This is a curious set of headphones. The OpenEar Trio by Shenzen Alex Technology. They're completely flat and designed to sit outside the ears.

They're designed so you can hear your surroundings. If you're outside exercising, it's useful to hear cars creeping up on you. If you're on a conference call, being able to hear the doorbell ringing is essential.

These are super-lightweight. Once on, it's easy to forget you're wearing them. They're a discreet colour - rather than the garish dayglo sports headphones usually are

Like most modern Bluetooth devices, they're dead easy to pair with your laptop or phone. They connect quickly and the battery life seems excellent. They worked without a hitch on Linux.

Sound reproduction was excellent. Perfect stereo separation, no noticeable hiss on quiet passages, and a decent amount of volume.

Because it is open ear, there is a fair bit of sound leakage - so please don't wear them on a crowded bus or train.

The open nature also means you sacrifice bass. It's there, but not very thumpy.

Similarly, the maximum volume isn't excessive. But that's kinda the point - you want to be able to hear what's going on around you.

There's only one button - push to play, hold to toggle power state. You can't skip tracks, or do anything fancy. But then, you should be concentrating on your running, not fiddling with your headset.

Sadly, they're micro-USB. By now, I'd expect these to be USB-C.

£24 from Amazon

You do get a little water-resistant flap for covering the port.

Verdict

These are great headphones for when you need to hear what's going on around you. Excellent for exercising outside and really good for endless conference calls.

£24 from Amazon

Update! They broke after a few months.

Three months of constant video calls have killed my little headphones!https://t.co/J9e3RHAadp
Time to replace? Or should I try taping it back together? pic.twitter.com/cBb4xboYAR

— Terence Eden is on Mastodon (@edent) October 29, 2020