Shokz OpenRun Headphones review
Long-running, quick-charging headphones
GBP £130.00 RRP | USD $130.00 | EUR €140.00 Skip to view deals
Published:
Latest deals
Ever wished you could listen to music and hear what’s going on around you while riding? You could try bone-conduction headphones, which sit on your cheekbones just in front of your ears rather than in or over your ears like traditional headphones.
Shokz (formerly Aftershokz) has been making high-quality, sport-oriented bone-conduction headphones for a while and its latest version, the OpenRun, has some useful upgrades.
If you’ve never tried them, rest assured this type of headphones works well with the best road bike helmets and the best cycling glasses.
Shokz OpenRun Headphones spec details
The sprung-titanium band of the OpenRun Headphones sits around the nape of your neck, well out of the way of your helmet, and there’s minimal intrusion over your ears, so there’s room for glasses too. Plus, at just 26g, these are so light you’ll barely notice them.
How about the sound quality? Shokz’ PremiumPitch 2.0+ sound is in-ear-headphone quality and punchier than ever before.
Run time is impressive at just over eight hours, which is almost as impressive as the new fast-charging functionality: my test pair charged from flat in under an hour. Plug them in for just 10 minutes and you’ll get an hour and a half of use, which is perfect if you’re about to head out gravel riding and discover the battery’s dead.
The built-in microphone helps block out background noise, so you can take a call via Bluetooth while riding and the caller can hear you clearly.
And don’t worry if it’s raining, because the OpenRun Headphones are highly water-resistant, rated to IP67 standard, which means they can withstand being submerged in a metre of water for 40 minutes.
The magnetic charging port also has a built-in moisture sensor, so if you try to charge the headphones when they’re damp, the charging LED flashes to warn you.
Shokz OpenRun Headphones bottom line
If you haven’t tried this style of headphones before, I highly recommend them for maintaining your awareness of your surroundings while taking a call or listening to music on the bike.
Should you choose to wear them on the road, you really can still hear traffic noise very clearly. They’re rainproof, the sound quality is highly impressive and the battery, with its useful fast-charging function, will keep you going all day.
Authors
Warren Rossiter is BikeRadar and Cycling Plus magazine’s senior technical editor for road and gravel. Having been testing bikes for more than 20 years, Warren has an encyclopedic knowledge of road cycling and has been the mastermind behind our Road Bike of the Year test for more than a decade. He’s also a regular presenter on the BikeRadar Podcast and on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel. In his time as a cycling journalist, Warren has written for Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Urban Cyclist, Procycling, Cyclingnews, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike and T3. Over the years, Warren has written about thousands of bikes and tested more than 2,500 – from budget road bikes to five-figure superbikes. He has covered all the major innovations in cycling this century, and reported from launches, trade shows and industry events in Europe, Asia, Australia, North American and Africa. While Warren loves fast road bikes and the latest gravel bikes, he also believes electric bikes are the future of transport. You’ll regularly find him commuting on an ebike and he longs for the day when everyone else follows suit. You will find snaps of Warren’s daily rides on the Instagram account of our sister publication, Cycling Plus (@cyclingplus).
