Review: Shokz OpenFit Pro Wireless Earbuds

Open-ear wireless earbuds are nothing short of a revolution. For many people, the ability to hear their tunes or podcasts and the outside world can be a game changer. The fact that open earbuds also tend to be way more comfortable than their traditional, closed cousins is, depending on your needs, either a bonus or the main reason to buy them.

Unfortunately, open-ears suffer from two major drawbacks: Sound quality takes a serious hit unless you’re in a perfectly quiet environment, and because there’s no way to passively isolate external sounds, you can’t have active noise cancellation (ANC) as a work-around. Or can you?

Shokz’s newest open-ear model, the Shokz OpenFit Pro ($250 in black or white), challenges that notion with the company’s first open-ear noise reduction system. It’s not as effective as the kind of active noise canceling you’ll find on closed earbuds like the Apple AirPods Pro, but it absolutely delivers what it promises: a noticeable reduction of mid-frequencies—just enough to take the edge off life’s more annoying sounds.

Open Buds With ANC?

Photograph: Simon Cohen

During the winter, I run a small space heater in my office. With the OpenFit Pro’s noise reduction enabled, the drone of the fan is decreased by what feels like half (an entirely unscientific measurement), and yet, I can still hear all of the usual comings and goings in my house clearly. At the gym, it drops (but doesn’t eradicate) the sound of treadmills and the in-house music selection.

However, it also delivered an unexpected side effect: my first encounter with the so-called “sucking” sensation that some folks experience when using ANC products. I’ve tested more ANC headphones and earbuds than I care to count. Some do a phenomenal job of blocking sound, and some don’t. But none have ever caused a physical sensation like the OpenFit Pro, which, in my case, feels like inward pressure (pushing vs sucking). It’s not painful, but it’s unpleasant, and it made me want to turn it off after just a few minutes of use.

You can adjust the amount of noise reduction in the Shokz companion app, and reducing it from its maximum setting caused the sensation to subside. Unfortunately, it also reduced noise reduction to the point where it wasn’t really blocking any sounds. The good news is that the sensation of pressure is reduced a lot when playing music, and, like most well-executed noise cancellation systems, it doesn’t significantly alter the OpenFit Pro’s sound quality.

Quality Audio

Photograph: Simon Cohen

Speaking of sound quality, the OpenFit Pro are Shokz’s best earbuds so far. It’s not a massive difference versus the OpenFit 2+ or OpenDots One (both $199.95), but there’s a noticeable improvement in bass response and detail, likely thanks to a larger, dual-diaphragm driver. I’ve yet to hear a set of open-ear earbuds that can deliver truly powerful low end, but the OpenFit Pro are better than the rest. They also avoid the OpenFit 2’s tendency toward sibilance at higher volume levels—the OpenFit Pro are perfectly smooth, without sibilance or distortion.

Like all open-ear earbuds, the OpenFit Pro have an airy and open soundstage that delivers a more natural listening experience than regular earbuds — it’s closer to the experience of listening to speakers. You can make them sound even more immersive by activating the confusingly named Optimized for Dolby Atmos mode. I say confusing because this mode is neither a replacement for Dolby Atmos nor is it strictly for use with existing Dolby Atmos content. It is essentially Dolby’s best earbud-based audio software, which combines spatial audio processing (for a wider and deeper soundstage) with optional head tracking. Both of these features will work with any content; however, Dolby claims it works best when you’re listening to Dolby Atmos content.

It’s the first time Dolby’s tech has been employed on a set of open-ear earbuds, and it’s a great match. It boosts the perceived width and height of the space, and does so without negatively affecting dynamic range or loudness, something that often plagues similar systems. And yes, the effect is more pronounced when listening to Atmos than when playing stereo content. I’ve used Dolby’s spatial tech on several products, including the LG Tone Free T90Q, Jabra Elite 10, and Technics EAH-Z100, and this is the first time I’ve enjoyed it enough to leave it enabled for music listening.

Still, it’s not as effective as Bose’s Immersive Audio on the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds. Bose’s head tracking is smoother—particularly noticeable when watching movies—and its spatial processing is more convincing and immersive for both music and movies.

Where Shokz enjoys a big leg up on Bose is the OpenFit Pro’s call quality. The OpenFit Pro’s mics do a great job of eliminating noises on your end of the call. You could be walking down a busy street, hanging out in a full coffee shop, or even passing by an active construction site, and your callers probably won’t have a clue you aren’t sitting on a quiet park bench. As with all open-ear earbuds, being able to hear your own voice naturally (without the use of a transparency mode) eliminates the fatigue normally associated with long calls on regular earbuds.

Comfortable Design

Photograph: Simon Cohen

Comfort is a key benefit of Shokz’s OpenFit series, and the OpenFit Pro, with ear hooks that are wrapped in soft silicone, are no exception. Unlike previous OpenFit models, which position speakers just outside your ear’s concha, the Pro’s speaker pods project directly into your ears, and in my case, they make contact with the inner part of that cavity. This significantly increases stability, but over time, I became aware of that contact point.

They never became uncomfortable, but it’s not quite the forget-you’re-even-wearing-them experience of the OpenFit/OpenFit 2/+ models. As someone who wears glasses, I tend to prefer clip-style earbuds like the Shokz OpenDots One, and yet the OpenFit Pro’s ear hook shape was never an issue. Shokz includes a set of optional silicone support loops, presumably for folks with smaller ears or who need a more stable fit. They didn’t improve my fit, but then again, I’ve got pretty big ears.

As with all hook-style earbuds, the OpenFit Pro charging case is on the big side. It’s got great build quality thanks to the use of an aluminum frame, and you get wireless charging (not a given with many open-ear models), but it’s still way less pocketable than a set of AirPods Pro.

Easy to Use

Photograph: Simon Cohen

For the OpenFit Pro, Shokz has finally abandoned its hybrid touch/button controls in favor of just physical buttons, and I think it’s the right call. You can now decide exactly which button press combos control actions like play/pause, track skipping, volume, and voice assistant access, a level of freedom that wasn’t available on previous versions.

The buttons (one on each earbud) are easy to find with your fingers and just as easy to press. The OpenFit Pro are also Shokz’s first ear hook model to sport wear sensors for music auto-pause—handy to have when someone starts talking to you, and you don’t want to fumble with a button.

Battery life, when you’re not using noise reduction, is a very healthy 12 hours on a single charge and a huge 50 hours total with the charging case, according to Shokz. That drops precipitously when you use noise reduction: 6 hours and 24 hours, respectively. Keep in mind that both numbers assume a 50 percent volume level, and in my testing, that proved too quiet in all but perfectly silent locations.

My one significant critique of the OpenFit Pro is their lack of Bluetooth Auracast support. Auracast enables both private audio sharing and public Bluetooth broadcasts. And while it has been slow to take off, it promises to change the way we get audio information. Since open-ear earbuds are all about the middle ground between situational awareness and listening to electronic audio sources, they’re ideally suited to take advantage of Auracast.

At the end of the day, noise canceling still has a long way to come on open earbuds, due in large part to the physics of sound. But if you're in need of some quiet-er time at work or in other places where you typically prefer open buds and you don't want to swap buds, these are an interesting option. Just try to make sure that the ANC feels comfortable for you before you buy.