Tozo OpenEgo: wireless open-ear headphones for rocking runners

Well-balanced budget earbuds for bouncing along to your favorite tunes

Runner wearing Tozo OpenEgo in the woods
(Image: © Pat Kinsella)

Advnture Verdict

Smartly designed, and offering excellent audio quality and well-balanced performance levels for those who like to soundtrack their outdoor adventures, the OpenEgo wireless open-ear headphones enable you to run to the rhythm of your favorite tunes, take in a podcast while tackling a trail, or take phone calls on the move. They’re not as highly specced as some running headphones, and the Smart Touch operating system can be a little bit temperamental, but they’re a very high-performing piece of kit for their asking price.

Pros

  • +

    Excellent audio quality

  • +

    Microphone works well when making calls

  • +

    Comes with stabilizers

  • +

    Great price

  • +

    Easy one-step pairing with Bluetooth 5.3 tech

  • +

    Long battery life

  • +

    Compact storage/recharging box

Cons

  • -

    Requires addition of stabilizers (included) to avoid bouncing

  • -

    Less waterproof than some models

  • -

    Smart Touch operating system is temperamental

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    Audio impacted by headwinds

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For many people, listening to music is a prerequisite for running, and they struggle to find the motivation to hit the pavements, parks or trails without a soundtrack to invigorate and inspire them, or possibly a podcast to distract them the pain or drown out all the puffing and panting. Accordingly, there are an increasing number of excellent running headphones and air pods on the market, offering an ever-more sophisticated suite of features for the active audio slave.

There are at least five different types of running ear pods and headphones for people to choose from. It’s important to remember that having some sensory awareness of what is happening around you is very important from a safety point of view (hence why many races ban all or some kinds of headphones), which has led to the rise in popularity of bone conducting and open-ear technology. Many of these models are super expensive, but the first thing I noticed about the Tozo OpenEgo wireless open-ear headphones was the very reasonable price tag.

Can budget headphones offer the kind of rock steady performance required from runners and deliver top quality audio? There was only one way to find out. I have been running on streets and trails for the last two months while wearing the OpenEgos, and this is what I think of them.

The components of the Tozo OpenEgo open-ear headphones

The components of the Tozo OpenEgo open-ear headphones (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

Design and features

As the name suggests, the Tozo OpenEgos are wireless open-ear headphones, which means the speakers do not enter or cover your ear, allowing you to hear sounds such as the noise of approaching traffic, sirens and warning shouts (from race marshals or fellow runners). Instead, a left/right specific speaker sits on your tragus (the lumpy part of your ear, in line with your eyes, located directly in front of the ear canal).

Specifications

List price: $50 (US) / £52 (UK)

Weight (2 x ear pieces only): 25g / 0.9oz

Weight (in box): 88g/3.1oz

Battery life: 30 hours (with case) / circa 8 hours (without case)

Charging time: 2 hours

Connection: Wireless (Bluetooth 5.3, AAC/SBC)

Bluetooth range: 10m/30ft

Noise cancellation: Dual-mic DNS call noise reduction

Colors: Black/White

Dust and Water ingress rating: IPX4

These speakers are kept in place by a counterweight and a small flexi frame that curls around the main part of your lugs. The OpenEgos come with a pair of stabilizers, simple slide-on pieces of thin rubber, which are also left/right specific and feature a small tab that gently pushes against the back of your ear to help keep the speaker from bouncing around when you’re running. These do work very well (more details below) but you can also wear these headphones beneath most running hats and caps.

Tozo OpenEgo headphones in their charging box

The Tozo OpenEgo headphones in their charging box (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

The OpenEgos come with a compact charging and storage box, which provides an excellent place to house these ear pieces during storage and transit. To recharge them, you place the headphones in the box, aligning the elements correctly (which is the only way they fit in), and plug in a USB Type-C cable (which comes included). The battery level is digitally displayed as a percentage on the exterior of the case, so you always know how much juice you have to play with.

With an impressive battery life of 30 hours on a full charge (when using the box – although Tozo claim 80 hours on their website), you can have tunes (roughly 1200 of them over that time) for the entire duration of even the most ultra of an ultra event (or just rest assured that if you forget to plug it in, even after a long day on the trails), there will still be some juice left in the tank for another session the next day. Without the box, you can expect 8 hours of audio action. It takes less than two hours to completely recharge the OpenEgos.

The headphones have an ingress rating of IPX4, which means they are splash proof and should be OK in light rain, but don’t go dropping them fully into water.

Screenshot of the Tozo App

You can adjust your audio preferences and fine tune the EQ settings in the Tozo App (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

Connectivity and sound

The OpenEgos boast a 16.2mm dynamic driver that’s 14% larger than many other ear buds, delivering top-quality audio (especially for the price), with resonant bass and sharp treble notes.

The OpenEgo connects to devices (smart phones, watches etc) via Bluetooth 5.3 technology, with AAC and SBC codecs supported. The range is a very respectable 10 metres/30 feet. The Tozo App allows you to manage and customise your listening library and personal preferences, with presets delivering a tailored sound.

The speakers on the Tozo OpenEgo earpieces

The speakers on the Tozo OpenEgo earpieces feature a large 16.2mm dynamic driver (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

Directional sound technology, enhanced by dynamic low frequency, belies the product’s name and means there is very little sound leakage from the OpenEgos when you’re using them in busier scenarios. As a result, other people on train carriages will hate you less, and fellow runners who you do not wish to engage with don’t get to judge your choice of tunes. And this is despite the open-ear design, which means you can still hear sirens and other warnings when scampering along streets, or the directions/cautions of marshals during events.

The dual-mic system (assisted by some AI algorithmic necromancy I’m not going to pretend to understand, but which will probably contribute to the end of humankind in some form) strips out external noises, so you can hear and be understood when using the OpenEgo to take calls out on the trail (if you really must).

Runner using the Tozo OpenEgo's Smart Touch operating system

The Tozo OpenEgo's Smart Touch operating system allows you to manage your music on the run (although it can be a bit fiddly) (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

Operation

The OpenEgos boast a Smart Touch system, operated through a series of taps on one or other of the earpieces. This means you can change tracks, increase or decrease the volume, or activate voice command and accept calls while on the run, without having to stop and dig out your phone, or use your watch. For example, one tap on either earpiece pauses the tune you’re listening to. Two taps on the left earpiece takes you back by one track; two taps on the right skips you forward by one song. You can decrease the volume by pressing the left earpiece and holding it, and increase it by doing the same on the right. A similar set of actions allows you to accept (single tap either side), end (double tap either side) or reject (prolonged touch) phone calls, and to activate Voice Command systems such as Siri (three taps).

Runner wearing Tozo OpenEgo headphones

Pat wearing Tozo OpenEgo headphones while running along the coast (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

On the trails

I’ll start with a confession: it was only after running several times while wearing the OpenEgos, and getting a bit irritated by how much they moved around while I was tackling more lumpy, bumpy technical trails, that I discovered the stabilizers. (To be completely honest, until I read the instructions properly I thought these little rubber slippers were intended as dust caps for the speakers, and I was wondering why Tozo had made them so tight…) Once I started using the stabilizers correctly, I was very pleasantly surprised how effective these (extremely basic) extras are at keeping the ear pieces in place and reducing bounce. They don’t stop the units charging when they’re in the box either, so now I just leave them on (I’m not entirely sure why Tozo don’t send the OpenEgos out with these in place, but I guess non-runners don’t really need them).

Tozo OpenEgo with stabilizers applied

The Tozo OpenEgo earpieces with stabilizers applied (Image credit: Pat Kinsella)

The fit and feel of the OpenEgo earpieces is comfortable and non-intrusive. Once I was into my groove (and after I’d figured out the stabilizers), I essentially forgot I was wearing a device that was wrapped around each or my ears.

To operate the OpenEgos you basically just pinch the ear piece, which activates the unit, and then use the Smart Touch system detailed above to manage your music, as well as answering calls and accessing your voice assistant. While brilliant in theory, in practise I found this part fiddly. I’m not the most technical or dextrous person at the best of times, let alone when I’m running around in the wilds trying not to trip over, but I found the operating system of the OpenEgos to be either overly sensitive (activating or pausing when I didn’t want it to) or slow to respond, leaving me furiously tapping the side of my head while running (a likely looking a bit deranged). I can at least usually get the volume and pause controls to work, and they’re the features I require most often. Beyond that, I typically set the OpenEgos up how I want them before embarking on a run, and then just roll with it.

I have found the sound quality to be really decent, especially considering the price point these headphones are available from. They struggle a little bit when you’re running into a headwind, but generally speaking the audio is really crisp, with good bass and treble levels.

I’ve been impressed with both the battery life offered by the OpenEgos, and also the ease and speed with which you can recharge them. The charging box makes them very easy to store and transport too – it easily slips into the pocket of a backpack or jacket.

I’m not one to take many calls while I’m out on the trails, but I have experimented with this feature extensively, and the voice and microphone is really excellent, with the noise reduction tech really doing its job.

Also consider

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Headphones

Tozo OpenEgo

Shokz OpenFit

Shokz OpenRun Pro

List Price

$50 / £52

$180 / £179

$180 / £159.95

Weight

25g (earpieces only x2)

17g (earpieces only x2)

29g

Battery Life

30 hours (with case) / circa 8 hours (without case)

28 hours (with case) / circa 7 hours (without case)

10 hours

Pat Kinsella
Advnture Consulting Editor

Author of Caving, Canyoning, Coasteering…, a recently released book about all kinds of outdoor adventures around Britain, Pat has spent 20 years pursuing stories involving boots, bikes, boats, beers and bruises. En route he’s canoed Canada’s Yukon River, climbed Mont Blanc and Kilimanjaro, skied and mountain biked through the Norwegian Alps, run an ultra across the roof of Mauritius, and set short-lived records for trail-running Australia’s highest peaks and New Zealand’s Great Walks. He’s authored walking guides to Devon and Dorset, and once wrote a whole book about Toilets for Lonely Planet. Follow Pat’s escapades on Strava here and Instagram here.