Shokz OpenFit True Wireless Headphones Review

The Shokz OpenFit are unique compared to other headphones from this manufacturer, like the Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction. They have a truly wireless design, so each bud individually hooks onto your ear. Since they also aren't bone-conducting, their speaker sits outside your ear canal but allows you to keep your ears open to ambient sound, which can be helpful when exercising outdoors or working in a collaborative office. They come in two color variants: 'Black' and 'Beige'.

They have a comfortable fit. They're quite lightweight and have malleable ear hooks to allow the headphones to rest outside your ear canal without putting any pressure on them. That said, the hooks can irritate the area behind your ear and, as some user reviews indicate that their fit is subjective since they don't fit all ears equally. If you wear glasses, the arms can affect how well you get a good fit, especially if your glasses err on the thicker side.

These buds have touch-sensitive controls. The controls are easy to use but not very expansive out of the box. By default, you don't have volume or voice assistant controls, and you'll have to swap out commands to add them in the companion app. On the upside, audible feedback lets you know when you've registered a command. When using the volume controls, you'll hear feedback when incrementally adjusting the level as well as when you've reached min and max volume.

On the left bud:

• Press and hold: Skips to the previous track.

On the right bud:

• Press and hold: Skips to the next track.

On either bud:

• Double tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends a call.
• Press and hold: Rejects a call.

You can trade off double taps and press and hold commands in the app. Your alternative options for double taps on the left earbud controls pause and play only. On the right bud's touchpad, you can remap double tap to skip to the next track, skip to the previous track, or voice assistant. For press and hold, you can remap it on the left bud's touchpad to either decrease volume or voice assistant. Lastly, the right earbud's press and hold command can be remapped to increase volume or voice assistant.

These headphones are portable. Unlike sibling products like the Shokz OpenRun Bone Conduction, they don't have a headband, so you can easily store them in most bags or pockets without an issue. They even come with a small, lightweight case to protect them on the go.

The carrying case is great. It's sturdy since it's made out of plastic, and there are magnets to hold the buds in place. It's also much smaller than the one that comes with the Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction, making it portable. The hinge is a bit creaky and can shift left and right.

These headphones have good build quality. They're mostly made of plastic and silicone. They feel sturdy and will easily survive accidental drops and falls without taking too much damage. They're also certified IP54, making them resistant to dust and splashes of water. That said, their IP rating differs from headphones from this manufacturer. If you're looking for headphones that can survive water submersion, consider the Shokz OpenRun Bone Conduction instead, which are rated IP67.

Their fit highly depends on your ear shape and size and if you wear glasses. If you have one ear that's more prominent than the other, it can cause one bud to loosen up or stop touching your ear canal. However, even if they shift around a bit, they won't fall out of your ear, making them ideal for tough workouts. If you find their fit isn't enough to reassure you, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds Truly Wireless use a considerably different cuff-like design that clips onto the bottom of your ear for an even more stable fit.

• Shokz OpenFit headphones
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Hard case
• Soft pouch
• Manuals

The Shokz OpenFit's sound profile is pretty balanced, given their design. Since they don't enter your ear canal, they can't reproduce nearly the same amount of thumpy bass you get from in-ears like the Beats Powerbeats Pro Truly Wireless. They still have warmth to their sound, so they're not completely without bass, and vocals and instruments are natural and clear in mixes. Their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets if you prefer a different sound. However, these settings won't get you much more of an extended low-bass as the headphones already struggle to deliver bass due to their design. The lowest EQ band you can tweak is 64 Hz too. Adjusting this frequency band can add more punch to mixes, but it won't add more thump and rumble.

Generally, we perceive more bass and treble at high volumes than at low volumes, even though the frequency response itself doesn't change. To compensate for this difference, these headphones have dynamic range control, automatically adjusting their base and treble based on the volume. This ensures that your audio sounds the same, no matter the volume.

The frequency response consistency is excellent. These headphones are prone to minor bass and treble delivery deviations since they don't enter your ear. However, you'll achieve consistent audio delivery once you get a good fit.

Their bass accuracy is bad, but that's expected from headphones with an open-ear fit. They have a hard time reproducing low-bass, which is mostly felt in thumps and rumbles, so songs like Satisfaction by Benny Benassi with a heavy bassline sound slightly hollow and lacking in body. That said, their mid to high-bass is much better, and while they still lack some punchiness, they deliver a nice boom to satisfy genres like pop and rock. Overall, they produce much more bass than the Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction.

We noticed a lot of distortion in the high-bass to low-mid ranges when listening to real-life content. Although our graphs don't show it as prominently, if you're listening to audio at high volumes, you'll encounter a lot of distortion in these ranges, which will impact audio purity.

The mid accuracy of these headphones is excellent. The range is pretty neutral, so vocals and instruments are present and natural-sounding. A peak in the high-mid sharpens their detail, though.

These headphones have great treble accuracy. The response isn't quite as flat here as the mid-range, but vocals and instruments still sound detailed without being harsh. Sibilants like cymbals are also bright but not piercing.

The Shokz OpenFit's peaks and dips performance is poor. There are a couple of significant peaks and dips, meaning the headphones struggle to accurately reproduce their sound profile. A large peak in the low to mid-bass adds intense thump and punch to audio. A peak between the mid to high-mid makes vocals and instruments sound boxy and harsh, while the peak between the low to mid-treble further makes these sounds harsh. An additional peak in the mid-treble turns sibilants like cymbals piercing.

Shokz has mostly made bone-conduction headphones in the past. However, this kind of driver design doesn't play nice with our test rig since they rely on bones to transmit sound. As a result, it's hard to compare the imaging performance of these buds to other products from this manufacturer. Imaging also varies between units. Our unit shows imaging issues in the bass range, which is expected from their open-ear fit. There's a large peak in the group delay's bass range, which causes loose bass. It doesn't significantly impact your listening experience, though, as the headphones struggle to reproduce low-bass.

The Shokz OpenFit's passive soundstage performance is poor. They sit outside your ear canal, so they can't properly interact with your outer ear to give you an immersive audio experience. However, the soundstage seems more open and spacious than in-ear headphones like the Jaybird Vista 2 Truly Wireless.

The Shokz OpenFit's weighted harmonic distortion performance is okay. Quite a bit of distortion is present between the high-bass to mid-mid at medium and high volumes. If you're listening to bass-heavy tracks at high volumes, you'll hear distortion, so your audio won't sound very clear or pure.

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

The noise isolation performance of these buds is bad, but that's to be expected (and desired). They have an open-ear fit so that you can stay aware of your surroundings. As a result, you'll hear all of the low rumbles of car engines to ambient chatter and the hum of AC units, making it safer if you exercise outside.

The leakage performance of these buds is high, but that's normal for open-ear headphones. Audio bleed is concentrated in the mid to treble range and sounds somewhat thin. If you're listening to audio at high volumes, others around you can hear it.

The integrated mic does an okay job of recording your voice. Speech sounds a bit uneven and hollow. However, you're still fairly easy to understand.

The noise handling performance of this mic is very good. The mic can separate your voice from background noise well. While loud sounds like a train pulling up to the station can muffle speech, your voice is still intelligible.

The Shokz OpenFit's battery performance is fair. The manufacturer advertises up to seven hours of playback time, and we measured a similar amount. If you need to top them up, their carrying case also supplies three additional charges. Their standby mode extends their battery life up to 10 days, and a quick, five-minute charge can supply up to an hour of battery life.

The Shokz app is decent, and you can see a video of it in action here. You can customize the headphones' sound using the EQ presets or graphic EQ. You can also check out the battery life of the buds and the case, remap controls, adjust your playback settings, and access firmware updates and product support information.

These headphones have satisfactory Bluetooth connectivity. Unlike the Shokz OpenRun Bone Conduction, they don't support multi-device pairing, so you can only connect them with one device at a time. They also have high latency on PCs and Android, which causes your audio and visuals to fall out of sync. Their latency is lower on iOS, but some apps compensate for latency.

These headphones come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for recharging their carrying case. You can't use it for audio.

You can connect these headphones to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. However, they can't connect to PCs in any other way.

These buds come with a charging case. It has a USB-C port for recharging it up again.