Shokz OpenFit Air True Wireless Headphones Review

The Shokz OpenFit Air True Wireless are truly wireless headphones that hook around your ears without being inserted into your ear canal. Instead, the buds act like small speakers sitting outside your inner ear so that you can hear the ambient sounds around you alongside your audio. They're made of plastic and silicone and come in 'Black,' 'White,' and 'Pink' colorways.

These headphones are decently comfortable. They're light, and the silicone covering on the ear hooks is soft, meaning they don't cause unnecessary discomfort. Since they don't sit inside the ear canal, they won't apply pressure to your inner ear. On the other hand, if you wear glasses or have long hair, you might find it tricky to get the ear hooks to sit flush around your ears as your hair or glasses' feet can get in the way. It's worth taking some time to seat these correctly, especially if you're about to take them on a run.

These headphones have okay controls. There's a touch-sensitive surface on the outside of the body of each bud. In general, the buttons are well thought out for using mid-stride; for example, touching and holding will increase or decrease the volume. Many touch controls are also available to you, as shown in this video. Unfortunately, you're unable to control all of the headphones' features via their touch surface. For example, if you want to be able to control the volume and skip through tracks, you lose the ability to control the voice assistant via the touch surface.

When you enter a touch command, the buds will play a tone to confirm your entry. There are also chimes when you reach the minimum or maximum volume. While helpful, the volume tone feedback can get annoying when turning the volume up or down several steps.

The Shokz OpenFit Air are fantastically portable. They don't have a bulky headband, so you can stow them away in pockets and bags with ease.

The Shokz OpenFit Air come with a good carrying case. It's a little larger than most cases that come with truly wireless earbuds, but it'll still slip into your pocket without too much trouble. The case itself is made from solid-feeling plastic and doesn't have any obvious weak points.

These headphones have a good build quality. The body of each earbud is made of plastic and metallic vinyl, while the ear hook is wrapped in soft silicone. There are no obvious weak links, and they're certified IP54, so they're protected from dust and water splashes.

The Shokz OpenFit Air have great stability. They don't always feel as stable as other exercise-focused earbuds, but they'll stay on for your runs. Glasses and longer hair can make it a little harder to get a good, stable fit, as they can prevent the ear hooks from gripping snugly against your skin. If either of those categories applies to you, it's worth taking some time to seat them correctly before embarking on your workout. If your glasses get in the way, you can also consider a different clip-on design, like the Anker Soundcore C30i Truly Wireless.

• Shokz OpenFit Air True Wireless
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable (29 cm/11.4 in)
• Charging case
• Soft pouch
• User guide and warranty information 

The Shokz OpenFit Air have a thin, bright sound. Since they don't enter your ear canal at all, they're unable to produce much low- and mid-bass thump and punch. Even the warmth that's characteristic of the high-bass region is greatly reduced; you'll hear the general shape of a bassline, but it won't sound full or enveloping. Their mid-range response is much better, reproducing vocals and instruments accurately and with detail. That said, some big peaks and dips across the low- and mid-treble ranges render sounds like cymbals piercing or dull, depending on their pitch. In general, the design of these headphones means you'll have a decent idea of what your audio is supposed to sound like, but it won't sound immersive or full-bodied. That might leave music nerds feeling a bit underwhelmed, but if you love to listen to podcasts while running, you'll have no trouble hearing what's being said.

You can tweak the sound of these headphones using four presets included with the companion app. Additionally, while using the microphone, the headphones' frequency response is thinned even further. What little high-bass these headphones produce is removed entirely, and the highest frequencies are shelved off. While that results in a boxy sound, it can actually make voices a little easier to hear, as low rumble and high-pitched noise are removed from your audio.

The Shokz OpenFit Air have excellent frequency response consistency. Since they don't enter your ear, there are some small deviations in the low-bass and mid- to high-treble ranges but, in general, you'll get consistent sound with each wear. If you've longer hair or glasses, it's worth taking a few seconds to ensure the buds aren't being obstructed by either. 

The bass profile target compliance is awful, but that's to be expected from earbuds that don't go into your inner ear at all. They produce almost no audible low-bass, and the mid-bass is also drastically reduced. If you need to feel the thump of a kick drum in your favorite EDM tunes, these are not the cans for you. You will hear some high-bass, so you'll get enough of the warmth of basslines to get an idea of what the bass range is doing, but it will be implied more than truly felt or heard. In songs like Habit by Ought, the melodic bassline is audible enough to provide the harmonic foundation to the song, but it's not loud or present.

The Shokz OpenFit Air have great mid-range target compliance. The dip in the lower part of the low-mids is a continuation of the weak bass range. Above that, the mid-range is mostly flat apart from a peak across the mid- and high-mid range that pushes vocals to the front of busy mixes but can also make them sound a bit honky. In songs like Hello by Adele, her voice comes through loud and clear and only feels over-emphasized if you like to listen at very loud volumes.

The treble target compliance is disappointing, and the entire treble range response is uneven. Two peaks and a dip in the low-treble mean vocals can be a little harsh but inconsistently so, with only certain words sticking out. Similarly, a couple of peaks and dips in the mid-treble range can render sibilants harsh or piercing, depending on their pitch.

The peaks and dips performance is mediocre, meaning these buds do an unremarkable job of controlling their own sound profile. The bass and mid-ranges are generally flat, so instruments are rendered accurately and with detail. However, the treble range is very inconsistent. That's to be expected since these buds aren't inserted into your ear, but it does mean that the audio you listen to can be harsh one second and dull a second later, depending on the pitches of the instruments being played. You don't wear headphones such as these in order to hear a detailed reproduction of your favorite audio but to instead get a decent enough representation of your audio while also being able to hear your environment.

The Shokz OpenFit Air produce a disappointing score for imaging, but it's not indicative of their real-world performance or of any issues with ergonomics or quality control. The buds' L/R drivers have tight phase response, suggesting they are well-made and produced within good tolerance limits. However, because these buds are designed to sit outside the ear, they don't form a seal with your ear, resulting in a loose and ill-defined bass. These headphones don't produce much low- or mid-bass anyway, so that doesn't negatively impact your listening experience. That said, imaging varies between units.

These headphones have a poor passive soundstage performance. On the one hand, because they sit outside your ear, they produce a very open sound in which your audio content mingles with sounds from the ambiance around you. On the other hand, their design means the audio they produce doesn't interact with your outer ear to produce audio with a sense of width and depth.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is okay. A fair bit of distortion is evenly spread across the frequency spectrum, but it is most noticeable in the bass region. When listening at loud volumes to boomy 808 kick drums in hip-hop tunes, it's not hard to hear the distortion caused by the impact of each drum.

These are the settings used to test the Shokz OpenFit Air True Wireless. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The noise isolation performance of these headphones is, unsurprisingly, terrible, but in this case, that's a good thing! They are designed to let you hear your environment, so high noise isolation would constitute something of a design flaw. While wearing these, you'll hear everything from the low rumble of a passing bus to the high-pitched whine of a nearby fan. In short, you'll be aware of your environment while on a run outdoors.

These do an awful job of isolating you from real-world sounds, but that's what they're designed to do. They sit outside your ear, so you hear noise in your environment along with your audio. Wearing these, you'll hear the low rumbles of airplane engine noise, ambient office chatter, and the sound of car horns and doors being slammed.

These buds have a mediocre leakage performance, but that's by design since they don't form a seal with your ear. Audio that does leak out is concentrated in the treble range. Even if you listen at moderate volumes, people around you will hear your audio, but it will sound thin.

The integrated microphone's recording quality is okay. It makes your voice sound a bit thin because of the dips in the mic's response through the high-bass and low-mids. That said, it captures plenty of the high-mid and low-treble where your voice's detail and articulation are, so whoever you're speaking to will understand you.

The mic does a satisfactory job of separating your voice from any noise around you. While it doesn't entirely isolate your voice from environmental noise, it does enough to ensure you're understandable. That said, louder sounds like a PA announcement or a subway train will totally overpower the mic system, so these aren't a good choice for taking calls while commuting or in very noisy areas, but they'll do a decent job in a pinch.

The Shokz OpenFit Air True Wireless have decent battery performance. They're advertised to provide six hours of continuous battery, and we measured just over this at 6.5 hours. Their carrying case supplies an extra three charges for a total of roughly 28 hours of battery life. They'll fully charge in a little less than an hour, but a 10-minute charge will supply these with two hours of playback time, so you'll be able to charge them up for most runs right before you leave the house. If you'd prefer open-fit buds with a longer continuous battery life, consider the Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction, which last 14 hours. That said, the battery performance varies with use.

The Shokz app is satisfactory. It's a fairly basic companion app that allows you to view the remaining battery life in the buds and case, check for and run firmware updates, and change between four EQ presets. You can't customize these presets, though, and there's no access to proper graphic EQ. However, you can customize what the controls on each bud do and toggle multipoint Bluetooth on or off.

These headphones come with a 29 cm/11.4 in USB-A to USB-C cable that is exclusively used for charging. You can't use it to listen to audio.

These headphones have amazing Bluetooth connectivity. Unlike the Shokz OpenFit True Wireless, they support multi-device pairing, which you toggle on or off via their companion app. They also support QuickPair for Android but not iOS. They have a high latency when connected via the standard SBC codec, so they're not a great choice for playing games or watching videos. That said, some apps compensate for latency in different ways, for example by delaying the video to coincide with the audio.

You can connect these headphones to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full simultaneous audio and microphone functionality. However, they don't support any other connection method to your PC.

These headphones come with a case that also charges them via its USB-C port.