Comfortable technology upgrade brings a sense of wearing experience all day-revi
2024-03-13 / tech
In the past two years, open-ear headphones have undoubtedly been the fastest-growing segment in the headphone market. Both traditional audio giants and mobile phone brands are involved, with a constant stream of new products hitting the market, leaving consumers dazzled by the choices. Shokz, which focuses on non-in-ear open-ear headphones, may not have a large number of products for sale, but with a strong product power that ensures "each model is a hit," it has stood out in the market. According to the "Global Non-In-Ear Open-Ear Headphone Industry Independent Market Research Report" released by the global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, Shokz has been honored with the title of the best-selling non-in-ear open-ear headphones globally in 2023. It should be noted that, aside from bone conduction sports headphones, Shokz previously only had one model of OWS headphones for sale, which was the OpenFit. Of course, facing the current market with a plethora of new open-ear headphones of various types and grades, relying solely on OpenFit is not enough. At the recent spring product launch, Shokz introduced the OpenFit Air—a new open-ear headphone that has been further refined in terms of wearability, acoustics, and materials. With a significantly lower price than OpenFit, Shokz's intention to reach a broader consumer base with the OpenFit Air is more evident. So, what kind of experience does this product offer? Let's take a look.
Product Specifications
Model: T511
Product Colors: Xuanwu Black, Glacier White, Sakura Pink
Acoustic Technology: Directional Sound Field + Dynamic Bass Enhancement
Battery Life: 6 hours for the headphones on a single charge; 28 hours with the charging case
Fast Charging Capability: 10 minutes of charge provides 120 minutes of use
Call Performance: CVC 8.0 algorithm + dual microphones in the optimal position
Charging Method: Contact charging (headphones), USB-C (charging case)
Water Resistance Rating: IP54Bluetooth Chip: Qualcomm QCC3040
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Bluetooth Version: 5.2
Audio Codec Formats: SBC, AAC
Weight: 8.7g (per earbud)
73.8g ± 2.4g (total weight)
Reference Price: 798 yuan
Air-Style Earhook
Total battery life up to 28 hours
The OpenFit Air continues the ear-hook style of wearing without inserting into the ear, but the ear-hook design has changed. This design, named the Air-Style Earhook, utilizes a buffer cavity structure independently developed by AfterShokz. The most noticeable visual change is the hollowed-out design at the end of the earhook. The upper half of the hollow is reinforced with titanium alloy wire, which runs through the entire earhook, ensuring its strength, and it has excellent flexibility and resilience, with good durability that won't be damaged even with significant bending. The lower half of the hollow, which is in contact with the back of the ear, is made of pure silicone material. Combined with the hollow design, on one hand, it can adapt well to different ear shapes without adjustment, fitting snugly on the ear; on the other hand, it brings a level of comfort beyond traditional earhooks, with a delicate and skin-friendly touch and ample elasticity.
Unlike the thick "double-layer zero-degree silicone" on the OpenFit, the main body of the OpenFit Air earbuds does not use silicone wrapping, presumably due to its positioning. However, AfterShokz has not lowered the standard of comfort on the OpenFit Air. The main body features a dual-angle structure, and when viewed from the side, one can see that its upper and lower contours have arc transition areas at different positions with varying angles. This design allows the main body to be slanted inward, fitting better into the user's concha when worn, providing a snug, comfortable, and secure wearing experience.The part of the earbuds that comes into contact with the ear is coated with a skin-like texture, offering a delicate and warm touch. Although it differs from the silicone material used in the ear hooks, the excellent craftsmanship brings a unified visual effect.
The front of the earbuds features a two-tone design, inspired by the interplay of light and shadow during a solar eclipse. AfterShokz, in the design of OpenFit Air, combines different materials and surface treatment processes, creating a soft and flowing visual effect similar to matte metal, enhancing the product's fashion sense. Open-ear headphones are naturally suited for wearing on the ears all the time, and the excellent design and visual appeal of OpenFit Air make it a great choice as a fashionable accessory for daily life. The OpenFit Air comes in three colorways at launch: "Black Tortoise," "Glacier White," and "Sakura Pink." The sample we received is "Glacier White," with a very pure color that is versatile.
The charging case of OpenFit Air is designed in a flat "compact" shape, with color and surface treatment processes consistent with the earbuds. Although the earbuds themselves are slightly larger than common TWS earbuds, the overall volume is still compact due to the design of the charging case, which allows the earbuds to be placed in a nested arrangement, making it easy to carry around. A single earbud weighs 8.7 grams, and the total weight of the charging case and earbuds is approximately 73.8 grams, similar to OpenFit, maintaining excellent portability.
The back of the charging case has a USB-C charging port, and there is an indicator light on the front. A single full charge of the earbuds can play music for 6 hours, and with the charging case, the battery life can reach up to 28 hours, meaning the charging case can fully charge the earbuds more than three times. Based on my usual daily usage of about 3 hours with the earbuds, for commuting, lunch breaks, and evening workouts, using OpenFit Air can last for 9 days without needing to recharge. OpenFit Air also supports fast charging, with the capability of "10 minutes of charging for 2 hours of playback." Even if the battery is depleted and forgotten to be charged, a quick charge during the time it takes to wash up and change clothes before leaving the house is enough for commuting use.
No burden on the ears
Suitable for all-day wear
When actually wearing OpenFit Air, I can easily feel the effect of the air-style ear hook: after placing it in position along the ear, it fits snugly against the ear root without causing significant pressure. Especially after long periods of wear, I would even forget the presence of the ear hook. The front part of the earbuds comes into contact with the inner wall of the concha, which is delicate and skin-friendly, with a very small contact area, making it lightweight and pressure-free. Since it does not plug into the ear canal like TWS earbuds, the overall wearing experience of OpenFit Air is natural and comfortable, without causing discomfort to the ears. Compared to bone conduction sports earbuds, which are also open-ear, OpenFit Air does not have a rear hook, so it does not need to be removed during rest or exercise, and it does not affect the experience even when lying flat. Considering its excellent wearing comfort, it is no problem to wear OpenFit Air all day without listening to music, truly meeting the "all-day online" requirement of a wearable device.
Will the ear hook wearing style of OpenFit Air conflict with glasses? Since I do not wear glasses, I tried it with sunglasses. Whether wearing glasses first and then OpenFit Air, or reversing the order, neither interferes with the other, and wearing them simultaneously does not affect comfort, making it very user-friendly for those who wear glasses daily.
The comfort is good, but what about the stability? I wore OpenFit Air during walking, brisk walking, running, exercising with equipment, and cycling, and its wearing stability is unquestionable. Unlike some TWS earbuds that may need adjustment with slight head movements, even with vigorous head shaking, OpenFit Air stays firmly on the ears. The open-wearing style of OpenFit Air is very suitable for outdoor use because it allows users to perceive changes in the surrounding environment at any time, especially in complex situations, such as crossing the street or cycling on open roads, where users can clearly hear the sounds around them to ensure safety. Additionally, OpenFit Air has an IP54 rating for water and dust resistance, capable of handling rain or sweating during exercise. It should be noted that this protection level is for the earbuds themselves and does not apply to the charging case.
Overall, with its non-invasive, open-wearing style, OpenFit Air offers a natural, relaxed, and comfortable wearing experience that can meet the "all-day" wearing needs, and its stability is also excellent. The wearing experience is on par with its "big brother" OpenFit, making it one of the most comfortable earbuds on the market.Convenient Touch Controls
High Clarity Voice Calls
The OpenFit Air lacks physical buttons and adopts touch operation. The touch area is located on the front of both earbuds, with a color scheme that matches the main body of the earbuds, and the area with the "Logo" can respond to operations. Although there are no positioning points, the touch area covers most of the front of the earbuds, so there is no need to feel around during actual operation; simply lift your hand and tap the front of the earbuds. The blind operation is convenient and accurate. Even if the fingers are wet, it does not affect the operation response, fully considering the situations users may encounter during sports. The touch area of OpenFit Air can perform functions such as answering/ending/rejecting calls, playing/pausing music, skipping tracks, volume adjustment, and voice assistant. There will be a prompt sound when the operation is successful. All its operation methods are double-clicks and long presses. Compared to many earbuds that use single-clicks to control some functions, OpenFit Air's settings basically do not cause accidental operation issues, ensuring smooth and accurate use.
However, it should be noted that the functions mentioned above cannot be realized simultaneously. Users can customize the functions of double-clicking and long-pressing the left and right earbuds in the "Button Customization" option of the Shokz App, setting them to functions they often use.
As a pair of earbuds suitable for all-day wear, OpenFit Air naturally needs to take into account the various application needs users may encounter in daily use, with calls being an important part. OpenFit Air is equipped with dual microphones, both located on the front of the earbuds. On this basis, it also uses Qualcomm's cVc8.0 call noise reduction technology, which suppresses noise and eliminates echo by performing beamforming and adaptive filtering on the received signals, providing call quality in noisy environments. I personally experienced the call effect of OpenFit Air at a busy crossroads in the city with a lot of traffic. On one hand, with the surrounding road noise of cars being very loud, I could clearly hear the voice of the other party. On the other hand, by listening to the voice recorded on the call recipient's phone, I clearly felt that OpenFit Air could eliminate most of the surrounding environmental noise, and the voice of the OpenFit Air user was very clear, with the call not being disturbed by background noise.
It is recommended that everyone install the Shokz App on their mobile phones. In addition to customizing buttons, it can also check the battery level of the earbuds and charging case, upgrade firmware, and switch between different sound effect modes. It provides four sound effect modes including standard, voice, bass enhancement, and treble enhancement, and users can choose a suitable mode according to their listening preferences. In addition, OpenFit Air also supports dual device connection, but users need to enable this function in the App first. I connected OpenFit Air to both my mobile phone and laptop at the same time. At this point, if either device plays music, it can be heard on OpenFit Air. If music is played on another device at this time, it will automatically pause, and only after the current device pauses playback can the other device play normally.
Multiple Acoustic Technologies
Easy to Wear and Better to Listen To
Shokz has adopted its own acoustic "black technology" on OpenFit Air to ensure that the product has excellent sound quality in the same category while having comfortable characteristics. The Shokz self-developed DirectPitch directional sound field technology, which is the same as the flagship OpenFit, effectively reduces the leakage of open earbuds by setting multiple tuning holes and using the principle of sound wave phase cancellation, protecting users' privacy. This patented technology allows the product to transmit sound accurately and efficiently without wearing it in the ear, making listening more private. With its support, the leakage problem that has plagued many users of open earbuds can be better controlled by OpenFit Air. In a relatively quiet workplace with only the sound of the air conditioner and the sound of keyboard typing, I wore OpenFit Air and listened to music at an appropriate volume, and my colleagues sitting next to me could not hear the sound of the earbuds while maintaining social distance. In the elevator, where this kind of problem is most likely to occur, even if the distance between people is relatively close, people around can only vaguely hear the sound of the earbuds and cannot clearly hear the content being played.
In terms of sound quality, Shokz has customized a high amplitude and high sensitivity driver unit for OpenFit Air. The large size of 18mm×11mm (equivalent to 16mm), the racetrack-shaped driver unit has the characteristics of powerful bass and stable high frequency. Open earbuds, due to their non-in-ear characteristics, make it difficult to do a good job with low frequencies. In response to this, Shokz has also specially equipped OpenFit Air with Shokz's self-developed dynamic low frequency enhancement technology, which inherits from OpenFit's Shokz OpenBass and further enhances the low frequency performance of the product.The Bluetooth chip used in OpenFit Air comes from Qualcomm QCC3040, based on the Bluetooth 5.2 specification, supporting SBC and AAC wireless encoding formats. I connected it to my phone via Bluetooth and listened to it working under the AAC encoding. The first impression of OpenFit Air's performance is that the sense of three-dimensionality is quite good; it can create a full and three-dimensional sound shaping in the mind, similar to in-ear headphones, whereas some poorly processed open-ear headphones would have the sound floating on both sides of the ears. Thanks to its unique technology, the bass of OpenFit Air indeed has a rare sense of quantity among similar products. In drum music, it can show a relatively sufficient sense of quantity, with good elasticity and clear contours of the instruments, without the feeling of drumming on the drum skin. The overall low-frequency performance is even comparable to some TWS earbuds. In terms of vocals, OpenFit Air has a certain imaging, with the singer positioned forward, accurate tone reproduction, and all the necessary details are not missing, making it quite enjoyable to listen to. Relatively speaking, I prefer its performance in male vocal music, especially with thicker vocal lines. The high frequencies are overall transparent and clear, with a slightly thin listening sensation, but not dry and cold. Overall, OpenFit Air's sound quality is at a high level among open-ear headphones.
In conclusion, as a product priced relatively low in the Shokz open-ear headphone series, OpenFit Air truly achieves "high quality at a low price." It is a high-quality product created by Shokz, integrating design, materials, and components, based on its strong technical accumulation in the field of open-ear headphones. Whether it's comfort, applicable scenarios, or call and sound quality performance, OpenFit Air can bring users a superior experience. With more and more manufacturers joining the open-ear headphone market today, it is inevitable that there will be a mix of good and bad. By launching the more affordable OpenFit Air, Shokz allows more consumers to experience the wearing and listening experience of good open-ear headphones with a smaller budget. After successfully "breaking through the circle" from the bone conduction sports headphone field to the broader open-ear headphone market with the launch of OpenFit last year, the appearance of OpenFit Air will undoubtedly consolidate Shokz's leading position in this market.
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