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As excellent as open earbuds are at letting you stay aware of the world while listening to music, they do come with the major trade off of offering no active noise cancellation. That is, until now.
Soundcore debuted the AeroFit 2 Pro earbuds at CES in January, marking the introduction of the first dual-form earbuds. Depending on the wear position, they let the user experience an open-ear bud or a noise-cancellation bud. In essence, they're the "¿Por qué no los dos?" of the earbud world.
Of course, versatility can still come with trade-offs of its own. Namely, rather than excelling in one area, a product can be just OK in multiple areas. While I found that these Soundcore buds fell somewhat into that trap, the brand undeniably deserves its flowers for figuring out a way to combine an open and noise-cancelling earbud.
While they won't be for everyone, I do think there are people who will want to invest in this early iteration of an innovative design. Before we get into it and why, let's break down what these buds bring to the table.
Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro: Price and specs
Soundcore loves to make a quality product for a relatively affordable price, and the AeroFit 2 Pro earbuds are no exception. Through March 2026, they're available for a special intro price of $149.99, which will bump up to $179.99 following March 31.
Spec-wise, here's what you'll get:
Battery life: Seven hours in open mode (34 hours in case), five hours with ANC mode (24 hours in case)
ANC: Adaptive active noise cancellation
Drivers: 11.8 mm composite material drivers
Equalizer: 8 bands
Spatial audio: Yes
IP rating: IP55 water and dust resistance
Connection: Bluetooth 6.1
Mics: Four mics with AI
Colors: Matte black, matte purple, gloss white
How dual-form open earbuds work
Dual-form earbuds sound like an obvious and great idea in principle, but how do they actually work in practice? Honestly, better than I expected.
The basic mechanism that makes these earbuds possible is an adjustable ear hook. In the first and second position, the body of the earbuds sits slightly above the ear canal, making them feel like a somewhat less obtrusive classic AirPods design. The ear hook helps keep them relatively secure in their position. When you're ready to switch to noise cancellation mode, you switch the ear hook into the four or five wear position, which brings the buds more flush against the ear canal.
At that point, they're still not a true in-ear bud — Soundcore calls them semi in-ear — but they're enough of one that active noise cancellation is actually possible. As such, the number three position for the ear hook can float the buds between being used in open or ANC mode.
The ear hook helpfully clicks into place, but I never quite got to the place where I could make these adjustments without thinking too hard. Still, at the longest, and the lowest point of my learning curve, it took all of roughly 45 seconds to get the earbuds into place. They felt slightly more secure in the ANC modes than the open ear modes, but they never straight-up fell out of place.
Surprisingly great sound
At this point, I've had my share of being pleasantly surprised by the sound quality on open earbuds, so while my expectations weren't low, I did have a couple of initial hesitations about this particular pair. For one, if the earbuds sounded markedly better on the ANC mode, I anticipated that contrast might reveal too many flaws in the open earbud mode, and using them in both forms would be less appealing
There was also the matter of the semi in-ear wear for the ANC mode, which made me feel less confident in the ability of these buds to produce robust, well-rounded sound that I would expect of $180 earbuds.
Thankfully, I was wrong on both counts. While the ANC mode is clearer and richer, it's also not so much better as to put the open ear mode to shame. When listening solely on the ANC mode, I found the quality to be solid out of the box, and even better once I started playing around with the companion app. Soundcore took a page out of Sony's book with an equalizer preference test that lets the user adjust to their preferred equalizer settings without having to know what each band on the custom EQ might be doing. As the open ear mode and ANC mode are slightly different listening experiences, Soundcore also lets you set custom EQs for each.
The ANC versatility comes with a catch
For all my unfounded worries about the sound quality, I did come into this testing experience with higher hopes for the ANC. After all, I've tested Soundcore products before, and found that their ANC often stacks up against much pricier brands.
Unfortunately, the noise cancellation most showed that the AeroFit 2 Pro buds are Soundcore's first attempt at a dual-form earbud. That's not to say it's bad — it's there, and it does the job — but it's not going to compare to ANC buds in a similar price range, or even more budget-friendly buds like the $80 Raycon Everyday Earbuds or $80 (and frequently on sale) EarFun Air Pro 4 earbuds.
The main culprits of this ANC's lackluster status are a noticeably loud hissing sound and a fairly narrow limit on what it can block. While sitting on a patio with the ANC activated and no music playing, I could easily make out birds chirping, the sound of my own typing, and every word in a conversation taking place about 10 feet away from me. With music, naturally, more noise was dulled, but not completely blocked out. They still performed better at blocking out sound than the noise reduction feature of the Shokz OpenFit Pro, but didn't quite match up to most other noise-cancelling buds I've tried.
Still, it was convenient not having to carry around two different kinds of earbuds. If high-level noise cancellation isn't a top priority for you, the versatility of these buds does still carry a lot of mileage in how impressive they are.
Let's talk about the design
While the design is undeniably innovative, it's not seamless just yet. If you don't love the way standard AirPods wear (not the Pros with the silicone tips), you probably won't be a huge fan of these. It doesn't matter so much in the open earbuds mode, but when worn in their ANC positions, these earbuds don't provide that perfect seal.
To be fair, they don't claim to — as I mentioned above, Soundcore says these have a semi in-ear fit. The ear hook helps fight any annoyances with them falling out, but for true noise cancellation and the most secure wear possible, I prefer the ear hook/in-ear design of the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2.
Finally, the case on these earbuds is large. It's to be expected with this design, but even compared to other ear hook models, the case will have some bulk to it, which is something to be aware of if you were planning on slipping it in your pocket or taking it on the go.
An excellent value
Regardless of their flaws, these earbuds wowed me, especially on the value front.
For comparison, Soundcore's regular AeroFit 2 buds — one of our favorite pairs of open earbuds (that feature zero noise cancellation) — run for $129.99. With the AeroFit 2 Pro priced at $179.99, the only way you could get a similar deal is by buying the older Soundcore AeroFits and $50 ANC buds. And you'd still lose out on the convenience factor of having a two-in-one product. Despite their middling ANC, I still consider these earbuds to be better than a $50 pair of ANC buds in their combination of sound performance, noise cancellation, and convenience.
The next closest point of comparison is probably the noise-reducing Shokz OpenFit Pro, which will run you $249.95, while the viral Bose Ultra Open buds cost $299.99. And those aforementioned Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds? $249.99.
Are the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro earbuds worth it?
For anyone interested in open earbuds, not quite ready to give up ANC buds altogether, and can't reasonably see themselves carrying around two pairs of earbuds, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pros are the best option available.
Sure, you make some concessions: the ANC won't be the best, and you're locked into an ear hook design. At the end of the day, I can't remember the last time I wore a pair of earbuds that felt this versatile — and I've tried my share of earbuds. While the early bird pricing of $149.99 is an absolute steal, I would still recommend these earbuds at their $179.99 list price.
