Review on 🎧 AfterShokz Air AS650CR Open Ear Bone Conduction Headphones - Canyon Red: The Ultimate Wireless Experience by Justin Albright

UPDATED 08/31/19Rating has been raised back to 3 stars. The company eventually replied to my email that my claim was approved and the replacement headset was sent in the mail. I did not ask to return the original headset. UPDATED 8/25/19 Downgraded from 3 stars to 2 stars. After 9 months of use, the black cover on the right side fell off. This is the part that comes into contact with your head and vibrates/makes a sound. See the photo I included in this review. Aftershokz apparently offers a 2 year warranty. I submitted a claim through their website, I have not received any response from them for almost 2 weeks. I sent an email through their website's contact form with no response. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE is still based on this. Let's see if they ever reply. UPDATED 11/12/18. After using these headphones daily for most of the day, here are some more takeaways. - They do a great job of sweating. Easy to clean. - Connecting my Trekz Air to 2 devices causes problems. I'm not sure if it's a headset or my Samsung S8+. However, when iPhone is connected to both work (iphone7) and personal (S8+) phones, it cannot answer calls. When I'm connected to my S8+ and my car (2016 Honda Pilot), I can't play music or video streams (Netflix, Revain or Youtube) on my S8+. However, as soon as I disconnect from Pilot, everything works fine. - The tape sticking out from behind my head is definitely a big problem. I really can't rest my head on any surface anymore. Sometimes I wish I could lay back in my lounge chair and just close my eyes and listen to music, but no, I can't. - When listening to music, you can press the MFB button once to pause/play or press twice to skip. I found it difficult to use. When I double tap to skip songs, sometimes it just registers as a single tap. I noticed that the delay between clicks is quite small. You must press the button quickly for it to recognize 2 presses. On the other hand, it just pauses the music. Another problem is that there is no difference between skip and pause/play. Both emit a beep. So when I wanted to skip I was stuck waiting for the next song but it just stopped. If Aftershokz beeped differently, at least I'd know I didn't tap twice fast enough. ________________ ORIGINAL EFFECTS: - Good build quality. Looks strong and doesn't feel fragile - lightweight. I hardly notice it after wearing them for a while - the sound works as described. It transmits sound well through bone conduction. - The call quality is amazing. I called another phone in a crowded room, others were talking 3ft away and I left a message to check. When I listed the voicemail I had just left, the headset cleared everything perfectly and my voice was very loud and clear! - Stays in place during exercise. In my experience, it hasn't fallen over or wobbled while running. - Colours. I have Red Canyon and I love it. It doesn't stand out as a bright red and is perfectly subdued for my taste. The surface is not glossy at all, rather matte matte. CONS - $150 is too much for such a miniature product. - Micro USB port for charging. I wish they had used a more modern USB-C. I don't know what the limitations are with using it, but currently all my cables are USB-C and I'd rather not carry an extra cable just to charge it. - Concussion! At high volumes you will definitely feel the headset vibrating against the back of your ear. Inconvenient in my opinion - sound quality. Not really a scam because of the nature of this product. However, the sound quality in it is far from in-ear or in-ear headphones. Bass is weak. When the bass is strong enough, I feel strong vibrations. - sound leak. At high volume people can definitely hear the audio coming out of the headset, it's not overly loud but 3 seats to my right on the bus could hear it. - fit in. The part of the bow that goes behind my head is too big. I wish it was adjustable. It sticks out about an inch behind my head. This is a big problem when I'm on an airplane and have to lean my head back against the headrest. I also can't lie on my back while listening to music. However, the headset works well in the horizontal position. However, I think this is a HUGE issue for comfort, especially with so many people using it while sitting and reclined on public transport. - Limited buttons. There is a volume up button, a volume down button and a multifunction button. Only 3 buttons. It annoys me that the MFB is on the left ear and the volume buttons are on the right. Why is that annoying? Because to go to the next song I have to double tap the MFB. The next song seems too loud to me, now I have to switch to the right hand to regulate the volume. It seems tedious to control the headset with both hands. - Equalizers. There seems to be an option to change the EQ setting between the two modes. One is for normal over-the-ear use and the other is for earplug use. I don't see the difference yet, we'll see in the future. However, this is a problem because if you hold the volume up/down keys together to change the equalizer mode, you only get a change in the voicemail equalizer. It doesn't tell you which mode is for what exactly. It should say "Earbuds Enabled" or something like that. - Ear plug. I personally would like to be able to easily carry the earbuds without putting them in my pocket, bag, etc. If I could clip them to the headset for quick access that would be great. Overall I am 50/50 satisfied with this product. If they fixed the issue of not being able to put my head back maybe I would get 5 stars.