Shokz OpenRun Pro review: The best bone conduction headphones for running
Our Verdict
The Shokz OpenRun Pro are the all-time bone conduction headphones for working out thank you to competitive sound, a barely-in that location feel and 10 hours of bombardment life.
For
- Comfy and lightweight
- Good sound for bone conduction
- Improved telephone call quality
- Great battery life
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Shokz OpenRun Pro are the best bone conduction headphones for working out thanks to competitive sound, a barely-there feel and 10 hours of battery life.
Pros
- +
Comfy and lightweight
- +
Practiced sound for os conduction
- +
Improved call quality
- +
Corking bombardment life
- +
Shokz OpenRun Pro specs
Price: $179
Colors: Black
Battery life (rated): ten hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth five.1
Processor: Qualcomm QCC3024
Durability: IP55 Sweat-Resistant
Weight: 1.0 ounces
I didn't believe in bone-conduction headphones until I replaced my AirPods Pro with AfterShokz Aeropex for running. The secure fit and open-air listening experience complemented my workout needs, even if the audio quality paled compared to the best sport headphones worn inside or over your ears.
Enter the $179 Shokz OpenRun Pro, a step up from AfterShokz Aeropex (which have been rebranded to OpenRun) and the first launch since the visitor'south rebrand. The Pro version promises stronger bass, improved microphone quality, larger buttons and longer battery life.
So should y'all get these bone conduction headphones instead of whatsoever of the best wireless earbuds or best wireless headphones? Read this Shokz OpenRun Pro review to discover out.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Price and availability
The Shokz OpenRun Pro cost $179, which is $l more than the Shokz OpenRun, only nevertheless competitive with the best headphones. The OpenRun Pro cost the same as the Apple AirPods 3, for instance.
Yous can preorder Shokz OpenRun Pro now, though release timing hasn't been confirmed. The OpenRun Pro headphones only come up in black at launch, with more colors coming afterwards this year.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Pattern and comfort
The design of Shokz OpenRun Pro is very similar to the standard OpenRuns. If my OpenRun headset wasn't bluish, I'd have a difficult time distinguishing the two at a glance. Though the OpenRun Pro dons the new "Shokz" logo, dropping the "After."
A pair of vibration drivers are built into the ends of over-ear hooks that connect to each other via a sparse yoke. The band is designed to ophidian backside your caput, well-nigh reaching your neck. For me, that means wearing Shokz OpenRun Pro under my hair or below a ponytail. The yoke doesn't offer any flexibility, and then I couldn't adjust the size to fit my head snug as I'd like, but I'd trade that off for barely-there feel any twenty-four hours. The OpenRun Pro weighs but about an ounce. Sometimes I'd forget I was however wearing them long after I finished a workout.
No matter how much I moved, I couldn't shake the OpenRun Pro off. The reason I ditched AirPods Pro for running is considering the noise-cancelling buds kept falling out of my ears at the track. As was my experience with the regular OpenRun headphones, the OpenRun Pro didn't budge during my runs.
Since Shokz OpenRun Pro is rated IP55 sweat-proof, the headphones are safe for most kinds of workouts, fifty-fifty if you lot go caught in a piffling rain. The rating doesn't cover swimming, but Shokz OpenSwim (formerly AfterShokz Xtrainerz) offering a fully-waterproof alternative.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Controls and vocalisation assistants
The Shokz OpenRun Pro uses the same physical buttons for controls every bit the standard OpenRun. A single multifunction push button sits on the left driver housing facing out, while the book rocker (which integrates the ability button) is on the underside of the rectangular section behind the right ear hook. The OpenRun Pro's rocker is almost twice as big as the Open up Run's rocker, solving my biggest complaint concerning the OpenRun's usability.
As for the MF push controls, a single tap ways pause or play while a double tap skips to the next runway. Holding down the MF button summons a vocalism assistant — either Google Assistant or Siri, depending on your paired smartphone — for queries or additional controls. I had no trouble waking Siri to respond to a text during my workout. Some more full-featured headphones can alert you to notifications via your voice assistant, but I don't care for that, specially while I'thou in the middle of listening to my running playlist'southward power jams.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Sound quality
Wireless os-conduction headphones don't audio as strong as about wireless headphones. Compared to even the best cheap earbuds, there's a certain caste of definition lost when music isn't fed directly into your ears. But the Shokz OpenRun Pro come the closest of any os conduction headphones I've tested (including the Bose Frames) to delivering extensive sound.
Shokz OpenRun Pro excelled with electronic synth riffs, maintaining precision and sophistication throughout Van Halen's "Leap." Rihanna'southward "We Found Love" sounded sexy, all the same still punchy. Vocals aren't every bit pronounced every bit I commonly similar, though the witty verses of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis'southward "Tin't Hold U.s." held their ain confronting the soaring piano line.
Now let's talk about bass. Shokz says the OpenRun Pro gained ii bass enhancers compared to the regular OpenRun headphones, so I expected a better thump. The improvement is actually quite subtle. I only noticed deeper levels in true bass-heavy tracks like Frank Sea's "Pyramids," though the OpenRun Pro can't match the vocal'south complexities carried through over-ear headphones.
Notwithstanding I'k hesitant to truly compare bone conduction headphones to over-ear or in-ear headphones. The employ-cases are unlike, with bone conduction catering specifically to those who want to be able to hear what's happening around them. While the best noise cancelling earbuds block noise, bone conduction lets information technology all in. I don't desire that in the gym, but when I'g outside running, being able to hear people and vehicles is crucial to safety. Even during a dog walk, being a female in a busy metropolis forces me to pay attention to my surround at all times.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Call quality
The basic OpenRun Pro headphones struggled with phone call quality, creating a noticeable echo and picking upward on far too many ambience noises. Shokz answered past adding a dual noise-cancelling microphone to OpenRun Pro.
I ran several telephone call tests (some unintentionally, forgetting I had the OpenRun Pro on) and each fourth dimension the receiver could tell I wasn't speaking through my smartphone'due south microphone. While some detected a faint echo, or the voice of a loud passerby picked up during a walk, the general consensus gave the OpenRun Pro a thumbs-up on call quality.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Battery life
Another notable upgrade the OpenRun Pro has over the OpenRun is battery life. The OpenRun Pro is rated for x hours rather than viii hours, offer more listening time betwixt charges. Better yet, the battery tin last upward to ten days when the headphones are turned off. With a couple of workouts lasting about an hour, the OpenRun Pro I tested needed juice after one week, with the born banana reminding me of the bombardment level every time I turned the headphones on.
I wish the headphones would automatically turn off when I wasn't listening to music for an extended period of time because, again, I forgot I was wearing the OpenRun Pro often. Fortunately, a 5-minute quick charge gave me most 1.v hours of listening time in case I realized OpenRun Pro was dead when getting prepare to workout. The case is protective, but it doesn't have built-in charging similar AirPods, Powerbeats or Milky way Buds cases.
Shokz OpenRun Pro review: Verdict
Different styles of headphones serve different purposes, and the Shokz OpenRun Pro's purpose is important enough to earn the headphones a spot in my rotation of sound hardware. While I similar the regular OpenRun model for outdoor runs, the OpenRun Pro's improvements to call quality and battery life make information technology a stronger champion for bone conduction engineering science.
Whether for ear wellness or spatial sensation, os conduction is condign a capable alternative to headphones that blast sound directly into your ears. In situations where information technology'southward of import to hear what's happening around me, it's bone conduction or bosom. Or no headphones at all I guess, but what fun is that?
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/shokz-openrun-pro
Posted by: cornellexpeoppicel.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Shokz OpenRun Pro review: The best bone conduction headphones for running"
Post a Comment