The best running headphones have to strike an almost impossible balance. They need to fit well and sound great, but also offer some awareness of your surroundings and be robust enough to handle sweat and rain.

In-ear buds tend to offer the best sound, but less awareness, while open headphones are great for staying aware but don’t sound as good, and can be drowned out when you’re running by a busy road in my experience.

Enter the Apple AirPods, which tread the line between open and in-ear, and for me offer the best of both worlds — they have better sound quality than fully-open designs and still allow for enough awareness, especially when using the transparency mode.

I’ve been using the Apple AirPods 5 on all my runs over the past week or so and they’ve replaced the Shokz OpenDots 2 as my go-to buds.

If the fit works for you the AirPods 5 are excellent running headphones, offering better sound quality than fully-open designs and more awareness than in-ear buds.View Deal

However, there’s a big caveat to this, which is the fit of the AirPods, which won’t work for everyone on the run.

I’ve run around 50 miles while wearing the AirPods 5; here are my likes and dislikes.

The main reason I love the AirPods is the fit, which I find more comfortable than in-ear headphones and less fussy than earhook or clip-on buds.

I actually find that the AirPods 5 fit more securely on the run than the Apple AirPods Pro 3 , though this is something that will vary depending on the shape of your ear.

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