SHOKZ OpenFit Air – Open-Ear Headphones, True Wireless Earbuds, Water Resistant, Secure Earhooks for Daily Use, Black

Comfort
Game changer upgrade to my life. The ability to hear other sounds while I am outdoors (cars, people!) has made my morning walks so much safer! I can comfortably listen to my audiobooks and make phone calls. However, if the ambient sound is too loud ( like a major street) – i have to raise the volume quite a bit. And sometimes I just can’t hear anything (lawn mowers!). But this is not specific to these ear buds ( even my pixel buds have the same thing).I like the comfortable fit on my ears much better than the ‘fit snugly in the ear ‘ devices….It doesn’t give me the vacuum/suction feeling. I wear these sometimes for 4-5 hrs at a stretch without any issues. I have never had that fall off my ears.Battery lasts long. Quick charging. Clarity of sound is good for my basic purposes.

Comfortable and good sound. A few annoyances, too.
Quick summary:ProsComfortable for me, including when wearing glasses.Soundstage is good for an open ear headphoneCustomer service seems responsive.Long battery life.Simple controls.ConsNo way to turn these off manuallyOnly four touch functionsDoesn’t seem to like FiresticksLong (TL:DR) reviewWhether it’s clothes or shoes or glasses or ear/headphones, a review of anything that fits on your body is subjective. And with ears being particularly different from one individual to another, any review of a product like this is especially subjective.The same goes for sound quality in this case. A sound device that doesn’t fit the same from one person to another won’t be perceived the same, either. With all of that said, below is my take on the Shokz OpenFit AirsI’ve been using a pair of Plantronics (PLT) Backbeat 3150 open ear headphones since 2020. They’ve been great, but wearing/charging them daily, they are no longer holding a charge long enough for a full 2-hour run. I’d buy another pair, but they’ve been discontinued since 2021.I’ve tried my wife’s Apple Airpods. Frankly, I hate them and they are even more overpriced than Bose (IMO). Not doubting quality of the product, but found them extraordinarily uncomfortable and the isolation while running was not what I’d want. I also never cared for the “I’ve got a plastic straw hanging out of my ears” look. But, THAT is totally subjective. :-)Excluding the Apples, the Shokz were the fourth headphones I tried. The first three were Anker Soundcore Aero Fit, Tozo Open Buds, and Baseus Eli Sport 1. Those three were all cheaper than the Shokz, but I don’t think that the price was necessarily a reflection on quality.The three considerations, if you exclude price, were:Fit (Ankers would not fit my ears)Sound quality (Tozos had muddy base)Sweat/water resistance. (DId not have confidence the Baseus would hold up to sweat).The Shokz were the only ones that ticked all three boxes adequately.FitIf you wear glasses, the slim flexible over-ear piece of the Shokz is nearly ideal (maybe Bose Ultra Opens better). Not saying the Shokz will fit every ear, but if the four I tried were any indication, then these have the best chance of working for you.SoundSound was good, with adequate bass and rich immersive soundstage (Ankers sounded the best, followed by the Shokz and Baseus). Again, sound quality for open ear headphones is more down to how they fit by your ear canal than the actual quality produced. I do wish the Shokz were just a little louder, but given that the idea of an open ear headphone is to be able to hear your surroundings, then they are just fine. I have not used these for phone calls, so, sorry, nothing to tell you there.Sweat/Water resistance (fit and second rating digit are both key):I sweat…a lot. And while I didn’t keep the Ankers (IPX7) or Tozos (IP67), I think they both would have been fine. The Baseus I wasn’t so sure of. They seem to accumulate sweat more than the others and are only rated IPX4. Technically, the Shokz, at IP54, have the same “4” rating for water and sweat resistance, but they don’t seem to hold the sweat like the Baseus did.Battery life (case and phones).Using and putting these back in the case to charge, they seem to last forever. I haven’t measured actual time, but I’ve gone two weeks of 1-2 hour runs (8 total runs) without having to charge the case.Customer serviceI wrote customer service because of a problem (noted below) and they were helpful and responsive.Negatives/compromises:Power and chargingYou turn these off by putting them back in the charge case and closing it. And, as far as I know, that this the only way to manually accomplish this. The other way is to disconnect them from your Bluetooth device and then they will supposedly go to sleep after a few minutes. I simply wish there was a way to turn them off on the headphones themselves. First, if I’m out for a run, I’m not taking my case with me. If I want to stop at the end of a run and turn them off, then I have to manually disconnect from my watch or phone and then hope they turn off. Second, keeping any rechargable device always fully charged is bad for battery health.ControlsThe music controls work well; better (simpler) than the others I tried. But, you have exactly four control choices (defaults in parentheses):1. Touch and hold left (volume down)2. Touch and hold right (volume up)3. Double tap left (Play/Pause)4. Double tap right (Skip to next track)You can change these defaults, but I, personally, need a fifth control if I want to repeat/restart a track. The four options are the four I’d pick if left with only four, but I do wish there were more possibilities. And if you add my power off concern above, a sixth control would be nice.FiresticksOk, this is an odd one and that’s why it’s last among my concerns. With summer temps pushing 100 degrees (38C) where I live, I do run on a treadmill some of the time. I have a small TV with a Firestick behind my treadmill and have never had any issues with headphones, including the old PLTs or the other three headphones I tried before picking the Shokz. But with these Shokz, the sound seems to go “wonky” from time to time. Basically, it will momentarily switch from stereo to mono and then back again about once every minute or two. It’s annoying. I wrote Shokz and they suggested resetting the headphones, which I did four times, but this did not fix the issue. No issues with any other devices (watch, phone, tablet, other televisions), but just the Firestick. And before you think range, the Firestick is less than three feet from the headphones. Also, I have tried with other Firesticks and the only one that seems to not have this issue is the latest 4k Max version.Final conclusions:Open ear headphones are, as a type, the most subjective of all of the different headphones/ear buds simply because of ear anatomy/size. If you’re considering any open ear/on ear phones, then do what I did and try a few. And ignore reviews that rail on sound quality because your perception is tied to how well these fit around your ear canal. I said that the Ankers sounded best of the four I tried, but that was only if I manually held them against the ear opening. If I just let them “hang” on my ear, they were the worst “sounding” by far.I didn’t mention the Shokz app, but it does work just fine. The Tozo app was maddening and the Baseus wanted to always monitor location. Anker’s app was fine, too.So, what you’ve read above is admittedly subjective. You may hate these as much as I like them. Do your homework and then don’t be afraid to order a few different models to try them out.

My wife LOVES these
Excellent sound without having something stuffed in your ear. Easy to use, great quality even after 10 months of use. They work with all my wife’s devices and still let her stay aware of her surroundings!! A great product and reasonably priced.

Ho aspettato qualche mese prima di lasciare il mio parere.Le cuffiette devo dire che sono molto comode, rimangono in posizione anche effettuando vigorosi scuotimenti del capo, la qualità audio è buona e anche a livello di batteria ci siamo, per l’uso che ne faccio (un’oretta ogni giorno) prima di metterle in carica passano circa 2 settimane se non di più.

First: You ever try to eat with in-ear buds and you hear that chewing noise in your mouth travel all the way to your ears and you just throw them aside and watch a video without audio, or switch to speaker mode? NOT WITH THESE!!!I went through a lot of websites, reddit, forums, before finally settling on these to try. I’ve always used in-ear buds, and paid upwards of $400 for all sorts of good brands. And I really wasn’t expecting the quality I am getting from these open ear ones. Truly marvelous how far the technology for these have come now. It really does sound very very, if not, pretty much the same as in-ear buds that block all noise. But the great thing about these is that you can really hear everything around you. You have a wife calling your name? Well, you’ll hear it😅👌. You have a kid coming to your door? You’ll hear it. You will hear it all BUT you will also hear the amazing music playing in your ears in very very good quality. Another crazy thing that I wasn’t expecting was this; I always thought I’d have to turn up the volume really high to hear well since these are open ear, but no. The volume is at the exact same level as my in-ear ones, it really is profound how these work. It’s like a mini-speaker near your ears, but better. They are also so light weight, you forget you’re wearing them. Bass is also awesome for such small things.You really do have to try these to understand how amazing they are. They connected without any issues to my computer, and they will connect easily to your phone, there weren’t any issues whatsoever.