Soundcore AeroFit Pro – Open-Ear Sport Earbuds – Review
Summary: Premium Open-ear Design with detachable Neckband & outstanding battery life
4.5
Premium
In recent years there’s been an increasing push for the audio industry to recognise the need to offer both the ability to listen to music while not compromising on the need to maintain awareness of environment.
Soundcore have entered the open-ear earbud market with 2 variants: the Aerofit and the Aerofit Pro. I’ve spent the past three weeks trialling the Aerofit Pro and while there may be a few short comings, it’s hard not to be impressed with both the design and functionality of this product.
Most earbuds available today are a wireless ‘in-ear’ design that insert into the ear, sealing around the ear-canal to deliberately keep music in and other noise out.
Conversely, like all ‘open-ear’ designs, the AeroFit Pro earbuds don’t sit inside your ear, but rather wrap around the edges of your ear for stability. They utilise powerful drivers to push sound across the small gap into the ear.
Know What You’re Purchasing
Prior to purchasing any open-ear design earbuds it’s important to understand what this product is and what it isn’t. The open-ear system is designed to allow its wearer to hear both audio and also maintain an awareness of noise in the immediate environment. If environment noise is overwhelming, the sound quality and volume projected through the earbuds may be compromised (Eg if sitting in a noisy café, or riding along a busy road, the noise may drown out a podcast). In-ear designed ear buds, on the other hand, bias sound experience over all else.
So why would you go for the Aerofit Pro open-ear design? Three primary reasons stand out – environmental awareness, comfort and premium sound quality. Soundcore have produced, in my view, a standout product that ticks all of these boxes.
Features at a glance
- Driver – 16.2mm dynamic driver
- Battery and Playtime – 14 hours / 46 hours (with case)
- Fast Charging – 10 mins = 5.5 hours
- Battery capacity – 105mAh X 2 (earbuds)
750mAh (charging case) - Weight
Earbuds: 12.23g
Charging Case – 64.28g - Bluetooth – Version 5.3
- Waterproof rating – IPX5
- Calling – 4 mics with AI algorithm
- Neckband – Detachable
In the Box
- Charging case
- X2 Open-ear earbuds
- Connecting ‘neckband’ cable
- USB C charging cable
Design
Soundcore Aerofit Pro earbuds come in a P-shaped design with a great flexible ear-hook (Soundcore utilise hyper-flexible titanium to achieve up to 180 degrees flexibility at the neck of the bud). They come in 4 colours (Dynamic Black, Frost White, Electric Purple and Aqua Blue) and wrap snuggly around your ear. Coming in at 12.3g per earbud (just over 2 teaspoons of sugar) they do feel more weighty than your average in-ear earbud and I felt they were slightly weightier than my Shokz Openrun earbuds (probably a consequence of the awesome battery capacity).
Likewise the charging case is slightly larger than most. It comes in a matt textured finish giving a sense of premium quality. The neckband is fantastic – a must in my opinion (see below for more detail). It’s lightweight, easy to secure and easy to adjust/re-size. There is no attachable charging option with the earbuds themselves and the charging case utilises a now fairly standard USB-C cable.
Controls such as volume/answering calls or changing tracks are all managed via a physical button – one on each earbud. The functionality of each button can easily be changed and customised via the Soundcore App. I personally like the feel of an actual button, rather than the more touch-pad type option that I find can be more hit and miss.
The Aerofit Pro has a large cylindrical battery that sits in the tail of the hook that wraps around the back of the ear. This weight counter-balances the earbud that sits just outside the opening of the ear canal. While the fit against the ear is snug, I did find that with significant movement (such as vigorous jumping) the Aerofit Pro design felt slightly unstable. One fell out when taking my jumper off. The neck band provides the necessary stability for outdoor physical activity and for me was permanently in place. It’s a light weight, adjustable titanium band that cleverly connects the 2 earbuds. I would’ve loved a case or pouch for storage of both band and connected earbuds (as is provided by Shockz Openrun earbuds).
So why go with the Aerofit Pro open-ear Design?
3 Key features set the design of Soundcore’s Aerofit Pro Open-ear earbuds apart from traditional in-ear earbuds and other open-ear competitors – Comfort, Awareness and Superior/standout audio quality.
Comfort. Aerofit Pro earbuds are perfectly designed for people who like to listen to audio content over a lengthy period of time. Unlike in-ear earbuds that can irritate the ear canal after short periods, these sit effortlessly over your ears. The speaker sits just outside of your ear, prioritising comfort and sound quality. As they sit outside the ear, they also don’t collect earwax as some of the in-ear buds can. The Aerofit Pros are relatively light, really pliable & super comfy. I wore them a couple of times for most of the day (7 hours straight!) and to be honest I hardly noticed them, even with sunglasses on.
Situational Awareness. If you value awareness of your surrounds while listening to audio then these stand out amongst their competitors. Wearing Aerofit Pro earbuds while doing jobs around the house allowed me to easily engage in conversation with the kids/wife whilst still tuning into my podcast. Likewise, on a run I was able to easily maintain awareness of traffic when crossing a road and likewise at the gym when someone asked me whether I’d finished with a piece of equipment.
Standout Audio Quality. While I predominantly listen to podcasts, I also tested the Aerofit Pro earbuds on tracks with heavy bass (such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Around the World’ and AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’). Utilising their 16.2mm titanium-coated drivers the Aerofit Pro earbuds delivered a richer/deeper bass quality as well as a wide range of sound that was in my view superior to other equivalent open-ear competitors (such as my bone conducting Shockz Openrun). Understandably, given they sit out of the ear canal there is some sound leakage – possibly slightly more than on my Shockz Openrun (which also utilises bone conduction technology) but nothing significant.
Call Audio is clear; Aerofit Pro earbuds utilise a generous 4 mic system as well as their AI clear calling feature and wind-reduction technology that does a relatively good job at blocking out a good portion of surrounding noise during call time.
Spatial Audio: I love this feature – it does need to be turned on via the App and creates a totally unique listening experience. While not quite as smooth Apple’s Airpods Spatial Audio it still provides that unique, dynamic head tracking effect creating a more immersive listening experience – like listening to live music.
Impressive Battery Life!
Battery life is insanely good! Soundcore claim the Aerofit Pro earbuds achieve an impressive 14 hours of play time on a single charge. They achieve a further 46 hours of playback from the charging case. I used the earbuds every day for almost 2 weeks (approximately 2-3 hours/day) before needing to return them to their case for a charge. I would’ve loved an option to charge straight from the buds and by-pass the case altogether. Having said that, the overall battery life is truly impressive – perhaps their most impressive feature. Soundcore offer an impressive ‘fast charge’ feature whereby the earbuds are replaced back in the case for a quick 10-15mins of charge time making them ready to run for just over 5 hours.
Soundcore App
The Aerofit Pro earbuds are supported by Soundcore’s App. I highly recommend the use of the App to get the most out of your Soundcore experience. I did actually struggle to find a link/QR code on the packaging directing me to the App. It was easy enough to find with a quick search in the App Store, however. The App is fairly basic. I actually appreciated its simplicity as I wasn’t at all overwhelmed with features. Many of the features you’d expect to be set as default do need to be switched on via the App (such as LDAC and Bluetooth multipoint connectivity). It also seems to revert back to some default feature when activating certain other functions (eg selected Sound effects seem to switch off when Spatial Audio is selected).
Sound Effects are customisable and super handy – I found the audio was much better on podcast mode & Bass was better on Bass mode.
Cleverly, the volume balance for each individual bud can also be adjusted via the App – potentially useful if your hearing’s not as good in one ear. Another cool feature is the ‘Find Device’ control that releases a beep sound, enabling you to find that misplaced earbud.
Cost
At $259 (https://au.soundcore.com/) these aren’t the cheapest earbuds on the market but they are in-line with similar competitors.
Are they worth the price tag?
Soundcore deliver a premium product with a design that is both stable and comfortable.
While the open-ear design can impact on sound volumes, the sound quality of the Aerofit Pro is probably close to the best in its field. Furthermore, if you value both comfort & awareness of surroundings when exercising, doing jobs around the house or commuting, then Aerofit Pro Open-ear Sports earbuds are hard to go past.
In Summary….
Soundcore’s Aerofit Pro Open-ear earbuds are packed with some great features and some excellent hardware. Their battery life in particular is unrivalled! They’re a market leader in offering quality sound without compromising awareness of environment. They’re a fantastic purchase but I think it’s important to consider the caveats around expectations when comparing to an in-ear audio system and also their stability, which is increased significantly with use of the neckband.
About the Author
John Furness is a Kiwi born Aussie living in beachy Torquay, Victoria. With an interest in fitness and sport, John divides his time between his 3 kids, his lovely wife, his dog and the beach. His other interests include coffee, movies, photography and more coffee.
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