REVIEW – I seem to spend as lot of time with earbuds in – from running, riding bikes, walking the dog, and of course, meetings at work.  For all but cycling and flying, I prefer open-air earbuds which let you hear ambient sounds.  But I’ve been frustrated with most sets – they are either very expensive, no loud enough, or simply sound like an old rotary telephone.  The OpenRock E Open-Ear Air Conduction buds fix that.  They sound great, and at around $50, are an excellent value.

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Price: $49.99
Where to buy: Company OpenRock | Amazon

What is it?

Earbuds generally come in two types – the type that fits tightly into your ear canal and isolates the sound, and the open type which allow you to hear your surroundings.  The OpenRock E Open-Ear Air Conduction buds are the later type.  Sound in your ears, but without isolating you from your surroundings. And they clip onto your earlobe, instead of having a hook that goes over your ear.

What’s included?

• The Earbuds
• Charging Case
• Safety Manual
• User’s Manual

Tech specs

Speaker size: 10mm
Bluetooth version:  6.0
Bluetooth connection distance: 10m (30 ft)
Audio Codec: AAC, SBC
Single earbud weight: 4g
Total weight with case: 42g
Battery Life:  7 hours buds, 28 hours with case
Earbuds waterproof rating:  IPX4

 

Design and features

The OpenRock E Open-Ear buds feature a very secure half-moon design, that clips to your earlobe for a secure fit.  They will not get in the way of glasses, hats, or helmet straps because they don’t go over the top of your ear like other open designs. The wire that connects the two ends of the earbuds are 0.5mm diameter titanium, but they don’t seem adjustable for the “pinching pressure.” That said, I found the buds to be very comfortable and never felt a need to adjust them. Additionally, at only 4g each, you will forget that you’re wearing them – especially since you can still hear your surroundings and even carry on conversations.

The driver in these buds is 10mm (1cm), which is quite large for buds in this price range.  The result is satisfying base, clear vocals, and reasonable highs.

A game mode is available through the app, which reduces latency to 60ms, ensuring sync between your audio and visuals.  This is also helpful for watching movies or other video on your phone while using the buds.

The battery life on the buds is pretty impressive, at 7 hours on a single charge, and the ability to be charged up to 3 times from the case.  The case features USB-C charging, but no wireless charging. Buds can be fast-charged in the case with 10 minutes of charging equaling an hour of use.

The buds do feature microphones for use on phone calls and video meetings, but I could find no specifications about the number of microphones or any details there.  The buds to claim to have intelligent noise cancelation built into the microphones, which eliminates background noise.

The app (available for Android and Apple) allows you to check battery status (just the buds, not the case), customize equalization, select audio modes, enable game mode, update firmware, and enable/disable gestures. There is also a “find my buds” feature, but you must be connected to them via bluetooth for that to work.

As any sport buds should be, the buds are water resistant to IPX4, meaning the buds are splashproof, but not waterproof or submersible. That should be fine for sweat or light rain. The case has no rating.

Gesture control is available by tapping the part of the buds on the rear of your earlobe. You can turn the buds on and off, play/pause, skip forward or back, and change the volume. You can also summon your phone’s voice assistant, and answer/reject calls. The gestures and their resultant actions are not customizable. You can only turn gestures on and off – not customize them.

Performance

The performance of the OpenRock E Open-Ear buds has been very impressive. I’ve tried many open-style buds, and these so far are my favorite.  The most obvious reason I’m drawn to them is the very high quality sound, compared to others, especially in this price range. They are comfortable and light, so much so that you forget that you’re wearing them.  The battery life is great, and they charge quickly in the case. Tap gestures on many buds are exercises in frustration, especially while exercising (ever try to tap the exact same spot on your ear 3 times while running?)  The gestures on the Openrock E seems more forgiving. But here is where my only gripe lies – the gestures are not customizable – you can only turn them on and off. For example, you can not “re-map” the gestures.  You can not move volume up from a 2 second long press to a double tap. And on that note, double-tap is the lowest number of taps available – no single tap?  Why not? Single taps are pretty common on most buds.  This is a minor detail once you get used to it, but I do use two sets of buds interchangeably, and it would be nice to have the same gestures for each.

Final thoughts

If you spend a lot of time with buds in your ears and want quality sound, but still want to hear your surroundings, check out the OpenRock E Open-Ear Air Conduction buds. They strike a great balance between good sound, comfort, and value.

What I like about OpenRock E Open-Air Earbuds

• Very good sound, especially at this price point
• Light and comfortable
• Great battery life

What needs to be improved?

• Allow more customization of the tap gestures
• Maybe wireless charging?

Price: $49.99
Where to buy: OpenRock
Source: OpenRock provided a free sample for this review. OpenRock did not have a final say on the review and did not preview it before it was published.