Private listening without the isolation

As someone who spends a lot of time wearing earbuds, I find the Shokz OpenFit Earbuds an attractive alternative to the intrusive in-ear headphones I use daily. Although the idea of an open-ear earbud is unusual, it offers distinct potential benefits in terms of comfort, health, and situational awareness.

I typically end up wearing earbuds for more than five hours on any given day, and this inevitably makes my ears sore, causes earwax buildup, and isolates me from other people and the world in general. If a knife-wielding maniac were to attack, I would be the last to know, and really, I’m just asking to be the first gormless victim in a horror movie. In theory, open-ear earbuds such as the Shokz OpenFit could offer a healthier, safer, more comfortable alternative to the many options of in-ear headphones.

Price and availability

The Shokz OpenFit Earbuds are available for $180 from the Shokz online store and at various other retailers, such as Amazon and Best Buy. They come in black or beige, which is a bit dull. At the very least, you have a choice.

What’s good about the Shokz OpenFit Earbuds?

The first thing I noticed about the Shokz OpenFit is how comfortable they are. Once I wrapped them around my ears, they basically disappeared, with only a slight pressure indicating that they hadn’t fallen off. My daily-driver Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 are comfy enough, as are cheaper earbuds like the Speck Gemtones Pro. However, after using the Shokz OpenFit for a week, it’s hard to go back to jamming silicone plugs into my ears. The Shokz OpenFit nestled gently into place and never made my ears sore despite wearing them for 8-10 hours per day for a week. Unlike my Galaxy Buds 2, I was happy to wear the Shokz OpenFit even when I wasn’t using them.

This capability for all-day wear is made possible thanks to comfort and the open nature of these earbuds, which doesn’t block sound. You can carry on a conversation, participate in a work environment, drive, and generally go about your day without periodically removing your earbuds.

Even while playing music (albeit at quiet volumes), I was able to talk to other people and be aware of my environment, as if the music was playing on a speaker in the room. What’s more, despite the open design, sound leakage isn’t a real problem. If you’re sitting near someone in a quiet room, it’s possible to hear what sound leakage there is, but only if the volume is high, depending on the tone of the audio being played. High tones leak more readily than others, but it was never a serious issue.

I lent the Shokz OpenFit to a few people who typically can’t stand wearing earbuds, and both found these solved the comfort issues that previously prevented them from enjoying in-ear headphones.

The light, comfortable feeling of wearing the Shokz OpenFit earbuds might lead you to believe they aren’t secure, and I was concerned about losing them at first. However, I wore the earbuds while doing barn chores, fixing a squirrel house, running, and bopping my head to the beat of some heavy metal. If they do happen to fall off, the construction seems quite durable, and they’re IP54-rated for dust and water resistance.

I was surprised by how good the Shokz OpenFit sound — their 18mm drivers pack a real punch. Although I didn’t love the sound right out of the box, the Shokz companion app allowed me to quickly and easily create an EQ preset that gave audio a little more clarity and oomph. My tweaks to the 5-band EQ from left to right were +2,0,+1,+2,+3.

I recommend playing around with this to dial in your preferred sound. The most impressive thing about listening to audio is how the open design of the earbuds helps audio sound more natural and less like it’s being piped into your ears.

Highs, mids, and bass are all well rendered. The Shokz OpenFit performed beautifully, whether rendering the heavy metal riffs of Bruce Dickensons’s Many Doors to Hell, or Avatar’s Make it Rain, the punk rock tones of The Dirty Nil’s Am I The Menace?, Bayside’s Miracle, or Sum 41’s Future Primitive, and even the classical opera of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 / Act 4: Deh, vieni, non tardar.

They performed very well at rendering spoken word media such as audiobooks, as well as shows and movies.

Sound quality is also very good for voice calls, with AI-powered noise canceling to reduce interference. They are on par with or exceed the capabilities of all other earbuds I’ve used over the years in this regard. Bluetooth pairing is another strong suite of the Shokz OpenFit. I never had to wait for them to connect with my phone upon taking them out of their case. Also, with 7 hours of battery life in the earbuds and a total of 28 hours combined with the charging case, I only had to recharge them twice during a week of heavy testing, which is reasonable.

What’s bad about the Shokz OpenFit Earbuds?

The Shokz OpenFit don’t block sound, so they aren’t great in a really loud environment. If you want to shut noise out, these earbuds aren’t for you. They are very intentionally designed to let sound in, which is their greatest advantage, but it’s worth keeping in mind that they won’t shut out distracting noise like in-ear earbuds.

A more serious problem was the somewhat unreliable touch controls on the Shokz OpenFit. While the various touch combinations to operate the earbuds are functional, they are all too easily triggered accidentally by putting on or taking off the earbuds.

I frequently found myself skipping tracks accidentally, which was annoying. Also, the earbuds don’t always automatically turn off when placed into the charging case, and can sometimes continue playing whatever you were listening to. This leads to a significant reduction in battery life.

The one issue with the fit of the earbuds is their interference with anything else that goes over your ears. It’s awkward to put on glasses or a mask while wearing the Shokz Openfit, though, as with the lack of noise canceling, this is a symptom of this type of design, where the earbud involves a hook that loops behind your ear. My final nitpick concerns the lack of wireless charging, which, while no major flaw, is nonetheless an inconvenience.

Should you buy it?

Whether the Shokz OpenFit Earbuds are for you depends on whether you want noise-canceling. As much as noise-canceling is nice to have in some situations, in my experience with the Shokz OpenFit, being able to hear the world outside my headphones is more important. Additionally, no in-ear earbud can compete with the OpenFit for comfort. If you want to listen to audio wirelessly, privately, and in a small form factor, but can’t tolerate in-ear earbuds, then the Shokz OpenFit might be perfect for you.

The price of $180 is a little steep, but compared to the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, the Shokz OpenFit are a relative bargain. The 1More Fit Open Earbuds S50 are a slightly cheaper option at $150, but they suffer from issues with comfort and security that aren’t present with the Shokz OpenFit. The OpenFit aren’t perfect by any means — some technical issues can certainly be quite irritating — but they are the breath of fresh air my ears really needed, and I highly recommend giving them a try.