Soundcore AeroClip review: Open-ear headphones with audio excellence

Where, in your personal geographical location, do you like your personal listening devices? Or, to put the question a slightly different way, what kind of isolation audio enjoyer are you?

For the most part, you’ll probably be an in-ear or over-ear type, the former being buds and the latter cans. But, of late, a fresh new option has emerged that is rapidly gaining in popularity with audio enthusiasts who want to listen to music, take phone calls and still be able to hear the waking world around them: the open ear. Yes, finally, a headphone option for the kind of people who want nothing less than the moon on a stick.

With a shimmering selection of some of the hottest current models covered here by my esteemed Standard colleague, here I’ve seized upon the very latest iteration to arrive on the open audio scene in the very pleasing shape of the Soundcore AeroClip. Unveiled to great fanfare at CES 2025 (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas this very January gone and launched in the UK just now, if bone-conduction leaves you cold, then clip in and conduct your audio affairs over the air.

According to US market researcher, Valuates, the global open-ear headphones market was valued at an impressive US$ 215 million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach a whopping US$335.2 million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 6.4 per cent during the forecast period of 2024-2030, which is a lot of eyes being opened to open-ears. So, this is clearly an excellent time for a forward-thrusting manufacturer like Soundcore to enter the exposed aural fidelity fray – and its opening act is poised to set the cost cat amongst the pricing pigeons (as nobody says).

Yes, behold the AeroClip, an open-ear clip-on concha-cuff that blends unclogged ear-canal comfort with AI-enhanced call clarity and, of course, all the convenience of still being achingly aware of ongoings in the world around you, this oracle of the auricle weighs in at a feather-mocking 5.9g per ear-piece, making them a nano-fraction of a shade lighter than my go-to open-ears of choice, Bose’s Ultra Open, which is an ear-stretchingly 0.5g heftier by comparison.

But despite this lightness of being, the devilishly innovative Soundcore has managed to pack in an impressive array of advanced audio engineering ingenuity, including 12mm x 12mm titanium-coated dual-magnetic driver units, no fewer than four beamforming microphones that come enhanced by an AI algorithm (more on that in a moment), and the very latest Bluetooth 5.4 for a wireless connection to your smart-stuff that’s stronger than Clark Kent’s outside-pants-wearing alien alter ego and multipoint hook-up betwixt gadgets.

All very reassuring. But how does this king’s ransom of around-ear sound superiority translate into real-world environments? Well, let’s find out…

It’s early 2025 and London is approaching 10 million people traversing the highways and byways each day, battling with or against the relentless human tide to reach their A to B objectives, while desperate to avoid the flotsam and jetsam of mankind along the way. The roads are a no-go, the trains and tubes of public transport therefore being the only viable way for the workforce to travel from the ever-expanding outskirts into the inner sanctum of the city.

However, with the commute comes the unbearable white-noise cacophony of other homo sapiens, muttering, eating, breathing, along with all the other horrors of the inevitable but generally unexpected delays encountered, not to mention last-minute changes to services suddenly blurted out over a half-heard PA. To overcome the initial issue, you need some inner entertainment, a way to put something favourable between you and ‘them’. For that you have headphones, so the irritation of audible others can be easily avoided. But what happens when one of those pesky delays or service changes is announced? What if you didn’t hear it because you were too engrossed in your own audio, with ANC turned on too? What then? What the merry hell then?!

Well, that’s one of the excellent reasons that open-ear ’phones are becoming so popular, because you can block the babble of others, enjoy unfettered access to music and/or audiobooks, and still keep an – ahem – open ear for announcements, thus ensuring peace from the proles, retention of sanity, and a straightforward journey to your final destination.

So, how do they work? Well, in a sort of sonic nutshell, like any other earbuds. Each has a driver, in this case, a nicely sized 12mm unit per piece. They connect over Bluetooth with your smart instrument of choice – on this occasion the very latest 5.4 for a decidedly sturdy multipoint connection. There are a combined total of four AI-enhanced microphones for clear chat pickup during calls, and a battery life of up to 8-hours (extended to 24 with the charging case), so, as you can see, all very samey-samey to the standard phonic fayre.

However, and here’s where it sorts the surrounding-aware wheat from the audibly-isolated chaff, rather than covering or blocking the ear canal, the Soundcore Aeroclip employs a cunning, ergonomic 0.5mm memory titanium open ring design, combined with a soft TPU, that simply fits around from the earhole to the rear of the ear, in a manner that’s remarkably comfortable, thus leaving your lughole open to the outside world.

Now, while this means you can enjoy your own audio in impressively detailed and balanced form across all frequencies, you also remain acutely alert to all around you, so you will hear that announcement on the train. You will hear that car screaming towards you as it tries to overtake a flock of e-scooters and, yes, you will even hear the clatter of that moron cyclist who has mounted the pavement behind you at breakneck speed, but it also means that there’s no air pressure pushing into your ear, therefore ridding you of fatigue. So that’s a win-win-win.