Transcription
All right, so these are the new OpenRun Pro 2s from Shokz. They're a follow-up to the originals, which were already way up there on the list of my top open-ear headphones for sports. But these are a bit different. Where these use an enhanced combination of both bone conduction as well as air conduction, so basically taking the best of both worlds from their OpenRun Pros as well as the OpenFit Airs and kind of merging them into one. Does that really work well? We'll definitely be talking about that in today's video.
Now, for a quick primer on why you may want open-ear headphones versus something like AirPods or something like that. It's all about being able to hear your surroundings, whether that's traffic, other trail users, or just being able to listen for those big, furry forest animals that you probably don't want to really say hi to. And the transparency mode on traditional earbuds is getting to be really good nowadays, but it's still no match for any open-ear headphone in terms of hearing what's around you. And open-ear headphones have a lot of other applications too, beyond just sports, like even in an office where you can still hear your boss yelling at you while still just enjoying your Taylor Swift in the background.
And there's basically two options when it comes to open-ear headphones: bone conduction and air conduction. Where bone conduction uses vibrations against your cheekbone that your brain then interprets the sound. It's actually really cool technology, but there are some limitations. And the big one is being able to deliver a deep low end like you can get on traditional earbuds. It just can't really do that with that kind of technology.
Then there's air conduction headphones, where those can deliver much more on the low end. But those don't handle wind noise quite as well, since they are using traditional speakers that transmit sound through the air. Plus, there's a little bit more sound leakage with air conduction headphones. So Shokz decided to kind of blend those two technologies together in an effort to get better low-end and overall better sound quality without much compromise when it comes to wind as well as sound leakage.
Okay, so for the headphones themselves. So just like the originals, the OpenRun Pro 2s come in a variety of colors, like this black color as well as this orange color. It also does come in two sizes: a regular and then a mini, depending on your preference. I don't actually have both sizes of the new OpenRun Pro 2s, but I do have the minis of the originals. And funny enough, both of these fit me just well. So here's the regular size right here. You see it kind of just sticks out from the back of the head just a little bit right there. And then here are the mini, and these fit me as well, even though I have a pretty big head. Actually, you'll notice that these are going to definitely be a lot tighter on the back of my head. So these like barely fit. So I'd basically suggest that for most people, go and just get the regulars. But if you do have a smaller head, go with the minis.
But when it comes to fit and security for sports, so I'm actually not sure if there's anything more secure than this style of over-the-ear wraparound headphone. You'd pretty much have to be like going upside down and kind of tumbling down the hill for these to actually come off.
And then when it comes to comfort. So these are nearly the same as the original. So these new versions are just a couple grams heavier, but it's very hard to tell a difference. Both of these feel very light on the head, even for extended periods of time. But I do tend to feel a bit more ear fatigue with this style of headphone in general for more jarring sports like running and mountain biking after like two or three hours or so. For stuff like road biking, I can barely tell that I'm wearing them. But for those more jarring activities, that's where I do tend to feel them after a couple hours.
There is one difference that I kind of noticed though, in terms of comfort, and I know this is kind of weird, but I do think this factors in. So with bone conduction headphones, there's a vibration that you can feel from the pods vibrating against your cheekbone, which is how they deliver sound. I personally don't find it annoying or distracting or like that, but it can be noticeable at times. But with these, since they are using a combination of both bone and air conduction, there's much less vibration where you're using the traditional drivers to deliver the low end versus the vibrations. And I'd say that I can barely feel any vibration with these at all. So if that does kind of bother you about bone conduction headphones, I think you'll really like these.
Oh, and then when it comes to compatibility with sunglasses, totally fine in that department. And then same thing goes for hats, unless I suppose you have one of those hats that kind of goes below the ears. And then these also do work great with helmets, whether those are road helmets or even mountain bike helmets where those kind of go down more in the back. The only helmets that probably won't work are going to be like full-face helmets, since the side of the helmet will probably push the headphones against your head, which isn't so awesome.
Of course, and I did also find that I could lay in bed on my side and listen to these without any discomfort. But if you are going to lay on your back, that's where depending on the size of the one that you choose, this may stick out just a little bit. So you may need to like kind of rotate this down and then lay your head down.
And when it comes to water resistance. So these have an IP55 water resistance rating, just like the original. So these will be fine for all sorts of like super sweaty activities above water. However, these aren't meant for swimming, and they also don't have the onboard music storage and playback like their OpenSwim Pros, which I have right over here. And I actually haven't had a chance to complete my review on these quite yet, but be on the lookout for this review in the future.
And then when it comes to battery life. So these do have a bump in battery life from the originals, where they advertise about 12 hours per charge. And they also have a quick charge feature, where you can get about two and a half hours of listening time with just a five-minute charge, which does come in handy if you discover your headphones are out of juice when you're about to go on your run. Now, I've been getting more around that 10-hour or so range out of them, but I do tend to listen to my music a smidge louder than what I think their 12-hour claim was factoring in, which is more on the moderate end of things.
And then when it comes to charging. So this is a pretty big plus here, where they've actually gone away from the proprietary charging cable and they now charge via USB-C, where they now also have this nice little cover to keep out the elements.
And then for controls. So these have both a volume and power button on the right-hand side, and then a multi-function button on the left that can pause, skip tracks, as well as answer and end calls. So these are going to be the same as the originals, where they're easy to find and easy to press buttons.
Okay, so now let's get into sound quality, which is what you probably really want to know about. And that really is the big upgrade here, where they're now using an enhanced combination of bone conduction as well as air conduction. And quite frankly, the results are pretty impressive. They're basically using the bone conduction side of things to handle the mids and the highs, where the traditional drivers are used for the bass and the low end. The originals are definitely very good for bone conduction headphones, but the difference was immediately noticeable when I switched to the twos. They're just much more full and provide a much more rich sound profile, where I'd say that these are actually on par with their OpenFit Air conduction headphones. And music is definitely one thing where all music sounds better, whether that's hip-hop to rock to acoustic, it's just all better.
But another place that I really noticed the difference was with podcasts. Where, you know, that deeper podcast-style sound that you hear because of those high-quality podcast mics, it's like hearing those versus hearing like a normal microphone. You're just able to hear the depth of the voices a lot more with these.
And then when it comes to customizing the sound profile, you can do that within the Shokz app. So we've got the standard profile, which works well across the board. There's a vocal profile for enhancing voices, there's a bass boost profile, treble boost, and then you can create your own. For how these sound profiles actually work though, so the vocal sound profile does its job of isolating voices a lot more and limiting more on the low end. The bass boost profile is probably the profile that gets you the closest to the low end that you get with standard in-ear headphones, but does drown out the highs a little bit. It's definitely not as low as you can get with closed-off earbuds, just due to the fact that these are an open-ear design, but certainly pretty close to normal earbuds and certainly considerably more than the originals. And then you have the treble boost as another option. And funny enough, I actually like that profile more for podcasts versus the vocal profile, where the vocal profile seemed to eliminate too much on the low end and it sounded kind of tinny. The treble boost profile was just much more pleasant, which was still elevating voices but still retained enough on the low end that it sounded somewhat balanced. But again, you can go ahead and just create your own custom sound profile to your liking.
Now, compared to these Shokz OpenRun Pros, which I also reviewed, so the Shokz OpenRun Pros actually edged out the OpenRun Pros in terms of sound quality just by a bit. However, these new OpenRun Pro 2s, these are night and day difference between both the Shokz OpenRun Pros as well as the original OpenRun Pros. These are substantially better and easily the winner. And I think the reason that the Shokz OpenRun Pros actually edged out the original OpenRun Pros, and this is something that I really only noticed while testing out these new OpenRun Pro 2s, is that the Shokz OpenRun Pros simply vibrate a lot more than the originals, which makes a lot of sense since they kind of edged them out in terms of sound. But again, these new OpenRun Pro 2s are now the top dog.
Now, one concern when it comes to air conduction open-ear headphones is sound leakage, as in other people around you being able to hear the sound that's coming out of your headphones. And since these actually do incorporate more air conduction, is that an issue? Interestingly, not really. And I actually found that these are very similar to the OpenRun Pros, where you have to be like pretty close, like right here, to actually hear what's coming out of these. Where with the OpenFit Airs, which are like pure air conduction, you can be about like here and still like hear what's coming out of those.
Now, when it comes to handling wind noise. So that's where bone conduction does have an advantage over air conduction, since air conduction can actually be directly impacted by wind, since traditional speakers or drivers are literally moving air versus bone conduction being less susceptible since they're vibrating against your cheekbone. And this is where I'd say that at higher speeds, like over like 20 miles per hour or so, I can hear the originals a smidge better than these new versions. And I think that just has to do to the fact that they're offloading some of that low end to the traditional drivers. So if you're a road cyclist who averages more than like 20 miles per hour on your rides, the originals may be better. But for me, I generally average like 17 to 19 miles per hour on my rides, and these have performed well. But going over like 25 miles per hour with like any of these, you can't really hear anything.
Oh, and some of you may be wondering about the earplug trick. So there's a trick with bone conduction headphones for occasions when you don't actually want to hear what's going on around you, where you can actually use earplugs and you can still hear the music that's playing since it's transmitting sound through your cheekbones versus your ear canals. It's kind of a trip, actually, that it works. But as you can imagine, it doesn't work quite as well with the OpenRun Pro 2s, since it is using that kind of combination of bone plus air. You can still definitely hear the music and make things out, but it is pretty murky.
All right, so when it comes to the microphone quality for calls. So I'm basically just like in a quiet living room. It's a little bit of a vaulted ceiling in here, but uh, yeah, how does it sound to you? All right, so now I'm outside. There's really not any wind or anything like that, so yeah, this is how it sounds outside, kind of like in nature, I guess you could say. All right, so the OpenRun Pro 2s are also supposed to have these microphones that are especially optimized for wind at higher speeds with stuff like cycling. So right now, cruising along a pretty quiet street, like going 12 miles an hour or something like that. But let's get into a little busier road with some traffic, higher speed, to see how it handles.
So when it comes to the sound quality of the microphone, it's actually incredibly impressive when you're in a quiet environment, as well as outside in just like normal nature. And it also did a decent job when cycling under 15 miles per hour. But anything above that was definitely not usable. But I don't know if you are taking a call when you're going 20 miles an hour, that either must be a very important call or a very important bike ride that you can't really pull over.
Oh, and then when it comes to connectivity. So these use Bluetooth 5.3, and they also do have multi-point pairing, where you can switch between two devices seamlessly. And for reliability, I had no problems with an iPhone, my Google Pixel phone, my Mac, as well as my Phoenix 8. All were totally stable, and the sound quality seemed good on all the devices.
So while the original OpenRun Pros are very good bone conduction headphones, these second versions really are a significant upgrade in terms of sound quality. And they also do out-seat these Shokz OpenRun Pros, and not just by a little bit. These are the easy winners. And I also do think that these are a better pick for sports than Shokz's own OpenFit Air conduction headphones. The OpenFit Airs do have the advantage for comfort. Now, these are whisper-light, and I actually forget that I'm actually wearing them. But they just aren't as secure for some sports, since they don't wrap around the head. So I don't usually use the OpenFits for stuff like mountain biking, rock climbing, or high-intensity animal training, or anything that there's basically a risk of losing an earbud. There's no risk with losing these. And the sound quality is totally on par with the OpenFit Airs.
Anyhow, that's the new OpenRun Pro 2s from Shokz. And if you have any questions about them that I didn't cover in this video, feel free to drop those down in the comment section down below. And on your way down there, if you did find the information in this video useful, do me a favor and just hit that like button. And also subscribe to the channel for plenty more sports tech videos that are right around the corner. September slash October is going to be a super hot month, so you definitely want to stay tuned. Thanks so much for watching, and we will see you in the next video.
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