A while back I made a post about a pair of nice cheap Chinese IEMs I got from AliExpress, and to continue in the same vein, here's another post about a cheap AE find.

I got these Xiaomi Mijia Bluetooth bone conduction earphones because I wanted something I could easily wear with a bicycle helmet. They cost about 12 dollars depending on the seller, but if you're familiar with AliExpress' coin system, you can easily find them at 60% off, at which price they're a steal. They don't look or feel too cheap either- you could tell me these were 30 bucks and I'd believe you.

I found my previously existing wireless earbuds to be a pretty bad fit for cycling: not only are the touch controls fiddly to operate while riding (or even when you're just standing still, touch controls suck), but they also block too much outside noise which isn't great for safety.

These fix both of those issues- they have nice definite physical buttons, and since they don't block your ear canals, you stay much more aware of your surroundings. When they're off or not playing anything, they don't affect your hearing at all, so you can just leave them on and forget they're there entirely, especially since they only weigh about 26 grams

These are my first bone conduction earphones and some of the customer reviews question if they use true bone conduction, but they sound fine to me. The sound quality is perfectly adequate- certainly for the price, especially at the previously mentioned -60%. They're not as loud or as bassy as other headphones and you will struggle to hear anything if you're next to busy traffic or a construction zone, but I'll take that tradeoff for safety

They seem to leak a lot at high volumes though so if you're sitting in a quiet room listening to TrueAnon at full blast, everyone in the vicinity will probably hear what is saying, which may or may not be something you want

The promised battery life is 11 hours and this seems to be true from my experiences. I've yet to even hear a low battery beep even after 8+ hours of use