Oraimo Open Ear Headphones review: unique benefits
A decent pair of headphones with an unusual design, just not as comfortable as their more conventional counterparts
Just about every decent set of headphones you find these days sports noise-cancelling tech. But not everyone wants to completely block out the sounds around them when listening to music. In fact, some people prefer to hear what’s going on in their environment – especially cyclists who need to have access to all their senses when on busy roads. Enter the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones.
This set of cans has been designed to give users a balance of enjoyable music listening without being too intrusive, giving them an awareness of the outside world – almost like the music is playing in the background, like a car stereo or the local pub’s dated jukebox.
They work via bone-conducting tech, that is, by transmitting sound vibrations along your cheekbones instead of through the air. For this reason, bone conduction tech can’t compete with in-ear buds when it comes to audio quality, but it can offer benefits that more conventional earphone designs cannot.
So – do the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones work as intended and if so, are they any good? Let’s find out.
Setting the bar for this type of audio product is Shokz’ OpenRun Pro, which proves a hardy contender for anyone looking to rival its bone-conducting tech. With a comfortable design and great battery life, the OpenRun Pro headphones are the ones to beat.
However, they’re significantly pricier – in fact, half that of Oraimo’s offering. The Open Ear Headphones are therefore a great value option for those who want a pair of bone-conducting headphones without breaking the bank.
Design & Build: Not so fast
Unlike traditional headphones, the audio drivers on the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones sit outside of your ears. They’ve not only been designed this way so you can hear both your audio content and your surroundings but it’s also supposed to make them more comfortable – due to it preventing you from getting sore ears after long periods of listening. The other proposed benefit is that they keep you cooler when working out since your ears are free to “breathe” alongside dodging any risk of canal bacteria.
While all this sounds ideal, it doesn’t automatically mean that the headphones work better – or even just as well – as standard in-ear headphones. In our experience, the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones didn’t sit as comfortably on the ears as we’d hoped. While they can be flexed into position to accommodate different people’s heads and ears via their wrap-around titanium memory wire, the hook-like shape of the arms that loop over the tops of the ears feels too short in length. This means that when the drivers are placed in the correct position in front of the ear lobe, the neck loop lifts up away from the neck, which just doesn’t feel so comfortable. And since the hooks that loop around the ears feel a little tight, they cause discomfort after just a short time of wearing them. This may well depend entirely on the shape and size of someone’s head, and they might feel perfectly comfortable for anyone else. But it’s not a great sign of design excellence if they’re not able to accommodate most people.
Apart from the low level of comfort, the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones have a pretty premium feel and build quality to them despite their relatively low price point. They’re also waterproof and dustproof thanks to their nano-sweatproof coating, which is resistant to rain too.
Although with just one choice of colour (blue with a neon orange accent) it’s a shame they don’t come in any other, less garish options as it certainly won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
Performance: Super stamina
Due to the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones’ poor design, we can’t say we’re big fans of how they feel during use. Wearing them during some solo squash practice, for example, only proved to be rather frustrating, with the neck loop slapping up and down and the ear pieces feeling like they were going to fall off at any moment.
However, if they happen to fit your head and ear shape better than they did ours, we can imagine they’d perform brilliantly as – from what we experienced when standing still – the headphones’ audio quality was decent.
Powered by Oraimo HavyBass Technology and pretty sizeable 16mm dynamic drivers, the headphones boast a pretty impressive sound with decent bass. Audio is clean without the vibrating sensation bone conduction is known for. And the bone-conducting tech works really well – you can hear the environment around you while listening to your favourite tunes. Of course, it’s nothing compared to the sound some in-ear buds can deliver, but that’s not the point.
To minimise sound leakage, Oraimo says it has an integrated directional algorithm so others can’t hear everything you’re listening to. While we found sound leakage to not be too bad, they definitely still could be heard from across the room by a friend when in use, and not even at full volume. Although we think this is almost impossible to eradicate completely when it comes to open-ear headphones.
The good news about Oraimo’s bone-conducting headphones is that they can stand the test of time, playing for 16 hours continuously between charges. What’s more, if you’re short on time, you can give them a quick 10-minute juice and they’ll provide you with a whopping 3.5 hours of playback time in return.
Oraimo Open Ear Headphones verdict
While the bone-conducting technology in the Oraimo Open Ear Headphones works well, we just found them a little too uncomfortable to rate highly, unfortunately. They might feature flexible titanium arms that are designed to fit just about any head shape, but, in our experience, they don’t flex enough to fit the ears in a way that doesn’t feel somewhat awkward and unpleasant during use – especially if worn while exercising.
Don’t get us wrong – the sound quality is impressive for a set of bone-conducting headphones. But that’s been severely let down by a restrictive design that is only available in one colourway.
Stuff Says…
The Oraimo Open Ear Headphones boast some great tech and decent audio quality at an impressive price point. However, this has been let down by the design, which just doesn’t offer the levels of comfort you’d expect from any pair of headphones.
Good Stuff
Good build quality
Great sound
Impressive technology
Excellent value for money
Bad Stuff
Doesn’t fit all head shapes well
Rigid design
Uncomfortable to wear when moving around
Limited colourways
Oraimo Open Ear Headphone tech specs
| Drivers | Bone conduction |
| ANC | No |
| Battery life | 16 hours |
| Wireless charging | No |
| Bluetooth version | 5.1 |
| Protection | IPX5 |
Lee Bell
Freelance contributor 
