I love some good headphones. From my Sony over ears, to the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pros I was dailying until recently, my audio setup is in a good place. The reason I’m not dailying the Samsung buds right now is because I’ve been testing the Shokz OpenFit 2 ear buds that just launched in Ireland. And rather surprisingly, I might not be going back.
Design and Comfort: Refined for All-Day Wear
With working from home for the full week now and the odd spin around town on a bus, I find myself wearing either my over ears or in ears most days and for long periods of time. I’ve found my ears getting itchy and irritated, suffering from ear fatigue. Yes, that’s a thing.
The Shokz OpenFit 2 overcome this problem by completely reimagining what earbuds should be. These buds don’t sit over or in your ears at all in the traditional sense. Shokz has designed the OpenFit 2 buds to hook in over your ears and sit just outside the ear canal. There’s very little contact that could irritate the ear; something I’m noticing already.
This has been a typical design feature of all Shokz products. The company is famous for bone conduction headphones that allow you to maintain situational awareness while still consuming content, whether that be a podcast or some music while you cycle or run. But these are not bone conduction headphones. Instead, these buds sit just outside your ear canal where a speaker directs the sound into your hear. The quality of which, I’ll discuss a little further down.
Previous versions of Shokz were banded, but these are now two free earbuds, resting on your ear with looped support resting on the back of your ear. Weighing in at 9.4g per ear, the design of the Shokz is super comfortable and I’ve found myself wearing them for hours, even during sleep, without noticing them. At times, I’ve literally forgotten I was wearing them.
All of that leaves me with just one take. The Shokz OpenFit 2 are flawlessly designed.
Sound Quality
That comfort means nothing if the sound quality doesn’t meet expectations. This isn’t my first “near ear” audio solution. I’ve had both Huawei sunglasses and, more recently, the RayBan Meta Headliners, which both used a small speaker over the ear for sound. I thought the RayBans were pretty good, despite noticing that in louder environments, I was straining to hear calls and content.
The OpenFit 2 audio is streets ahead. I can’t quite explain how I can both hear my content perfectly, but also the world around me as I need it. Much like how my first time ever trying noise-cancelling headphones blew my mind years ago, so to does this new approach to awareness-focused earphones.
There’s just more meat to the audio experience of the Shokz OpenFit 2 than these others near ear products. Despite that power, which offers you a fantastic audio experience, I’ve had no issues with leakage. By that I means, when I wear these at home, my other half isn’t giving out to me for flooding the room with my music.
The lack of leakage and comfortable compact design, lends to another great use-case; wearing these to bed. I’ve worn these sleeping a few nights and have found them to be the best sleeping headphones I’ve tried yet, particularly because they don’t irritate my ears, but also because they sit so securely on the ear.
Now, I’ve no doubt that some people will find the lack of isolation distracting, and that is a fair criticism. I’m not so sure that I’d fully enjoy a long commute beside a stag or a hen, trying to listen to a podcast depending solely on these buds. I’d never depend on them for a long haul flight, either, given that is mandatory noise-cancelling territory for me.
Naturally, this causes a predicament. I believe most people would have these buds alongside over-ear headphones, so you have the option for the best of both worlds. But that’s a somewhat pricey way to live your life.
But for this review, I’m just here to let you know that the audio quality of the OpenFit 2 is amazing, but the very design of these ear buds means they are a considered purchase for anyone who doesn’t specifically need awareness-friendly headphones.
Other Features
I’m going to bundle in the other features together here as they’re a bit more “quick fire”.
Battery
The OpenFit 2 battery life has been exceptional. I’ve never been caught without battery life and that includes nights where I’ve woken up with the buds still playing and they just get left on my bedside locker when I wake up. At some stage throughout the day, I’ll chuck them back into their case and they’re ready to go again.
I’ve never had a pair of earphones that seem to have an endless battery life. Shokz themselves say you’ll get up to 11 hours of continuous listening on a single charge, while the case gives you another 37 hours of charging. That means you’ve got a full 48 hours of listening between having to find a cable to charge.
Better still, when you do charge, even if it’s just for a few minutes, you’ll get loads of power. Just ten minute charging gives up to 2 hours playback.
Controls
Intuitive control surfaces is not something I’ve had the chance to say often with ear buds, but Shokz seems to have it licked. A customisable button on each side lets you control volume and skipping through tracks.
The buttons aren’t the “under the surface” capacitive type either. These are proper physical buttons. So even if you’re out for a run with gloves on, you’ve got easy control over your devices.
Multipoint Connection
This should be standard today, but it’s still not. The Shokz OpenFit 2 earbuds also support connection to two devices at the same time. This is great in the office. Listening away to music from your phone on the Shokz OpenFit 2, you can hear people around you if they call your name. If someone calls you on Teams, just pick up and your audio flips over to your laptop. It’s clever and convenient.
The Goosed Verdict: Shokz OpenFit 2 Are Perfect for Some
The Shokz 2 OpenFit take the best features of Shokz other products and layers in a range of new approaches and design ideas. The result is the perfect pair of headphones for some people in certain circumstances. And I hope that by reading this article, if that’s you, you’ve just twigged it.
I still believe if you travel quite a bit or like the cosiness of noise-cancelling, you’ll want a regular pair of over-ear noise-cancelling headphones. But for the office, running, cycling, walking or sleeping – these are an incredible pair of earphones to have in your arsenal.
The biggest downside here is that these are pricey enough at €200 especially given I see them as being part of a two product solution for most
What’s surprised me the most is that I do daily drive two audio solutions; over-ear and in-ear. And now, I’m swapping my in-ear buds for these new OpenFit 2 buds. That’s how much I’ve loved them.
You can pick these up at Harvey Norman and Amazon.
