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To say that this Shokz OpenFit 2 Prime Day deal was a shock to see is both an understatement and an underwhelming pun, but I’m saying it anyway. I only reviewed these excellent open-ear headphones last month, confidently rating them a full five stars and adorning them with our Best Buy award, and yet here they are, already massively discounted.
So what’s the catch? This is a very short-lived deal. The Shokz OpenFit 2 are currently available for £135 – both a big drop from the average price of £174 and the cheapest they’ve been yet – but they’re only at this price today.
So we have a bargain deal on the best open-ear headphones that you can buy, as long as you get in there before midnight – at which point this deal will presumably turn back into a pumpkin.
If you haven’t already rushed off to snatch up this Cinderella Prime Day bargain, allow me to briefly lay out exactly why I was so impressed with the Shokz OpenFit 2.
- Design: The first generation OpenFit were already very well designed but Shokz upped the ante with the second series, adding physical buttons for audio control, as opposed to hit-and-miss touch controls.
- Audio quality: This is easily the biggest improvement, with much better volume overall (meaning you can save battery and listen at lower volume levels) and the high-end notes sound much cleaner, too. Bass still isn’t perfect, but that’s a flaw of the open-ear format.
- Battery life: Speaking of the battery life, Shokz has massively improved this for the second generation. The buds last for around 11 hours by themselves, with the charging case boosting total battery life to an outstanding 48 hours. Indeed, wearing them through an entire day of work left me with around 30% battery left at the end of the day, which is fantastic.
Nothing is perfect, of course, and there are a couple of minor points to mention. First of all, as I said above, bass isn’t the best with open-ear headphones – it’s not awful by any stretch, but those who need their skull rattled by the low-end are better off sticking with more traditional over-ear headphones or in-ear wireless earbuds.
The OpenFit 2 also have a relatively short list of supported codecs, with just SBC and AAC. That means that Apple users can take advantage of high-resolution audio but Android fans are left out, with no LDAC or aptX included.
Finally, the controls are still rather limited, even with a physical button and touch-sensitive panel on each earbud to work with. Control customisation is such a valuable feature on headphones, so it’s a shame that Shokz only offer the bare minimum.
Otherwise, there are no major niggles to worry about and, even with the above issues in mind, I was happy to fully recommend the Shokz OpenFit 2. And that was at their full price. This deal price of £135 is an absolute bargain, and well worth taking advantage of while you have the chance.
Amazon Prime Day savings are open to Prime subscribers only. The good news is that you can sign up to a 30-day free trial if you don’t want to commit to the monthly cost.
