Creative Outlier Go open-ear headphones tested – good quality at a good price

Similar to the S31 Open Earbuds from 1more, which I recently looked at, Creative also wants to serve a specific target group with its new open-ear headphones Outlier Go. For example, those who do sports and want to listen to music – or just want to do it while walking. Since the Outlier Go doesn’t sit directly in your ear, but rests on it, you can still hear enough of your surroundings. And that for 60 euros. Is it worth buying?

Box & Accessories: In addition to the charging case with the two headphones, you will also find a small USB charging cable (USB-C to USB-A) and a quick guide in the Outlier Go packaging. Nothing more is needed for operation.

Design and processing: The charging case is made of plastic and feels reasonably stable and well built for the price. If you open it, you will find the two headphones inside as well as a button with which you can start the pairing. The headphones are held magnetically in the recesses of the case, which means they don’t fly around.

From a purely visual point of view, we have different colors here instead of just one, but overall they appear relatively dark and the colors blend well into one another. The special thing about the design of the Outlier Go is a swivel mechanism. This allows you to adjust the fit to your ear and ensure that the headphones fit perfectly. The ear hook itself is made of a flexible material (not too firm, not too soft) and can also be rotated a little. This means you can really fine-tune the position and adapt everything optimally for you. The headphones also have an IPX4 certification, meaning they are protected against splash water. But you shouldn’t pour a bucket of water over your head to cool down.

Inside the Outlier Go there are two 14.2 neodymium drivers that cover a frequency range of 20 to 20,000 Hz. All in all, Creative delivers a very good performance here. For the price you get a very good, cleanly processed product.

Wearing comfort, connection and operation: As I said, these are open-ear headphones. So you don’t put it in your ear, you hang it in front of it, so to speak. Thanks to the aforementioned flexibility, they can be easily adapted to the shape of your ears so that you can find the perfect position. This has no impact on comfort or how well they fit. Even with fast, intense movements, you don’t have the feeling that the Outlier Go are about to fly off your ears. And the low weight of 11 grams per headphone ensures that they are not uncomfortable even after hours of wearing them.

The Outlier Go use Bluetooth version 5.4 and support AAC and SBC codecs. There is also a low latency mode for films and games. The headphones go into pairing mode when you take them out of the device. If something doesn’t work, you can also start the pairing mode manually using the button mentioned in the charging case. This works without any problems, meaning the Outlier Go is ready for use within a very short time after unpacking.

Multipoint pairing is also supported, so you can pair two devices with the headphones at the same time, for example your Nintendo Switch and your smartphone.

Unless you do it on your smartphone, it is operated via the integrated touch elements. You can pause or resume music playback by double-tapping the headphones on the left or right. A triple tap on the right jumps to the next track, a triple tap on the left activates the voice assistant if one is available on the paired device.

If you hold down the touch elements for two seconds, you change the volume, after six seconds the respective headphones switch off and then by pressing them again for two seconds you can switch them on again. You can accept or end a call with a double tap. You can reject a call by holding down the touch element for two seconds.

Sound quality and performance: The Outlier Go deliver good performance for their intended purpose. In terms of quality, this is not comparable to in-ears or a headset, but you still have a well-balanced sound with nothing that stands out as particularly negative. The music you hear is clear and understandable, details come across well and the bass is as powerful as possible.

As I said, within the framework of what the Outlier Go want to be, this is all fine. At normal volume, you’ll be able to hear what’s going on around you when you’re out and about – or at home, when the doorbell rings, the oven timer goes off, and so on. Conversely, others will of course hear more of what you are listening to, which is unavoidable, especially at higher volumes.

In addition, microphones are also installed here, which means you can use the Outlier Go for making calls with your smartphone or for voice calls on a PC or laptop. The voice quality is not outstanding, but it is good enough that you can be clearly understood on the other side. This also applies when you’re on the move, as the headphones filter out background noise and do a good job here. As expected, noise cannot be completely avoided at higher wind speeds.

With one charge, Creative promises a running time of around six hours at a “moderate volume level”. With 50 percent volume I didn’t quite get to six hours, but I wasn’t missing much either. You can then use the charging case to charge the Outlier Go a total of five times, increasing the total running time to around 26 hours. How much you ultimately get out of it depends on your volume, whether you pair it with several devices or whether you also use the microphones for making phone calls. Roughly speaking, however, the values ​​given by Creative are close to reality.

Software: If you want, you can download an app from Creative. This is not absolutely necessary for operation, but offers a few additional options. Among other things, you can use it to adapt the assignment of the touch elements to your wishes and firmware updates can also be carried out. Adjustments to the equalizer are also possible; there are a number of different presets for different music genres.

You can buy the Creative Outlier Go from, among others Amazon.de, Creative or even at Conrad.

Creative Outlier Go – Conclusion

Similar to the S31 from 1more, the Creative Outlier Go also deliver a convincing representation of what they want to be. If you want to have the highest quality listening experience possible on your ears, you would be better off looking elsewhere and, above all, you will have to spend more. But when doing sports, going for a walk or if you simply want to see more of your surroundings, the Outlier Go can score points in terms of quality. There’s not really much to complain about for the price and they can also be adjusted very flexibly to your ears. In short: you’re not doing much wrong with it.