Shokz, which was previously known as AfterShokz before being rebranded in 2022, was primarily known for its bone conduction headphones, so it’s no stranger to open-ear designs. The brand’s latest pair of earbuds, the OpenFit Air, ditches the bone conduction technology in favour of directional speakers with an open design, which seems to be a popular trend.
What Am I Looking At?
The OpenFit Air are wireless open-ear earbuds that are meant to be worn when you want to have awareness of your surroundings. In theory, it’s useful for people who are paranoid about not hearing incoming cars on the road while they’re out for a run, but how does it fare in the real world?
Each side comes with 11mm dynamic drivers equipped with Shokz’s proprietary low-frequency enhancement algorithm, which it claims improves the bass during music playback. They come with non-interchangeable earhooks that are meant to help them stay snug and secure while you move about.
For controls, you tap on each earbud and you can even customise the functions, to a limited degree. The earbuds offer an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance and has of up to six hours on a single charge and a total of 28 hours with the case.
What’s Good About It?
One thing is for sure: these earbuds are never coming off unless you take them off. The hooks comfortably help the buds stay on no matter how much you’re running and bouncing around, so they’re great for listening to music while doing physical activities.
They’re also surprisingly comfortable as most of the time I wore them, I didn’t really bother taking them off even when I wasn’t listening to anything — you’ll forget you’re even wearing them half the time. True to its claims, you can hear everything clearly as if you weren’t wearing earbuds as they’re not inside your ear canals but instead near them. As long as you’re not playing anything, you can easily have a conversation without taking them off.
Battery life is one of the few aspects that excels with the OpenFit Air. Despite the fact that I rarely put them back in the case after I put them on, they pretty much last me throughout most of the work day. Surprisingly, the dual-connection feature works well enough even with Apple devices, allowing you to switch between listening two devices automatically.
What’s The Catch?
While the brand achieved its goal of making earbuds that let you hear the outside world, it definitively did not make good audio devices. While the bass is relatively strong, it feels muddy and cheap to the point where I would skip any bass-heavy songs entirely. For songs like All-American Rejects’ Dirty Little Secrets, vocals get completely drowned out, but if you turn up the volume so you can actually hear the singer, the instrumentals will deafen you — suffice to say, increasing the volume for the sake of vocals isn’t a viable option.
Unlike some other open-ear earbuds I’ve tried, the drivers aren’t very directional, and they’re more like tiny loudspeakers hanging near my ears. This also means that in relatively quiet environments, people near me can sort of hear the contents being played. It’s the first time that privacy has ever been a concern for me in regards to earbuds, so If you don’t like other people knowing what you’re listening to, these aren’t the ones for you.
As for the app to control the OpenFit Air, the settings for customisation are quite limited. You won’t be able to customise the EQ, so you’re stuck with the four presets that come with the app. The controls also come with limited preset options that include play/pause, skipping songs, voice assistance, and volume.
I rarely used the tap controls on the earbuds because they’re honestly not very accurate and the buds are placed a bit higher than regular earbuds, so you have to adjust to that. Last but not least, my biggest complaint about these is that they don’t have sensors for in-ear detection despite the not-so-affordable price tag, which is a standard feature for most mid-range earbuds nowadays.
Should I Buy It?
While I would still recommend normal earbuds overall, if you’re specifically looking for open-ear designs, I strongly suggest you increase your budget for something with better controls and sound quality. Yes, these are comparatively cheaper for this category, but you should get something that you can use in most daily situations, not just when you’re running.
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