SHOKZ New OpenFit 2 Open-Ear Headphones, True Wireless Bluetooth Earphones with Microphone, Earhook Earbuds with 48 Hours of Playtime, Fast Charging, IP55 Water-Resistant, with Carrying Bag, Black

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I only just discovered the magic of open ear headphones. I do a ton of running and biking. Situational awareness is critical in these situations, lest you want grievous injury from missed audio cues. My only experience with this style so far are these and the Cleer Ark 3s. I like these a lot better.I was able to put on a pair of these at a display and was blown away by how much warmer and richer they sound than my Cleers, not to mention more comfortable. These things are REALLY comfortable. Last night, I started getting worried because I couldn't find my left one. It was in my ear... I was also tired. But still. I don't get any pressure points with these.Sound: as I said above, very rich considering how they are positioned in my ear. They are NOT bassy. If you're a big audiophile and want to sit and listen to the next album with punchy bass, it's probably worth saying once, you need good over ear or in ear headphones. These are meant for situational awareness. These do a really good job at being good sounding while letting you hear what's going on so you don't have to rip one out as you're saying "what?" to someone who walked up and started talking to you. Audiobooks and the like are really good. I've been listening to LOTR narrated by Andy Serkis. It's like he's talking right next to me in a room. I can still hear what's going on, but it's very clear and you can hear all the undertones in his voice. I listen to primarily rock and metal, along with various other types. These won't blow your socks off as I've already alluded to. I don't think they're meant to. I finally took them out on a real bike ride yesterday. Overall, I can hear very well. Just like my Cleers, when I'm pushing over 20 mph with some strong winds, it can get hard to hear without cranking up the volume. Probably just part of the deal with this design. But unlike the Cleers, where I hit max volume all the time, these have a lot of head room.Fit/comfort: I really like how these fit on me. But that's such a personal thing. These don't have any adjustment. The Ark 3s have a little bit of articulation and reach adjustment built in, but these sound and fit better without that. The contact surfaces are pretty much all soft rubber material. They stay right in place for the most part. I have worn these with various glasses. Eyeglasses, Oakley sunglasses, cycling glasses. I don't wear anything with wrap around ear pieces, so I can't say how well these would interface with those. But they work well for me. Controls: They have a physical button and a touch pad for their assistant feature, which I admittedly have not used much. I really liked the idea of a physical button. Other headphones like my Samsung Buds 2 pro or my Cleer Ark 3 claim weather resistance. But the touch controls become unusable in a light sprinkle, and sometimes get a mind of their own. So for what I use them for, a button is the perfect solution. There's also a subtle little beep when you press. You press once to play/pause, twice for next, three times for previous, hold for volume changes. There is one little limitation. Doing 3x to go back in your audio book is a lot harder than touch controls for some reason. It's a little picky about how fast you do it. Too fast and it won't register 3, too slow, and same thing. And one thing Samsung does better is you get 2 or 3 beeps AFTER the input so you know if you've gone forward or back. These beep with the presses. So there have been a few times I didn't realize I was actually skipping forward in my book. So that's the one negative I have about the control scheme. Battery life: As advertised. I haven't charged the case in at least a week and I'm still at 50%. App and features: The app is actually pretty good. It offers five EQ presets and a custom five band equalizer. Again, the sound isn't studio quality, but it does make a difference. You can customize the controls to an extent. Mostly, you can mix and match what single, double, triple, and hold buttons do. The touch pad can only be used for your choice of assistant. You can turn the touch pad function off completely. You can change the audio cue volume, which is nice. You can enable to disable multipoint pairing. I love the way they do it on these. I have them paired to my phone, laptop, and steam deck. Once paired, you can have two connected at once. You cannot stream audio from two sources at the same time. Whichever device started playing first gets priority. Once paired, if it's not connected, you can grab the Shokz from your device's bluetooth list and connect WITHOUT putting the Shokz in pairing mode. This then replaces the oldest connected device. IE, if I connected my phone, then my laptop, then my Steam Deck, it will drop my phone. So far, this works SO MUCH BETTER than my Samsungs. If I'm listening to something on my phone and turn on my laptop, they'll just drop what I was doing and connect to those. The Shokz do not have that problem. It's so nice how well this works. One interesting thing worth noting because neither my Samsungs nor Sonys do this. If I have them paired to my laptop and phone and I walk away from home, I'll hear them make a sound as my laptop drops. Then I hear the connect sound when they reconnect as I come back. OR, in the case of Steam Deck, which goes into full sleep when I lock it, the BT turns off. So if I had it connected to my phone and Steam Deck, I'll hear the Steam Deck drop when I put it to sleep. But they DO NOT just go searching for the next thing to connect, like my laptop. They will latch onto the devices you last manually connected, and ONLY those. This is the best implementation of this I have seen by any brand. My cars, and many others just grab whatever BT device they can find and start playing whether you want them to or not. Great job, Shokz.Case: Yeah, this is where I was really tempted to take a star. Opening up the case belies the quality of the headphones. The case feels extremely cheap. It's hard, low-grade plastic that feels like it belongs in a McDonald's kids toy. There's no soft touch/rubberization so they can be very slippery to hold on to. Opening the case presents the same problem. I don't get the impression that the case will last years of being in my pocket. But where they did do a good job is the physical layout of the case. The ear pieces overlap, so you don't end up with this huge chungus to carry in your pocket (like the Cleers). AND there's no left or right preference, meaning you can put the left OR right in first, and they will fit just fine. The magnets are very strong. Strong enough that you have to kind of pry them out with your fingers, but then again, every time I drop my Buds 2 Pros, they explode across the room, so this might be a good thing.All in all, if you are someone who is out running, riding, hiking, walking, and you want to be able to hear what you're listening to, but still hear the world around you, these are absolutely a good buy. And considering when I got these, their normal price was the sale price of my Cleer Ark 3s, these are very much a good deal. If it comes at the cost of a case with cheaper feel, then that's fine. But they should work on that part.PS. I should add this because some things like my partner's old Bose earbuds seem to lack basic common sense design. You can use these independently of each other. One or both in the ear, with or without the case nearby. The one sad thing is there's no way to power these off and on without the case. It's a very uncommon thing to have. The Cleer Ark 3s have this, though it does not work well. I'll bet this could be implemented into these via update. Seriously, how about a triple-click and hold for three seconds to power on and off? The Cleers have this, but fail in that they somehow magically detect 3x+hold when they're off, facing away from my body, in my hydration belt pocket. With physical buttons, I'm better this would work very well here.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I found Shokz Openfit 2 online and was thrilled that Shokz sells them on Amazon. I bought them in March it’s now Almost July. I really love them and I’m glad I spent the money on them.The app is ok but have not needed it much. Once I set up the sound preferences it was good to go.They felt a bit odd at first trying to get used to how they sit sort of on the ear not in the ear. I was not sure I was going to like how they felt initially but soon got used to them. Now I have them on and hardly notice them. I did a ton of research trying to find something that would have good sound quality but not have to have it inserted into my ear. Earbuds fall out of my ears when I talk or move my jaw…not helpful for handsfree TC. I hated to give up the noise cancellation that most earbuds provide but I’d rather have something that stays in place while using them.Note: if you’re going to be in a noisy environment these are not for you. Sometimes I will call a friend when going in a walk and any traffic noise or lawnmower/leaf blower will make it near impossible to hear them. The volume is just not there and my friends complain it’s hard to hear me as well. I didn’t have that issue with my noise canceling earbuds but I’m ok with the switch. I just try and not need to make calls when I’m out walking. They charge super fast compared to other devices I have. They also hold a charge for a long time. You can go to the app to see how long your battery life is. That is a hassle with the charge case had some kind of battery life display other than the green/red light. But the charge cord is short. Would be nicer if it was just a bit longer. I definitely recommend these and would buy them again if I needed to. I’m sure they will last a long time.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I had gotten the Studio Beats Eardbuds, and thought they were great. Until I used it for work-phone calls are touch and go as far as the other person hearing me. Got these bad boys today-and put them in to listen to a random song-I was floored. Clean, clear sound with a full range of…idk the word…maybe dimension? Haha idk. Great product. Love that they don’t sit in my ears. My ears are far too wet to move around with other earbuds. I think this was the perfect solution for me. I can’t wait even tell there on, yet they feel like they would be secure in the gym. I haven’t made a phone call yet, but I’ve heard these have a good mic.