Verdict
Soundcore have refined their line of open-ear earbuds, and released the Aerofit 2's. They might not be as bassy as more traditional in-ear earbuds, but these certainly pack a punch compared to other open-ear earbuds that I've tested. Their comfort and good battery life just add to that.
The Good
- Comfortable and lightweight
- Easy-to-use touch controls
- Strong battery life
- AI Mic Quality
- Surprisingly good sound quality
The Bad
- Lacks the deep bass of in-ear earbuds
- Not ideal for those who want total sound isolation
Design & Fit
The soundcore Aerofit 2’s are a pair of open ear earbuds that hook over the top of your ears. This places the speakers over your ear canal rather than in it, as with typical earbuds. That’s great news if you’re the type of person who doesn’t find shoving earbuds in your ears particularly comfortable. There’s also a nice weight balance to these as the battery at the back counterbalances the speaker unit at the front. This makes them feel lightwieight whilst wearing. and you can listen to music for hours on them without any discomfort.
image: myTechGear
The design even works well with glasses as the loop over the top of the ear is not particularly thick and therefore doesn’t get in the way of the arms of glasses. I wore them for hours with glasses without any issues.
As everyone’s ears are different shapes and sizes it can often be hard to find a pair of earbuds that suite your ears, particularly with open ear earbuds. Fortunately the soundcore Aereofit 2 earbuds can be adjusted into four different positions which allows you find not only the best position for the most comfortable fit, and also the best sound. Now this isn’t a new design and other companies have done this better, but it is good to see soundcore adding this to these earbuds.
image: soundcore
Controls
Touch controls on the soundcore Aerofit 2’s allow you to trigger various actions with just a touch of your finger, and with a single, double, triple tap, or even a long press at your disposal, there’s plenty of options available. You can also configure what each action does using the soundcore mobile app.
Whilst the touch controls are easy to use, they’re also quite sensitive. So you do need to be careful when touching the earbuds that you don’t to accidentally trigger an action every time. To help combat this I disabled the single press command in the mobile app so that accidental presses didn’t trigger anything. This still left double, triple, and long press, available. So plenty of options still left for being able to control your music.
The Case
The case, whilst wide, is a typical size for a pair of loop style open-ear earbuds. The case is also quite thin though which makes it easy for sliding into your pocket. The earbuds can also rest in the case no matter the angle they were adjusted to, which is a nice attention to detail that I appreciated.
image: myTechGear
Also, not only does the case charge over USB-C, but it also supports wireless charging. That’s a feature not common on open ear earbuds.
What are they good for?
Open Ear earbuds, and the soundcore Aerofit 2’s in particular, are ideal for a number of different activities.
Everyday
If you’re out and about and need to hear your surroundings, then these let you do exactly that. That’s great if you’re out walking the dog, or going for a run through the park, and need to hear any on-coming cars, or someone sneaking up behind you!
Long Trips
These are also great for taking away on long trips as they have 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. That jumps to 42 hours if you include the case! So these aren’t earbuds that’s you’re going to need to charge often. They also support fast charging where a quick 10 minute charge will give you 4 hours of playback. So even if you do run out of power, it’s not long before you’re back up and running again.
image: soundcore
In the rain
The soundcore Aerofit 2’s are both dust proof and waterproof, with an IP55 rating. So you don’t have to worry about these getting sweaty down the gym, or getting caught out in the rain. Plus, as they’re dust proof, I wouldn’t worry about taking them down the beach either. Just don’t go for a swim wearing them!
At the Office
The soundcore Aerofit 2’s also support multipoint. This makes them good for work as you can be connected to two devices at the same time, such as your mobile phone and your laptop. So taking a call and listening to music from either, without having to reconnect and disconnect from one to the other, is a breeze.
They’re even better for work as you can take a call on these too, and with four mics in them they do a pretty good job of cancelling out background noise and making sure your voice is well heard at the same time.
The Sound
Open ear earbuds are often criticized for not being particularly loud or bass heavy, but the soundcore Aerofit 2’s give you plenty of both, considering these are open ear earbuds.
Inside are a pair of 20mm by 11.5mm drivers that can get really loud. The hinged design also helps to get the speaker as close to your ear canal as possible to give you more bass too.
Out-of-the-box these earbuds are setup with the soundcore signature sound profile. It’s pretty bass heavy, perhaps even a bit too much. Fortunately you can jump into the soundcore mobile app and change it to a number of different presets, or use the 8 band custom EQ to change it to exactly how you want these to sound. These have far more bass and presence to the music than many other open ear earbuds that I’ve tried. These sounded great.
Verdict
The soundcore Aerofit 2’s are one of the few open ear earbuds that I’ve literally just taken out of the case, put them on, pressed play, and said “wow!”. I don’t often say that about any pair of headphones, let alone open ear ones! So if you’re looking to buy a pair of open ear earbuds, and you don’t want to spend too much money, then the soundcore Aerofit 2’s are a good option at only $100. They’re available in black, white, green or midnight blue.
