The user experience of open headphones stands and falls with their position in front of the ear! If you’re unlucky, you usually have to live without open-back earbuds when involved in sports or cycling. Thankfully, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 with adjustable ear hooks are now available. Does the new design impress in the review and how do the headphones perform with their massive 42-hour battery life? Let’s find out in the Soundcore AeroFit 2 review!
Good
- Very comfortable to wear
- High clarity thanks to LDAC and 11.5mm drivers
- Fantastic battery life
- Low price
Bad
- Charging case comparatively large
- High volume playback should be enjoyed with caution
Anker Soundcore AeroFit 2: All deals
Design & wear comfort
Soundcore integrated an interesting function into the AeroFit 2 in the form of adjustable ear hooks, which allow the drivers of the open headphones to be positioned much more precisely in front of the ear canal. This results in a very high level of wear comfort, which is underlined by the light weight of around 10 g. The control works via touch-sensitive surfaces, with the earbuds protected by IP55 rating, and are available in three colors!
Pros:
- Adjustable ear hooks are really useful.
- High wearing comfort and light weight.
- Customizable controls.
Cons:
- Touch-sensitive surfaces are prone to incorrect inputs.
- Charging case is relatively large at 8 × 7 × 2.8 mm.
- Inserting the earbuds into the case is not very intuitive.
I have already reviewed the Nothing Ear (open) (review) and the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo (review) for nextpit. I was lucky that my ears are probably average in size and with a little bending and tweaking, I was always able to achieve optimum position of the driver in front of my ear canal. However, if you have rather small or rather large ears, you may run into problems with open earbuds.
It is therefore quite innovative for Soundcore to integrate a four-stage adjustment of the earhook into the AeroFit 2. It’s best to take a look at this in the gallery. If you happen to buy the open earbuds, you should check which level suits your ears best, as suggested during the setup. Once you have done so, the earbuds will be very comfortable to wear. The AeroFit 2 sat perfectly in front of my ear canal and hardly moved even when I was headbanging away or indulging in vigorous sporting activity. As a result, they make for a pair of very good sports headphones.
What I liked better about the Nothing Ear (Open), however, was the handling. In the old Soundcore tradition, they rely on touch-sensitive interfaces that are responsive and functional in and of themselves. The Soundcore app allows you to customize the operation in a variety of ways. However, the design of touch-sensitive surfaces made them more susceptible to incorrect input, especially when used in the rain. However, you can wear them without restriction when the heavens open since Soundcore provides IP55 certification for the earbuds.
In comparison, it is also noticeable that Soundcore included a high-quality but rather bulky charging case. This takes up almost too much space in my pants pocket. How you insert the earbuds into the case also takes a little getting used to. You have to turn them 180 degrees so the charging contacts are on top of each other. Although this could have been done in a more elegant manner, you will get used to it very quickly in everyday use.
Another positive aspect: Soundcore offers the AeroFit 2 in three colors—White, Black, and Mint Green!
Convenience functions and app
To use all the functions of the AeroFit 2, you should install the Soundcore app on your smartphone. This free application is available for both iOS and Android smartphones. It is particularly intuitive and offers a pretty design that matches the design language of the earbuds. There are hardly any comfort functions—there is no wear detection, but there is dual pairing and a gaming mode for low latency situations.
Pros:
- Pretty and intuitive companion app.
- Dual pairing and gaming mode.
Cons:
The Soundcore app is one of my favorite companion apps for headphones to date. Its design is based on the design language of the earbuds and is intuitive enough for me to find all the functions without having to get used to them. With usage tips, Soundcore also guarantees optimal use of the open headphones, which may take a little getting used to for a newcomer. The battery levels of the charging case and the individual headphones are also displayed precisely as a percentage.
Where the Soundcore AeroFit 2 failed to score: comfort functions. There is no wear detection, 3D audio, or spatial audio but Soundcore did integrate a 3D surround mode, which in reality had little to no effect on the sound. The fact that the AeroFit 2 supports dual pairing is also positive. This allows you to connect two devices to the earbuds. These then automatically switch, depending on the audio source.
Sound quality and ANC
The AeroFit 2 offer 11.5 mm drivers, which should provide powerful bass, clear mids, and dynamic highs. This can be adjusted via an 8-band equalizer, which effectively adjusts the sound quality. Support for the LDAC codec ensures Hi-Res Audio certification and a maximum sound pressure level of 91 db is quite capable of drowning out ambient noise. However, the earbuds lack ANC.
Pros:
- High sound quality with convincing bass.
- Good HD codec with LDAC + Bluetooth 5.4.
- Convincing equalizer.
Cons:
- I wish it had health functions like Google offers …
- … as there is no noise suppression
Anyone switching from a pair of very good in-ear headphones may initially be disappointed by the sound quality of open headphones. As music is not played directly into the ear canal and there is no isolation via silicone tips, bass is missing and music sounds a little thinner in comparison. This phenomenon can be mitigated a little with the Soundcore AeroFit 2 by using the 8-band equalizer in the Soundcore app.
By default, the sound profile of the earbuds is extremely flat. I also didn’t like the presets as much when trying them out, as they either accentuate the treble or bass too much. So it’s perfect that Soundcore allows the sound profile to be manually adjusted across eight bands. This allowed me to create a customized profile that retained the mids and highs while boosting the bass enough to give it enough punch despite the open profile.
The fact that the AeroFit 2 supports LDAC is also very welcome. When used with my iPhone 13 mini (review), the earbuds were less convincing with more complicated genres, such as progressive metal. With LDAC, however, the headphones achieved greater clarity and know how to better distinguish between instruments and voices. As a result, they outperformed the Nothing Ear (open) in terms of sound and are the best-sounding open earbuds I have been able to review to date.
What I would still like to see in the Soundcore app, however, is a function that recently impressed me with the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 (review): they log the strain that loud music puts on our ears and provide corresponding warnings. Since open headphones have no passive or active isolation from external noise, you tend to listen to music at a much louder level. Yes, even Soundcore advised users on their website to increase the headphone volume when there is loud ambient noise. This can quickly become harmful to your ear’s health and you have to be very careful here.
Even if it sounds crazy at first, the fact that there is no Active Noise Cancellation is therefore also a tiny shortcoming. The Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo offers this as a beta and sometimes you just want to be able to block out your surroundings a little, even when wearing open earbuds.
Battery life & charging
Soundcore’s parent company Anker specializes in rechargeable battery technologies. Perhaps that is why the run times of the AeroFit 2 are fantastic, with a run time of 10 hours with active music playback and 42 hours when extended using the charging case. Fast charging is also available. You only need to charge for 10 minutes to listen to music for another four hours. Wireless charging is also supported according to the Qi wireless standard.
Pros:
- Very good battery life.
- Quick charging and wireless charging are supported.
Cons:
With a battery life of 10 hours with active music playback, I would definitely describe the AeroFit 2 as suitable for everyday use. In my everyday use, there were simply no scenarios in which I could have exhausted the battery life. You can keep the earbuds in your ears and listen to music for an entire working day with a half-hour commute thrown into the mix, including an hour lunch break, and you’d still have reserves at the end of the day. That’s really amazing!
You can then extend the runtime to a total of 42 hours by charging up to four times using the charging case. This is also excellent value for compact earbuds! Since both wireless charging and quick charging are supported, there is no room for any criticism here.
Technical specifications
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| Device | Soundcore AeroFit 2 |
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Should You Buy the Soundcore AeroFit 2?
Manufacturers are slowly but surely taking a liking to open earbud designs in their product portfolios. Even though I prefer in-ear headphones for my everyday use, I see more and more people enjoying sports with open earbuds or using bone conduction headphones, or when they are out and about. With the AeroFit 2, Soundcore now offers what I think are the best open earbuds available at the end of 2024.
Sound quality is better than other models reviewed thanks to its 8-band equalizer, where the perfect positioning of the drivers in front of the ear canal and LDAC support aid its case. At the same time, a battery life of up to 42 hours is better than the competition.
What probably sets the Soundcore earbuds apart the most is the price: with an RRP of just $99.99, they are relatively affordable and therefore can be recommended without any reservations if you are interested in open earbuds.
Where to Buy the AeroFit 2
With the AeroFit 2, Soundcore launched really excellent pair of open earbuds. Boasting a total running time of 42 hours, excellent wear comfort, and very good sound quality overall, they achieve more than all other open earbuds reviewed with an asking RRP of $99.99. The only thing we would like to see is a function to monitor the volume and an Active Noise Cancellation option.
The AeroFit 2 is available in three colors—Black, White, and Minty Green.
