(9 Types Compared) The Best Open-Ear Headphones! Sony, Shokz and MORE!

There are so many reasons why you don’t want to put things in your holes. Your ear holes. Here are our favourite open-ear style headphones – everything from Shokz and Sony to a couple of unknown bangers!

So our criteria here? Little to no penetration in your ears – great for being aware of your surroundings. And we will evaluate the comfort, fit, call quality, IP rating, sound quality, and value for money.

Oladance Open Wearable Stereo

Let’s start with an interesting pair of open-ear headphones we received from a brand you probably haven’t heard of. The Oladance Open Wearable Stereo are open-ear style headphones that hook over your ears. We absolutely love them. Here’s why. Not only do they wear light and comfortable, but there’s no band across the back, you barely notice you have them on. We’ve found ourselves easily keeping these on throughout the day as they come with 16 hours of battery life, yeh you heard that right, 16 hours – on the headphones themselves! the longest lasting on this list. But there is a catch, the case is slightly longer and it doesn’t double as a charging case. So you’ll need to plug in a type-C charger if you want to charge the headphones. Oladance does sell a separate charging case which is a bit more compact. But it’s a shame that they don’t give you a choice between the two cases when buying them though, you know, e-waste and all. They’ve got touch controls on both sides with all your basics as well as swiping up and down for volume, and they work well. What worked more than well is the sound quality. Those 16.5mm dynamic drivers deliver and make them sound spectacular – very sparkly highs and the mids are very clear. These have a very wide soundstage and most pinpoint imaging of all the open ear solutions so far, probably because of their tuning. And it has this pleasant smoothing of harsh frequencies that reminds of the very popular Technics AZ60 wireless earbuds.

It’s really very good sound for something that doesn’t even touch your concha. Unfortunately, the bass extension is quite poor. Sub bass is all but absent, mid-bass is present and a bit boomy depending on how you angle it to your ear. But overall, despite that – these sound fantastic and definitely our pick for great sound, minus the bass. Aside from speakers on the Oladance, the mics did great in our testing. So those days when we would have them on for long periods at a time would be ideal for using them for work calls too. As long as you don’t mind looking like you’re wearing a prop for King’s Day. Dutch inside joke.

What didn’t we like about them? Although the fit and comfort are top-notch for most activities including running, the right one did tend to fall off when doing bodyweight exercises like sit-ups or yoga. I guess our ears aren’t as symmetrical as we thought. There’s also no smart pause or multipoint connectivity. Although holding down on both buds does put them back into pairing mode, the switching time isn’t too bad.

Shokz OpenRun/Aeropex

Let’s move onto bone conduction headphones by Shokz. and in particular the OpenRun or Aeropex as it used to be called. Bone conduction works well and is particularly interesting if you’re hard of hearing since they partially pass audio through vibrations of the head. Sounds scary but you get used to it very quickly since you’ll only feel serious vibrations at very high volumes.

So why is it a channel favourite? First off, it’s so comfortable to wear that we forget it’s even there. Until of course you lean your head back onto something due to the headband. It doesn’t bother us, but if you want to lie down with open ear headphones or want to use them with a full helmet, then this wouldn’t be our pick. Fortunately, the OpenRun is available in 2 sizes to maximize comfort and ensure a secure fit. OpenRun Mini has a shorter band size. The OpenRun is equipped with decent microphones and the ability to stay connected to two devices simultaneously. So as ‘vakmannen’ we naturally gravitated towards it as an ideal work from home option.It has not only your normal play-pause and track controls but also volume controls. Oh and because it’s got 8 hours of battery life, it’s perfect for a typical work day, at least for European standards. But we hear you thinking, all the marketing is for workouts, so get off of your metaphorical asses and tell us how it does for exercising. Fine.. yes, it’s really good.

It sits in place, it’s comfortable and IP67 rated. The physical buttons are tactile and make it easy to control your audio while you’re burning those calories – no fumbly touch controls that may or may not work in those sweaty conditions. There is a fair bit of sound leakage at higher volumes so unless you’re surrounded by people, this shouldn’t be an issue. Speaking of higher volumes, we did notice that voices on podcasts were harder to listen to and we would increase the volume to be able to hear it. And of course, like any option on this list, you don’t buy open ear headphones for sound quality and the same applies to these. These sound like the top end and the bottom end has been removed, and all you hear are the mid frequencies – which is fine for casual music listening and podcasts, but just don’t expect it to match the best on this list… that’s coming up at the end. All in all – for around a hundred bucks – these are a solid recommend from us.

Shokz OpenRun Pro

This brings us to the next option which is kind of the same as the previous, and that’s the newer Pro version – the OpenRun Pro. As we said in our comparison video – check that video over HERE, the upgrade for the extra money isn’t quite worth it. But if you can get your hands on it for a decent price then you’ll have a few improvements. There’s more bass on the Pro model, so depending on your music taste, this will be a welcome addition. There’s not as much distortion at the highest volume, which you will need quite often. The microphones performed slightly better in noisy and windy conditions.o if you’re planning to make calls in those conditions, then that will come in clutch. And finally, the battery life has been beefed up from 8 to 10 hours on a single charge. Two compromises to talk about here – one is on the IP rating as they’ve knocked that one down from IP67 to IP55. And two – these come only in one size. So if those two points don’t bother you, then we won’t judge you on what you spend your hard earned money on..

Let’s get back to a few other bone conduction options in a bit. But let’s first talk about, in our opinion, the most stylish of this list.

SoundCore Frames

The SoundCore Frames. At $150 you get sunglasses with built-in speakers. For an innocent bystander it’s hard to distinguish them from ordinary sunglasses. They come in a bunch of frame options to suit your style and offer proper UV protection with their lenses. If you’re not one to be out in the sun but sit at a computer screen more, then there are also transparent lenses available which filter out blue light. And if that’s not enough, then the lenses are changeable for prescription lenses too.

SoundCore can’t be your optometrist so you’ll need to get it done elsewhere. We found ourselves grabbing these on a walk or bike ride in the summer since it’s a two-in-one and no need to worry about earbuds AND sunglasses. The touch sensitive stems on either side provide plenty of controls including volume and work pretty well. And as we’ve come to expect from SoundCore, you also get their app which is action packed with plenty of configurations. And if you happen to take calls then they’re very usable too in quiet and noisy conditions. And since it’s IPX4 rated, wearing them out for a run or in the rain or both is perfectly doable. On the not so great side, they’re sporting an average battery life of 5.5 hours. That wasn’t too bad in our usage although the need to keep the proprietary cable around did feel a bit limiting. Similar to bone conduction headphones these do have sound leakage. And since they’re little speakers the leakage is more drastic.

And similarly, you will be cranking up the volume to be able to listen to your music in loud environments. The Frames connect to a single device at a time, so if you’re two-timing your devices, then you’ll need to put them in pairing mode if you want to switch. Apart from that, the SoundCore Frames are supposed to turn on automatically when you open them up and shutdown after your fold them up. In our testing this was really hit or miss. Luckily there are a few manual touch gestures you can use as a workaround.

Let’s step back into bone conduction headphones since we like them so much.

Ikko GT01

These are the cheapest bone conduction headphones on the list at $99. This is a smaller brand; the Ikko GT01. We’ve compared it to the Shokz OpenRun Pro. It’s an entry level pair but design wise look quite the opposite. The materials look and feel quite premium with an anodized aluminium body which is cold to the touch in a space grey colour very reminiscent of MacBooks. It also comes with a nifty little charging dock that doubles as a power bank. We find that quite practical since many of the headphones on this list come with proprietary charging cables.

The Ikko lasts around 6.5 hours on a single charge and you get 1.5 charges out of the charging dock power bank. It’s perfectly usable for your sporty needs at IPX6. It’s not as high as Shokz of course, but plenty for most. There were definitely quite a few things we weren’t too happy about though. The Ikko lacks bass and volume which meant we ended up turning up the volume quite close to its maximum. The on device buttons don’t do volume controls, it doesn’t support dual device connections and the microphones were poor. So we wouldn’t recommend them as a work from home pick. Other than that, the Ikko has a premium design and a practically designed charging solution.

Naenka Runner Diver

Another pair of bone conduction headphones we were hoping would be great for working from home with are the Naenka Runner Diver. It comes with 10 hours of battery life, volume controls on device and multipoint pairing. Unfortunately the microphones just aren’t up to par and sounded like the person was talking with a towel over their head. So they’re ok for quick calls when you don’t have a choice, but a hard no for anything else. The comfort and fit are a hard yes though – they stayed in place firmly. They do have a slightly firmer clamp than the Shokz for example. With a very high water resistance at IPX8 they’re advertised to work for swimming, making it the only one on this list that you can do that with. And if you do decide to go jump in the water with them then Naenka advises you to use it for a maximum of 40 mins as well as using the onboard MP3 music mode.

What is that you ask? It comes with 16GB of onboard flash storage and you can load your own music for offline listening using the charging cable it comes with to connect to your computer. The sound is ok, definitely not as bassy as the Shokz but you feel less of the vibrations. All in all, unless you need that offline music or ability to swim with them then you might be better off with the Shokz OpenRun, especially considering the price and poor microphone quality. But since the Naenka are the only ones you can swim with and have offline music on this list, they may make a compelling offering to a select few of you.

Sony LinkBuds

From ‘away from your ear’ to just about – close to your ear. Let’s start with the Sony LinkBuds – the tiniest overall package on this list. Tiny buds usually mean tiny batteries. And in this case you’d be right. Just 5.5 hours on the buds and a couple of charges from the case. Luckily, no funny adapters – you can use your standard USB C charging cable. The LinkBuds turned a lot of heads for its donut shaped earbuds but that donut is what makes your ears open to ambient sounds. They come with little wing tips to grip onto your concha and they work quite well in our testing making them comfortable and secure fitting. That combined with its IPX4 rating can be a good pick for some normal workouts. The LinkBuds have a few nifty bar tricks up its sleeve like a wide tap area meaning you don’t necessarily need to tap the buds themselves to operate them but you can tap around your ear too.

It works, but not something we naturally found ourselves using in day to day use. And although they’re great to be aware of your surroundings you will turn up the volume the moment it gets noisy around you. And because of that Sony has an ‘Adaptive Volume Control’ feature to do that automatically for you. We didn’t find it too reliable so ended up turning that off. There’s unfortunately no multipoint connectivity on them but why we like Sony is that they allow you to pull the bluetooth connection from a previously paired device without having to put them into pairing mode. Volume is unfortunately still not very high and we found ourselves comfortably using these at max volume – even indoors. When it comes to sound, this is the form factor that’s finally going to start making the right sounds, despite the deep insertions that you need to achieve the best effects. There is some sort of bass, but more importantly, the mid and high frequencies are ok, even if they don’t quite sparkle like the Oladance does. They’re a cute and comfy pair of buds to wear when you’re out and about but there’s nothing cute about that price tag though. So do keep an eye out for discounts which Sony does tend to do from time to time.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live

Now let’s move from donuts to beans. The Galaxy Buds Live are THE cheapest on this list ranging anywhere from free to a hundred bucks. Free because Samsung pretty much throws them in when you buy a smartphone or smartwatch or something else from them. But if you’re after the buds only, then the prices swing a lot so it’s a good idea to check those links again. Ok, enough link talk. Even though these technically sit ‘in’ your ears, your ears are very much open to the environment. The Buds Live are probably the second smallest after the LinkBuds and are buds we throw into our bag any time we pop out of the house for a walk or travelling in public transport. Don’t let the size fool you though – 7.5 hours on the buds and a couple of charges from the case. Even though there are little rubber feet included which come in different sizes to adjust the fit, we wouldn’t recommend them for workouts.

The fit is fine and doesn’t fall out for ordinary tasks, but if you’re jumping around like you’re serious about burning calories then we’re not too confident about them staying in your ears. The IPX2 rating is also the weakest on this list, so breaking a light sweat in general is fine, but we wouldn’t encourage anything more ambitious. The touch controls are quite sensitive especially when you try to adjust the fit, apart from that the responsiveness is decent and the controls even include volume. Always a positive in our books. And we even like taking phone calls on them with their functional microphones. Although there isn’t multipoint support you can easily pull the connection from another device.

Something Sony and Samsung tend to do on their devices, and we love ‘em for it! And you can also use them with multiple devices – as long as you login from a Samsung account. These are the only ones on this list that purport to have ANC and transparency, but we do have really mediocre expectations because the only noise these be cancelling is the one of Samsung laughing their way to the bank. But holy Samsung – for an open ear design – these sound fantastic! Bass, sub-bass, mids, treble – it’s all there! Also – MASSIVE volume – like ear damage volume. When we reviewed these, we thought they were ok, but when you put them up against the other products on this list – Samsung continues its trend of best sounding true wireless earbuds for next to nothing! Of course – the caveat here is that you may not get the same experience if the speaker grills are not correctly aimed towards your ears and that’s a real possibility with the bean shape.

Apple AirPods 3

Along with Samsung, Apple’s Airpods 3 are the best sounding on this list – in fact for us, these are one of the best sounding wireless earbuds – period. Sure we could nitpick and A/B test, but given the fact that they can do solid bass, sub bass and have a very nice, kinda neutral and open sound, we think they might be Apple’s most underrated product in recent times. Because as we’ve seen with all the products up to now – getting good bass with a good seal is next to impossible. Unless you’re Samsung or Apple as it turns out. Other than that you get all the standard Apple fare – automagic device switching, which actually works better than the older Airpods for us, the custom integration within iOS, a very pocketable case, very predictable call quality and most importantly – those custom icons and special settings in Apple’s operating systems. Along with The Buds Live, these are the best sounding buds.

Period. And yes – they do come at a fairly stupid price. And to be fair, we started with next to no penetration, and these are now flirting with our earholes, so we’ll stop before this becomes any more serious.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it guys – 9 options for those open ear needs of yours. Always a safe bet if you don’t like in-ear earbuds, you want to be aware of your surroundings or just want to try something new. Any recommendations we missed?

Let us know! You’ve been keeping your eyes and ears open and we’ve been DHRME.