As a technology nerd that follows and uses as much technology as I can, I’ve seen and tried a lot of wild tech. I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything like these clip-on headphones before! Yes, they clip on your ears rather than fit inside or over your ear canal. Wicool sent me these headphones to try out and while this is sponsored by Wicool, I was only asked to provide my honest opinion on them. For the most part, I really like these headphones, but for different reasons most people would buy any normal pair of headphones. These aren’t meant to compete with Beats, Sony, Jabra, Panasonic, Klipsch, or the other big names. These aren’t trying to be $200 headphones for a cheap price. These are offering consumers a way to enjoy music in a safer way.

Who are these headphones for? They’re for people that need to hear the environment around them. If you ride a bicycle or walk with headphones on, you may not be able to hear traffic around you, emergency vehicles, or someone yell for you to move or ask for help. The Wicool S8 clip-on headphones don’t block these sounds. As a parent with a young child, it means I can enjoy my music around the house, outside, or on bike rides with my son and still hear if he needs me or if he’s getting into trouble. As an office worker, it means I can discreetly enjoy my music without disturbing others and be alert if a co-worker comes to see me at my desk. Using these headphones, I rarely have to pause my music to keep a conversation with someone else.

Unboxing

The Wicool S8 headphones cost about $50 on Amazon, which can be purchased here: They come in a simple white box with an elegant outline of the charging case and gold lettering in the middle. The rear of the box list the specs of these headphones, which are expected for the price point, but won’t compete with $100+ pairs of headphones. Opening the box reveals the charging case held by a cardboard insert. Under both of those is the micro-USB charging cable and instruction booklet.

The charging case is a little larger than most I’ve used, but it still comfortably fits into a pocket, purse, backpack, or travel bag. The charging case is black with silver lettering on the top presenting the Wicool branding. The case isn’t the easiest to open the first time, but is sturdy enough not to worry about it accidentally opening or losing a headphone. The case has a nice molded indent for the earbuds to fit into which are held by magnets to connect the charging pins. The middle of the case has a sharp LED display that displays the battery level and charging indicators. An interesting design choice with the charging case is the translucent top. Out of the box, it looks solid black. However when you dock the earbuds and close the case, you can see the red charging indicators on each ear bud glowing red through the case as well as the center LED display. It looks like a sinister face looking back at you. The side of the case includes a micro-USB port for charging and a full-sized USB port to charge your phone with.

The headphones themselves look nice with a two-tone gray and black color scheme. The materials and texture are comfortable to hold and wear while also feeling sturdy and strong. The clip is a soft silicone material that is comfortable on the ears while the speaker portion is a smooth , hard plastic. There’s little texture to these headphones and while that keeps them stylish, it can make using the touch controls difficult

Performance

The Wicool S8 headphones aren’t meant for having studio quality sound that will give you an amazing sound-stage. For what they are, they are clear, offer great sound, and are comfortable. These headphones are meant to offer a compact and comfortable option to enjoying your music while safely hearing the sounds from your environment. If you understand their intended use, then you’ll really enjoy these headphones. The reality is that these headphones sit just outside of the ear canal, which offers a completely different experience than headphones that seal in or around your ears.

These headphones clip on to the sides of your earlobes and are surprisingly comfortable. They don’t pinch the ears but they hold tightly enough that I’m not worried about them falling off, even while shaking my head. I’ve worn these headphones many times already and for as long as an hour or longer in one sitting, I usually forget they’re on, especially if I pause the music. .

Sound quality is mediocre, but most of the that is due to the fact these don’t seal your ear from outside sounds. I have tried to physically push these closer to my ear canals similar to how normal earbuds would fit and noticed that bass and sound quality did improve. But that’s just not how these were designed to work. Because of how sound waves move and interact with other objects, you tend to lose bass to the environment. You’ll likely only get punchy bass with headphones that block your ears from the environment.

Touch controls work, but they take some practice. They use typical touch controls found in almost any pair of earbuds these days where multiple taps do different actions. There’s no question the touch controls work and are reliable. What makes this more challenging than most other headphones (not to say it’s particularly challenging) is the fact your ears tend to flop backwards slightly when you touch the headphones for a command. That slight movement is enough to make you feel like you’re blindly searching for the headphones again to make another tap. If you’re not used to it, this can mean missed taps or being too slow to execute the command you intended. After a few tries, you get used to it and it’s not as big of a deal.

How would I improve this?

There’s not a lot I would do to improve this, but I do wish the position of the headphones were more adjustable. I feel like that could sit over my ear slightly better but this is limited by my own physical shape and size of my ears. I also think it would be more comfortable for people to accept if the design were of one that came down from the top of your ear rather than the side - perhaps with an adjustable telescoping arm. Adding an optional bone conducting inducer behind the ear might offer more immersive sound in addition to the speaker. However, this design will definitely add to the cost, size, and weight of the headphones.

There’s not much these headphones need to improve with. The sound is acceptable for the price and I believe it’s only held back by the fact these don’t seal your ears. These headphones deliver on their intended use of giving you a safe way to enjoy music and hear your surroundings.