Introduction
The audio reviews continue! This time, we’re going to look at a different type of headphone. These headphones do not go over your ear, though. They go behind your ears, and your cheek bone is in charge of playing the tunes, rather than your actual ears. This is what is known as “bone conduction” headphones, and on this review, we’re looking at the Shockz OpenMove wireless headphones. These headphones are lite and comfortable to wear, for the affordable price of $80. Read on to find out what these headphones have to offer! From here forward, we will refer to the headphones as the “Shockz,” for the sake of simplicity.
Disclaimer
Since this website also targets the blind, we MUST put in this disclaimer. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND USING ANY KIND OF HEADPHONES WHEN TRAVELING IN AREAS THAT REQUIRE CROSSING STREETS. This is for YOUR safety when performing such traveling to avoid any accidents. While these headphones let you hear your surroundings, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you are free of distractions when performing street crossings to be able to listen to traffic patterns and other important clues around you.
In the Box
These headphones come in a box that could easily hold a smartphone, but there really is not much inside except for the Shockz themselves, a USB C cable, carrying pouch, and a printed manual. The pouch is a draw-string, which honestly could be made better, since the laces untie so easily to the point where those small knots at the ends of the string are impossible to re-tie. Now that we removed the headphones, let’s start exploring!
Wearing the Headphones
As we said before, these headphones do NOT go on your ears. They go behind and hook around your ears, resting on your cheek bones. To wear the headphones properly, first examine the headphones themselves. The best way to describe them is a headband with ear hooks at the end. They weigh about the same as a pair of eyeglasses when held. Place the head band behind your head, a little above your neck. If done correctly, the ear hooks will easily just slide around your ears, with the round part resting on your cheekbones, right below the pointy part of the holes of your ears. With this being said, the orientation described below assumes you are already wearing the Shockz properly.
Orientation
Let’s take a look at the buttons of the Shockz, which you will find on the underside of one side, and on the actual ear hook. Also, the cool thing about these headphones is that they have voice prompts, so you do not need to worry about getting lost in menus. The voice, which according to the manual is named “Audrey,” has a telephone sound, but is clear enough to understand. Anytime you press a button, you will also hear a beep to confirm you pressed it. The only downside is that the beep itself is VERY loud and may jump scare you, if you’re not expecting it. We wish Shockz could address this somehow. With this out of the way, let’s start on the right, and move to the left! Remember, this orientation assumes you are wearing the Shockz on your head.
Right Side
On the right side, located on the underside where the Shockz rest on your ear, you will find from top to bottom, a USB C port and two buttons. The USB C port is used to charge the headphones, and is protected by a covering in case sweat or dust falls into the port. Unfortunately, this charger port cover is barely noticeable, so it will require sharp tactile skills and fingernails to try and remove from the port itself. The buttons from top to bottom are “Volume Up and Down.” The “Up” button feels more tactually pronounced than the “Down” button, since this button has multiple purposes. Apart from pressing them to control volume, you hold down “Up” to power on or off the Shockz. You can also press either of these buttons to check your battery status when the Shockz is not playing music. The battery percentage is displayed in “High, Medium, Low, and Charge Me.” You can get up to six hours of playtime on a single charge, before the battery is completely low. You must then leave the Shockz on a charger for two hours to get a full charge. If you want a better indication of the battery, you can add the “Batteries” built-in home screen widget to your smartphone, and it will give you a battery status of 10 percent. For instance, “70 percent, 60 percent, or 50 percent.” You can also press these two buttons together to reject an incoming call, and hold them down for three seconds to toggle between two equalizer modes while music is playing. We honestly wish these buttons were placed on the top face of the Shockz, rather than the underside for much easier access, since sometimes these headphones can slide and can get uncomfortable trying to look for the buttons.
Left Side
There is nothing on the underside of this part of the Shocks, but now we want to draw your attention to the actual ear hook. On the outside of this earhook, on the circular portion, is another button. It can be hard to detect, but if you feel carefully, you will notice a faint slant. This is how you know you ran into the button. This is the “Multi-function” button. This button has a few purposes which we will outline below.
- Press this button once to play or pause music. You can also answer and end a call with the same command.
- Press twice to move to the next song, or re-dial the last number you called when the Shockz is not playing music.
- Press three times to go to the previous song.
- Hold down for 2 seconds to access your voice assistant such as Siri, or Google. When on a call, do this same command to answer another call, if one comes in while you’re on the phone. You can also reject a call if your phone rings with this same command.
Pairing for the first time
The pairing process is quite straightforward. Simply power on the Shockz by pressing “Up,” until you hear “Pairing.” On your device, go into its respective bluetooth settings and find, “OpenMove by Shockz.” Tap that, and you should hear “Connected.”
Multi-Point
The Shockz has the ability to pair to two devices at the same time, thanks to the multipoint feature. To enable this feature, start with the Shockz powered off. Hold down “Up” until you hear, “pairing.” Then, Hold down both “up and Multi-function” for three seconds until you hear “Multi-point enabled.” Connect your first device to the Shockz. When you hear, “Connected,” turn off the Shockz again. Turn the Shockz back on again by holding down “Up” until you hear, “Pairing.” This may sound contradictory, but it will help connect the second device. Repeat the EXACT same process of pairing your secondary device, and turning off the Shockz again. Now, the next time you turn on the Shockz, you will be connected to TWO devices. To switch devices, let’s use the iPhone and Android scenario. I want to play some music on iPhone, but remember that the songs I want are on my Android phone. I simply stop the music that’s currently playing on iPhone, and I hit “Play” on the Android phone’s music app. I will then hear the Android music on my Shockz. To exit multi-point, simply hold down the “Up and Multi-function” buttons together for three seconds until you hear, “Multi-point disabled.”
Starting from Scratch
If for some reason your Shockz is not working correctly, you can always do a reset, which will forget your devices, and you can repair them again. To do this, let’s start with the Shockz turned off. Power on the Shockz and wait till you hear, “Pairing.” From here, hold down ALL buttons together. That is, hold down “Up, down, and Multi-function” until you either hear two beeps, or feel your headphones vibrate. From here, turn them off to complete the process by holding down “Up” again. From here, you can use them as normal.
Call Quality
When testing the Shockz, we noticed the microphones were of a pretty good quality. However, as we stated on the Bose review, we do NOT recommend using voice isolation features on iOS, otherwise it muffles your audio. This also applies to the Shockz. They are pretty good at phasing out a lot of background noise. We think these headphones are good to have a phone conversation in semi-quiet environments.
Music Quality
As we stated before, these are bone conduction headphones, so music quality will not be the best if you are looking for some “great headphones with good bass!” However, that being said, for this price point, these headphones are pretty good when playing music. The volume can be cranked up VERY loud, so be careful with how loud you want the music to be on your ears. The headphones may not be on your ears themselves, but it is still important to protect your hearing. If you wish to try and make the music sound better, you can toggle the vocal boost mode by pressing and holding the “Volume” buttons for three seconds.
Pro’s and Cons
It’s that time again! Time to look at the pros and cons of this pair of headphones!
Pros
- loud music volume
- practically weightless
- good microphone for phone calls
- comfortable to wear for long periods of time
Cons
- volume controls are on underside of headphone
- “Multi-function” button could be more pronounced
- charging port cover could be slightly more tactile to be able to locate and remove from port when charging
- confirmation beeps could be much softer when pressing buttons
Rating and Conclusion
Overall, we give these headphones a 4 out of 5. Despite the cons, we highly recommend these headphones if you are looking for something that will still allow you to hear things around you, while you enjoy your music. Not only that, but they also talk, so there is no need to worry about pressing the wrong buttons. We really hope you enjoy your Shockz Open Move, and if you have any questions, you can ALWAYS send us an email! Happy listening!