Tech
WIRED Tested Dozens of Espresso Machines. These Are the 9 Best
Compare the Top 8 Espresso Machines
Other Machines We Like
Breville Oracle Dual Boiler for $3,000: This update to the previous Breville Dual Boiler espresso machine is a powerful, truly impressive machine in many regards. It combines the easy touchscreen operation and automatic dosing and tamping of WIRED’s top-pick Oracle Jet with a welcome “manual” mode that lets you play with pre-infusion and bloom while monitoring a digital pressure gauge on the touchscreen. I kinda love this as an exercise in future-retro design—or whatever the inverse of steampunk is—but also as a means of really controlling my shot, and getting a lot more crema and body out of it. The dual-boiler heats up very fast—like four minutes fast—and gives you the wonderful temperature stability and consistency you expect from a dual boiler, plus the ability to steam milk and make espresso simultaneously. The early-production model I received had a very tight portafilter fit, which loosened up after the first 30 shots or so but initially required some muscle. I also haven’t been able to get good results with lighter-roast beans, which led to the occasional under-filled portafilter that had to be retamped manually. We’ll update as we resolve those quirks, but can attest that for medium to dark beans, this Dual Boiler is an absolute beast.
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
Meraki Espresso Machine for $1,999: Meraki is a young Hong Kong–based company. Last year it was still Kickstarting funds for its debut Meraki Espresso Machine. But the company started off with a bang, with a premium semiautomatic double-boiler machine offering features you don’t find even in machines that cost hundreds more. This means a Timemore grinder that’ll grind by weight within two-tenths of a gram precision. PID temperature control. Easy pre-infusion. A quiet rotary pump. Another scale under the brewer that lets you control output. A powerful steam wand that regulates the temperature of froth within about 3 degrees for whatever milk drinks strike your fancy. A tamper with satisfying heft, and a tamping station that feels like luxury. Frankly, despite having to overrotate the portafilter for proper fit, its wondrous aesthetics and ease made it a contender for our top picks. But service is always a worry among newer, direct-to-consumer entrants, and the wackily complicated descaling procedure makes maintenance a concern.
Ninja Luxe Cafe Premier for $600: Ninja has already released an upgraded Ninja Luxe Cafe Pro version ($750) after its espresso machine debut. But its first device, the Luxe Cafe Premier, is already a corker, a low-priced all-in-one with cold brew, coffee, espresso, excellent milk frothing, and unexpected luxury features like a built-in scale so the grinder can dose by weight. The device can feel either overstuffed or generous, depending on who you are. Either way this damn near unseated the Breville Barista Express as WIRED’s mid-tier top pick, aside from a few leaks and sensible caution about its durability.
De’Longhi La Specialista Opera for $900: Speaking of espresso makers that came running at Breville, this Opera is a beautifully forgiving semiautomatic machine that makes excellent espresso in the medium- to dark-roast range, with non-pressurized portafilter baskets that make for a nice and surprisingly subtle cup. It’s the best De’Longhi espresso machine I’ve tested, in many ways, among the semiautomatic camp. The Opera sports a lot of options—including dose and temperature control—while remaining refreshingly analog with its satisfying metal frame, metal buttons, and prominent pressure gauge. Cold brew is a perk for those who like milk. The grinder is decent, though its 15 settings might not offer enough sensitivity to pull the best from each roast. One could wish for a removable hopper and a sturdier tamping lever. But if you or your partner love cold coffee drinks or espresso martinis, this gives comparable Brevilles a strong run for the money.
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
De’Longhi La Specialista Touch for $1,000: De’Longhi’s new Touch, released this year, isn’t merely a touchscreen version of the very analog Opera—though it is just as handsome as the Opera. Instead, it offers a very specific set of trade-offs. Like De’Longhi’s Rivelia, there’s a bean-assist function that you can save for each bean you like. It’s also got a better steam wand, with the ability to read the temperature of the milk you’re steaming, as you steam it. In fact, it’s maybe more intuitive overall. But it doesn’t quite offer the easy customization on temperature, shot time, or ratios. The cold brew is not quite as well-dialed as the Opera. The Touch is an Italian machine on training wheels, designed for Italian-style medium to dark shots. This should work for most people, but minus a pressure bar or a shot timer, it can also feel like a bit of a black box.
-Reviewer-Photo-SOURCE-Julian-Chokkattu.jpg)
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
La Marzocco Linea Mini for $6,600: WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu spent two weeks with the La Marzocco’s Linea Mini, a home version of the fancy espresso machines you’ll see in coffee shops around the world. The price may be eye-searing, but Chokkattu did find the resulting elixir to be absolutely fantastic—and the same went for La Marzocco’s customer service while Chokkattu was dialing in his machine. It offers a lot of room for experimentation, and sports a killer cool-touch steam wand that froths milk in seconds.
Courtesy of Delonghi
De’Longhi Stilosa for $150: The Stilosa was our top budget pick for years. It’s still a good budget pick, and it often goes on sale for less than $100. You’re not going to get high-end features like a pressure gauge or built-in grinder, and it’s a little plasticky. But what the Stilosa does provide is everything you need to make great espresso at home: a solid portafilter, a reliable steam pump, and a steaming wand. It is a little light, so you’ll want to brace it when you mount and dismount the portafilter (or it might slide around on you). After brewing cup after cup of espresso, the Stilosa never showed signs of slowing or breaking down the way many inexpensive machines can. In fact, we’re now revisiting the Stilosa as our budget pick, after catching a few tips on how to use the Stilosa for light roast espresso.
Courtesy of Breville
Breville Barista Express Impress for $800: This espresso machine is the more tricked-out sibling of the Breville Barista Express. It includes more grind and dosing settings and automates some of the more complicated parts of brewing consistently good espresso, like getting just the right amount of beans ground per shot.
Courtesy of Amazon
Breville Dual Boiler for $1,600: The previous-generation Breville Dual Boiler is an absolute tank of an espresso machine. It’s huge. It’s heavy. It makes amazing espresso. But while its size makes brewing espresso feel luxurious, it does eat up a lot of space and needs a little time to heat up, versus newer Brevilles like the Oracle Jet that favor thermoblock-style heaters. But a dual boiler does mean you can brew shot after shot, with steamed milk and hot water at the same time, without having to wait in between shots. The new Breville Oracle Dual Boiler ($3,000) is already on the market, but you can still pick up the previous generation for half the price.
Cuisinart EM-160 Slim for $250: The lowest-cost espresso maker from Cuisinart’s new espresso line is among the slimmer espresso machines out there, less than 7 inches across. This makes it a treasure for certain kitchens. The espresso quality is about what you’d expect from a pressurized portafilter: smoother, less nuanced, but also pretty forgiving for beginners trying to dial in a bean. This’ll be best for those who mix milk with their espresso. Same goes for the fast-dripped “cold espresso” option, which takes a couple minutes to complete and comes out a bit tannic, but mixes well with cold milk or a lot of ice. You’ll need a grinder if you don’t want sad supermarket beans.
Courtesy of Superkop
Superkop Manual Espresso for $600: This manual espresso machine is technically not a Jackie Chan movie. The Superkop is instead a quite finely engineered espresso device. It looks pretty, and unlike other manual espresso machines you don’t need a strong arm to use it. So if you want to pull espresso, but not pull it hard, the Superkop is your huckleberry. That said, $800 is a lot of money for a manual device. Buy it if you know you’ll love it.
Also Tried
Cuisinart EM-640 Espresso Bar for $650: Cuisinart rolled in with some ambition on this semiautomatic espresso machine, with a built-in grinder and a non-pressurized, bottomless portafilter meant to play in the same sandbox as Breville’s top devices. Alas, I really couldn’t get consistency on either dosing or grinding from the device’s built-in grinder—and the system for customizing the dose in particular was mostly wild guesswork. This all added up to botched shots, wild spray from the portafilter, and none of the ease one wants from a semiautomatic.
Courtesy of Delonghi
De’Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo for $675: This semiautomatic De’Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo comes with a built-in burr grinder makes great espresso right out of the box, and is slimmer than other espresso machines in its category, It does have quirks: It includes a little plastic adapter needed to attach the portafilter to the grinder spout, and a little stepstool for your espresso cup to keep the coffee from splashing. It’s a good machine, but I’d upgrade to the Opera any day of the week.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do We Test and Evaluate Espresso Machines?
Over the past decade, WIRED has tested dozens of espresso makers to find our favorites. The process, in part, is simple. We brew a whole lot of coffee. I’ve written about coffee for more than a decade on both the East and West Coasts, including my hometown coffee mecca of Portland, Oregon. Other current and past WIRED espresso testers—who include former baristas and longtime coffee writers—include Jaina Grey, Jeffrey Van Camp, Kat Merck, Tyler Shane, Pete Cottell, and Scott Gilbertson.
On each machine that’s capable, I make and assess at least four drinks, on multiple roasts and beans: a basic 2:1 espresso, an Americano, a latte, and a cappuccino. On machines that advertise a wacky array of drinks, I test each one. This includes any newfangled coldspresso and head-scratching variations on a “long.” It also includes, if science dictates, espresso martinis. And I test to see whether a machine can be dialed to both dark roasts and lighter roasts.
I might make many dozens of coffees to dial in a machine and truly understand it. (Sometimes, alas, you understand a machine’s shortcomings far sooner.)
What I’m looking for is nuance, aromatics, beauty, sensitivity to the characteristics of each bean, and the satisfying texture of fully integrated milk. But also, I’m looking for ease, the thoughtful touches that make an espresso maker something you can fall in love with.
I test whether the hot water spout splatters, whether descaling requires a degree in hydrology, whether the brewing temperature is consistent, and whether the latte milk gets silked. I’m truly terrible at latte art, but whether it’s possible is a straightforward test of the body of the frothed milk. I test the airier foam of cappuccinos and compare manual and automatic milk frothing on machines that try to froth milk for you. I test how fast the wand steams and whether it’s easy to fully integrate milk before the dang thing starts to burn your milk.
On machines with built-in grinders, I both assess the grind and weigh the dose—and then weigh it again. And then again. Consistency is the hobgoblin of little cups. I also test multiple grind settings to make sure the grind is consistent.
On any semiautomatic machine that decides the shot size for you, I test this to see whether you’re getting a ristretto or a lungo by default. Then I resolve never to say the word “lungo” again.
I don’t generally take apart the machines I’m sent, but I do quite often look up videos of people who do—and look at how the thing’s constructed under the hood.
How We Select Espresso Machines to Test
In part, we select machines to test by looking at the espresso makers with long track records of making good espresso machines—people with long tails in the industry and good track records of customer support. Names like Breville, De’Longhi, La Marzocco, and Rancilio. But also, I listen. I read. I ask every coffee-obsessive in my life. I pay attention to the newest releases, follow trade shows, watch Youtube videos, and spend a lot of time tracking down not just the obious big names but the unexpected recommendations.
I often also look at how accessible each machine will be to most users. Espresso isn’t just a finicky process: It’s finicky by design. The most sensitive and sophisticated traditional machines are responsive to every tiny variation in the coffee grind and every fluctuation in the water temperature. The deepest bean geeks want this: They want the control, the frustration, the vision quest.
But I also know that most of you out there aren’t looking to be in an abusive relationship with your coffee machine. Few want to wake up to feelings of inadequacy, brought on by a machine that costs as much as a used car. And so what I look for is the espresso machines that can pull lovely character from each bean, but also make this easy on you.
This means that our top picks, the ones I recommend to most people, tend to fall in the semiautomatic camp: They’re the ones that offer the best coffee with the least effort. Finding this balance is delicate and often rewarding. It used to be that a built-in grinder was a recipe for blown shots, sadness, or pressurized portafilters with less character. But year by year, espresso machine makers get better at this goal.
The lowest-cost machines I recommend tend to offer more forgiving pressurized filter baskets as options, even though these sacrifice a bit of nuance for forgiveness, because I don’t want to assume you’re pairing a $200 espresso machine with a $2,000 coffee grinder. Although I know some of you do this, especially with our beloved Breville Bambino.
But hey, if you’re a tinkerer for life, and want to join modding groups? We recommend a machine for you, too. Mostly so you can disagree on Reddit, and explain why your favorite is better.
What Beans Are Best for Espresso?
First off, there’s no such thing as “espresso beans,” whatever it says on the bag you buy. Espresso beans are coffee beans, ground finely enough to be pressed into service as espresso.
But traditionally, espresso is made with darker-roast beans that best elicit the deep, chocolatey notes of classic Italian espresso. In fact, most machines you use are probably designed with dark-roast beans in mind: Darker beans grind easier, extract easier, and are a bit more homogeneous across the market. And so when someone writes “espresso roast” or “espresso blend” on their grind, that’s often what they mean.
Does that mean dark roast is the only espresso? Of course not. Modern craft and premium coffee roasters in the United States have begun trending toward medium and medium-dark roasts that offer a bit more balance, character, and even a little acidity—beans that have more aromatics, and more individuality. Some, including me, love experimenting with truly light roasts, including the lightest of natural-processed beans that let me brew up espresso that tastes like strawberries.
It’s up to you. But note that the lighter the roast, the more you’ll need to adjust grind and temperature to accommodate—and sometimes even go off-script entirely. (See here for an explainer on light-roast espresso.) But the classic recommendations for espresso? Pulling a 25- to 30-second shot, at a steady 9 bars of pressure, at a 2:1 ratio for a standard shot? These were all designed for traditional dark-roast beans.
One thing that’s true, however, is that you should use fresh beans. They’ll taste better and more aromatic, sure. But stale beans exposed to oxygen also make it technically difficult to make good espresso: they’ve begun to break down, often allow channeling, and are more likely to lead to a less evenly extracted shot with funny off-flavors.
Obviously, fresh beans are easiest to obtain from a local roaster, and on the plus side you’ll be able to ask the baristas there how best to make espresso from their beans. But when in doubt in a supermarket, look for a roast date on the bag. If you can’t find it, or if your beans were roasted in Italy and sent on a ship? Chances are they’re not fresh. And your espresso will be worse. For fresh beans delivered to your house, check out WIRED’s guide to the best coffee subscriptions.
Espresso Accessories That Make for Great Cups
If you’re spending this much on an espresso machine, you’ll want to invest in a good grinder and even a scale, as well as a few other devices that make your shots better, and your life a little easier.
-
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
-
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
WIRED
- Innovative fine-tuning for espresso, drip and French press alike
- Precise grinds, with clarity of flavor
- Built like a tank. Best value proposition overall
TIRED
- Not a looker, really
- No auto-shutoff
An espresso-capable grinder: If your espresso machine doesn’t come with a grinder, you’ll need one. Preground bag beans are especially difficult to use when making espresso, and will likely lead to off-flavors or channeling. But not just any grinder will do. You’ll need a good grinder that can grind consistent beans finely enough for espresso. WIRED’s top-pick Baratza Encore ESP is always a good choice—positioned squarely at the fulcrum where more expensive grinders begin to offer diminishing returns.
Courtesy of Amazon
Cozy Blue
Coffee Scale with Timer
An accurate scale with a timer: Most grinders, and a goodly portion of espresso machines, do not offer a precise scale. But a precise scale is what you need to get espresso ratios right. WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu loved the Acaia brew-by-weight scale ($400) that automatically connects to the La Marzocco Linea Mini and a few other devices via its companion app. But a far less sophisticated scale can still help you measure your shot size and control the dose you want on each espresso shot. If you’re not precious about beauty, there’s always this low-cost, little no-name scale. It’s accurate to a 10th of a gram, and has a timer to boot.
.jpg)
Photograph: Pete Cottell
The best knockbox: When you’re done with that portafilter filled with coffee grounds, what do you do with it? Beat it against the side of a trashcan? Dig out those grounds into the sink? Nah. You need a good knock box. And somehow this jobby-job from Breville is the best one I’ve ever found. It’s sturdy, the cross bar is in the right spot so that the grinds dump cleanly into the bin, and the bottom has enough grip that the box doesn’t scoot around on the counter. Simplicity is competence.
-Reviewer-Photo-SOURCE-Pete-Cottell-(no-border).jpg)
Photograph: Pete Cottell
Not all steaming pitchers are created equal, notes WIRED contributing reviewer (and former barista) Pete Cottell. As opposed to the sad piece of aluminum that probably came with your espresso maker, this Brewista offers thick walls for heat retention, a precision tip for expert latte pours, and a thermometer sticker on its side so you can get a rough gauge of milk temperature without hunting down an actual thermometer. It can also take a beating. This is your new frothing pitcher.
Margaret Thatcher, who was known for sleeping only four hours a night, is often credited with saying “Sleep is for wimps!” But sleep is actually work. Putting down the phone, setting aside personal or political worries—these require discipline. True relaxation calls for training.
Sleep coaches used to treat mainly newborns (and their exhausted parents). But recently, as anxieties about sleep have spiked, grown-ups have found they need help with their habits too. A Gallup poll from 2023 found that 57 percent of Americans think they would feel better with more sleep, up from just 43 percent in 2013. Only about a fourth of those surveyed reported getting the commonly recommended eight or more hours per night—down from 34 percent 10 years prior.
Sleep professionals are seizing the opportunity to help adults realize their dream of waking up rested. WIRED spoke to a sleep consultant who, after years of working with kids, tapped into that underserved population. She says it’s entirely possible to transform daytime and nighttime habits to optimize for good sleep. Why not start tonight?
Usually, an adult comes to me with one of two things: First, a major life event—work stress, having a baby, losing a parent, a relationship ending—that destabilizes their system. Sleep is always the first thing to go. The second is that they have a chronic pattern. There are people who’ve really struggled with sleep since childhood, and then it becomes a part of how they see themselves. They’ve tried everything, and then they say, “I’m an insomniac.”
In both cases, they’re exhausted. I always laugh, because when I’m cornered at a dinner party it’s like, “Oh, I just have a quick question. I haven’t slept through the night in 19 years.”
I’ve been a sleep consultant for over 20 years. I started my child sleep practice after getting my master’s in clinical psychology. I was working with a lot of parents, and I really started to notice a common issue: Their children’s sleep issues were literally pushing them to the brink of divorce.
Even once I got their kids to be fabulous sleepers, the parents were still struggling due to long-standing habits from way before their kids arrived. That’s when I realized I needed to help the adults too.
There are camps: trouble falling asleep or trouble waking up at night—or both. So that’s my job: to unravel that mystery of what’s keeping someone up at night. Some of the toughest cases are people who come in only focusing on their nighttime habits and don’t disclose things happening during the day.
One of my clients had trouble sleeping through the night for years. We realized that they consumed most of their calories at night, and nothing during the day. So they kept waking up to eat, and that completely dysregulated their system.
Another client, a woman who exercised all the time and drank 200 ounces of water a day, never made the connection that she was getting up to pee literally every hour. We had to diminish the amount of water she drank and have her stop drinking at a certain hour.
Sometimes people actually just stop functioning. I’m thinking about a mom who says, “I just forgot to clip my child’s seatbelt on in my car.” “I put my keys in the refrigerator.”
I start with the basics. Of course, we’re doing sleep hygiene, but that’s anything that you can Google: Get blackout shades, have a sleep sanctuary. Most people think they have a good setup, but their habits or their environment are working against them. That’s where coaching helps, because I can spot what they’re missing.
People have these stories that they’ve told themselves, like, “If I sleep, then I’m not working hard enough” or “I’m young and I don’t need that much sleep.” What’s the new story that you can tell yourself about sleep? From there, I use a lot of journaling, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, mindset work, breath work.
New Year’s resolution season is in full swing, and you’ve officially made it past Quitter’s Day (the second Friday in January, when many people have given up on their resolutions). Maybe you want to exercise more often, or keep better track of your schedule, or hit a certain step goal, or drink more water. Whatever the habit you’re making or breaking, we’ve found some deals on WIRED-tested gear that can help you on your journey.
For more recommendations, check out our many buying guides, like the Best Reusable Water Bottles, the Best Fitness Trackers, and the Best Paper Planners.
WIRED Featured Deals:
Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 for $200 ($50 off)
The Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are the best workout earbuds you can buy. This price matches the best deal we’ve seen, and every color (orange, lavender, black, and beige) is discounted. The design is supremely comfortable, they have great noise canceling and a transparency mode, and they last up to 10 hours depending on your noise-cancellation settings. There’s also a built-in heart rate monitor. These sleek buds have punchy sound and are compatible with iOS and Android devices.
Garmin Vivoactive 6 for $250 ($50 off)
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 recently earned the top spot in our fitness tracker buying guide. It looks great on your wrist, and it plays well with both Android and iOS devices. Moreover, it’s accurate, and it has onboard satellite connectivity and a bright, easy-to-read AMOLED display. You’ll get a spate of fitness features, including blood oxygen monitoring, sleep tracking, heart rate and step counts, and fall detection. There’s an optional Connect+ subscription that costs $70 per year, but we don’t think you need it.
Apple Watch Series 11 for $300 ($100 off)
The Apple Watch Series 11 finally has a full 24 hours of battery life, which makes it worth consideration if you’ve been in the market for an upgrade. It is both an excellent fitness tracker and smartwatch. It can track all sorts of stats, from the basics like steps and workouts to sleep, hypertension, and blood oxygen. It has been on sale at this price since the holiday shopping season, but it does tend to fluctuate back and forth, and we haven’t seen it sell for less than it is right now. For more recommendations, check out our Apple Watch Buying Guide.
Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100 Percent Whey Protein Powder for $32 ($18 off)
-
Photograph: Boutayna Chokrane
-
Photograph: Boutayna Chokrane
Optimum Nutrition
Gold Standard 100 Percent Whey Protein Powder
Optimum Nutrition was having a “Quitter’s Day” sale this week, but the powder is also on sale at Amazon. This is the best protein powder overall. It delivers 24 grams of protein per serving, and it’s available in more than 20 flavors, so you should be able to find one that you like. (My favorite is Banana Cream, which tastes like a yellow Laffy Taffy, and WIRED editor Kat Merck’s favorite is Delicious Strawberry, but there are less adventurous options as well.) If you’re working on your gains this year, this is a solid deal worth considering.
Day Designer Daily Planner for $57 ($21 off)
Day Designer
Daily Planner
This planner has space for a typical calendar and a daily to-do list. Half of each page has blocks of time from 5 am to 9 pm, and you’ll also get a to-do list section and a “three most important things” section. It’s a bulky planner, but if you’re looking for space to fine-tune the minutiae of your day-to-day life, there’s room.
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.
Like all open-ear earbuds, the OpenFit Pro have an airy and open soundstage that delivers a more natural listening experience than regular earbuds — it’s closer to the experience of listening to speakers. You can make them sound even more immersive by activating the confusingly named Optimized for Dolby Atmos mode. I say confusing because this mode is neither a replacement for Dolby Atmos nor is it strictly for use with existing Dolby Atmos content. It is essentially Dolby’s best earbud-based audio software, which combines spatial audio processing (for a wider and deeper soundstage) with optional head tracking. Both of these features will work with any content; however, Dolby claims it works best when you’re listening to Dolby Atmos content.
It’s the first time Dolby’s tech has been employed on a set of open-ear earbuds, and it’s a great match. It boosts the perceived width and height of the space, and does so without negatively affecting dynamic range or loudness, something that often plagues similar systems. And yes, the effect is more pronounced when listening to Atmos than when playing stereo content. I’ve used Dolby’s spatial tech on several products, including the LG Tone Free T90Q, Jabra Elite 10, and Technics EAH-Z100, and this is the first time I’ve enjoyed it enough to leave it enabled for music listening.
Still, it’s not as effective as Bose’s Immersive Audio on the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds. Bose’s head tracking is smoother—particularly noticeable when watching movies—and its spatial processing is more convincing and immersive for both music and movies.
Where Shokz enjoys a big leg up on Bose is the OpenFit Pro’s call quality. The OpenFit Pro’s mics do a great job of eliminating noises on your end of the call. You could be walking down a busy street, hanging out in a full coffee shop, or even passing by an active construction site, and your callers probably won’t have a clue you aren’t sitting on a quiet park bench. As with all open-ear earbuds, being able to hear your own voice naturally (without the use of a transparency mode) eliminates the fatigue normally associated with long calls on regular earbuds.
Comfortable Design
Photograph: Simon Cohen
Comfort is a key benefit of Shokz’s OpenFit series, and the OpenFit Pro, with ear hooks that are wrapped in soft silicone, are no exception. Unlike previous OpenFit models, which position speakers just outside your ear’s concha, the Pro’s speaker pods project directly into your ears, and in my case, they make contact with the inner part of that cavity. This significantly increases stability, but over time, I became aware of that contact point.
They never became uncomfortable, but it’s not quite the forget-you’re-even-wearing-them experience of the OpenFit/OpenFit 2/+ models. As someone who wears glasses, I tend to prefer clip-style earbuds like the Shokz OpenDots One, and yet the OpenFit Pro’s ear hook shape was never an issue. Shokz includes a set of optional silicone support loops, presumably for folks with smaller ears or who need a more stable fit. They didn’t improve my fit, but then again, I’ve got pretty big ears.
As with all hook-style earbuds, the OpenFit Pro charging case is on the big side. It’s got great build quality thanks to the use of an aluminum frame, and you get wireless charging (not a given with many open-ear models), but it’s still way less pocketable than a set of AirPods Pro.
Easy to Use
Photograph: Simon Cohen
For the OpenFit Pro, Shokz has finally abandoned its hybrid touch/button controls in favor of just physical buttons, and I think it’s the right call. You can now decide exactly which button press combos control actions like play/pause, track skipping, volume, and voice assistant access, a level of freedom that wasn’t available on previous versions.
‘They’re playing cute’: Trump ‘inclined’ to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela — here’s why – The Times of India
Globes red carpet: chic black, naked dresses and a bit of politics
ESPN star rips Bears coach after profane outburst following playoff win
-
Entertainment4 days agoWhy did Nick Reiner’s lawyer Alan Jackson withdraw from case?
-
Sports7 days agoVAR review: Why was Wirtz onside in Premier League, offside in Europe?
-
Entertainment4 days agoDoes new US food pyramid put too much steak on your plate?
-
Politics4 days agoUK says provided assistance in US-led tanker seizure
-
Business4 days agoTrump moves to ban home purchases by institutional investors
-
Entertainment7 days agoMinnesota Governor Tim Walz to drop out of 2026 race, official confirmation expected soon
-
Business7 days ago8th Pay Commission: From Policy Review, Cabinet Approval To Implementation –Key Stages Explained
-
Sports7 days agoSteelers escape Ravens’ late push, win AFC North title