Shokz OpenFit Air 2 fixes the controls, but fit needs more testing

Shokz has made its cheapest OpenFit earbuds lighter and replaced their touch panels with pressure-sensitive controls. The OpenFit Air 2, on sale from 27 August at $129.95, addresses a control problem one runner found particularly irritating when sweaty. The lighter fit is less settled: one early tester adjusted a bud once during a warm run, while another found the new pair more comfortable than Shokz's pricier models.

The numbers Shokz published are modest and specific. Each earbud weighs 7.2g, which the company calls the lightest in the OpenFit family. The earbuds and case together are 17.6% lighter than the previous generation, and the charging case is 10.5% smaller. Battery life is quoted at 8 hours per charge and 36 with the case, with a 10-minute top-up buying 3 hours. The buds are IP55, the case gains moisture protection, and the radio moves to Bluetooth 6.1 with multipoint.

The change reviewers keep returning to is not on that list. Shokz replaced the touch panels with pressure-sensitive controls sited elsewhere on the bud; SoundGuys reported the swap was made to cut phantom touches triggered by sweat, moisture or stray hair — the exact failure mode that makes touch controls miserable for the people this product targets.

Mike at The Run Testers, who got a few days with the buds before embargo, put it bluntly in his first-run video. With the original OpenFit Air, he said, the touch controls were "not massively reliable, particularly if you're running a little bit faster." The pressure controls, by contrast, "just feels like it works a lot better," and he found them easier and more reliable to use mid-run without Shokz having to add the weight of a proper physical button.

Six and a half miles into a warm training run, Mike hit the catch. Once he started sweating harder, he had to reach up and push an earbud back into place — once, on one run, while also wearing sunglasses and a cap. He neither overstated it nor waved it away: going lighter is generally good, he noted, but with earbuds you have to watch that the weight balance does not start costing you fit reliability. It is the one thing he flagged for deeper testing, because the OpenFit line's pitch is that the ear hook is the most secure of Shokz's open-ear shapes.

A second early impression cuts the other way. RJ Uploads, who wore a pair for most of a day, said the Air 2 sits flatter against the head than the OpenFit Pro, with the lower section tucked behind the ear rather than protruding, and called them more comfortable than both the Pro and the standard OpenFit 2. He reckoned they got loud enough that he was content at 40 to 50% volume without a third-party EQ app. On bass he drew a distinction worth keeping: with the Pro you feel it, with the Air 2 you hear it.

Shokz credits its Bassphere driver and an OpenBass 2.0 algorithm, technology it has been moving down from the OpenDots range. Mike's read was consistent — an audible uptick in power and low end, an overall bright signature, four EQ presets plus custom profiles to shape it. He also found the limit: running near heavy traffic and into wind, the Air 2 still lost the fight, just less badly than the Air did.

Open-ear is crowded enough now that a $130 pair has to justify itself against cheaper and better siblings alike. The reviewer behind InsideTech, who says he has ranked more than 50 pairs, opened his 2026 round-up by noting that every entry had changed from last year's list. His top seven includes two Shokz models, neither of which is this one.

The OpenDots 2, at just under $200, he ranked first for pure sound quality, with the annoyance that switching Dolby audio on locks out the EQ entirely. The OpenFit Pro scored higher overall anyway, on the strength of battery life, microphones and what he called perhaps the only genuinely effective noise reduction in a fully open earbud — a feature Shokz deliberately avoids branding as ANC so buyers do not expect in-ear performance from it. He rated the Pro's microphone the best of any open earbud he has tested.

That is the shelf the Air 2 sits on: below a Pro that owns calls and noise reduction, below OpenDots that own sound, above a budget tier where SoundPEATS is selling listenable clip-ons under $40. Its argument is narrower and more physical — an ear hook rather than a clip, for people whose glasses or jewellery rule out one shape or the other, with the controls fixed and the mass reduced.

The companion release, the OpenRun Air 2, is the same money and a different device entirely: a 26.4g bone-conduction neckband, IP67, 10 hours of battery, physical buttons, 9% smaller than the OpenRun it replaces. Vincent Xiong, CEO of Shokz North America, said the pair "reflect our continued commitment to making open-ear listening more accessible by thoughtfully evolving these models." Evolving is the right word. Neither is a new idea; both are older ideas with the irritating parts sanded off.

The deliberate changes look good; the incidental one is unproven. Pressure controls beat touch controls for anyone who sweats, and a lighter case with better sealing is a free win. But one warm run is not enough evidence that the lighter bud stays put where the heavier one did, and The Run Testers has said its full multi-tester review is a few weeks out. If you are replacing OpenFit Airs whose touch panels have been ignoring you since spring, the case is made. If you are buying open-ear buds specifically to survive a hard session without a hand going to your ear, that verdict has not landed.