Introduction
Throughout the course of human civilization, swimming has not only been a fundamental survival skill woven into history but has also evolved into a beloved sport due to its profound fitness benefits. From ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to the educational systems of ancient Greece and Rome, and to the competitive arenas of modern Olympics, swimming has always played a crucial role.
Swimming, as a full-body coordinated exercise, offers irreplaceable fitness benefits. Not only does it engage every muscle group in the body, but it also improves cardiovascular function, promotes blood circulation, and alleviates joint pressure. In modern society, swimming has become an integral part of people's comprehensive health management.
The number of swimming pools in China is steadily increasing every year. As of 2023, there were a total of 40,200 swimming facilities nationwide. With the improvement of living standards and the growing awareness of health, more and more people are taking up swimming. This trend is driving the growth of both professional and personalized demands for swimming.
The development of professional equipment also reflects this trend. Goggles and swim caps have become standard gear for swimming enthusiasts, while wearable devices like wristbands can track swimming data such as laps, strokes, swim speed, and calories burned, helping swimmers better monitor their training effectiveness.
In addition, bone conduction swimming headphones, as a new type of swimming gear, allow swimmers to listen to music or receive training instructions underwater, gradually becoming the choice of more and more swimming enthusiasts.
Why are bone conduction headphones better for swimming?
Bone conduction headphones, with their unique sound transmission principle, differ from conventional air conduction headphones. These headphones use bone vibration to directly transmit sound waves to the inner ear, bypassing the traditional ear canal pathway. This design not only keeps the ear canal open, reducing interference from external noise but also ensures that swimmers can still perceive ambient sounds in the water while enjoying music, significantly enhancing safety during use.
Bone conduction headphones excel in stability during sports, waterproof performance, and underwater sound quality. Their snug fit reduces the risk of loosening during exercise, while targeted waterproof design ensures they maintain excellent performance even after prolonged immersion underwater. Underwater, bone conduction headphones leverage the conduction of sound through bones, providing a clearer and more stable auditory experience compared to traditional air-conduction headphones.
As a leading brand in the global bone conduction headphone industry, Shokz introduced the Xtrainerz bone conduction headphones designed specifically for swimming enthusiasts in 2019 (later renamed OpenSwim). This product features an innovative MP3 playback mode and delivers outstanding audio performance underwater, winning the favor of numerous swimming enthusiasts and quickly becoming a top seller in the domestic and international swimming headphone market.
Entering April 2024, Shokz once again leads the industry trend by launching the all-new upgraded version, OpenSwim Pro (model Shokz S710). Building upon the excellent features of its predecessor, the new OpenSwim Pro not only adds Bluetooth connectivity, greatly expanding its application scenarios, but also significantly increases the built-in storage capacity, allowing users to store hundreds of their favorite songs. Additionally, Shokz has made major breakthroughs and improvements in bone conduction technology and call quality, comprehensively optimizing the user experience. In the following review, let's take a closer look at today's swimming companion - the Shokz OpenSwim Pro.
Shokz, the pioneer in bone conduction technology, teamed up with the China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS) to introduce China's inaugural group standard titled "Technical Requirements and Evaluation Methods for Bone Conduction Headphones." This milestone was unveiled alongside the launch of two new products, OpenSwim Pro and OpenFit Air. With these developments, the sports and open-ear headphone industries now have a benchmark to follow.
OpenSwim Pro Unboxing | Appearance | Comfort Experience
As usual, let's start with the unboxing. OpenSwim Pro comes in a beautifully designed colorful box, featuring a realistic image of the product on the front and prominently displaying the words "OpenSwim Swimming Earphones," clearly showcasing the product's attributes.
The back of the case highlights some key features and specifications of the product, including IP68 waterproof and dustproof rating, Bluetooth MP3 dual mode, PremiumPitch 2.0+ bone conduction technology, and 9 hours of battery life with fast charging, providing users with a quick and intuitive overview of the product.
Open the inner packaging and remove the accessories and the main body of the earphones. ShaoYin brand demonstrates thoughtful consideration for users, especially catering to swimming enthusiasts with professional-grade waterproof earplugs and a convenient carrying pouch. Additionally, the package includes a magnetic suction data charging cable and a detailed instruction manual.
The storage bag is made of silicone material and features holes on one side for easy drainage.
The color scheme we received for the headphone body this time is "Coral Sea." This color combination combines vibrant orange-red with deep ocean blue, presenting a visually striking yet sophisticated effect. The bright orange-red remains clearly visible underwater, making it highly recognizable during swimming. Additionally, there is a more understated and minimalist "Shale Peak" color option available.
Its smooth contours snugly fit the head, employing an ergonomic design principle with ear attachments and behind-the-ear mounts, achieving a snug yet not overly tight wearing experience.
The earphones feature a layer of soft and delicate silicone covering the parts that come into contact with the skin, ensuring comfortable wear. For the ear hooks, a high-strength metal material is ingeniously utilized, ensuring durability while providing a certain degree of elasticity and adaptability, allowing for a relaxed "tight at the front, loose at the back" experience during physical activities.
In terms of weight, the OpenSwim Pro weighs only around 27g, making it almost imperceptible to wear, with no uncomfortable pressure on the ears.
During everyday activities such as driving or working, the headphones are barely noticeable, with just a slight sense of being held in place. When engaging in outdoor activities like jogging or cycling, even amidst body movements or bike bumps, the headphones stay securely in position, free from friction or foreign object sensations, ensuring excellent stability. Extended wear doesn't lead to significant discomfort, but it's advisable to take a brief break after 1 to 2 hours of continuous use, allowing the skin around the ears to relax and breathe properly.
When underwater, wearing goggles and a swimming cap further enhances the stability of the headphones. The cap and headphones work together to form a tighter fit, reducing the impact of water flow on the position of the headphones. Even during vigorous breaststroke or freestyle swimming, the headphones remain snug against the ears without any risk of coming loose. Additionally, the rear extension of the headphones ensures that they won't tug at or tangle with hair or the swimming cap, even during prolonged dives or frequent turns.
OpenSwim Pro: Waterproof Performance and Subjective Sound Quality
As a sports headset primarily designed for swimming, the OpenSwim Pro boasts IP68-level protection. The first digit "6" signifies complete dust resistance, preventing any dust from entering and ensuring the internals remain unaffected. The second digit "8" indicates that the device can be submerged up to 2 meters deep, allowing for rinsing and soaking without worry.
During actual swimming experiences, the waterproofing of the earphones was thoroughly tested during a five-hour session of swimming laps in the pool. Throughout this extended period of use, there were no concerns about water seeping into the components.
In terms of sound quality, the OpenSwim Pro continues the excellent tradition of good sound quality from Aftershokz bone conduction headphones. It utilizes the PremiumPitch™ 2.0+ technology, which we've experienced in the OpenRun and OpenMove models before. In simple terms, PremiumPitch™ 2.0 optimizes sound output through a triple composite vibration system consisting of a sound coil, diaphragm, and ear hooks. This design ensures a balanced distribution of low, mid, and high-frequency sounds, significantly enhancing the audio quality.
PremiumPitch™ 2.0+ is an upgrade and improvement over the 2.0 version. By adjusting the vibration angle of the bone conduction transducers relative to the user's face, it reduces the impact vibration perpendicular to the face. This rocking motion at a certain tilt angle effectively reduces the perceived vibration intensity for the user, greatly optimizing the wearing experience for extended periods while maintaining balanced sound quality across the frequency spectrum.
In our hands-on experience, we prioritized testing the high-frequency range of OpenSwim Pro, particularly focusing on maintaining clarity and detail in sound quality. Due to the bone conduction headphones transmitting sound waves directly to the inner ear via the skull rather than through the air, this method of transmission reduces the attenuation of high frequencies often experienced in air conduction, sometimes even providing a clearer high-frequency experience.
In Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik," for instance, in the high-frequency range, the rapid trills and spiccato passages of the violin can be felt vividly through OpenSwim Pro. While it may lack some of the resonance brought by air vibrations, the clarity is surprisingly high, with the details retained quite intact.
In the case of Zhou Shen's "Rise with the Wind," during the climax of the song, Zhou Shen's high notes are strong and powerful. With OpenSwim Pro, every subtle tremble and emotional outburst in her voice can be clearly felt, while also discerning the details of other instruments in the background and harmony parts.
Regarding the usual "weakness" of bone conduction headphones, in terms of bass performance, OpenSwim Pro has also been optimized as much as possible. Due to the principle of bone conduction headphones, the transmission efficiency for bass, which has longer sound waves, is definitely not as good as that of air conduction headphones. The efficiency of bone vibration is better in the high frequency range than in the low frequency range. Low-frequency sound waves require more energy to effectively transmit through bones. However, on OpenSwim Pro, this deficiency is mitigated as much as possible through special optimization.
For example, in Calvin Harris's "Summer," the synthesizers and bass lines in electronic music have a strong bass rhythm. In actual listening experience, the rhythm of these mid-low frequency parts is still apparent. Although there is a bit less of the feeling of vibration in the air, the rhythmic and compact nature of the bass can still bring dynamism, especially when listening to this kind of music during exercise, which can greatly enhance the rhythm of the workout.
During exercise, due to the open design of bone conduction headphones, it's necessary to increase the volume slightly more than usual. This also enhances the bass performance to a certain extent. Although you may still slightly feel the slight vibration of the sound unit during low frequencies, this sensation can be ignored during exercise. The lightweight and comfortable wearing experience of OpenSwim Pro, combined with its excellent mid-to-high sound quality, playing rhythmic electronic, DJ, or rock music not only greatly enhances the dynamism of exercise but also effectively reduces fatigue.
While swimming, the characteristics of bone conduction headphones are amplified and enhanced. In underwater environments, the air cavity in the ear canal becomes an additional channel for sound transmission, essentially creating a "hybrid mode of bone conduction and air conduction." This enclosed spatial effect, combined with the advanced bone conduction technology of the OpenSwim Pro headphones, enriches the depth of sound. The bass becomes more powerful and profound due to the sealed underwater environment, with the volume naturally increasing, creating an exclusive underwater sound environment.
As someone not particularly adept at swimming, I deliberately submerged my head in the pool, holding my breath to experience the effect with my ears plugged. It was evident that the sound produced by the bone conduction headphones was significantly amplified underwater, with the low-frequency sounds becoming fuller and more intense. The bass drumbeats felt like echoes emanating from within the body, which was quite remarkable.
The audio quality at this point was exceptionally impressive, creating an atmosphere that cannot be experienced "onshore." Since I had never tried listening to music underwater before, this first experience was truly astonishing. It felt as if I were enveloped in a bubble of music, with music sources surrounding my entire head. The bass formed a thick layer of wrapping, while the high notes felt like powerful water jets penetrating through.
To experience this, you can plug your ears with sponge or earplugs onshore and then wear bone conduction headphones to listen to music, which allows you to feel about 60% of this amazing experience.
OpenSwim Pro Connectivity | MP3 Mode Experience | Calls | Battery Life
In terms of connectivity, compared to its predecessor which only supported MP3 mode, OpenSwim has been upgraded to Bluetooth + MP3 dual mode, greatly expanding the potential use cases of OpenSwim Pro. To enhance its connectivity, the ShaoYin team has equipped it with the latest Bluetooth 5.4 technology, ensuring compatibility with mainstream devices and stable connection performance. In the pool, as long as the phone is placed on the shore, even if you swim to the other end of the pool, you can still maintain a seamless connection with the phone, greatly facilitating communication needs within the venue.
OpenSwim Pro has designed three operation buttons to streamline user interaction. The multifunction button on the front of the device not only controls playback and pause but also handles call answering and song switching. Additionally, the volume adjustment button integrates power on/off functionality and seamlessly switches between MP3 and Bluetooth modes.
OpenSwim Pro comes with 32GB of built-in storage space. After being detected by a computer, the actual usable space available to users is approximately 29.1GB. Calculating at roughly 3MB per standard network MP3 format song (128kbps), OpenSwim Pro can store around 10,000 songs, easily meeting the music playback needs for activities like running and swimming.
In addition, OpenSwim Pro also supports various audio formats such as FLAC, AAC, WAV, and APE, providing excellent listening experiences for users who pursue high-fidelity sound. The operation is simple and intuitive; users can easily switch songs and pause by simply tapping the front-end function keys, even underwater.
Moreover, users can utilize the ShaoYin app to control and adjust the sound quality of the headphones. The app's interface is clean and intuitive, with smooth and logical operation.
In terms of call quality, OpenSwim Pro employs dual microphones, DNS call noise reduction, and voice enhancement technology, offering a clearer calling experience compared to other bone conduction headphones. We conducted practical tests on busy streets with heavy traffic, and the other party could clearly hear my voice. Additionally, even in swimming pools, clear call quality can be achieved even with the headphones paired with the phone via Bluetooth over long distances.
The official claim states that OpenSwim Pro has a battery life of 9 hours in Bluetooth mode and 6 hours in MP3 mode. Our testing reveals that after continuously playing music at moderate volume for 4 hours in Bluetooth mode, the battery level remains at 50%. Extrapolating from this, the estimated full battery life aligns closely with the official data, at approximately 8 to 9 hours.
It's worth mentioning that the charging speed of OpenSwim Pro is exceptionally fast. When connected to a standard smartphone fast charger, it can replenish about 30% of the battery in just 10 minutes, providing an additional 2-3 hours of playback time, which is incredibly convenient and practical.
In summary,
As swimming becomes increasingly popular, more and more enthusiasts are seeking professional-grade equipment to enhance their experience. In line with this trend, bone conduction headphones, with their outstanding waterproof performance, secure fit, and improving sound quality, are gradually becoming essential accessories for swimmers. As a leading company in the industry, ShaoYin has always been committed to meeting user needs through technological innovation. Its new OpenSwim Pro swimming headphones, building upon the foundation of the original OpenSwim, further enhance sound quality and usability. Coupled with IP68-level waterproof performance, it undoubtedly sets the benchmark for the swimming headphone market segment.
Behind this achievement lies Shao Yin's profound insights into niche markets and their determination to meet consumer demands. By continuously identifying pain points in swimming sports and strategically optimizing products, Shao Yin has provided swimmers with superior sports gear. Through rigorous testing and analysis, we believe that the Shao Yin OpenSwim Pro swimming earphones excel in product performance, user experience, and service assurance, making them highly recommended for swimming enthusiasts.
