Open-ear headphones have become a great choice for commuters, office workers, and anyone who needs situational awareness without sacrificing their personal soundtrack. This market was dominated by established and expensive brands but now we have more affordable choices and the new OpenRock S2 is one of them with a promotional pre-order price of just $74.99.
Disclosure: We received the earbuds as a courtesy for review purposes. However, the review is intended to provide honest, unbiased insights about the product, based on personal experiences and observations.
Design and Ergonomics
The OpenRock S2 comes in a simple packaging with just the earbuds in a pebble-shaped charging case; There is no redundant accessories like many other products out there. The case has a speckled coating and a textured matte finish that provides a secure, comfortable grip and resists fingerprints. The case is compact and pocketable; I just wish it is a bit easier to open as I sometimes still need to use my fingernail.
OpenRock claims a battery life of 8 hours of playtime from a single charge and when you use it with the case, the total battery life could reach 32 hours. This seems to be accurate as I’ve used the earbuds for a week without the need of recharging.
Each earbud is constructed from a combination of ultra-thin 0.6mm titanium filaments and soft liquid silicone. Each weighs just 7 grams, making the S2 among the lightest on the market.
The design of the S2 merges the stability of an ear-hook with the low profile of a clip-on style. OpenRock calls this a “hook-clip mechanism” and claims the design redistributes the minimal weight across eight distinct contact points on the ear. As a result, I’m very impressed with the comfort when wearing the earbuds for hours. I wear them during running or working and sometimes I forget they are sitting on my ears.
Many people might be interested in the S2 for usage during exercising activities like trail running or HIIT workouts. Before trying the S2, I used the AirPods for my running sessions; They fit well but sometimes I still need to readjust the earbuds; Some users even have to buy ear hooks for a more secure fit. The OpenRock S2 with a hook-clip mechanism stays securely on my ears with no need for readjustment; They only fall off when I shake my head violently. Another advantage of the S2 is the IPX5 waterproof rating and sweatproof design that provide protection against sweat and light rain.
The control buttons of the earbuds are located at the bottom of each earbud’s rear shell. I appreciate the design instead of the touch controls which can perform poorly in many situations. You can double-press for play/pause or triple-press for track skipping.
There is a companion OpenRock app for the earbuds which provides a custom equalizer. If you’re interested, you can use the app to fine-tune the sound to your preference. The app also enables remote camera control. A four-press of the earbud button will act as a remote shutter for your phone’s camera. In practice, this is more of a gimmick than a practical tool.
Audio Performance
I have low expectations when testing open-ear earbuds because of the sound leakage design. Surprisingly, the OpenRock S2 sounds way better than I expected; That means I actually can enjoy music during workouts and don’t have to sacrifice the audio quality for a secure fit. The S2 features OpenRock’s proprietary BassDirect technology which is designed to channel low-frequency energy from the 12mm dynamic driver directly toward the ear canal via a precision-engineered acoustic cavity. That’s probably the reason why they can deliver a deep, low-distortion bass. The bass is fuller and more defined than many competitors in the budget category.
The S2 supports LDAC codec and Hi-Res Audio certification. However, the very nature of the open-ear design probably negates the benefit of such a high-fidelity codec. Because the design allows ambient noise to mix with the music, the subtle details and expanded frequency response that LDAC provides can be easily masked.
Sound leakage is unavoidable for open-ear headphones. I tested the S2 at around 70% volume in a quiet office and it performed quite well; The person next to me can hear faint, tinny audible music but he can’t tell what I’m listening to. Therefore, at reasonable volume levels, the S2 can be used in shared spaces without disturbing others.
The S2 is equipped with a 4-microphone array that uses beamforming technology and an AI noise-cancellation algorithm to isolate the user’s voice. I tested it on the street and it performed quite well by reducing the background traffic noise. This is a nice feature to have when you don’t want to take your phone out to receive phone calls.
Conclusion
Pros
- Good battery life
- Secure and lightweight comfort
- Situational awareness
- Impressive bass for open-ear earbuds
- Affordable
- Sweat and water resistant
Cons
- Plastic charging case looks cheap and difficult to open
- Some gimmicky features
The OpenRock S2 is not a flawless product but it does a lot of things right. Most importantly, these are very comfortable and secure earbuds for my workouts, they have decent audio quality at the sub-$100 price point. I will keep using the earbuds for running to see how long they will last. At this time, this is an easy recommendation from TechWalls. You can use the promo code Techwall20 to save 20% when buying the S2 on its official website.
