OpenComm

So working from home with the pandemic means I have been spending 6 to 7 hours with a headset stuck on my head as everything is now done by phone or on teams. The normal over the ear or in ear headphones got uncomfortable and painful over the course of a day. Looking for a solution I was recommended bone conduction by a couple of people. Doing my research I found these. Boy am I glad I did. These are amazing. They a light, comfortable and you hardly know your wearing them. The sound is clear and people have commented on how good the mic is. The slight vibration on your temples takes a little getting used to but after a while you don't notice at all. My ears feel good still at the end of the day. No headaches or pain. Only thing I cant figure out is how to control volume direct from the headphones, I have to do it actually on the laptop settings. It's not to much of a bother as I'm normally with it anyway. The Bluetooth is a good connection and has a very good distance. Over all for the price, if you need an all day wireless, comfortable headset these are amazing. Battery life for me has lasted all day with very heavy usage with no issues. Just don't loss the charging cable which comes with them as its specific to the set.

A friend recommended these after I suffered an ear infection from wearing AirPods on my dog walks (talking earpods in and out in cold, damp and dirty conditions is definitely not recommended!!). I was somewhat skeptical about the sound quality but after using them several times and getting used to how they fit around the ear, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. I mostly listen to audiobooks and make calls so music quality isn't really an issue. The sound quality for music isn't terrible however the bass does cause some vibration and a bit of distortion but for making calls and listening to audiobooks without having to stuff things in your ears these are BRILLIANT and I'd thoroughly recommend them. I was also worried about the little boom mic being a nuisance, it is on occassion when a call comes in you have to remember to flip the boom out, the background noise cancellation is so good people can't hear a thing when it's tucked behind your ear. I also thought I'd look a bit stupid with it while out on dog walks. But after a while the self-conciousness goes away. Battery life is pretty much on par with what they say as well, 6-8 hours of listening easily. All in all, I'd say these are great little headphones, a bit on the steep side, but I've so far had plenty of use out of them without any problems.

I don't regret buying these. They're great for video calls. The noise cancelling in the *microphone* is hands down the best I've ever tried. And I've tried a lot. They've improved the quality of my life. My ears no longer hurt from having earbuds rammed into them. It's allowed me to keep making daily video calls through the pandemic, without pain or ear infections. The battery life is fantastic. The charging isn't as quick as some, but will do hours off a five minute charge. The downsides, they are far too big for my head. It doesn't affect the use of them, but there's are huge solid loop of titanium sticking out at the back of my head. It's like having a cupboard handle back there. This means they get caught on the hood of my jacket, the back of the sofa etc. all the time. It can't be adjusted up or down without moving the earpieces into the wrong position. I have wondered if they could be bent with heat like glasses at an optician since there are titanium. But I haven't dared try. I don't know if there are any conductive parts in the band I could break. These are really not made with long hair in mind. There pretty awful to wear with your hair down. I can't put my hair over them because the loop at the back sticks out so far. Then because my hair is under them, it's hard to get them in position on my ears. Just that part of my hair sort of has to go over and it looks pretty silly. When I take them off, I have to carefully unwind my hair from them. I rarely get them off without some part get wrapped around them. It's fine when my hair is up and out of the way. The audio quality is fine. You can feel the vibrations in your face at higher volumes which is sometimes nice for music. The sound is very centred in your head in a way other headphones can't do. It lacks low end frequencies though. Sometimes, when making a call the person on the other end can hear their own voice which is disconcerting. I think maybe when background noise is very high, or dense and something about the normally excellent noise cancelling microphone is going a little wrong. Sometimes your own voice will dip up and down in volume too on a call. It's still understandable, but makes it tiring to listen to. The pros do outweigh the cons, but I feel like they need to work on a new strap design for females with smaller heads and long hair. I quite critical because I have used many Bluetooth headsets and they are all very flawed in many regards. But these are by far my favourite so far, despite their problems.

I did see a couple of YouTube video reviews + written reviews of this product before purchasing it; I recommend you do it too (like the EBPMan’s review). I received this headset on 13-Nov-2020 (within 24 hours of ordering it). Since purchasing, I see that the price has dropped by $20 and £10 in the US and UK respectively. My use case: 6-8 hours EVERY DAY of phone calls and office calls on Zoom, Teams, etc. For music, I have other headsets/earphones. Bottom line: I thoroughly recommend this product. Pros: - Major plus point - Solves the ‘hot ears’/ear fatigue problem from wearing other headsets for extended periods (I also own and have extensively used the following - Jabra 85H, Sennheiser PXC550, Samsung Galaxy Buds+, Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, Jabra 75T and the Apple AirPods) – I wear this from around 9am and to around 5:45pm every weekday (and have done so for the last 3 weeks) and these are by far the most comfortable among all the earphones/headsets I currently own and have used in the past as well - The quality of the noise-canceling boom mic (for the listener on the other end) is apparently excellent basis the feedback I have received - The volume level is good (though very high volumes can make it vibrate a bit too much on your temples) - Very light + soft material used all around, so no plasticky bits / rough edges, etc. (seems well made) - Multi-pairing – simultaneously connects to 2 devices (for me, I have it connect to my phone + laptop) - Good range – I walk around and into other rooms of my flat (admittedly not too big) and I don’t lose connection - Since the ears are open, you don’t miss your kids calling or knocks on the door, etc. Especially for home wear, this is a must, I cannot afford to be in my own little cocoon for the whole day when others too are around. - Water/sweat resistant - Good battery life, as advertised Cons: - I don’t like the proprietary charging; I would have liked USB-C so that I don’t need to carry yet another cable around, and worry about losing it - The length of the charging cable is short, probably 24 inches; so it seems like it is meant to be charged by plugging into your laptop/PC rather than a wall socket - No Android/iOS app – this means no added controls or functionality through the app - No Android/iOS app – importantly, this means no firmware updates – for a ~$150 product (rivals have this) and from a fairly well-established company (not a newcomer), this is disappointing - Whenever I switch it on, it automatically connects to my phone first; to connect to my laptop, I have to manually go to the Bluetooth devices section of my laptop and click on ‘Connect’, not sure why (note: this problem does not occur if both the paired devices are phones/tablets, so this may be an issue with my laptop) - These may not be great for music given the bone conduction tech. So, look elsewhere if that’s your use case Hopefully, I haven’t forgotten anything else. Like I’ve already mentioned, I recommend this product. If this was around the $99/£99 mark, that would be an absolutely killer price. Even at the current price, I’d argue that these are a must given my use case since they directly address & SOLVE my problem. Hope you find this useful.

Excellent mic and noise cancelling, great comfort, really fantastic for books, podcast, YouTubes, Zooms, Team etc, great battery life, but if you want massive submersive audio then there’s better to be had in high quality in-ear and over-ear, but that’s an unfair comparison in my view as they work so differently. But SO glad I got them, they have changed the way I listen to content and communicate, fantastic piece of gear that I would buy again in a second if I lost them.

It's important to note this is not just a problem with Teams or the OpenComm, but when you use them together. If you don't use Teams, you may well be fine with the OpenComm. Also, this is an initial review, and I'm still trying to resolve the issue as the OpenComm itself is a great device - well made, comfortable, with great sound for voice calls (not so much for music), great mic/noise cancellation etc The problem is that when you mute yourself (or worse, are muted by someone else, where you may not be able to unmute) on a Teams call, the headset plays to VERY loud beeps every few seconds (I guess as a reminder that you're on mute) These are almost painfully loud and the volume of them is unrelated to the volume at which you're listening to the call. I've done heaps of research online about this - the only seemingly reliable solution (that I've yet to verify) is to acquire the dedicate USB BT adapter from Shokx themselves I've reached out to Shokz support to enquire about this - I'll update the review when I have more - either good or bad As a final note, music performance is rather lacklustre (I'm being polite) - so I would avoid these if your main aim is for music listening. The sound is very thin, but I guess if you're determined (you HAVE to have music for running, and you don't care if the sound is bad) then that's a personal decision. But I can't see myself using them for music over other options

Unobtrusive, lightweight, amazing battery life. Got this for my Macbook Air because other people have flaky audio and can be difficult to hear. This gives me good sound and the dinky boom mike has great pickup, stops me shouting at my laptop. Sound quality is good, excellent for voices, as long as you remember bone conduction works over a limited frequency range - no real bass as such, limited highs, but a warm open sound in the spoken voice range from most sources. If there's music on a podcast it doesn't sound weird. I can wear it all day without noticing it's there, and I don't look too much of a geek wearing it - headphones of course would give a better tonal range but are a bit too techy for a business call. This kind of a hidden gem - doesn't get mentioned often compared to its Aeropex sibling with very similar sound quality, but you get the boom mike and the long battery life for a similar price.

Original review below... Update 3 - May 2022 - The double-beep is BACK Aargh! It had all been going so well, but the "mute on" announcement with the crazy annoying double-beep is back... Something to do with a Teams update I'm sure... What a fail for Teams to destroy the usability of such an otherwise great headset. Update 2 - Dec 2021 - Teams problems solved! ...and then it was all ok again. The amazingly horrible double-beep problem has been solved - I suspect by a further update to Teams that reverted the integration with the OpenComm back to how it had been before it was changed. Original review now stands again: this is an awesome headset that I truly love using. I'm just terrified that it and Microsoft will argue again and it will all go horrible. Support from OpenComm was a bit rubbish TBH as they just said "that's how it is" and there was no way to fix it, so I've marked this as 4 stars not 5 as I had it originally. AfterShokz - if you're reading this you need to figure out how to do firmware updates on this product as it's quite pricey, and you'd have a route to solving this kind of problem not just hoping MIcrosoft will solve it for you by backing out the change they made. Update 1 - Oct 2021 - it's all gone wrong with Teams! Suddenly in Oct 2021, Microsoft updated Teams - and "improved" the integration with my OpenComm and it went from hero amazing product to utter disaster in one day. I'm heartbroken... I use Teams all day every day and my OpenComm was awesome. Was. Then the update: and now, I hit mute on Teams, my OpenComm announces in my ear "mute on" and then beeps twice in quick succession every ten seconds very loudly. It's VERY VERY VERY ANNOYING. And distracting. And gets in the way. And means I basically can't join a meeting and mute myself until it's my turn to speak as I can't focus on the meeting because of the beeping. Reached out to AfterShokz and they blamed Microsoft - but it's their product feature, not Teams. And they don't do firmware updates. So - this was a great headset. The best. Now it's awful and I'm looking for an alternative. So sad. --- Original review - heaping praise and love cos it's a great headset. The endless Teams meetings... Having returned to the office, but still on many Teams meetings a day I was looking for a headset to replace the fancy mic-earpiece set up I had at home for the last 18 months. Didn't want closed in ears as they just get uncomfortable and hot over the day, and you can't hear your environment - so people at the other end of the office wearing closed-in ear pieces are shouting at their laptop. So I went for this - and what a revelation! It's bone-conductive, so it sits against your temples rather than over your ears - so you can hear yourself and your environment clearly allowing you to modulate your voice volume to a natural level rather than yelling to hear yourself or having that "dead" earpiece when you're talking. Sound quality is excellent - it's not quite as good as in-ear headphones, but that's not what these are for. My voice is crystal clear as these have a subtle mic boom and excellent noise cancelling. Bluetooth and last for hours and hours on a single charge (never run out on me yet), and weighs nothing - incredibly comfortable and just sits on my head and I forget they're there. Work well with glasses too - they don't get in the way of each other. These also come in a neat box that protects them when I shove them in the laptop bag, and with a charging lead. If I had any negatives, it's that the charging lead is non-standard - USB at the end you plug into the charger and then a proprietary magnetic connection at the other end. It's neat, but I'm terrified of losing/breaking it as it's ten quid to replace. Other than that, these are the absolute business and I love 'em!