Description
- Unparalleled Audio – Dual drivers combine the clear highs of Bone Conduction Tech with the deep bass of Air Conduction Tech for 12 hours of powerful, 3D audio. Plus, you can tailor your listening experience via dedicated EQ modes on the Shokz App, including the all-new Classic Bone Conduction Mode.
- Open-Ear Awareness – SHOKZ’s signature open-ear design helps you power through your workouts while keeping you safely aware of your surroundings. Leak-free listening ensures your audio remains for your ears only.
- Secure and Stable Fit – The weight-optimized design of this unibody frame with ergonomic ear hooks integrates a Ni-Ti alloy memory wire to provide a secure, comfortable fit that defies slips and shifts.
- IP55 Water Resistant – Bring on the rain, sweat, and splashes. OpenRun Pro 2’s double-layer mesh structure ensure IP55 water-resistance and durability against the elements.
- Crystal-Clear Calls – Strategically positioned dual wind-resistant microphones and an AI noise reduction algorithm filter out 96.5% of background noise, including wind at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.
Derek Steele –
Shokz Open Run Pro2. 179.00 USD
Arrived 3pm
100% charge out the box
Went to charge and thought it’d be a special magnet charger. Not looking forward to having to buy specific replacements and the charger is type C!
Easy connection with a simple connection sound. Not the “pairing” and “connected” ai voice. Open the setting app to Bluetooth , select device, start listening.
Good volume and bass for the tech available
However the microphone is horrible as far as discord calls and phone calls have gone. These, I have been told, have NO NOISE SUPPRESSION. (You can hear all background sound, wind, airplanes, cars, buses, tires on the road, etc. Very sensitive audio)
Audio input sounds like a 2G Motorola phone from 1992. Take that as you will.
Easy volume and media 1-2-3 click controls. Left earpiece has a button. One click: play/pause two click: next song three click: previous song long hold: virtual assistant via phone Ex: Siri
Comfortable but bulky with glasses. Quick to ear fatigue. I frequently forget I’m wearing them if they aren’t in use
Great battery life. I got them at 3. Checked battery at 11 and I was on 70%
Open ear safe for factory security( my employer is extremely hard on safety. These unobstructed ears are safe at work!)
On safety, they came with reflective tape!
Quick charge. Full charge in approximately 30 minutes. Easy to charge on the commute to work.
They came with a neck strap. They feel secure enough I don’t feel the need to wear it. I am impartial to it. I’d feel confident wearing these under extreme conditions and they would not budge. Sky diving, bungee jumping, white water rafting(check the swim pros for 32gb of mp3 storage for underwater listening and a WATERPROOF design)
One size fits most. There is a size chart on Shokz website and it is true to size. I feel I may have benefited from the minis however I feel it is a minor design flaw not having these be adjustable. I can fit a full hand between my head and the headband. I feel the earpiece itself could afford to be slightly more flexible. It is very stiff contributing to that ear fatigue.
Private listening. My partner had to get within 3 inches of my ear to hear anything at 100%
So private you can share a pillow. Late night listening at 30% volume on my iPhone 14, was perfect volume to share a pillow with my partner and he couldn’t hear anything. After 50% it was loud enough he could faintly hear it in a quiet room. On separate pillows, 100% volume is detectable in a quiet room by my partner. We turned on a fan and it made it undetectable. However, turning on the fan, did make my listening experience less pleasant due to the open ear. Counter to that however, laying down on my ear did double the volume without decreasing any of the comfort!
Not great for back sleepers. The back strap protrudes about half an inch from my head. Laying on my back forces the earpieces to shift from where they need to sit. Side sleeping is 10/10. I can sleep uninterrupted 6 hours. No issues.
Makes my alarm private! I sleep in these with them on and idle through the night. Allowing my alarm to only wake me. Not disturbing my partner in the slightest.
I have a hypersensitivity to Nickel and other metals in headphones plus a hypersensitivity to latex in rubbers. These have caused NO ADVERSE ALLERGIC REACTIONS.
Discreet for most. I keep my head shaved and beard short so they are easy to see on me. My partner has shoulder length hair and an inch long full beard. You can’t see them unless you are hunting for them. Under a toboggan? No way. Hair frames your face? Easy.
Unfortunately limited in color selection.
This product is a great value for the quality. For a fair review across the board I’m giving this 9.2/10.
Pedro –
Es un aparato caro pero realmente lo vas a amortizar por su calidad. Te advierto que si es para pasear por la ciudad, los ruidos no te permiten oir bien. Sin embargo, para salir a la montaña o para usarlo en casa, es perfecto.
Alessandro –
Beh che dire, sono rimasto sia impressionato dal packaging che dalla qualità costruttiva, unica pecca la custodia per portarla in giro un po’ ingrombrante..
Ovviamente non sono cuffie per audiofili ma per sportivi o per chi vuole ascoltare la musica in ufficio sentendo quando viene chiamato..
Il fit è comodo e non affatica le orecchie, ho la testa piccola e a me la taglia mini lascia comunque tre dita di spazio dietro la nuca, su 4 persone a cui le ho fatte provare solo una era giusta/leggermente stretta.
Quanto alla qualità i bassi diciamo che si sentono, complice il fatto della mini cassa frontale che spara dentro l’orecchio, rispetto ad altre queste non hanno problemi di contatto: non sentirete la scossa se non aderiscono bene!
Quando al volume direi che è abbastanza alto, e al massimo, vi sentirà anche la gente attorno!
Jon –
I got the mini, and I am a 6-foot-tall, normal-built bloke. It is a perfect fit.
Pros:
* Remarkable sound – I am unsure why some reviews say it is compromised.
* Got bass – pleasantly surprised by how natural it sounds.
* Works flawless with glasses/eye wear – I feel no issues, but there may or may not be if your glasses hook around down your ears (mine don’t)
* Very comfortable – you forget you are wearing them, a godsend.
* Easy controls – I typically tend to forget all the light-touch combos on my other earbuds; these are with actual buttons and in an intuitive nonsense setup.
* It is a marriage of bone and air conduction, but it has the in-app option for those wanting pure bone conduction.
* Mic/phone works very well. Surounding noice is canceled out, so you can talk even in high winds
* Intuitive phone app
Cons:
* The volume is not as high as I would have wanted, but this is a typical complaint I have for all my earbuds and iPhones. It’s still loud enough, though.
* It’s important to note that naturally open-ear headphones do not have noise-canceling features as closed-ears. However, if you’re in noisy environments, like on an airplane, you can use earplugs to block external sounds while still allowing the sound from the bone conduction to reach your ears well for your enjoyment.
I will update you as I wear them more. So far, I am a huge fan.
RSN –
Great over the ear around the ears headphones, Better than previous versions.
JKB –
This is the upgrade I have been waiting for.
First of all, I have been using the Aftershokz Aeropex headphones for three years now. So, my review will be comparing the new Shokz Openrun Pro 2 to the Aeropex. Last year’s Shokz Openrun 1 was a minor upgrade to the Aeropex, not enough for me so I skipped that generation and waited for this one. And I’m glad I did. Review below.
Sound Quality – The big selling point for the Openrun Pro 2 is the upgrade in sound quality, specifically bass. There are new, air-conduction drivers that are in addition to the typical bone-conduction drivers you get with Shoks headphones. These new drivers are dedicated to bass and provide a significant improvement in sound quality. In my opinion, this gives the Openrun Pro 2 more of a balanced sound profile than a bass heavy profile. If you are a true bass head, you will not be super impressed. But the punch is there, it is noticible, and without the weird vibrations in your temple that you get from bone conduction headphones trying to pump out bass frequencies. In comparison, the new Openrun Pro 2 makes the Aeropex sound tinny and weak. This feature alone is well worth the upgrade.
But there is much more…
Bluetooth 5.3 – One thing I really disliked about the Aeropex was the lag time when you get a notification sound. Or when using turn-by-turn directions from a mapping app. The Aeropex would basically have to “wake up” for a split second, which would cause you to miss the first part of the audio that was being coming through. This was due to the older Bluetooth version that was used for the Aeropex. The new Openrun Pro 2 supports Bluetooth 5.3, which features a high power duty cycle (music & calls) and a lower power duty cycle (notification sounds, mapping directions, etc). This eliminates the annoying lag that I was experiencing before and makes for a much more seamless audio experience with your device. Additionally, the Openrun Pro 2 supports multipoint pairing. This is a feature which allows you to pair the headphones to multiple devices and *seamlessly* switch between them. This is the key. Many non-multipoiont bluetooth headphones can pair to multiple devices, but to switch devices you would have to disconnect from one device and then connect to the other. With multipoint, the headphones can stay connected to both devices and will switch automatically when audio is played from each device.
USB-C Charging – The Aeropex came with a proprietary magnetic charging cable. In this day and age, everything should be using the USB-C charging, specifically with the power delivery (PD) standard. Many cheap Chinese devices these days advertise they come with a USB-C cable, but the device does not charge when plugged into a standard USB-C power delivery charger. I call these “fake USB-C” devices. These typically are provided with a USB-A to USB-C cable. Thankfully, Shokz designed the Openrun Pro 2 to be fully USB-C charging compatible with a standard USB-C power delivery charger.
Fit – When I originally purchased the Aeropex, I should have gone with the “mini” version. In my case, the band in the back had way too much slack in it and it stuck out all the time. This was annoying if I was wearing a ball cap or sitting up in bed with my head against a pillow. I had to adjust the angle of the Aeropex so the band was more behind my neck to not have this problem. This time around I opted for the “mini” version on the Openrun Pro 2 and the fit for me is much, much better. The band in the back is close to the back of my head but still isn’t touching. And I’m an average sized guy. Everyone is different, but if you think the band in the back will be annoying and your head isn’t larger than average I’d suggest trying the mini version first. Shokz also advertises the “clamping force” on the Openrun Pro 2 is lighter. I never felt like this was an issue so I can’t really tell much of a difference there.
Teleconferencing Calls – If you have attempted to use some older generation Shokz headphones for Teams or Zoom calls, you probably are aware of the annoying mute issue making them completely unusable for this use case. Basically, the firmware in the older gen devices played an audible “mute on” message whenever the volume went down to zero. Teleconferencing apps like Teams and Zoom will automatically lower and raise the volume of your mic via software to prevent feedback and noise. This would cause the Aeropex to randomly say “mute on” just out of the blue. To make matters worse, the older gen devices were not firmware upgradable, so you were basically stuck with this nonsense. Needless to say, this is SUPER annoying (and embarrassing) when you are fumbling with your audio while trying to be productive in a work setting. In my initial testing with the Openrun Pro 2, when I lower the volume to zero with the button I just hear a beep noise. And when I lower it to zero via software I hear nothing (which is expected). I have not tested the Openrun Pro 2 with Teams yet, but I feel confident this issue has been resolved as this is has been a well-known complaint with Shokz devices for a-couple of years now. I will update my review if I discover this is not the case.
Mic Quality – I have used the new Openrun Pro 2 with some regular calls and Facetime calls and everything seems to be fine in that category. People have no complaints about my voice quality. I have been in reasonably quiet settings though.
Build Quality – The Openrun Pro 2 build quailty is very nice. The headphones are similar to the Aeropex in that regard, with the rubberized sections on the outside and the flexible, but strong, band in the back. As with the Aeropex, there is a single LED on the outside which is red while charging and turns blue when fully charged. The buttons are larger and have a nice tactile click when they are pressed. By comparison, my Aeropex volume buttons were very small and became mushy with no tactile feel after a year or so. They still work fine though. Time will tell if this happens with the Openrun Pro 2 but I have zero initial complaints in the build quality department.
Charge Time and Battery Life – I’ve only had these for two days, but I’ve charged them twice now, and both times it took about than an hour to charge. So far battery life seems really good and easily lasted a full day of reasonably heavy use with charge to spare.
App – Older Shokz devices, like my Aeropex, are not firmware upgradable and not supported at all by the Shokz app. The app does not even detect them. The new Openrun Pro 2 is fully supported by the app which allows you to upgrade the firmware, adjust EQ settings, define custom EQ settings, and manage your multipoint bluetooth functionality (pariing to multiple devices).
I do have one very minor complaint. The granularity of volume adjustment at their lowest level is not as good as with the Aeropex. What do I mean by this? The Aeropex has very fine control at low volume levels. Bone conduction, and all open-ear headphones in general, allow you to be aware of your surroundings as well as hear audio through the headphones. This provides a level of safety when doing outdoor activities as you can listen to music and hear your surroundings at the same time. This is still true for the Openrun Pro 2, but the lower volume levels are louder than with the Aeropex, if that makes sense. In other words, if you are indoors in a very quiet environment and wish to hear your music and hear your surroundings it will be more difficult than with previous generations of Shokz. This is not an issue for outdoor activities and louder environments, only in really quiet settings. As I mentioned, this is my only complaint with the Openrun Pro 2, but I do miss the very fine volume adjustability at lower levels as with the Aeropex. Perhaps a firmware update can improve this? Shokz, are you listening???
Shokz devices are the gold standard for bone conduction headphones. So far, the OpenRun Pro 2 has solved all of my complaints with the older Aeropex and only introduced one minor complaint. If you are in the market for headphones like these you should definitely give the Shokz Openrun 2 a try. And if you have had a previous generation of Shokz (Aeropex or Openrun Pro 1), the Openrun Pro 2 is a worthy upgrade over previous genrations!
Highly recommended!
Girish Pai –
Absolutely Amazing and stunning sound quality!