Hi I’m Gidon from thetechnologyman.com.
The Shokz OpenFit are open-ear true wireless earbuds from the company that are best known
for their bone conduction headphones.
Bone conduction headphones, like their OpenRun Pro, send vibrations through your cheekbones
just in front of your ears.
They sound pretty good, but most in-ear headphones will sound better.
OpenFit don’t use bone conduction technology.
They use conventional drivers that rest just above your ear canal, and use so-called “Air
Conduction” to direct music straight through to your inner ear.
They should sound much closer to in-ear earbuds, whilst keeping your ears unobstructed so you
can clearly hear your surroundings.
They now come in a charging case which both extends their battery life and makes them
pocketable and Shokz have further developed their accompanying smartphone app to control
and configure them.
I’ve thoroughly tested them over the last month running, cycling and walking.
After covering all their features, I’ll discuss how they sound, how comfortable they
are and how secure their fit is when exercising.
So let’s take a closer look.
Overview Inside the box you get the charging case with
the earbuds inside, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable and an instruction manual.
Shokz also have useful video guides on their website to get you started.
The case looks tiny if you’re coming from a pair of bone conduction headphones from
Shokz.
It weighs 75g with the earbuds inside and you can see its dimensions on screen.
In comparison, their OpenRun Pro headphones weigh 113g with their case.
The charging case is around twice the size of my AirPods Pro case but does still fit
in my jeans pocket and is only around 20g heavier.
These earbuds come in black or beige.
I have the black version and the case has a matte finish and feels well made.
There’s a USB-C charging port around the back and the case charging LED around the
front.
Charging the case with the supplied USB cable takes up to 2 hours but a 5 minute quick charge
provides a handy one hour of playback.
The charging LED changes from amber to green when the case is fully charged.
In use this LED also turns amber when the case needs recharging when you open or close
the lid.
When you open the case for the first time the earbuds will enter pairing mode with the
internal LED flashing orange and green.
Tap on OpenFit by Shokz in your Bluetooth settings.
If you need to pair to another device, you can press and hold the slightly embossed touch
area above the Shokz logo on both earbuds for a few seconds to re-enter pairing mode.
This LED also turns amber when the earbuds are low on battery.
If you need to reset the earbuds back to their factory defaults and remove all pairings you
can press both touch areas for 15 seconds.
The LED will flash amber for 5 seconds and then turn off, before again flashing amber
and green ready for pairing.
The earbuds hook around your outer ear with the driver resting just above your inner ear,
importantly leaving your ear canal unobstructed.
You need to rotate them back slightly so there’s no gap between the hook and your outer ear.
It’s possible to do this single handed after a few attempts.
They feel very comfortable - some of the most comfortable earbuds I’ve tested.
They weigh just over 8g each and are made of an ultra-soft silicone that Shokz boasts
is as soft to the touch as a baby’s skin!
I did barely notice them even after long periods of time.
I’ll discuss how secure they are shortly.
By default a double tap of either touch pad can play or pause your music and handle a
phone call.
A long press of the left and right earbuds will skip backwards and forwards a track respectively.
You can configure these controls in the accompanying smartphone app although customisation is slightly
limited.
You can’t alter the left earbud’s double tap function and you can only change the right
earbud’s double tap function to either skip a track or activate your voice assistant.
The long press function you can configure to activate your voice assistant or adjust
the volume.
When running I find double tapping tricky and would prefer having a long press to pause
and play my music, but that’s not possible.
The app also shows the battery levels of the individual earbuds and lets you configure
EQ settings which I’ll come back to shortly.
And you can update the firmware.
Something that’s missing compared to the OpenRun Pro is a multi-point mode.
So these earbuds can only be paired to one device at a time.
I use my OpenRun Pro with my iPhone or Apple watch.
On runs I usually leave my phone behind and my watch will automatically pair to the headphones.
With the OpenFit I have to remember to manually pair them to my Apple Watch before a run.
You wouldn’t normally have the charging case on a run, which you need for pairing.
Audio quality and performance Unlike the rest of the Shokz range of headphones
the OpenFit don’t use Bone Conduction.
Instead these earbuds rest just above your ear canal and use what Shokz describes as
Air Conduction technology.
This Shokz DirectPitch focuses sound from the 18 x 11mm drivers through to your inner
ear, without actually obstructing your ear canal.
So you can still hear what’s going on around you, just like with their bone conduction
headphones.
And according to Shokz this is possible with very little sound leakage, something I’ll
test shortly.
Bone conduction headphones sit just in front of your ears and send vibrations straight
to your inner ear.
They leave your whole ear completely unobstructed, but although they have improved dramatically
over the last few years, even the top of the range OpenRun Pro I reviewed a while back,
don’t sound as good as often less expensive wireless earbuds.
These new Shokz OpenFit aim to deliver audio quality approaching in-ear earbuds, whilst
maintaining the benefits of the open-ear design of bone conduction headphones.
I tested them listening to a wide range of music, podcasts and YouTube videos and they
really do offer a vast improvement over even the similarly priced OpenRun Pro.
Bone Conduction headphones struggle with bass and that’s where there’s the biggest improvement.
Bass is still a little distorted at maximum volumes but at anything below maximum volume,
most music sounded balanced with plenty of clarity in the mids and highs.
Even at higher volumes, you don’t get the tingling sensation from the bone conduction
transducers vibrating on your cheekbones - that becomes very noticeable at these higher volumes.
In my testing I’ve been continuously switching between the Shokz OpenFit and my Apple AirPods
Pro and for general listening I’ve been more than happy with the OpenFit.
You still can’t beat the sound quality and immersion of in-ear earbuds or over ear headphones.
But that’s partly the point, these open ear earbuds are not meant to be fully immersive
- you are wearing them because you want to still hear what’s going on around you.
I also compared them to the OpenRun Pro which are the best sounding bone conduction headphones
I’ve tested.
I find the OpenRun Pro sound plenty good enough for running, but the OpenFit sound much better.
They have improved range and sound more immersive whilst still keeping your ears clear.
You can choose various EQ modes in the app and it’s possible to configure custom presets.
I found the default Standard preset best overall but it will depend on what you’re listening
to.
The AirPods Pro do have transparency mode - and it’s one of the best transparency
modes I’ve tested.
But it’s not the same as having your ear canal completely open, which feels far more
natural.
Working at the computer, walking and running they’re plenty loud enough, but even though
they are louder than the OpenRun Pro, I’d still prefer them a little louder for cycling,
especially at higher speeds with all the wind noise.
I’d say at full volume they’re around 80% of the volume of my AirPods Pro.
But I just wouldn’t wear my AirPods Pro for cycling.
Transparency mode doesn’t work very well with wind, I really don’t want anything
blocking my ears and they’re just not secure enough.
This is one of the main reasons I run and occasionally cycle with my OpenRun Pro.
There’s absolutely no way they’re falling off your ears.
And I’m very pleased that the OpenFit, even without the neckband, feel almost as secure.
And are even more comfortable - for me they are pretty much fit and forget which is what
you want for running and cycling.
They have quickly become my new favourite running headphones.
The only feature I miss from bone conduction headphones with neckbands is that I could
put them around my neck when I’m not using them.
I find this useful for long bike rides where I haven’t got much room in my jersey pockets
to store them, and it’s useful for running too - I very rarely have any pockets.
The earbuds themselves have an IP54 weatherproof rating, slightly better than the AirPods Pro
IPX4 rating, but down from the OpenRun Pro IP67 rating.
Basically they’re sweat proof and resistant to light rain.
But according to Shokz they shouldn’t be used in heavy rain or submerged in water.
Having said that, I've done a few runs in some very heavy rain and they’ve been fine.
The OpenFit have dual microphones with noise cancellation for phone calls.
I found them very usable in both a quiet and noisy environment.
[INSERT TESTS] Next I tested for any sound leakage - something
I was concerned might be an issue with the design of these earbuds.
But the earbuds do a good job of directing the majority of your music to your ear canal.
At full volume, I could just overhear music from the earphones if I was very close by.
[TEST SOUND LEAKAGE] There was a very small amount of audio lag
playing back YouTube videos and Netflix.
Something I don’t get with Shokz’s bone conduction headphones connected with a neckband.
This isn’t uncommon with true wireless earbuds, and is less noticeable than with many earbuds
I’ve tested.
Unfortunately there’s no ear detection with these earbuds - removing them from your ears
doesn’t automatically pause playback like with many wireless earbuds.
The earbuds have a 58mAh battery situated in the rear of the ear hook and battery life
is up to 7 hours compared to 10 hours for the OpenRun Pro.
But if you have the charging case with you, its 600mAh battery will provide 3 full charges
of the earbuds for a total of 28 hours of listening.
It’s hard to test these claims accurately, but I did get around a working day of listening
in my tests.
And the 5 minute quick charge I mentioned earlier, that gives one hour of battery life
is a reassuring feature.
The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.2 and the range was good.
Initially I did have a few issues with the audio occasionally breaking up briefly, even
with my phone closeby.
But there’s been quite a few firmware updates over the last few weeks of testing and I’ve
not noticed it again recently.
Unlike the OpenRun Pro the OpenFit do have support for the higher quality AAC codec.
Conclusions Shokz have done a very good job with the OpenFit
earbuds.They’ve managed to produce open-ear headphones with audio quality that is close
to in-ear earbuds.
But more importantly, to me at least, is these are now true wireless earbuds.
They’re much smaller than their bone conduction siblings that are connected with a neckband
and now fit in a pocketable charging case.
That makes them far easier to carry around with you and greatly extends their battery
life.
As well as the better sound quality, you also no longer get the noticeable vibration of
bone conduction headphones at higher listening volumes.
And you can also just use one earbud if you like - something I often choose to do with
my AirPods when listening to podcasts on walks.
Since discovering bone conduction headphones a few years ago, I use them almost exclusively
for running and sometimes cycling.
I like to be able to hear my surroundings but I also like how secure they are when exercising.
These OpenFit feel almost as secure and I find them a little more comfortable when using
them for longer periods of time.
And there’s no neckband to get in the way, stretching or in the gym.
Sometimes the neckband can be useful.
The only feature I really miss with these OpenFit when running or cycling, is being
able to rest them around my neck when not in use - something that is possible with the
neckband design.
I only used this feature occasionally, but unlike bone conduction headphones, the Shokz
OpenFit won’t work with earplugs.
I have worn my bone conduction headphones with earplugs when operating machinery and
tools and they work very well.
Bone conduction headphones similarly can be used with some hearing conditions - something
again not possible with these more traditional earbuds.
Overall the OpenFit are perfect for running and other sports, but they are also very good
as an everyday set of headphones if you want to be able to naturally hear your surroundings
whilst you’re listening to your music or anything else.
If you want further details or to check the current price of these earbuds, there are
links down below.
If you’ve not already seen it, I’d also recommend watching my complete review of the
Shokz OpenRun Pro bone conduction headphones - again there’ll be a link down below and
on screen.
But I’d love to hear your thoughts on open-ear headphones?
If you’ve tried the OpenFit, what do you think of them and let me know down below if
there’s anything I’ve missed!
As always, if you have any questions, please ask - I read every comment and will do my
best to respond.
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