As someone who’s been reviewing tech products for 15 years and running for even longer, I’ve used a lot of different earbuds while exercising. Some of them have been dedicated sports buds, some have been general purpose earbuds, and until a couple of weeks ago, exactly none of them had used open-ear air conduction.
If you’re not familiar with air conduction, it essentially uses small directional speakers to aim sound into your ears, rather than having headphones clamped over top of them or buds jammed into the canals.
The theory is that they’re more comfortable to wear for long periods and let you maintain better situational awareness, at the expense of things like noise cancellation and sound leakage.
I signed up for a marathon last month, which meant OpenRock’s offer to send out s…
As someone who’s been reviewing tech products for 15 years and running for even longer, I’ve used a lot of different earbuds while exercising. Some of them have been dedicated sports buds, some have been general purpose earbuds, and until a couple of weeks ago, exactly none of them had used open-ear air conduction.
If you’re not familiar with air conduction, it essentially uses small directional speakers to aim sound into your ears, rather than having headphones clamped over top of them or buds jammed into the canals.
The theory is that they’re more comfortable to wear for long periods and let you maintain better situational awareness, at the expense of things like noise cancellation and sound leakage.
I signed up for a marathon last month, which meant OpenRock’s offer to send out some of their X sport earbuds was particularly well-timed: I’d have plenty of opportunity to test them if nothing else.
Two weeks and 75 miles later, here’s how that’s gone.
Design
OpenRock is a Hong Kong-based company that’s been selling air conduction earbuds since 2021, and currently has around half a dozen different models. The X sits at the top of their range and comes in two colors, black and gold/white.
When I opened up the box, the first thing that stood out was the size of the charging case. It’s a bit of a chonker, measuring 8.3 x 4.6 x 3.2cm (3.3 x 1.8 x 1.3 inches): that’s a lot bigger than the case for other wireless earbuds like my Galaxy Buds FE or my partner’s Airpods Pro.
At least part of the reason for that is that the earbuds themselves are bigger than most, and that’s before you include the flexible silicone loop that hooks over the top of your ears to keep the buds in place.
Whatever the reason, it does make it harder to carry the case around with you than usual. Think jacket pocket, purse, or backpack rather than just dropping it in your back pocket and forgetting about it.
On the upside, that extra size means longer battery life: the buds themselves are rated to last up to an impressive 12 hours, and the case adds another three full charges for a total of 48 hours of listening between visits to a wall outlet.
Speaking of visits to a wall outlet, I was a bit confused when I first went to charge the case and it didn’t work. As it turns out, the case is unusually specific about the amount of power it needs: 5W, which is a lot less than any fast charger puts out these days. Long story short: use the cable it comes with and plug it into a USB-A port.
Push the front of the case and it slides open with a satisfying click; likewise, push it back and it clicks firmly into place. The earbuds sit on either side of a central platform, snapping magnetically into the inserts. It feels more premium than most.
Turning to the buds themselves, the main part of each earbud is an oval with two inset speakers, a small one on the top and a much larger one below on the opposite side. There are tiny microphones on the top and bottom, and a single control button on the base.
I don’t love that control button, to be honest, and would prefer a touch-sensitive surface on the side of the earbud instead. The button is very firm, and especially when I’m running, is hard to double or triple-press without pushing the earbud out of position.
I also don’t like the way that volume control works. Having to hold the button down for three seconds before it starts raising or lowering the volume is annoying to do while running, and there’s no alternative configuration in the settings.
If you’re doing other kinds of exercise, the control button is less of an issue: I had no problems with it while walking or using a stationary bike, for instance. When running, though, I really would like a different approach.
The silicone ear loop is attached with a two-way hinge, letting it move both left and right and up and down to help get the perfect fit. That’s the theory, at least: more on how it works below.
There’s not much else in the box, just the charging cable I mentioned (an attractive, if short, yellow braided version), a quick-start guide, and a keyring-style clip that hooks into the small loop on the top of the charging case.
The buds are IPX5 rated, which means they’ll handle sweat and all but the absolute heaviest rain, but not full immersion. If you’re running in a monsoon, you’re a better person than me.
Specifications
| Total weight (case + earbuds): | 113.1g |
| Earbud weight (each): | 12.0g |
| Case weight: | 89.1g |
| Case size: | 8.3 x 4.6 x 3.2 cm |
| Battery life (earbuds): | 12 hours |
| Battery life (case): | 36 hours |
| Water resistance: | IPX5 |
| Bluetooth: | 5.3 multipoint (two devices) |
| Noise cancellation: | No |
| Time to full charge: | 90 minutes |
Setup
After charging the case to 100%, I paired it with first my phone and then my running watch. Both connected within a few seconds, and thanks to the multi-pairing, I didn’t need to disconnect one to use the other.
After that, I installed the OpenRock app. Hint: if you use an Android device as I do, don’t use the QR code in the quick-start guide, since it’ll try to download an apk file directly from OpenRock. That’s not the safest approach to app installation; get it from the Play store instead.
The app is relatively simple, but works well. After installing the latest firmware, I was given a dashboard showing the battery percentage for each earbud and the case, and a bunch of settings underneath.
There’s an equalizer section with three preset modes and a custom option, safety settings like a max volume limiter, toggles for “spatial sound” and altering the left/right balance, and a few other minor things like changing what holding down the control button does.
There’s also a “Find My Buds” option: if you’re within Bluetooth range of the bud(s) you’ve lost, you can make them emit a high-pitched beep at maximum volume. It’s not all that loud if the bud is buried underneath some clothes or dropped between the sofa cushions, but it’s better than nothing.
Fit
To be honest, I struggled with the fit of these earbuds the first few times I used them. The diagrams in the quick-start guide weren’t enough: I just couldn’t get the bud to sit properly in my right ear, and while it was never in danger of falling out, it moved around enough while I was running to annoy me.
The full guide, when I bothered to read it, was more useful, and I was able to get a better fit. The right ear still isn’t quite perfect, but it’s a lot more comfortable than it was.
I found that holding the base of the silicone loop in place while I angled the main section down and inward helped get everything in the right place. On the upside, once a bud is seated properly, it’s very comfortable even at the end of a two-hour run.
I often find in-ear buds and over-ear headphones get quite sweaty and itchy when I’m doing a long run, especially on warm days. The extra airflow with this model has prevented that problem entirely, and I’ve had no pain or discomfort either.
I also haven’t been able to dislodge an earbud even while doing sprints and interval training. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but so far, so good on that front. Likewise, wearing sunglasses didn’t make the earbuds fit any differently, which was a bit of a surprise.
The buds project outwards somewhat from each ear, and given their size, they aren’t as subtle as many other wireless earbuds. There’ll be no mistaking the fact you’re wearing them, which may not be a bad thing: it stops people trying to have a conversation with you while you’re listening to music, at least!
Audio Quality and Volume
I’d seen a few complaints about this model saying that the maximum volume was too low. That’s a common problem with air conduction earbuds when the fit isn’t quite right, but not something I struggled with here.
Setting my music volume to around 60% has been more than enough to hear it clearly, even outdoors, unless there’s a lot of traffic or other noise to deal with. It doesn’t drown out loud voices or car horns, which in this case is a good thing: those are the kinds of sounds I want to hear while running.
The quality of the audio is actually surprisingly good for a pair of exercise-focused earbuds. Sure, an expensive set of headphones is going to sound better, but that’s not really where the comparison lies.
There’s an acceptable amount of bass on the default “Rock” EQ setting and more when you delve into the custom EQ, and while the audio won’t win any awards, it’s clear and crisp. My usual running playlists sound good enough that they don’t upset me, and when I’m exercising, that’s really about all I ask.
Podcasts sound fine as well: depending on the voice(s) you’re listening to, you may want to tweak the mid or upper part of the range in the EQ settings, but most of mine have been perfectly listenable without any changes.
As you might expect, sound leakage is an issue with any open earbuds like these. In a quiet room, my partner could hear my music playing in my ears from several feet away at my usual volume.
As a result, they (and likely any other open-ear buds) probably aren’t the best option for wearing on the train, in the office, or anywhere else that you’ll be in a quietish space around other people.
On the flipside, they wouldn’t be my first choice for very loud environments either. Because they don’t sit in or over your ears, there’s no passive noise isolation going on, and no active noise cancelling either. You’re relying entirely on your music to drown out external sounds, and that only goes so far.
I’ve made a few phone calls using the buds while both inside and outside, and sound quality on both ends has been pretty good. The caller’s voice doesn’t sound any different on my end to other decent sets of earbuds or headphones, and I’ve been told that my voice sounds normal, if slightly muffled, on their end.
There’s a degree of voice isolation built in to the microphone, which seems to work: when I was using the earbuds outside on a breezy day, the person I called said they couldn’t hear any obvious noise even when I was walking straight into the wind.
I think they were getting a better experience than me, to be honest: the wind noise in my ears was enough to make it hard to hear the caller’s voice without turning the volume up quite a bit more. Out of the wind, however, there was no issue.
Battery Life
Since I’ve been tracking all of my runs, I can put some concrete numbers around the battery life as I’ve experienced it.
After fully charging the case two weeks ago, I haven’t needed to plug it back in again since. I’ve used the buds for a total of just over twelve hours while exercising, putting them back in the case at the end of each 30-100 minute run, plus another two hours of general music listening and phone calls.
For context, this is with the volume set to 50-60%, and all in-app settings on the default options.
As I write this, both buds are on 100%, and the case itself has 23% left. That’s less than the marketing claims, which is hardly unusual, but it’s still pretty good for a set of wireless earbuds in the real world.
Verdict
Despite those early problems getting the earbuds to fit properly, I ended up really quite liking the OpenRock X. I’m glad I persevered: if I’d been writing this review after the first few days of using them, I suspect it would have been much less positive!
The sound quality and volume are as good if not better than I’d expect for air conduction earbuds, they’re more comfortable during long runs than anything else I’ve used, battery life is better than most, and the app is refreshingly simple and functional.
There are a few rough edges that might get smoothed out in the next version, like the size of the case and that stiff control button, but nothing that would make me suggest waiting for a new model if you’re in the market for sports earbuds now.
When they were released a year ago, the OpenRock X cost $179 USD, and even now that’s the standard price shown on the company website. While I like these earbuds, that’s simply too expensive for what they offer.
They’re listed on the site for $159 as I write this, and OpenRock gave me a 15% reader discount code to share (TooMany) which brings the total down to around $135. That’s more like what they’re worth, I think, and about what I’d be happy to pay for them.
They’re not perfect, but if you’re looking for a good pair of sports earbuds, you could do a lot worse. Will I keep grabbing them when I’m on my way out the door for a run in the future?
You know what, I think I will.
Pros
- Very comfortable when you get the fit right
- Good battery life
- Better audio quality than expected
- Useful water resistance
- App works, and doesn’t try to do too much. That’s a rarity!
Cons
- Getting fit right isn’t always easy
- Control button annoying to use while running
- Large case can be hard to fit in your pocket
- Noticeable sound leakage, no noise cancellation
- Expensive at full retail price
All images via author
Founder and editor of Too Many Adapters, Dave managed computer networks and tech support teams for 15 years before the desire to travel took over. In 2011 he sold whatever wouldn’t fit into a backpack and moved to Thailand to start life as a digital nomad. He’s been running this site alongside a small team of fellow experts ever since.