It’s extremely gratifying whenever I get the chance to review devices that match my preferences to T. That’s how I feel after using the HONOR Earbuds Open. That wasn’t the case initially. I was excited, but I had my reservations.

This being my first open-ear earbuds in a while, I was cautiously optimistic on practically everything about it. The fit, the sound quality, and the noise cancellation were my primary concerns. I just haven’t tried anything in this category that satisfied all three.

On paper, the HONOR Earbuds Open appears to have all the said features.

Design: Crescent Curve, Full Moon Body, Slimline Ear hook, Ultra-thin Design
Weight: 7.8g
Color: Polar Gold and Polar Black

Sound:

• Acoustic-Grade Sound Quality
  • 16mm toroidal multi-magnetic circuit unit
  • Highly sensitive speaker with extra large amplitude
  • High elasticity TPU composite film sheet
• Bass Surging
  • Industry-first Virtual Bass Algorithm
• Active Noise Cancellation for Open-Ear Design
• Surround Cinema Stereo Listening
  • Spatial Audio
• Environmental Noise Cancellation
• Press/Swipe Control

Battery & charging

• 58mAh battery per earbud; typically up to 6 hours
• 480mAh Charging Case:
• Typical music playing time with charging case: up to 22 hours
• USB Type-C

Water resistance: IP54
Bluetooth 5.2

The right fit

As I review more and more devices, their form, feel, and fit start to weigh more heavily in how I evaluate them. The same is true for earbuds. But most of what I’ve tried in recent years are in-ear ones. And as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I can’t stand wearing them for over four hours.

That’s not the case with the HONOR Earbuds Open. It took me a while to get used to wearing them, but once I did, I didn’t have a problem having them on for an entire work day and then some. They’re that comfortable.

It’s great that I don’t have to stick them into my ears. Because no matter what I’ve tried, I just can’t keep in-ears, well, inside my ears for very long. I get irritated after a while.

The HONOR Earbuds Open is true to its word when it said it’s a comfortable wear. The material doesn’t irritate any part of my ears that it comes in contact with. And the open ear design means there’s no foreign object entering the holes at the side of my head.

Superb sound

The bass was bassing. This was a standout feature to me and HONOR even made it a point to make sure we listened to bass-heavy tracks.

For this particular exercise, I first listened to “Whiplash” by aespa. It has a disco dance vibe with thumping bass in the hook part of the song. The HONOR Earbuds Open delivered stellar bass. It’s the right level that you feel it just enough without sacrificing the overall sound quality.

And the sound quality is on par with some of the best earbuds and headphones that I’ve tried. It just wasn’t the level of quality I was expecting from an open-ear design. The quality was really close if not just the same as the SteelSeries Arctis Gamebuds and just a hair under the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro which has been my primary earbuds since reviewing it.

I went ahead and listened to the rest of my favorite tracks and I was just pleasantly surprised with the experience. The audio was clean, clear, and crisp.

Stunning silence

The audio quality was aided by the incredible noise cancellation technology on the HONOR Earbuds Open. It’s something you can turn on/off by long-pressing the surface area of either earbud.

When you toggle on/off, you definitely “hear” the noise cancellation in play. Again, for something with an open-ear design, the way it’s able to silence your surroundings is crazy good.

Easy controls

Controls are mapped as taps, press and hold, and swipes. You can customize it on the HONOR AI Space app. As mentioned earlier, turning the noise cancellation on/off is done by pressing and holding either earbud.

The other controls are double tap and triple tap on either side as well as swiping up and down. The swipe is reserved for controlling the volume but the taps can be mapped to your liking. It can be to pause/play, next track, and previous track.

Overall, it’s quite intuitive if you’re used to using in-ear headphones.

AI Translate

Another feature that I’ve so far only seen on the Galaxy Buds3 Pro is the ability to translate through the earbuds.

To test this, we connected the HONOR Earbuds Open to the HONOR Magic7 RSR and watched a recorded version of LE SSERAFIM Chaewon’s casual live broadcast.

Using the Interpreter mode on AI Translate, the device listens to the speaker (in this case, Chaewon). It first translates on the phone and then a voice relays and plays the translation on the Earbuds Open.

The translation isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough that you should still be able to understand what’s being communicated.

Is the HONOR Buds Open your GadgetMatch?

You might have guessed already by how glowingly I’ve spoken about it. The HONOR Earbuds Open is a SuperSwipe for me. It will immediately become my go-to pocket earbuds owing to its combination of being comfortable to wear, sounding great, and a cool extra AI translation feature.

There’s still the matter of pricing which, as of writing, isn’t available yet. But as long as it isn’t absurd, this has been one of the easiest gadgets to recommend. Of course, if circumstances allow, it’s still best to go to a store and try one for yourself. Comfort and fit matter a lot for a device like this and you have to make sure it’s to your liking.

Outside of that, I’m confident people will enjoy its sound quality, noise cancellation, and other features. It deserves the GadgetMatch Seal of Approval.