After testing the Shokz Open Fit 2, I might never wear another pair of fitness headphones

Introduction

Shokz being early to the open-style earphone party was hardly a surprise, given its laser focus on fitness; no other wireless earbuds come close for situational awareness, which helped make the original Open Fit just as workout-friendly as the bone conduction neckbands that established the firm as an exercise must-have.

First attempts usually leave room for improvement, of course, and Shokz has done exactly that for the second-gen version. The Open Fit 2 brings a bigger sound courtesy of dual drivers, better battery life, and an even comfier fit. That should help them compete with a rapidly growing number of open fit rivals. There’s also an even more advanced OpenFit 2+, which adds Dolby Atmos spatial sound and wireless charging to the mix for an extra $10/£10.

The Open Fit 2 has been out in the wild in the US for a while now, but this is the first time they’ve officially made their way to Europe and the UK. At $179/£169 they command a premium over Shokz’ neckband line-up – is going true wireless worth the extra outlay?

Design & build: get your hooks in

The hook-style design hasn’t changed dramatically from the original Open Fit, but Shokz has made this latest pair thinner, with a more pronounced curve meant to keep each bud securely positioned near your ear canal. The old ones could come a bit loose while running, but I had no issues with the new version. They’re only marginally heavier than before, and at 9.4g apiece you’d hardly call them heavyweights.

Both buds stayed securely in place no matter what I got up to. The nickel and titanium alloy construction helps keep the weight in check, and the way they’re wrapped in ultra-soft silicone made them the most comfortable set of open-fit earphones I’ve ever worn. Crucially they didn’t cause any discomfort when worn with glasses or under a bicycle helmet, so there aren’t many sports they can’t cope with.

That said, you get IP55 protection here, meaning swimming is out of the question (Shokz has the Openswim Pro if watersports are more your vibe). Sweating and running in the rain are fine, though. That rating applies to the buds only, so you’ve got to be a little more careful with the case.

It doesn’t look all that different from the previous generation, being small enough to slip in a pocket, but a fair bit chunkier than the average true wireless earphone case. The way the headphones overlap each other can make taking them in and out a little fiddly, but strong magnets help align the charging pins and the lid opens up nice and wide.

Black and Beige aren’t the most exciting of colour options, but the mix of silicone and metal effect polycarbonate trim give the buds a purposeful look. The silicone picks up dust quite quickly, but clean up just as easily with a damp cloth.

Features & battery: press for service

Touch controls are undeniably a faff to use reliably when you’re mid-workout. Owners of the original Open Fit will know that first hand. Thankfully Shokz has added a physical button on each earbud, which finally means no accidental pausing or skipping tracks when adjusting the fit during a run. Even better, they’re big and deep enough to press while wearing gloves.

I like that Shokz hasn’t ditched the touch panels from the first-gen model altogether; they are just unbound by default now. Each side can be assigned a press-and-hold action through the companion app, should you want to use them to wake your phone’s voice assistant.

The four noise-cancelling microphones get the job done when it comes to voice calls, largely stripping out wind noise but still having to contend with Bluetooth’s meagre call codec bandwidth. There’s no fancy aptX, or future-friendly LC3 or Auracast connectivity here either, although the former isn’t a huge loss given open fit earphones are rarely the last word for sound quality.

I do wish Shokz would’ve added wear detection, as I’d regularly take the buds out when talking to people, then discover my audio had kept playing to itself – frustrating when listening to podcasts. Sure, the open fit means you could just pause playback and hold a conversation just fine, but to me keeping earphones in comes across as rude.

The firm gets top marks for boosting battery life between generations, though. I got very close to the claimed 11 hours of listening per trip to the charging case, with volume being the only limiting factor. The case itself has enough juice in reserve to bring total playback up to a heady 48 hours, or almost double what the original Open Fit could manage.

Ten minutes of charging is enough for two more hours of listening, which is handy if you ever get caught short. These buds don’t announce their remaining battery life when you put them on like the OpenRun Pro 2 neckband does.

Interface: keep it simple

Shokz hasn’t shaken up its smartphone companion app much between generations, so you’re still getting a streamlined UI that doesn’t overwhelm with superfluous features. The important ones are front and centre, with the the first thing you see on the main screen being remaining battery life for the case and each bud.

You can upgrade the firmware here, as well as activate multipoint pairing and customise the controls. There are presets to pick for each action, rather than letting you come up with an entirely bespoke configuration, but they’re all sensible choices.

I spent the most time experimenting with the four different equalizer modes – Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Vocal, and Standard – and creating my own using the five-band custom EQ. Bass boost and Treble boost worked exactly as advertised, giving my tunes a more full-bodied sound; the former was great for electronic tracks, while the latter was better for vocal and acoustic songs. It’s a shame there’s no way to toggle between EQ modes on the buds themselves, though – just via the app.

Sound quality: loud and proud

A new dual driver setup has transformed the way the earbuds sound compared to their predecessor. With one dedicated to bass and the other delivering the mid-range and high-end, the Open Fit 2 is louder and more full-bodied than before, while also reducing the amount of sound leakage.

Leakage is pretty much unavoidable with open fit earphones, but I was able to use them on the sofa without any complaints from my wife while she was watching TV next to me. I wouldn’t wear them to the library, but they’ll be just fine for the gym or any outdoor exercise.

The new drivers can’t completely counter the other limitations of open fit, namely a lack of impactful low-end – but I was still impressed by how much bass presence these earbuds had. Using the standard EQ, the synth hits on Culture Shock’s City Lights sounded punchier than almost every other open fit earphones I’ve tried, aside from the far pricier Bose Ultra Open. You’ll get more sub-bass oomph from almost any pair of in-ears, but there’s none of the thinness you’ll get from some rivals.

At the other end of the frequency range, there’s a lot more precision and bite that helps vocals and instruments make their presence felt. I can’t fault the amount of volume on tap, either. There’s enough of it that I wouldn’t listen beyond 60%, yet I could still hear my music over passing cars while out on the road. Podcasts are more of a challenge in properly noisy environments, so these probably aren’t the earphones to wear on your commute after your morning workout.

Shokz Open Fit 2 verdict

That ultimately means you’ll be buying these as your second pair of earphones, rather than a replacement for your existing ones. A pair of regular earbuds are still your best bet if sound quality matters most, too.

But if you’re not a fan of neckband-style headphones and need the sort of situational awareness that only open fit provides, these are easily the best of the bunch for exercise.

Shokz Open Fit 2 technical specifications