OpenRock Link 20 Open-Ear Earbuds with Detachable Magnetic Mic review

REVIEW – The world of earbuds is a vast landscape littered with endless choices of sizes, shapes, prices, and features.  It is bordering on ridiculous just how many choices you actually have, which in itself can present paralysis by analysis. Luckily, you have the Gadgeteer to help you!  Today I will be reviewing the latest offering by OpenRock, the Link 20, which starts on Kickstarter this week!  It will be normally priced at $149.99 but will be offered at $90 on Kickstarter.  That puts these in the company of some more pricey earbuds and out of the budget category.  So let’s see if the features are worth it. 

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $90
Where to buy: OpenRock (Kickstarter website)

What is it?

The OpenRock Link 20’s are open-ear design earbuds with a magnetic boom mic that be attached/detached easily from either earbud.  It also comes with a charging case.

What’s included?

• OpenRock Link 20 earbuds
• A magnetic detachable boom mic
• A charging case
• A user manual
• A USB-C charging cable

Tech specs

• Weight:  .3 oz per earbud
• Size:  2.0 x 1.7 x .7 inches per earbud
• Boom mic length:  2.7 inches
• Earbuds are IPX7 waterproof
• Boom mic is IP55 dust and water resistance
• AI call enhancement:  5 mic AI ENC noise cancellation
• Material:  ABS plus liquid silicone
• Bluetooth:  6.0
• Bluetooth distance:  50 ft (indoor) 90 ft (outdoor)
• Earbud battery:  62 mAh
• Driver:  30mW
• Charging case size:  4.1 x 2.0 x 1.1 inches
• Charging case battery:  550 mAh (can charge earbuds 4 times)
• Music playtime:  13 hours
• Talk time:  9 hours

Design and features

At first glace the Link 20 earbuds look pretty much like most over-the-ear open-ear earbuds.  The bendable, soft silicone construction makes them very comfortable, and the open-ear design means that the speaker hovers right outside the ear canal.  My ears get irritated pretty quick with earbuds that insert into your ear canal, so I love the open-ear form factor because you never get that.  The downside of the open-ear form factor is that because there is space between your ear canal and the speaker hovering just outside your ear canal, there will be some sound leakage.  But that is by design because another benefit of the open-ear design is that you can hear more of what is going on around you.  I walk every morning in the neighborhood, and I have used open-ear earbuds for several years for this because it allows me to hear cars coming up behind me.  So I am willing to give up some of the sound richness to get that. Here are some pictures of the earbuds from different angles.

In the pictures above you will notice that the earbuds have a button on the top of the earpiece.  This is the button where you interact with the functions of the Link 20, like answering calls, changing volume, skipping through music, etc.  I’ll talk more about those buttons later when I talk about the companion app.  You will also notice on the picture immediately above there are 2 small round metal contacts on each earbud.  These are the magnetic contacts that you attach the boom mic to when you want to use the boom mic with the earbuds. More on that boom mic in just a minute.

As far as performance of the earbuds is concerned, I am very happy.  The open-ear design has sound leakage of course, but I was very pleased with the highs and the lows in the music I listen to.  You won’t get deep base, or really piercing highs.  Just balanced sound.  And the battery will last you all day.  I never experienced a day when they died before I was done using them. OpenRock says you get 13 hours of music playback on 1 charge, and 9 hours of talking on phone calls.  I can attest that I got that.

The charging case is a huge plus with the Link 20.  As you can see from the pictures below, it holds the earbuds in the bottom part of the case, and the boom mic in the upper part of the case, so everything is nicely tucked away.  The case is completely smooth all around, with a charging indicator on the front, and the USB-C charging part on the back. Beside the charging port you will see a small button that when pressed for 10 seconds will reset the earbuds to factory settings, wiping out any customizations that you set up for the earbuds.  A fully-charged case can recharge your earbuds about 4 times, which means you can go many days without having to recharge the case, which is perfect for traveling.  It is important to note that opening the case will turn the earbuds on and connect them to your phone, even if you don’t remove the earbuds.

Now let’s talk about the boom mic.  In the picture above you can see it inside the top part of the charging case.  It is held in place by the magnetic contacts on the end of it, and those metal contacts are what enable you to snap it into place on either earbud, depending on your preference.  I will say that it is incredibly easy to snap it into place.  You will never have to feel around or look in a mirror to do it, simply hold it up close to your earbud and the magnets do the work.  There is a button on the end of the boom mic that turns the mic on and off, and a voice prompt in your ear tells you what is happening.  This is helpful if you are talking with someone and just need to mute the mic for a couple of seconds without dropping the call.  The boom mic is also made of soft silicone and it can bend pretty easily.  But you won’t be able to bend it closer to your face and have it stay there, so I do wish I could do.

After using the mic to make phone calls, I can see why OpenRock pitches the Link 20 as providing you a ‘hybrid lifestyle’.  Without the boom mic attached you get a very good over the ear set of earbuds to use while exercising and moving around.  They stay in place no matter the situation.  But with the boom mic attached, it turns the Link 20 into the perfect office companion for making calls all day long. In fact, the biggest benefit of the Link 20 is the amazing noise cancellation you get.  There are 2 mics on each earbud, and the boom mic provides a 5th mic.  To test the OpenRock’s claim that the Link 20 provides “AI ENC technology, achieving 99.9% ambient noise suppression”, I put the Link 20 through every noisy environment I could find.  In every call to my wife, she had no idea what was going on around me because she couldn’t hear any ambient noise.  Literally nothing but my voice.  So I finally found an environment that I thought surely the Link 20 would fail.  We have a handheld blower that we use to blow debris off the driveway and the sidewalks around our house.  It is incredibly loud.  So much so that if I were using it and my wife was standing next to me, we wouldn’t be able to talk to each other and hear anything. I put the earbuds on my ears and called my wife and then turned on the blower.  I talked to her like a normal call and she said I think I can hear something going on, but it is so faint that I can’t tell what it is.  Impressive.  Then I snapped the boom mic in place and she said there was complete silence around me, even though the blower was going full steam about 24 inches away from my ears.  Amazing.  If you want truly professional noise cancelling, this product does it.

Finally, let’s talk about the companion app.  The OpenRock app is excellent.  There are some screenshots below, but let me mention some of the features.  The list is long, so let me run through them.  You can see the battery charge left in each earbud, as well as the battery charge left inside the charging case.  I have never seen the ability to see the charging case battery level in any other earbud app before, so that is really nice. You have an equalizer that you can adjust the sound in the various modes that are provided.  You have “music”, “beast”, “vocal”, and “custom” modes.  I am not sure what ‘beast’ mode does honestly, but in general I found that the music mode has more base, the vocal mode has less base, and the custom mode allows you to customize the sound somewhat.  I was not impressed with the equalizer to be honest.  It doesn’t appear to me to be that customizable and aside from the discernable difference in bass I couldn’t tell much difference between the modes (even the custom mode that I manipulated), so I hope that OpenRock updates the app to make the equalizer more useful.

Other features in the app include a volume limiter to protect your ears.  An ‘over-time wear reminder’ to remind you to take them off your ears after a certain time. You can turn on spatial sound and turn on a ‘sound balance’ feature to customize the volume independently on each earbud.  You can set ‘auto off’ to turn them after a certain idle time. You can change your voice prompts between English and Chinese. There is also a ‘find my buds’ feature that will make the earbuds beep so you can find them if you misplaced them.  And the button on each earbud can be customized to do different things based on how many button presses you get.  I found the customization in the app to be impressive, and much more than other earbud apps I have used.

Finally, I will mention that when you snap the boom mic in place, you will hear a voice prompt in your ear that says “vocal mode”.  This is so that when you are using the mic in place, the sound switches to vocal mode to make voice calls better and easier to hear.  So if you want the deeper base sound when listening to music, you have to remove the boom mic to get into that ‘music’ mode.

Final thoughts

If you need a set of earbuds to use in a noisy environment, the Link 20 is an excellent choice. I was surprised by just how good these performed at noise cancellation, and in fact the detachable magnetic boom mic makes all the difference with this and is one of the outstanding features of the Link 20.  As far as the sound you get listening to music, I was very pleased.  The open-ear design is what it is, and you will naturally get some loss of sound because of the design. But that is by design with this form factor. If you want earbuds that are comfortable with good sound in both the highs and lows, this is a good choice.  Now, having said that, if the Link 20 did not have the boom mic with the excellent AI noise cancellation, would it still be great at this price?  I think it would a very good set of earbuds that compare to other earbuds if all you wanted to do was listen to music and exercise in them.  It is the addition of the boom mic that makes this product special, and I think justifies the price of $149 retail.  The charging case is also excellent and is the icing on the cake for the Link 20.  With one smooth move of adding and removing the boom mic, you are getting 2 products… one for on-the-go, and the other for serious voice calls in any environment.  And if you consider the Kickstarter discounted price of $90, this is a great deal!

What I like about the OpenRock Link 20 earbuds

• Outstanding noise cancellation
• Feature packed app with extensive customization
• Great charging case
• Very comfortable

What needs to be improved?

• The equalizer needs more customization options
• I wish the boom mic was a little more adjustable to stay in place when I bend it closer to my face.

Price: $90 (Kickstarter price)
Where to buy: OpenRock (Kickstarter website)
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by OpenRock. OpenRock did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.

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• OpenRock X Open-Ear Air Conduction Sport Earbuds review