The benefit of open-ear headphones cannot be understated. They are the most natural way to listen to music without stuffing earbuds into the ear canals and losing the hearing of things around you. It is more important for bikers and road joggers as they need to be fully aware of the surroundings, but not so much for gym goers who prefers noise isolation from all the equipment noises and unwanted in-house music. There has been numerous variants of open-ear earbuds, and OpenRock Pro features the latest design, which is a pair of true wireless earphones with ear hooks that loop behind the ears.

The reason for such a bulky design is that the speaker drivers do not fit into the ear canals, and because of that, the earbuds cannot be held securely. The OpenRock Pro uses the back of the ears to hold the earbuds while the speakers float near the ear canal entrance to project sound waves. It is similar to Sony Float Run but the latter uses headband wires to keep the earbuds secure.

There is always a trade-off between comfort and secure. If earbuds feel comfortable, it is often due to lesser pressure on the ears, which translate to less secure. The OpenRock Pro is yet another product with a design that offers a balanced compromise. The earbuds wear comfortably for me – relatively – because I wear spectacles, so the OpenRock Pro is fighting for space with my spectacle resting on the rear of ears. As long as I am not pressing against the ears, for instance, lying on my side when sleeping, there is no discomfort.

What I like with the OpenRock Pro is that it uses physical click buttons to control playback instead of touch sensors. Click once to play-pause, double click to adjust volume, click-hold to change tracks, triple click for voice assistant. Pairing is also simple: open the case, press the button next to the charging port for 3 seconds to start pairing. And the case, well, it’s huge, bigger than a chicken egg, but that’s because the earbuds are sizable, and they are easy to insert and remove.

With aptX codec, the OpenRock Pro delivers pretty good sound, but the more impressive aspect is that the earbuds is able to push out quite a firm bass. While it cannot rock the ear drums since the drivers are not sealed in the ear canals, I can feel the fullness and fatness of the bass. The midrange is also detailed enough to motivate me during my runs. The treble is not sparkling enough for my liking, but if your music player supports EQ, then turn up the upper treble and it can sound rather satisfactory. The audio quality is way better than bone conduction headsets as the over-the-air sound waves transmission beats bone vibration transmission when it comes to fidelity and dynamics.

Battery life for each earbud is 19 hours, enough to last you a full work day of music. You don’t have to remove them the entire day: just turn on some motivating music to keep you focused while still able to interact with your co-workers. With the charging case, you can sustain up to 46 hours before you need a wall socket to recharge. It comes in three colours – black, silver and khaki. Visually, the silver colour looks stunning, but the khaki is closer to skin colour and perhaps less obvious from afar, especially if you intend to wear it for long hours.

Conclusion
The OpenRock Pro is available from Lend Me UR Ears, a Singapore audio retailer, at a launch price of S$129. It is available at Shopee with varied promotional price, so head there to get your best deal. The earbuds are excellent for workouts but I find them very useful for use at work, as I can leave them on my ears all day.




