Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Review
Intro
I first came across the brand Shokz earlier this year when one of the people I work with rocked up to a meeting with these unique-looking pair of headphones wrapped around the back of his head and looped over his ears, but didn't sit in his ears. Curious, I asked what they were. He explained that they are a style of open ear headphones that use bone conduction to help produce the sound you hear, while also keeping your ears open so that you can be aware of your surroundings (which was especially useful for him as he is a cyclist). I asked if I could give them a go, and was impressed by how much of the music I could hear despite there being no speaker in my ears.
That evening, I started googling the brand Shokz as I had never heard of them and assumed they may be a smaller, lower quality brand on the market when compared to the big brands like Apple, Bose, and Sony. I soon realised that Shokz were quite established, and really focussed in on their niche of creating headphones that allowed for more open ear designs while also ensuring stability during workouts (e.g. not having headphones fall out all the time). This appealed to me as I oftentimes find my left AirPod falling out during certain exercises (no idea why, but it's very frustrating).
Trying them out for myself
Shokz has quite a range of headphones to choose from, including the OpenSwim Pro (headphones you can wear while swimming), OpenRun (their best seller, which was the same kind that I saw the guy at work with), OpenFit (more compact version) and many more which are currently on sale (up to 32% off until Christmas 2024).
I was lucky enough to be chatting to someone from Shokz who offered to let me try out their newest flagship model - the OpenRun Pro 2.
Setting them up was super easy, and they felt very comfortable while wearing them. I can see how these would be easy to wear all day while also allowing you to be connected to the outside world as they don't completely cancel out all external noise.
I wore them to the gym the next day to test out how secure they are and they performed exactly how I thought they would! I had zero feeling that they were going to fall off my head, and for most of the time I was able to still hear my music/podcast clearly (except for when I was right next to one of those big fans...but that's understandable).
Performance wise, the sound quality is better than I expected, however don't expect them to be as full of a sound as some over ear headphones with active noise cancelling (the Shokz are targeting a very different market to that). If you crank them up a bit, there is some sound leakage, especially if you are in a near silent room. However, if you are in a gym, on a run, or out and about, the sound leakage will be covered by the ambient background noises of the world.
One small negative
This might seem like not a big deal to most, but as someone that has used/reviewed a lot of more premium branded products, I found the zipper on the carry case to be really not the easiest to use and it feels quite low quality (however, the remainder of the case feels great). That is the only low quality thing I can mention about the Shokz products though as everything else feels really well thought out.
Conclusion
I'm going to make these my go-to everyday headphones to use while out on a shoot, at the office, and at the gym. I realised I very rarely need to completely drown the world out with my music, and I am progressively noticing that I like to be aware of my surroundings even while listening to music - so let's see how it goes!
Discount Code: NATHAN12