In the smartphone landscape, everything seems very static, without any particular innovations, but in the world of true wireless headphones, we witness the launch of specific products for certain needs on a daily basis, sometimes with unusual shapes. Well, if you are among the users who do not like to stick something in the ear hole or you are simply looking for headphones to use for sports, today I bring you a review of the OpenRock X, which I appreciated a lot not only for the crazy audio quality but also for the use of almost luxury materials for this product category.
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Already starting from the unboxing experience we are faced with a high-end product. The sales package is super refined and has a hexagonal shape where inside we find additional matryoshka-style packages. Inside we have the charging case and related headphones, but then in a separate box we have the manual and the charging cable, canvas for greater resistance and yellow in color. We also find a hook ring that allows you to anchor the charging case to a shoulder strap of a backpack but the company also provides an additional jeans-style fabric case for carrying only the OpenRock X, leaving at home the container that I tell you right away is quite bulky.
Speaking of case (weight 90,5 grams / 114,5 grams with earphones), this is made of brushed aluminum alloy with a rectangular shape. At one end we find a silicone protrusion to insert the hook seen above while on the other side, with a little pressure we can open the tray that contains our earphones, divided between left and right and whose charging seat is dedicated to the direction of the headphones. Finally there is a small button for resetting the headphones and for querying the remaining battery charge via status LED. On one profile of the cylinder we find the name of the brand while on the other side we have the Type-C charging input, whose only charging mode is via cable.
Excellent construction, which is also evident from the magnets that do not make the OpenRock X fall even with strong jolts. The battery, 65 mAh for the earphones and 720 mAh for the case, or rather the autonomy is definitely a strong point of these earphones, which with a single charge reach 12 continuous hours of playback and up to 48 hours via the case charge, which guarantees 3 additional charges. As already mentioned, wireless charging is absent while it takes about 1,5 hours for a full charge. Finally, there is a sort of quick charge that with just 5 minutes offers an hour of use. You may wonder, if I insert the headphones in the fabric pouch, will they run out? The headphones have a physical button that allows you to turn them off and therefore put them away without affecting the autonomy and with the 12 hours available you will make many trips without carrying around the heavy case.
The OpenRock X uses Bluetooth 5.3, with support for the AAC/SBC audio codec, low latency and maximum connection stability. We also have support for multipoint connection, so you can connect the earphones to two devices at the same time, for example managing music on one and calls on the other device.
The OpenRock X are not ordinary TWS earphones and you can immediately notice it from their very particular shape. They adopt 45-degree rotating arches on the horizontal axis and 50 degrees on the vertical axis, to better adapt the comfort based on the physiognomy of your head and ear. You will have understood that they do not have an in-ear or semi-in-ear design but they rest on the ear canal releasing audio through 14.2 mm dynamic drivers (speaker sensitivity: 119 dB±3 dB@1 kHz), with a nanometric biofiber diaphragm and CIS polymer, ensuring high-quality sound and a top-level musical experience, also thanks to the brand's proprietary audio technology and algorithms, such as LISO 2.0 which takes care of returning crystal-clear sound across the entire frequency spectrum supported by a fifth-generation HiFi DSP and then BassDirect which takes care of pushing the power of the bass while avoiding sound dispersion, without distorting and without predominating the mids and highs.
Of course we find the IPX5 certification, ideal for sports but these headphones also allow you to better manage calls, since inside there is an AI algorithm dedicated to the reduction of noise in calls and wind, as well as 4 microphones (microphone sensitivity: -38 ± 1dBV / Pa). In fact, the audio in calls really amazed me, managing to really eliminate the wind rustling but above all to divide my voice from those of people in the environment.
Excellent audio for listening to music, movies or podcasts, but above all I appreciated the fact that during calls there is no dispersion of audio towards the outside, safeguarding privacy, that is, those next to you will not hear what our interlocutor will say, despite the "open" nature of the drivers. The touch controls are also quite complete and functional: single/double/triple touch or prolonged to manage play/pause, skip the music track, call the smartphone assistant, volume control and indeed answer, hang up or reject a call. Compared to similar solutions, however, the OpenRock X use a physical button that I personally appreciated, effectively eliminating any involuntary touches.
The open-ear aesthetics, in addition to allowing you to remain alert to the environment around you, although it depends a lot on the listening volume, are actually perfect for super prolonged use and these OpenRock X were very comfortable even for me who wears glasses, in the face of the super expensive Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, which even Apple fanboys have complained about. Consider that each individual earphone, with its entire structure, weighs only 12 grams. The materials used also contribute to a wearing experience at the highest levels: in fact, we find an antimicrobial silicone that is very pleasant to the contact with the skin but at the same time we enjoy extreme resistance, counting for example on the adjustable pin in steel alloy.
Furthermore, via the companion app, available for both Android and iOS systems, you can customize the controls on a single earphone (just long press), customize the audio equalization or tap into 3 distinct ones, including the ROCK mode ideal for sports activities on the move, RELAX mode perfect for Yoga and meditation sessions and then the BOOM mode ideal for fast-paced sports and where you want to completely immerse yourself in the activity by canceling background noise. We can update the firmware if the company releases it, but also set a limit on the power in decibels as well as an automatic switch-off timer, perfect if we put the headphones back in the fabric case and forget to turn them off.
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The official price on the manufacturer's website is $158,95 but you can redeem a 10% discount code to take them home at a very interesting price, you can also pay with Paypal. In a panorama in which we now find practically only in-ear and non-in-ear, OpenRock has thought of an original and truly effective form-factor! At a fair price, considering the technology used, premium materials and "professional" audio quality, you get exaggerated battery life, IPX5 waterproofing, crazy audio quality for the type of headphones but above all versatility of use, both in sports and at home, or in the car, being able to listen to your favorite multimedia content while remaining alert to traffic.
