I swapped my Shokz for the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2, and it took some EQ to make it work

For a long time, if you wanted headphones that leave your ears open on a run, there was really only one option on the market: Shokz. Now, open earbuds are having a moment, with plenty of different form factors and technologies available. The Langsdom AirWave Pro 2 may look a lot like a pair of bone conduction headphones, but it isn’t one. It’s a cheaper pair of open-ear headphones that wraps a light frame around the back of your head, withstands sweat and rain, and stores up to 16GB of music onboard so you can listen offline like the good ol’ days. I usually run with a pair of Shokz, so I swapped them out for the AirWave Pro 2 for two weeks to see if this cheaper alternative could keep up.

What’s it like to use the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2?

It’s a handy phone-free running companion, held back by a so-so fit and a bright default sound.

Design

The AirWave Pro 2 is a single piece with a wraparound headband: a thin band sits behind your head, hooks loop over each ear, and a small speaker pod rests just in front of your ear canal. It’s covered in soft silicone and weighs only 25.5g, which is about 5g lighter than the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2.

I brought up Shokz for comparison because when I first saw the image on the box, I assumed these were bone conduction headphones. After all, the wraparound band with the pods resting by your ears is the same look Shokz made famous. But they aren’t. Bone conduction headphones vibrate against your cheekbones, while the AirWave Pro 2 just uses tiny speakers pointed into your ear canal. Langsdom, and many other brands, are marketing this as “air conduction,” which is really just a fancy way of saying it’s a speaker. We’ll get into the sound quality in a later section.

For me, the fit isn’t great. The AirWave Pro 2 kind of just hangs off your ears, and it’s one-size-fits-all: you can’t adjust the band length, shift its position, or angle the speakers toward your ears. So, if the speakers don’t line up with your ear canals, there’s nothing you can really do about it. To its credit, it stays fairly stable when I move my head side to side. However, when I look up and down, the backside wraparound can bump against the back of my neck, especially while wearing a jacket, and get pushed forward.

The AirWave Pro 2 charges via a proprietary magnetic port, so a standard USB-C cable won’t work, unfortunately. Langsdom softens that by including two charging cables in the box: one with a USB-C plug and one with a USB-A plug. You also get a compact zippered carrying case with an inner pouch to keep the cables with the headphones.

All the controls live on the right-side module: volume up, volume down, and a multifunction button between them. You can reassign all three in the app as you like. They are fairly large and easy to find and press while out for a run and working out.

The IP67 rating means it’s fully dust-tight and can survive being submerged in a meter of water for 30 minutes, so sweat, rain, or even a rinse under the tap are no problem. Just don’t take it swimming; Langsdom says it isn’t designed for that. The headset comes in three colors: Frost White, Storm Gray, and Coral Pink. If you spot a horse graphic printed on the headphones in our photos, that’s because our white review unit comes from Langsdom’s first production batch. Future white units won’t have it.

Features

The standout feature of the AirWave Pro 2, at least for me, is its 16GB of built-in storage, so you can load music directly and listen without a phone. Loading music works like a USB stick. Plug the headphones into a computer with the included cable, and they appear as a drive called “Langsdom” that you can drag songs, audiobooks, or folders onto. You can also transfer from a phone, though using a computer is far easier. It plays MP3, FLAC, WAV, APE, and WMA files, so most music libraries will work without converting anything. Double-press the multi-function button to switch between Bluetooth and storage mode; once you’re in storage mode, a triple press toggles shuffle. Expect less battery life in storage mode, too: Langsdom rates it at about 7 hours at half volume.

There is also a mobile app that keeps things simple with a few extra features. The home screen shows battery level and links to three settings: buttons, EQ, and AI.

The EQ has 10 bands, from 32Hz in the bass up to 16kHz in the treble. You get six presets (Default, Pop, Rock, Jazz, Classic, and Country) and three slots to save your own custom presets. Button settings let you change what each of the three buttons does for different press types. Out of the box, a single press on the multi-function button plays, pauses, and answers or hangs up calls, while a triple press calls up your phone’s voice assistant.

Then there’s the AI tab, which Langsdom advertises as a built-in AI assistant. It’s really a collection of chatbots inside the app, and you need to create a Langsdom account to use them. I didn’t. Beyond a general AI chat, it suggests uses like grocery help, travel guides, poetry writing, and workout tips, which are harmless enough. Others are harder to shrug off. There’s an “Emotional Support” option, and a Role Simulation section lets you chat with a “Psychologist” or “Nutritionist” alongside Zeus, Confucius, and Isaac Newton. A chatbot playing a psychologist isn’t one, and I wouldn’t take mental health or diet advice from software bundled with a pair of running headphones.

How does the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2 connect?

The AirWave Pro 2 connects via Bluetooth 6.0 and supports Bluetooth multipoint, so it can stay connected to two devices at once, such as your phone and a laptop. It supports the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs.

Pairing was painless. I had a couple of brief dropouts while out and about, but nothing major. When watching video, I noticed a slight delay between the picture and the sound, known as latency.

How long does the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2’s battery last?

In our standardized battery test, the AirWave Pro 2 lasted 11 hours and 20 minutes. Langsdom claims about 13.5 hours at half volume and 9 hours at full volume, so our result lands in between, which is plenty for a week of daily runs.

When it runs dry, a full charge takes about an hour, and fast charging works as advertised: 10 minutes on the charger gets you roughly 3 hours of playback.

How does the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2 sound?

The default sound is bright: the treble is loud enough to sound shrill, and there’s almost no bass to balance it out. Plan on spending some time in the EQ settings.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Can you use the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2 for phone calls?

Langsdom says the AirWave Pro 2 uses AI noise reduction to keep voices clear on calls. In ideal conditions, voices sound good, as you can hear below:

Langsdom AirWave Pro 2 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the Langsdom AirWave Pro 2?

If you want to run without your phone and don’t mind spending a few minutes in the EQ, the AirWave Pro 2 is a capable, affordable pick: the onboard storage, long battery life, and wind-resistant mic all deliver. If great sound out of the box or an adjustable fit matters more to you, look elsewhere.

SoundGuys readers get 10% off at Langsdom’s website with code SOUNDGUYS.

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