Open-ear earbuds have carved out a stable niche by offering an alternative to sealed in-ear designs, appealing to people who value comfort or situational awareness over isolation. Until recently, that choice has been largely binary: either accept everything happening around you or switch to traditional earbuds that close you off from your environment. The OpenFit Pro from Shokz attempts to narrow that gap by introducing a controlled form of noise reduction into an open-ear design, a move that subtly shifts what this category can offer.
Unveiled at CES 2026, the OpenFit Pro represents the company’s most technically ambitious open-ear earbuds to date. Rather than borrowing the heavy-handed noise cancellation found in in-ear models, Shokz applies noise reduction to reduce the impact of background sound without eliminating it. This distinction matters. Open-ear earbuds are often used in public spaces where awareness is necessary, but that same openness can make phone calls and spoken audio difficult to hear. The OpenFit Pro is designed to address that problem without undermining the core reason people choose this form factor in the first place.
In practical use, the noise reduction is most apparent during calls. In busy cafés, hotel lobbies, and outdoor pickup areas, wind noise, traffic, and general crowd murmur are noticeably softened. Conversations remain intelligible without the sensation of being sealed off from the surroundings. Importantly, sharper or more relevant sounds such as sirens, announcements, or crossing signals still cut through, which preserves the situational awareness that open-ear users tend to prioritize.
This balance changes how awareness feels. Instead of being an unavoidable side effect of the design, environmental sound becomes something closer to a managed layer. You hear what you need to hear, without constantly competing with background chatter. For long work sessions or extended wear, this approach can be less fatiguing than either fully open audio or aggressive noise cancellation.
From a design standpoint, the OpenFit Pro follows Shokz’s familiar over-ear hook style, using soft silicone contact points and a more substantial housing than earlier OpenFit models. That added bulk appears to be a tradeoff for the extra microphones and processing required for noise reduction. Internally, the earbuds use an 11 x 20mm dual-diaphragm driver, support Dolby Audio with head tracking, and incorporate Shokz’s DirectPitch 3.0 and OpenBass 2.0 technologies to limit sound leakage and improve low-end presence.
At $250, the OpenFit Pro sits at the top of Shokz’s open-ear lineup and costs more than previous casual-use models like the OpenDots One. The price reflects its expanded feature set, though it also places the earbuds in a more competitive segment where expectations around audio quality and refinement are higher.
The OpenFit Pro does not redefine open-ear listening overnight, but it does meaningfully refine it. By acknowledging that not all ambient sound is equally useful, Shokz introduces a more nuanced interpretation of awareness—one that may appeal to users who like the comfort and safety of open-ear earbuds but want better control over what they actually hear.
