and metal, but I like listening to heavier songs when I work out. This sounded absolutely terrible. It was just completely muddy throughout, although the vocals sounded decent during the chorus section.

Underwater performance

It will probably come as no surprise that I’ve never listened to music underwater before. Beyond singing underwater when I was a kid, while my friends attempted to guess the song, I have no underwater musical knowledge.

With that said, I was pretty impressed with the audio performance. While it wasn’t the quality I would expect from my favorite pair of workout earbuds on land, I was able to enjoy the music without it sounding too muffled.

In a situation where you’d normally only have the splash of the water to keep you going, having the motivation of music can really help spur you on. And that's in large part what these headphones are about,

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Battery life

• Decent battery life
• 9 hours with Bluetooth
• 6 hours with MP3

The H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones have plenty of battery for a good workout session or two. When listening to music over Bluetooth, you can get 9 hours of playtime. But if using the built-in memory, you get 6 hours.

This is the same rated battery life that you get with the Shokz OpenSwim Pros, but for longer, more reliable battery life, you could look to clip on open-ears instead and consider the Soundcore Aeroclip ($129) earbuds, which offer 8 hours in the buds and 32 hours with the charging case. But of course, you wouldn’t have the benefit of being able to use these underwater.

H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO review: Verdict

The H2O Audio TRI 2 PRO headphones are a decent choice for anyone looking for a headset that can be used underwater, thanks to the IPX8 durability rating and MP3 features. But runners and gym goers will want to look in quite literally any other direction.

The poor sound quality and non-existent bass mean they don’t provide much motivation at all, and the vocals in my favorite workout songs left me disappointed. Anyone who requires ambient awareness while working out will be better off looking at other open-ear options like the EarFun Clip or Soundcore Aeroclip earbuds.