AfterShokz Air AS650CR Open-Ear Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones with Reflective Strips, Canyon Red

I got these for Christmas 2019 and I've used them at least 6 days a week every week since and they are amazing. For workout headphones my main priorities are: are they comfortable?, Do they stay in place?, Do they sound good? and will they last?. First off, comfort. They are incredibly comfortable. I've never had a situation where any part of my ear or head was feeling sore from extended use and I've had them on for 3+ hours continuously. Plus, they fit under a bike helmet no problem so they are especially great for the road because you can still hear the cars around you. Second, do they stay in place? Absolutely! A problem I've had in the past with workout headphones is that sweat will sometimes drip in the ear, make it slippery, and then they'd fall out. I've never had these fall out or even get loose and I've used them on long bike rides, half marathons, doing burpees, pull ups, box jumps, etc and they have never fallen off or even gotten close. Third, Sound. The sound is actually a lot better than what I was expecting and I love being able to hear things around me. They won't be top of the line sound quality but I wouldn't wear top of the line headphones while working out. You can hear the music clearly and as loud as you'd want. Sound is no issue. Fourth, longevity. As I said I've used these almost every day since I got them at Christmas (over nine months) and they are still as good as the first day. The battery life is a solid 8 hours (sometimes more) so I charge them about once every week and a half depending on the use. The main thing I ask over most of my purchases these days is after I've used the product for x amount of time, would I buy it again if I could go back in time? The answer for these is 100% yes, without hesitation.

I've been a bone conduction user for almost 2 years now. First I started with some no name Amazon ones, they were comfortable, but didn't have enough volume for noisy environments. I'm an aircraft mechanic and there are helicopters running and taking off just outside the hangar door. Even with foam earplugs in, the no name brand was not loud enough to hear my music. Next I bought Tekz titanium by aftershokz, they had plenty of volume and could still be heard with helicopters running, but they're not as comfortable. My employer is an air medical provider, and I have to wear a mask at work. Over time my ears have been easier to irritate from the elastic and the headphones ridding behind them. I couldn't just stop wearing my shokz because I also have four conference calls a week to participate in, and my shokz keep my meetings from being heard or distracting other employees from their work. I bought these aftershokz airs because they have the same curved ear bows as my original no name headset and those never had a real pressure point behind my ears. The airs have not irritated my ears, and have the same volume and sound as the titaniums, without seeming to buzz on louder or deep notes like the titaniums could sometimes. The microphone and noise cancelling software does a very good job in a sometimes noisy hangar when I'm on my conference calls, it only seems to struggle with wind noise, but turning my head until the noise abates, and also putting my hand over the ear piece seems to reduce it enough for callers to no longer complain. The controls are easy to operate and easy to find by touch. My no name headset had three tiny buttons that had nothing to help distinguish between them, aftershokz makes their buttons feel different by touch, since one has a bump on it. Making volume up and down easy to distinguish. The answer button is easy to find, and works flawlessly. I usually wear my shokz all day at work, and charge them in the car. I find they normally are ready to also go for an hour or two of exercise after work on my rowbike, my mountain bike, gravel bike, inline skates, kayaks or cross country skis. The open ear feature of bone conduction allows me to enjoy nature, hear approaching vehicles or faster riders, which is good for safety, while enjoying my music in the background. It's like a radio playing in the background, but can quickly be stopped by a simple tap if I want, and just as easily restarted. I've worn earbuds for years at work, but hated not hearing someone talking to me, my last employer didn't allow headphones for safety, but let me wear one earbud at a time, as long as one ear was open. These would have been better because both ears would have been open. I just sold my friend on a pair of these, he wears two hearing aids and still struggles with hearing people. I saw a display in the store, so I put the demonstration pair on him and turned the music on. He couldn't believe how good the music sounded, and that I could still talk to him while he listened to the music. They did not interfere with his hearing aids, which most headphones do he told me. He was excited to try them out for phone calls, since his wife complains about how loud he turns up the volume on his speakers when she's in the truck with him, or he's on a zoom meeting with his laptop. He's on one of my conferences each week, and was impressed when I told him that's how I join the meeting and share each week.

These earphones are amazing! They are EXACTLY what I needed. Something I don't need to take in and out all the time. They stay so perfectly stable on your ears and sometimes I don't even notice if they're there. I can have full conversations with people while the music is playing and if needed, I can pause and play with one button any time. The call quality is fantastic and better than any other earphones I ever owned. I've run through so many BT earphones, some with 2 pods, some with lose cables that fall off easily. These ones have solved ALL the issues I used to have with earphones and that's exactly what i wanted. They're barely noticeable by other people while speaking to them so you never appear rude. Onto sound quality and volume. Yes, the sound is not super high quality but that's okay for me because I don't care much. The music sounds a lot like ambient music and not something blasting in your ear and that's perfect. The volume feels lowes since you're also listening to other things but they provided the earplugs which cancel out a lot of noise and give you the same volume as normal earphones. Another funny thing. Sometimes when I have something else on my head/ears but I still want to listen to music, I just hang these earphones on my cheeks upside down and I CAN STILL HEAR THE MUSIC! It's the magic of bone-conduction.

They immediately became my primary headphone set, should have tried them earlier. A good value at $100 or less. Pros: * you can actually hear the world around you . . . no need to toggle settings on your headphones or take the them off... this has made it much easier for me to work with my headphones on and still be able to talk to my colleagues or family with no loss of natural sound from the environment * very durable design and reasonably long battery life * good for workouts: they don't fall off (even running, jumping, crawling) * large, intuitive pause/play button on the left side * I've had no problems so far with the microphone in phone calls * takes a long time for discomfort to kick in: I thought these would get uncomfortable faster than other headphones but they stay comfortable for long periods Cons: * mediocre sound quality for music... didn't surprise me given the external design but if you want high quality sound for tunes, this will probably disappoint. I still use my over-ear noise cancelling headphones occasionally if I want to listen to music with clarity for longer periods. * no automatic shutdown after bluetooth disconnects from another device; I've had other headphones that automatically turn off after awhile (15 or 30 minutes)... battery life here would be even more impressive with this feature * still uses micro-usb for charging (if that matters to you)

And yes I want that headline to sound like Ned Flanders. You're welcome for that imagery. Where to begin with this headphone, I first dipped my foot into the bone conduction headphone pool by purchasing one of the cheaper ones manufactured by Lokmat. I wasn't a fan of the sound quality and the battery quit on me after two weeks of use. One thing that did win me over as a runner though is the ability to wear a pair of headphones, jam out to my 80's montage mix, AND not become a hood ornament to a lucky passing car. So I decided to take the plunge and splurge on one of these headphones from Aftershokz. I'll simplify everything down to one sentence if you are a runner - These are worth it get these. The air is light, in fact once I wear it I don't even notice it's there, and when I'm running it doesn't jostle around it almost feels like I have my own personal soundtrack to my own terribly boring movie. The one thing to note here is that if you do turn the volume all the way up you'll feel a vibration along your cheek, for some this might be distracting, for me it's fine. I find this to be the case with all headphones of this particular design. Sound quality, as it stands this is the biggest shortfall of the technology and why I can't quite give this 5 stars, I'm also an audiophile so while this is great for running it's not as good as my earbuds when it comes to sound quality, so if I'm jamming to my music while trying hard not to make eye contact with anyone on the bus I don't honestly recommend these for daily use. Don't get me wrong it's much better than the competition it's just not quite there. Build quality is perfection, it definitely feels like a premium product right down to the packaging. I did a little stress testing on the back band and it holds up wonderfully. I would comfortably take this pair of headphones out on the trail without any doubt that it would survive. Final Verdict: 4/5 almost perfect! Sound is decent for what it is, build is solid, feel is a breeze.

I purchased these because I wanted to be able seamlessly transition between listening to audio and talking with family and those around me; without needing to pull off my earphones. For this goal they are a great success. They feel better than the feeling to having buds in my ears. At first I did not like the way the curved bar sticks out at the back of my head. I could not comfortably lean back against a chair or lie down. It's still a minor irritation, but I am not sure a traditional over-the-top design would fit in place as well. The quality of the sound is perfect, maybe since my pref is audiobooks and podcasts. The all-in-one-piece durability is excellent. When I leave the house I put these in my pocket or purse, which allows me to always have them at hand. 15 months after purchase (Feb 2020): I still use these headphones every single day and prefer them to any other headphones I've owned before. I had one issue at one point with the pause button not working. Customer service was among the best I've worked with (given many companies are so difficult to reach these days) and they fixed my issue in a timely manner. I have a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort II for travel and lying down. But aside from the Bose noise cancellation, I prefer these AfterShokz because these have twice the bluetooth range compared to Bose. For audiobooks and podcasts I notice no difference in sound quality between Bose and Aftrshokz. With Aftershokz I can roam anywhere in my house. Bose has less than half the range, allowing me to roam only to the next room. I do not have to carry my phone through the house when I use AfterShokz.

I have finally found a headset that is comfortable even while wearing my glasses! I use these at work so I can hear when a user comes up behind me to ask for my assistance but still able to listen to music as I work. I also use these as my headset for taking calls at work. Very clear sound both incoming and outgoing. And, I use these at home now as my headset for voice comms while gaming. I prefer to have my game sounds be from my speakers, and voice comms via my headset, else I can't hear/understand what people say while playing. I can wear these ALL DAY AND NIGHT and not have them hurting my head. Battery lasts easily 9 hours with my usage. The sound quality is perfect for voice, and is fairly decent for music. The bass isn't great, but that's where we are with this technology atm. I wouldn't call this a con, but something to consider: make sure you have a good bluetooth connection. I was using a bad BT adapter at my computer, and my sound was cutting out constantly and I sounded like a robot on comms. Fixed the BT connection, and everything was amazing :)

They're pretty expensive, if you're looking for good sound quality then you might want to look else where. That being said I think they sound fine, but at 120-150$ you can get a much better sounding headphone. But if you're looking for open ear, VERY COMFORTABLE headphones these are great. I really like them. I always get ear infections or my ears hurt from ear buds or regular in ear headphones. However these work and I don't have to shove something in my ear. Poor sound isolation obviously, but they do give you some earplugs you can use with the headphones. These headphones are mainly meant for athletic people. Very good for running. Long battery life, and very light. Apparently the titanium trekz have better base as well if anyone is interested.