The Shokz OpenFit Air is the newest addition to the Shokz headphone family and joins the Shokz OpenFit as another set of open-ear, truly wireless earbuds that want to deliver sound in a safer fashion.
The OpenFit Air arrives with a cheaper price tag than the OpenFit and the promise of customisable sound, a new ear hook design and up to 28 hours of battery life (when including the charging case).
Testers Mike, Nick and Kieran have all had the OpenFit Air in their ears to put to the running and racing test to tell you if these new Shokz earbuds deserve a place on our ears.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Intro
00:34 – Price and key features
01:52 – Design, fit and controls
07:48 – Sound quality
12:45 – Battery life
15:06 – Verdict
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Hey this is Mike from the Run testers And in this video we're going to be Talking about these These are the shocks Open Fit air so these are shock's latest Truly wise open air airbuds and they are Joining not replacing the shocks open Fit which we have also tested on the Channel so what I'm going to do is take You through the key details you need to Know about the new open Fit air then Myself Nick and kieren will give you out Running experiences with these new Airbuds and let you know if the shocks Open air are fit for [Music] Running here's a quick rundown on all You need to know about the shocks open Fit air this is shock's second set of Truly War open airbuds that use air Conduction as opposed to bone conduction Like the open run series to deliver Sound safely to your ears they cost £119 In the UK or $119.95 in the US making them a fair bit Cheaper than shock's open fit like the Open fit the adopt an air hook design Those shocks has tinkered with the Design to sit more ergonomically and Adds a new cutout design to fit a better Range of ear sizes it comes in three Colors and offers the same ip54 water Resistance rating as the open fit in Terms of sound it's using the same sized Custom Dynamic drivers and direct pitch
Technology as the open fit with an open Base air algorithm used to bolster Basse Performance there's also access to 4 EQ Modes inside the companion app though Unlike the open f it does lack access to A custom EQ mode there's four Microphones and board to allow you to Take calls and the ability to pair Multiple devices to the air at the same Time battery life is up to 6 hours off a Single charge with a charging case Topping things up to a total of 28 hours There is a quick charge feature that Gives you 2 hours of play time from a 10-minute [Music] Charge so I gotten very well with the Fit of the open fit when they launched Last year and I've had the same Experience with the open Fit air they Have been very comfortable to wear for Long periods I don't get any kind of Pressure points on the ear at all from Them from the hook or the headphone Itself inside the ear they stayed in Place really reliably for all my runs so Far including Trail runs when you're Bounding down Hills and bouncing up and Down a lot and that kind of thing and I've not have any problems in other Workouts either like yoga and strength Sessions they're also okay to wear Alongside things like a hat glasses you Know even if I've got everything all the
Paraphernalia on my head for my run the Headphones hook on okay and sit in place Secur LLY I think the fit is really good It's comfortable secure great for Running no concerns of it at all on my End design in general is quite nice I Think the open fit a are not quite as Nice to look at and hold as the open fit But in terms of actual practicality the Design is every bit as good I found Controls are slightly not as good though Which is surprising because they must be Very similar I'd assume under the hood But I did find that the touch sensitive Panel was just a little bit reluctant to Register my Taps during runs in Particular I found that pretty much the First time I tapped it to try and uh Skip a track or pause music or something Like that it just never registered I had To do it a few times to get it going and That's a little bit annoying obviously Touch the panels just in general I'm not A huge fan of on running headphones I'd Rather have a button because you really Know you've clicked it but they're okay When you're doing other activities and I Could usually get them to work Eventually on the run but all around no Real major concerns with the design or The fit of the open Fit air really good For running me now on the open fit I Think you know I wasn't absolutely Satisfied with the design I think the
Weight the balance of the components and How it was built it just never fell off But I just felt like it didn't feel Securely it was I was sitting in place On my ears it's a totally different Story with the uh shocks open Fit air Where I think they more reliably sit in Terms of that air hook design on your a Or around your ear um they have not Budged when I've run slower longer when I've run quicker sessions with them it Hasn't been an issue when you kind of Move around they're not going to budge Where I think you know there was was That concern that maybe they weren't Secure enough on the open fit so I think From that point of view that's the Biggest thing for me the open fit in Terms of my experience that's what Really what stood out for me in my Experience now in terms of other things The controls now the touch controls I Don't love touch controls on Sports Focused headphones or running headphones Now we had touch controls on the open Fit I thought they were fine you know as I said I would I would prefer physical Controls like the the open run Series Have the open Fit air controls aren't Fantastic I found throughout my testing That they've been it's been an absolute Night me to try and kind of hit that Sweet spot of them and I think even when I've been sat down and try to use them
The controls aren't very well Implemented I think if if I would change Something that was something that I Would definitely look to work on uh in Terms of my experience with the overfit A because I think the open fit did offer Kind of a pretty good experience but I Think in terms of what I've got here Kind of running relatively quickly or Even kind of easy just trying to kind of Activate the basic controls that I found Very very difficult to do um yeah so for Me the design absolutely the changes I Definitely welcome the changes the fit Has been so much better for me more Reliable um than the open fit and then The controls I think not fantastic I Think a bit of a downgrade from what we Got on the open fit but you know Retaining some of the good qualities From the open fit and I think ultimately Tweaking things I think in the right way And what needed to happen with the open Fit air from a design and fit point of View so on design the shocks open Fit Air really well put together the first Thing I think you notice is a soft silky Coating of these headphones in the case Which feels lovely to the touch helps With Comfort some headphones can feel Cheap these ones don't isn't the most Compact but it's relatively light and Rain belt friendly that's one of the Things I tend to look for when I'm
Thinking about using headphones for Ultras do they fit in a running belt now I'm not in love with the capacitive Controls and on the whole there's still A bit of a mix between being quite easy To trigger but also not always reliable So you can brush them and pause while You're just adjusting your hat or your Sunglasses but then on the run I don't Always find it easy to hit The Sweet Spot when moving at PACE and sometimes I Felt a lag the press and hold for the Volume up and down also is quite slow to Respond so that doesn't help either on The plus side because of the ear hooks Jabbing at these headphones won't send Them flying to the ground like it might Do with some sort of more classic buds Now there's some limited customization Of the double Taps and presses so you Can change which bud you use to pause Play Skip tracks summon Voice Assistant All those things but you can't switch The EQ modes on the move which I think Is a shame but it comes to the fit if You can't get on with in ear buds these Are a good alternative as I said they Won't hit the deck mid- Race So buds Normally Shake loose for you this is a Good option the new sculpted speaker Design does help them sit a little bit More comfortably against the ear than The open fit I found but even with the Malleable arms I still find them are Tad
Loose and Flappy nothing really has Changed there it's nothing too extreme But I've got two different shaped ears Here this right one is a bit more Problematic with both the open fit and The open Fit air so despite those design Tweaks here to improve the fit I don't Think much has changed speaking of which The cutouts on the arms of these are Designed to help fit with glasses and I Wore them a lot with a cap and sunglass I'm not convinced it's made a huge Difference they still can be a bit sort Of interfered with if you're wearing Both of those I'm still sometimes more Aware of them than I'd like and overall I don't notice that much difference on Fit and security from the open fit to The air in real honesty there's not much To choose the other downside with this Format is that you can't hang them Around your neck like you might sort of Midun or post run like might with a pair Of bone conductors that's also true of Regular buds obviously but it's a handy Upside for normal bone cond conductors That you can just drop them down I find The lighter shocked bone conductors a Little more disappearing in terms of fit On the ears overall as well one other Point on connectivity you need to toggle Multi-point on in the app to make sure You can move seamlessly between the two Devices but once you have done that it
Works really [Music] Well to test the Sound Performance I use The open Fit air on a bunch of my Regular runs that mix up busy London Roads more tranquil River pods I also Use them at the Hackney half marathon Which is a noisy Lively race with lots Of DJs bands and sections of rockers Crowds so it's a race where you want to Easily tune in and out of the atmosphere Overall like the open fit these are much Fuller and richer than you'll find on Your regular bone conductors but they're Still not as strong as you'll get from You know the better classic in ear buds In terms of that kind of full Punchy Sound of course you're not really buying These for that truly isolating sound the Point is that you're going to get the Best of both awareness of open ear with Richer sound than bone conductors but It's worth noting that when you run past Proper noise your music does get drowned Out with these headphones in other Settings like on the London Underground I found the sound wasn't powerful enough To cope either a good pair of in ears Can cope with most of the train noise But at times I couldn't hear any of my Music from the open Fit air now I also Work in a lot of cafes and shared Working spaces and it was hard to use The open Fit air for things like video
Editing without whacking the Volume Up Full that said the Bas is good for Openair headphones and the bass boost EQ Q setting punches that up further still So the Sound Performance is better than Bone conductors but it's not as good as Many regular buds the other thing I Missed with the open Fit air was the Ability to create and store EQ profiles That's missing here you got that with The open fit sound quality of the open Fit air has been pretty good for me I'd Say it's been very comparable to the Open fit which obviously are much more Expensive so that's probably a bit Surprising but yeah they give you quite A nice full sound that is clear and easy To hear even in busy environments when You're running it's not like the bone Conduction shocks headphones which I Find do get drowned out quite a lot on The run these are nice and Loud they Will get drowned out if you're use them For things like traveling and that kind Of thing that I still think they fall a Bit short as lifestyle headphones CU if You are in busy and loud environments You're just not going be able to hear Your audio very well but at Sports Headphones they work really well you get Nice clear loud sound and you can also Take in your surroundings quite well They don't give you as much awareness as Full bone conduction headphones which
Your ears are completely clear but There's definitely enough there to hear What's going on you can hear traffic Coming up behind you even if you are Pumping the music quite loud I find you Still don't get the base of in near Headphone as you might expect cuz you're Not getting any kind of passive noise Cancellation so there is a pretty good Amount of Base I'd say with these Headphones listening to a lot of Pop Lately a lot of Billy eish and J leipa And they come across really well on These headphones the sound is nice and Full and even on busy tracks I find There enough Clarity to really pick out The different instruments and the vocals Really well so so I do think overall the Sound is pretty good for open headphones At this price it's very much comparable I think to things like the open fit the Clear Arc 2 which are a lot more Expensive the both Ultra open earbuds Are a big step up in sound quality for Open headphones but they're also a huge Step up in price so I think the sound Qual quality you get here for the price Is pretty good and I enjoyed using them Outside of workouts as well they can be Your only headphones if you're generally In quite quiet environments but if you Travel a lot they will get drown out so In terms of sound quality I've been very Happy with what I've experienced on the
Open Fit air and it's not too far Removed from the open fit that's no Surprise because the same drivers there To kind of power that performance are The same there's a slight difference in Terms of the algorithms that kind of Dictate the kind of Base uh performance That you see in these airbuds but Getting the same EQ modes and you know Getting you something to kind of Customize and make something work for The sounds that you listen to I think Cruy as well that kind of open a Performance and it retaining that sound Quality as well biggest thing for me is When you look at kind of bone conduction And air conduction which you're getting In the open Fit air the balance of those Two things maybe is a little bit more um Consistent with the bone conduction Headphones where I think there's a bit More of an emphasis on the sound your Own sound from the airbuds on or with Air conduction in general but I think The balance has been very good for me You're in loud environments it Definitely is going to drown out what You hear but I think in terms of that Open a performance and making sure You're getting good sound quality I Think the open Fitter do a very good job But overall I think if you want base There then absolutely you can get that And it's not overbearing there's you
Know there's some element of finesse There it's quite wide Sound Stage for Opening airbuds as well too if you want To hone in on voices for things like Podcasts and audio books it does a very Good job of that as well I think that Kind of extends to when you're kind of Using the microphones here it's four Microphones on here and I think the core Quality it's good enough I think it's Definitely performed better than some Other open air airbuds I I've kind of Tested from a kind of clarity point of View and being useful to take calls but Ultimately if you're in louder Environments it's going to be more Challenging to do it compared to kind of Just wearing kind of more invasive kind Of you know truly what as airbuds but I Think for me Sound Performance has over Been very good it's been enjoyable Bright versatile you've got those EQ Modes there to customize things as well Too which I think is is really important To really get the best and make it work For you know all different types of Music or if you kind of prefer to listen To podcasts and audio books when you run So I listen to a mixture of those things And I think whatever I've kind of thrown At it it's performed very well and very Much in line with what we saw with the Shocks open fit in terms of overall Sound
[Music] Performance when it comes to battery Life though the official runtime battery Life has dropped by an hour versus the Open fit from 7 to 6 hours on paper You're still getting the same 28 hours Total with the buds and the case and in My real world experience was that the Open Fit air drained slower than the Open fit marginally for example it might Test the open Fit air on average 1 hour Run burn around 10% a 1 and a half hour Half marathon Race burn 20% for Comparison on the open fit when I did my Test but then a 90minut run burn 40% with battery life in normal audio Mode and a 1H hour run would average Close to 20% battery life on the Headphones has been pretty good for me Probably a little shy of what shocks Says you can get from them because That's often the case with shocks Headphones I find actually especially if You're going to have music up very loud And you're using some of the EQ settings Like the bass booster I think it came Down a little bit from the 6 hours I'd Say more towards 5 hours but on periods And I was most listening to podcasts on The run and didn't necessarily have the Volume turn up to the max all the time Like if I'm listen to music at home While working wouldn't have to have the Volume up too high then the battery life
Does get towards what shock suggest or It was tracking towards that you know When I put the headphones back in the Case they charge nice and quickly Obviously got 28 hours of battery on the Case that's pretty good all around so Yeah no big major concerns to the Battery life maybe on the buds you could Hope for slightly more than 6 hours Given that are quite large but yeah That's enough for me for any of the Running I'm planning to do so in terms Of battery life I would say that my Experience kind of has replicated what I've seen with the open fit and the Sense of and actually I would probably Say with other kind of similar open air Air conduction style airbuds like this Where the volume listen to is really Going to take the kind of battery life You're going to get and how close you're Going to get to those quoted numbers so 6 hours or up to 6 hours is quoted off a Single charge here I would say it's Worked out it's about 5 hours for me now I listen at loud of volumes and hours Worth of running see the battery drop by 20% So I would say it is going to be less But if if you look at what else other You know airbuds um kind of offer that's Kind of probably what you'd expect to See so it is an hour less compared to The open fit but I think in terms of the
Grand scheme of things and what I've Seen and and you know in my experience Of testing other airbuds like this That's probably pretty much in line and You've got that really good kind of fast Charge support and know to kind of Really make sure you can get through the Week without having to think about Charging everything to kind of get you Through you know a decent amount of Running [Music] Time verdict uh I think this is a really Good addition to the shocks range all Around I think they are very comparable To the open fit in terms of performance And basically the main problem I had With the oit those was just too Expensive they were headphones I really Liked I got them very well with them on The Run they were lightweight they Sounded pretty good the high price made Them quite off pudding for what are Still quite Niche headphones I think Because there are lots of situations in General use where I probably wouldn't Want to be in a set of open headphones I' value the uh inar fit and extra sound Quality of buds but so having the shocks Open Fit air come out at a much lower Price point I think is a good move I Think it's actually a lower price point Than lots of the big open headphones on The market including the clear Arc 2 and
Some of the older dance headphones They're more expensive than this Obviously the both Ultra open headphones Are way out above in terms of price but I do think those are the best open Headphones you can get all around but You have to pay a lot more for them and At this price point there're are much More attractive option the open Fit air Because there are headphones that you Can use for almost everything like I Said they'd probably be fine us as my Main lifestyle headphones as well Because they are very comfortable Without an inar fit and I don't tend to Do lots of traveling and mostly at home And they're loud enough and they sound Good enough for me to use throughout the Day and they're very good for running Because they do fit securely they leave Your ears open you get good sound Quality better than you get from bone Conduction and you have that open fit For awareness so all around I think They're a really strong option there are Still some better value options out There potentially there's one more s30 Headphones which come in around £70 that Are another really good set of open Headphones that do a lot of the same Stuff as the shocks I think the fit and Sound quality is better on the shocks Headphones but if you're just looking For a slightly cheaper pair of open
Headphones to use mainly for running and Maybe you already have some inar buds That you use as your main music Headphones then the one more headphones Are a fair bit cheaper but all around I Like the open Fit air I think they're a Better option than the shocks open fit Because the performance was so similar For me and the price is so much lower And all around they work very well for Running verdict then since the shocks Open fit landed lots of Rivals launched Products in this format at much Friendlier prices so the open Fit air Feels like shock's response to that and At £119 they're definitely easier to Recommend you get a lot of the same Experience as the original open fit just For a chunk less the good bits you've Got soft silicone comfortable to wear When you're not running competitive Battery life good base for open ears Call have good sound quality for people At least on the other end and you've got That ambient noise awareness benefit That's really good for races or Urban Runs connectivity is pretty reliable too For me the things I wasn't so sure about The controls are still a tad fiddly the Fit isn't the most disappearing on the Move particularly when you're moving at Far Paces or steep down Hills bone Conductors still sit better they're also Still not perfect with a cap and glasses
And they can flap around a bit the audio Isn't as cocooning as regular Buds and There's no wireless charging however I Enjoyed running in the open Fit air and That kind of run to office crossover is A big selling point here I can see these Being a popular alternative to the Regular bone conductors and at that much Cheaper price tag it's now a whole lot Easier to recommend them over the open Fit air for a start if you want big full Top quality sound these probably aren't Going to be for you if you want Something that balances that open ear Awareness with better quality of sound Than you would get from a regular bone Conductor and the benefits of having a Rechargeable case which makes them a Better option than shocked bone Conductors for Ultras these are Certainly an option worth considering so My vot on whether the shocks open Fit Air are a good fit for running I would Say absolutely they are I would say more So than the shocks open fit and that Kind of really boils down to what you're Getting in terms of that ear hook design And I think it just is More reliably secure for running and I Think that would be a huge thing for me And it has been a huge thing for me in Terms of my experience of the two Airbuds because elsewhere sound quality Battery life I think maybe the open fit
Slightly Edge it with the touch controls But I don't think it's a huge amount in It we consider how much these airbuds Cost compared to the open fit for me it Feels like a no-brainer to go for the Open Fit air when you look at what else Is out there I think the key things that Really stand out for me are the key Other kind of competition I think you Look at things like the civa S1 and S2s Which s of 5060 5060 they are slightly bigger in terms Of that kind of form factor but it's an Ear hook design it's very reliable you Get very balanced sound there you maybe Not getting the customization you can Have on these shocks can fit air but the Battery life is very good there as well Too so that's one if you want to spend a Little bit less I think if you look Around the same price I think it's worth Looking at something like the JBL sound Gear sense if you like the idea of Having truly wise airbuds for some Things but you also like the idea of Having that kind of R you know shocks Open runs series kind of neck band style Design these headphones allow you to do That it has airbuds has kind of EQ modes As well there but allows you to kind of Click them into a neck band and you can Wear them kind of as neck band style Headphones as well too so those are Worth looking at but I think in terms of
Adding this to the shocks range I Definitely feel this is a stronger kind Of um easily more recommendable um kind Of set of airbuds um compared to the Open fit for running so I think you know All the changes here I think are Definitely ones that are welcomed on the Open Fit air and you consider how much Cheaper they cost I would absolutely be Going for these over the open fit if I Wanted them for my runs okay so there You have it that is our multi tester Take on the shocks open fit and whether They are a good fit for runners now we Do have a comparison video with the Shocks open fit so definitely go and Check that out we'll put a link in this Video and in the caption if you've got Any questions about the open Fit air That we haven't covered in this video or Other headphones you actually want to See it compared to do let us know in the Comments as always And subscribe hit That little bell to find out about our Latest videos and yeah we'll see you for The next R Test's video
