Open, but isolated: Open-ear headphones learn active noise cancellation

In noisy environments, the strength of open-ear headphones turns into a weakness: due to their design, you always hear what's happening around you. At the CES, manufacturers Anker and Shokz are showcasing headphones that are supposed to change this. Both Anker's Soundcore Aerofit 2 Pro and Shokz OpenFit Pro feature active noise cancellation (ANC), but they differ in their implementation.

Both headphones are built like most open-ear headsets, which celebrated their breakthrough at CES 2024: they hold onto the ear with hooks behind the ear. The part housing the sound transducers and microphones dangles in front of the ear canal and does not seal it, so you always hear your surroundings. This allows you to remain responsive and even have conversations. However, it becomes tiring when the headphones have to constantly play against a soundscape on the go.

Both manufacturers are therefore implementing active noise cancellation (ANC). The problem is that this only works well in combination with passive insulation, which is why manufacturers of open-ear headphones have largely refrained from ANC until now. Only Honor made an exception with its Earbuds Open. In our test, we hardly noticed any effect.

On paper, Anker's approach looks more promising than Honor's attempt to simply equip conventional open-ear headphones with ANC. This is because the hooks of the Anker headphones can be adjusted so that the ear part sits either in or in front of the ear canal. While no silicone plugs seal the ear canal, Apple has shown with the AirPods 4 that this design can be combined with effective ANC. How well the noise cancellation of the Aerofit 2 Pro actually works remains to be seen in a test.

In contrast to Anker, Shokz builds its ANC headphones without adjustable ear hooks. The speakers therefore always hang in a similar position in front of the ear canal. And unlike the Anker headphones, we were able to test the Shokz headphones – with mixed results. The ANC effect is more noticeable than that of the Honor Earbuds Open. Nevertheless, almost all ambient noise penetrates the masking, although it reaches the ear a little thinner. In short, the Shokz headphones are not an alternative to in-ear headphones with ANC or Apple's AirPods. However, the powerful sound of the OpenFit Pro is pleasing.

Both headphones communicate via Bluetooth 6.1 and maintain a multipoint connection to two playback devices simultaneously. The headphones are protected against water and dust according to IP55. Their charging cases can be charged wirelessly via Qi. The Aerofit 2 Pro cost 179, the OpenFit Pro 249 euros.

heise medien is an official media partner of CES 2026.

(rbr)