The 1More S50 and S30 are the company’s first open-ear true wireless headphones. The style, familiar to many from the discontinued Bose Sport Open model, uses a highly directional speaker that sits outside your ear canal, rather than an ear tip like conventional “sealed” models, and makes for fantastic workout headphones since they let you stay aware of your surroundings. They’re also great in the office or at home where you need or want to hear the people around you or the doorbell or kettle. Basically, if you want to listen to music or podcasts or anything else while remaining connected to the world around you, this is a great style of headphone to try out.
The directional driver tech that makes it all work has gotten considerably better over the past couple of years, and the latest models are a real listening alternative with good sound that doesn’t require a lot of compromise unless you’re a dedicated basshead. (None of these can match the low-end oomph of a well-fitted sealed headphone.) 1More has a solid reputation for delivering quality at an affordable price (as with the 1More SonoFlow headphones that are our favorite budget noise-canceling models). We’ve been checking out the S50 and S30 for several weeks, using them for work, workouts and everyday listening to see how they stack up.
With a positioning-only “ear tip,” the S50 sound more like a regular headphone than their competitors and appeal if you want good sound without compromising situational awareness, though the bulk of the earbuds and case detract a bit from the solid set of features.
The S30 is a bargain-priced, good-sounding open headphone that should appeal to budget-minded runners. They could stand to be a little lighter and the case is oversized compared to the competition, but they’re a solid choice for the money.
1More Fit S50
$150 $120 at Amazon
The 1More S50 is the company’s higher-end open-ear headphone, and it uses a unique design we haven’t seen before. Unlike some other open models, the S50 do use a silicone tip, though it is used to provide positioning support and hovers above your ear canal rather than being placed in it.
What we liked about the 1More S50
The upside of the unique design is that the S50 sound more familiar than most open models we’ve tried, as the driver element is positioned pretty much where it would be in a traditional in-ear headphone, just without the sealed ear tip. The overall effect is much more like listening to a sealed headphone and a little more isolating than the Shokz OpenFit, especially if you listen at louder levels.
You still have much better ambient awareness of your surroundings than you’d get with any sealed headphone (and better than you get with an ambient pass-through mode on a noise-canceling in-ear headphone), but you’ll want to keep in mind that these have a bit more oomph than some competitors. If you’re using these to run on the road, you’ll want to be careful to keep the levels low enough that you can hear traffic, for instance.
Since there’s no seal, there’s no ANC, so the onboard mics do include noise cancellation, making calls impressively clear. It’s a bit of an odd sensation, as whomever you’re talking to can’t hear your surroundings even though you can (along with your caller’s, if they aren’t using a noise-canceling device), so you’ll have to get used to being able to make or take a call in an environment that seems too noisy on your end.
The touch controls are quite sensitive. On the one hand, it’s easy to take calls and stop and start music playback, though as I ran, I repeatedly stopped playback inadvertently while adjusting the S50s or my glasses. It was easy enough to get started again with another tap, but I’d love to see the controls made a little less sensitive or even relocated to where they would be less likely to get jostled accidentally.
The headphones are water-resistant to IPX7, so no worries about sweat, and they can survive a dunk in a puddle.
What we didn’t like about the 1More S50
The main downside of the S50 is that they are quite bulky, and without a traditional ear tip to anchor them in place, it’s difficult to get a really secure-feeling fit. You’ll want to experiment with the provided tips, as they make a difference and you can’t necessarily go with the size you’d normally wear. I typically take a small or medium ear tip, but found the largest size of the S50 positioning tips worked best for me, minimizing bounce as I ran.
Many might have an issue with the larger case, a necessity given the overall size of the S50s. It’s likely to be less of an issue if you are using these at your desk, but if you want to have extra charging capacity with you on the go, it’s too bulky to carry around unless you’re wearing a hydration pack.
1More Fit S30
$70 $60 at Amazon
The S30 are the less expensive of the two open earbuds from 1More. They are visually similar to the S50 but based on a rather different design. They don’t have the silicone positioning ear tip used on the flagship model and instead, employ a directional driver mounted within the section suspended in your earlobe. This is the same sort of design we’ve seen from competitors like Bose and Shokz.
What we liked about the 1More S30
The S30 don’t have the quasi-sealed feel or sound of their big sibling, though the stripped-down, more open design gives them an airier feel and the perception of wider imaging. While they don’t really sound like a hi-fi model, they do have more of an open-back headphone sound. They include the same ANC-enabled microphones as the S50, so call quality is very good on the sending end (though you’ll always be able to hear your own surroundings easily, along with your caller’s signal).
What we didn’t like about the 1More S30
Compared to our favorite example of this type of design, the Shokz OpenFit, the S30 feel bulky and interfere somewhat with glasses. (That said, they’re more comfortable with sunglasses that have straight arms — like Oakleys — than with traditional glasses designs.)
The ear-hook section is stiff, and given that and the overall bulk of the S30s, I found them uncomfortable if I wore them on runs longer than an hour or more, and they left my earlobes sore, relative to the lighter Shokz model. In the S30’s favor, the touch panel controls are less sensitive than on the S50, and I didn’t inadvertently stop playback anywhere near as often as I did with the fancier model. Waterproofing is to IPX5, so sweat shouldn’t be an issue, though you’ll want to avoid immersion.
The S30 charging case is also quite large, and only charges via USB-C rather than wirelessly; it’d be nice to have the option, which is so common with these devices nowadays, though it’s not uncommon for it to be left out on lower priced models and shouldn’t really be considered a dealbreaker.
Bottom line
The S50 have an intriguing design with more “in-ear” sound than we’ve heard from any open-ear model to date. That said, the headphones could stand some slimming down, especially when used for workouts. Overall, we still prefer the slightly pricier Shokz OpenFit. They weigh less, have a lower profile and are more comfortable to wear for both working out and all-day listening, and sounded a little better at lower levels.
The S30 are extremely affordable compared to all their open competitors and have sound quality that’s very impressive for the money. (They’re even less expensive than the JLab Open Sport.) Overall, while the S30 don’t sound quite as good as the S50 and aren’t as comfortable as the Shokz OpenFit, if the fit works for you, they’re a very solid choice as a budget-friendly open-fit headphone for running.
