[Tested] Watch This Before You Buy! Oladance OWS Pro vs Shokz OpenFit

They both have a large charging case! But between the two, the Shokz is the one that will surprise you the least. It still passes the pocket test. The Oladance is the size of my wallet. But

this

time the Oladance case can charge your friends unlike its predecessors. Let's talk about battery life. Oladance claims 16 hours with the buds and 58 hours with the case. We

tested

this

in our DHRME battery test and got 16.5 hours of battery life. So that's true. Shokz with a smaller casing and buds has less power. 7 hours with the buds and 28 with the case. And we got exactly 7 hours in our tests too!

Fortunately there are no Shokz here. But we're talking about half of what the Oladance can do. And good news, if you don't want to lug around that huge charging case, you can turn the Oladance Pro earbuds off and on again using a power button on each earbud. You can't do this in OpenFit. You must have the case with you at all times. Oh, and two last things about the charging case. One; There's no wireless charging either, just good old Type C charging. And two; We like the colorblind-friendly battery indicator on the Oladance, while the Shokz is a single-color LED.

On the subject of colors. You can choose from 5 different colors in Oladance instead of just 2 in Shokz. And we might add: these colors are so funky... When it comes to controlling any of these buttons, they don't hit us exactly the right way. The Oladance Pro has a pressure-sensitive touch button and touch surface. The slide to increase volume is fantastic. But that's where the advantages of this Pro end. The press gesture is quite unpredictable. We also had a situation where the right button died even though the swipe continued to work. Putting it back in the case and taking it out didn't work.

And we had to reset that one button by turning it off using the button button and turning it back on. On the Shokz, controls are limited. You can't do play-pause, track control, voice assistant and volume control at the same time. You have to make decisions and make trade-offs. You're basically left with double-tap and hold gestures on both ears. But in the Oladance app, you can customize what the different presses can do. Oh, and for both Shokz and Oladance: the volume doesn't change until the music plays. For control customization, we would choose the Oladance, but for ease of use and reliability, the Shokz.

But is the Oladance OWS Pro ahead in terms of comfort and fit? Although they may look bulky in the video, trust us, the comfort and fit are perfect! 'Liquid silicone molding'? 'Ceramic coating'? I have no idea what those terms mean, since neither of us are material science gurus, but we are comfort fanatics and can verify that they are super comfortable and very lightweight. Also with glasses. But the Shokz OpenFit are the LIGHTEST open-ear headphones we've ever

tested

. These are comfortable with glasses too! The Oladance weighs 27g while the Shokz weighs 16g. And if we had to choose one for comfort, it would be the Shokz for its lighter weight and thinner ear hooks.

You know that extra features are an afterthought when we do reviews because they're not really deal breakers, but in this case, there's a lot to talk about. Do you remember simple or smart? There is a lot of intelligence in Oladance! You get a "focus mode," which is sort of an attempt at noise cancellation with open-back headphones. The buttons generate a kind of anti-white noise and actually reduce background noise. It's amazing that an open pair of ears can do this. The only other earbuds we came across that claimed this were Samsung's Galaxy Buds Live. But that “ANC” setting did absolutely nothing for us.

Now the problem we had with the "focus mode" was that it didn't stay on constantly and would randomly turn off and on again. It seems like a software issue, but we're not sure. We can definitely appreciate the innovation and novelty here, so we hope that Oladance solves this problem and that other headphone manufacturers can take advantage of what Oladance has started here. Multipoint is aboard the Oladance. And you can also see all paired devices in the app. Entering pairing mode is also super easy by holding down both buttons. No case required. And now your headphones can have more friends than you, one friend per friend.

A pretty useless feature that allows you to pair other headphones. I guess it's a useful thing if you lose a bud and find another one. But let's move on to more useful things. There are also plenty of travel cases, as well as a button you can purchase separately to control your music and calls on the go. However, there is no wear sensor on board to detect if music is playing once you take off the headphones. In addition to this, there are smaller adjustments like changing the balance of the left and right channel and a hearing protection feature that limits the maximum volume.

Smart, right? And the Shokz OpenFit? Well, it's surprisingly missing here. Without wear sensor and without multipoint. And you have to put the buttons in the case and hold both buttons to put them in pairing mode. Or as we said: simple. And as we like to say, microphones need to have popsicles, icicles, and testicles. In noisy conditions, we see that the Shokz does its best by suppressing car noises but maintaining voice clarity. The Oladance definitely has more difficulties. If you speak loudly, it's fine, but when you speak softly, your voice may cut off. Oladance talks a lot about reducing wind noise in much of their marketing.

But in windy situations, we wouldn't really recommend any of these headphones. But if we had to choose, we would choose the Oladance in case of a very quick phone call. But guys, in silent conditions both work very well. So if these will be workout headphones just for you, you'll be fine. What about the controls on the vakman? Both give you the basics of answering and hanging up, as well as volume control. The volume on Shokz will only work if it is set in the app to the tap and hold gesture. The Oladance claims to have mute control on the manual with a long press of either button, but that didn't work for us.

As far as open-back headphone sound quality goes, the Shokz OpenFit isn't terrible. But relatively speaking, the Oladance Pro takes the cake over the OpenFit in this department. It certainly has a much richer sound signature for music and podcasts. You get a much stronger bass response that is more present than on the OpenFit. In terms of volume, it also increases. Volume will be important if you are trying to listen to something outdoors and have a lot of ambient noise. The Oladance app also offers a bunch of equalizer presets, as well as the extra features we talked about above.

Although Oladance claims to have anti-noise leak technology, did it do better than the Shokz? No, it wasn't like that. The Shokz had less sound leakage at comparable volume levels. However, the Shokz is outgunned in this form factor - the sibilant highs are a problem, for example. But given the nature of these products, it's certainly not a bad thing. The app also has customization for EQ and the bass is audible, which is more than we could say for the first generation of open-back headphones. So, the money issue! Which Dubai? For starters, they are both expensive! $180 for OpenFit and an additional $50 for Oladance, not including any accessories you want to purchase.

Guys, we're not going to lie, those dollars are big. We've done a full breakdown of the Shokz OpenFit with five other buds here. So we're not going to repeat everything. But between these two? The choice is clear, right? The Shokz has the four P's going for it: price, portability, dust protection and light weight. Which, let's be honest, are VERY important reasons. But if you're already splurging around $180, in our opinion, the Oladance gives you plenty of extras, but it also performs better on basics like sound quality, battery life, and volume. If you can handle most of it, Oladance is our pick!

You've been open to getting in shape, like a pro. And we have been DHRME Namaste!