There are so many different gadgets and accessories, each more expensive than the last. But no matter how you exercise outdoors, there is no better accessory for music than open-ear headphones.
They come in all kinds of flavours, like waterproof bone conduction, a better-sounding mix of open-ear and bone conduction, and straight-up open-ear. For as long as they’ve been available, my pick for open-ear headphones has been the Shokz OpenFit because of how comfortable they are, and the truly impressive microphone.
However, if you’re after a pair of headphones that are a bit cheaper, and don’t mind a couple of trade-offs, the OpenFit Air is a truly excellent choice.
Table of contents
First impressions
Taking the Shokz OpenFit Air out of the box, there are a lot of similarities to the regular OpenFit. For a start, the case is similar, if a little more matte and with more of a charcoal colour instead of black.
Rather than having a counterweight on the fin, it’s more of an open rubber loop kind of vibe. The little body with the speaker housing is a bit longer. They look similar, but just different enough that I’ve never picked up the Air case when wanting the regular.
Pairing is a breeze, and there is an optional app for updating firmware and playing with settings. But if the idea of downloading yet another app exhausts you, you can skip it.
Shokz OpenFit Air specs and price
| Battery | Music playback: Up to 6 hours (up to 28 hours with the charging case) Calls: Up to 4.3 hours (up to 20 hours with the charging case) |
| Charge time | Via charging case: 60 minutes Empty case with charging cable: 120 minutes A 10-minute charge gives two hours of battery life |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth V.5.2 Wireless range: 33ft/10m |
| Sweat resistance | Earbuds: IP54 Charging case: Not waterproof |
| Sound | Frequency Response 50Hz – 16kHz Speaker Sensitivity 96.2dB ± 2.5dB Microphone Sensitivity -38 dB ±1dB |
| Price (RRP) | $199 |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Shokz Australia |
The big difference here between the OpenFit regular and OpenFit Air is that the regular gets an extra hour of battery life (seven hours), but the quick charge only gives one hour in five minutes, whereas the Air gets two hours in 10 minutes.
The Air also has multipoint pairing and touch controls. I’m more pleased about the multipoint pairing than I am about the touch controls, but they are passable.
Shokz OpenFit Air audio quality
No one is using open-ear headphones for audiophile listening. But people who are used to bone conduction will find these to be a revelation. They convey bass clearly enough that you can listen to a podcast without the dialogue becoming too muddy or muffled. Dance music has that driving beat without the concussion. Phone calls come through clearly, too.
There is some audio bleed; if you have it up loud enough, the people around you can hear what’s playing through your headphones. So be mindful of that when on a train or in a lift. Because they’re just little speakers near your ear, there’s nothing containing the sound.
So they’re not great for wearing in the middle of the night while bouncing a baby and trying to get them back to sleep. But they are good for listening while walking around with a pram, running, or riding a bike.
Microphone
The microphone of the regular Shokz OpenFit is the best microphone I have tried on any pair of headphones without a boom mic. It’s better than the microphone on the $899 Apple AirPods Max by a long way.
The microphone on the Shokz OpenFit Air is still better than the one found in AirPods, Sony headphones and most other non-boom headphones, but it’s still not as good as the Shokz OpenFit.
On the regular OpenFit, I can ride my bike up to about 23km/h before the person on the other end of the line realises I’m outside, let alone on a bike. I conduct all my long business phone calls on them.
On the OpenFit Air, I can ride up to 20km/h before the other person notices, and there is some obvious compression on business calls. It’s not a huge step-down, but a very slight one that I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t already have the OpenFit.
Comfort
The OpenFit Air is ridiculously comfortable. Probably the most comfortable headphones I have. I frequently forget I have them on. After a 110km morning ride with glasses and a helmet, I was super keen to get off my helmet and tight bike kit, and it wasn’t until dinner time that I realised I was still wearing the OpenFit Air. They’re so light and unobtrusive.
Who is the Shokz OpenFit Air for?
The potential user base for the OpenFit Air is a bit narrower than for the OpenFit because they are ever so slightly a step down when it comes to the microphone. But the rest of the uses remain true.
I used the OpenFit Air a lot when my daughter would only fall asleep if I took her for a 90-minute walk in the pram at 9 pm. They were great in letting me listen to a podcast, while still hearing her if she cried.
They’re great for the bike, for running and for subtly listening to music at work. That cost saving will make them more attractive to many users in this, the year of everything being too expensive. At 8.7g, they’re also good for weight weenies who spent a lot of money making their bikes as light as possible, and want to keep it that way.
Basically, if you want to listen to music while remaining aware of your surroundings for under $200, the Shokz OpenFit Air is the way to go.
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