EarFun OpenJump review: I couldn’t take these earbuds off quick enough

As someone who is constantly listening to music, I didn’t think I’d come across earbuds that actually made me want to turn off my current playlist — enter the Earfun OpenJump open-ear earbuds.

Designed with fitness in mind, open earbuds sit outside your ear, allowing you to hear your surroundings when active to ensure safety. This can make them some of the best running headphones around — unfortunately, though, the OpenJumps fall short.

The mids sound tinny and terrible on almost every track I listened to, across every one of the buds 30 EQ presets. The touch controls are unreliable, making for an all-round finicky experience and the call quality is abysmal.

If you hadn’t already guessed, I can’t advise you to buy these buds. Find out more in my full EarFun OpenJump review.

EarFun OpenJump review: Price & availability

• Affordable
• Only available in black

The EarFun OpenJump earbuds are available for $79 at Amazon U.S. / £99 at Amazon U.K., which puts them at the lower end of the open-ear earbud market. They are in a similar price range to the Soundcore AeroClip ($129), but are cheaper than the Shokz OpenFit 2 ($179), both of which we loved in testing.

The OpenJumps are only available in black, which feels limiting when most rivals offer more than one colorway, but at least it’s pretty neutral.

EarFun OpenJump review: Design & controls

• Ugly design
• Touch controls are unreliable
• Protected against rain splashes

The EarFun OpenJump earbuds have a black, rubbery finish that looks cheap. Thankfully, the earbuds themselves feel pretty sturdy — but the ear hooks come off as poor quality. The plastic just feels flimsy, and the rubber discolors quickly.

EarFun claims that the earbuds’ adjustable hooks are built to last 7,000 bends, but with the amount I had to readjust them to fit properly, that may not end up being very long.

They’re not the best-looking earbuds overall, either. If you want wrap-around earbuds that will stay in place and look good when you exercise, JLabs JBuds Sport ANC 4 ($69) have a far more sleek design — not to mention more color options.

While they aren’t open ear, the JLab Go Air Sport earbuds will most definitely look and feel better. They are a fraction of the price at just $30, with pretty much all the same pitfalls as the EarFun OpenJumps— when you’re paying so little, audio quality doesn’t get quite the same attention.

All that being said, the earbuds are at least lightweight, and it’s only the ear hook that reminds you you’re wearing them. They also have an IPX7 rating meaning they’re protected against sweat and rain making them suitable for outdoor sport.

Controls

The OpenJump earbuds are controlled by tapping on their silver logo, but this proves incredibly unreliable in real-word use.

I found that when I actually wanted to use touch controls to change a song or pause, my commands weren’t recognized so I ended up using my phone anyway.

Then, on the other end of the spectrum, tucking my hair behind my ear triggered the earbuds’ motion detection, which would set off Siri and pause my music.

The touch controls can be customized in the EarFun app and I would recommend just using single-tap commands and disabling the others. This way, you get less control through the units but you also don’t have to deal with the clumsy commands. I got on with the earbuds much better with just ‘skip track’ for the right ear and ‘previous track’ for the left .

The charging case for the EarFun OpenJump earbuds is compact and fits securely into the pocket of my jacket or bag. It does feel cheap though, and while this isn’t unexpected given the low price point, there are cheaper brands whose products still feel premium.

EarFun OpenJump review: Comfort

• Feel insecure with light movement
• Open-ear useful for traffic heavy areas
• Uncomfortable with eyeglasses

As I mentioned above, the OpenJumps have a rubbery finish so the earbuds can grip behind the ears and stay securely in place, but I found that even light movement made them feel insecure. I adjusted the ear hooks as much as I could but even five minutes of light walking worked them loose.

As a glasses wearer, I found the earhooks themselves uncomfortable to deal with. I mainly wore contacts during testing, which got around the problem, but it’s something to be mindful of. Open earbuds without wrap-around ear clips, like the Soundcore AeroClip buds, are much easier to wear with glasses.

The open-ear design of the OpenJumps helped me feel comfortable when out and about, especially near traffic. I could hear the cars well when waiting to cross roads and didn’t have to remove the earbuds at any point to hear my surroundings better.

But honestly, there are open-ear headphones that offer the same benefits, have better sound quality and are more secure to wear — specifically, the SoundCore AeroClips and Shokz OpenFit 2s.

EarFun OpenJump review: Connectivity & mic performance

• LDAC support
• Environmental noise cancellation
• Receiving call quality sounds robotic

The EarFun OpenJump earbuds use Bluetooth 5.3 and support SBC and LDAC codecs. SBC is the default audio codec for Bluetooth devices, so this is standard. LDAC is what makes these earbuds interesting as this means they have the capabilities to support High Resolution audio over Bluetooth.

They have a Bluetooth range of 15m without obstacles, although if I left my phone upstairs and went down to the kitchen the sound sometimes cut out. I don’t have this issue with any of my other earbuds so this was frustrating.

The earbuds have the option for dual device connection through the app, which I found worked well when I wanted to toggle between my work computer and my phone.

The EarFun OpenJump buds have 4 mics that eliminate background noise on calls. I tested this out by calling my mom while I was walking home next to a busy road. She said all she could hear was a quiet whooshing sound of cars, and that my voice sounded clearer than when using my Airpods.

However, on my end the call was awful. My mom’s voice sounded horribly robotic and was full of static. It actually sounded like I had a robot voice effect applied. I called her back just using my iPhone speakers and the sound quality was normal, so it wasn’t the connection or her device. This poor sound quality was unfortunately an omen of worse things to come.

EarFun OpenJump review: Sound quality & EQ

• Terrible mids performance
• Sound profile feature saves the EQ
• Sound leakage

The sound quality of the EarFun OpenJump is, simply put, not very good. I’ll say right off the bat that you have to alter the EQ on these earbuds, as the default setting is awful. However, to give them the benefit of the doubt, I tried out the personalized sound profile.

I set my phone at its highest volume and the app played a dripping sound. I adjusted on-screen sliders until the drip was no longer audible, signifying my custom profile was complete.

I then streamed some music on Qobuz, and with this personalized EQ the sound was certainly more rounded and clear — I actually enjoyed using these earbuds.

This is a great feature for anyone who is hard of hearing as it can increase the frequencies lost first with hearing damage. Similarly, for someone who wants to protect their eardrums, it can cater to their specific hearing capabilities to ensure safe listening.

I asked my colleague Nikita to try out the My Sound Profile test too. The mids on my own profile were low whereas Nikita’s were more varied. It was good to see that the EQ is unique to the listener, as I much preferred my settings to Nikita’s over the course of testing.

I wanted to test the other EQ presets and opted to listen to ‘Paint It, Black’ by The Rolling Stones. But the Rock EQ preset left me disappointed — the mids sounded awful and tinny. The default EQ was even worse. The only setting that sounded good was the personalized profile.

EarFun makes a big deal about the BassSurge technology in the OpenJump earbuds which supposedly combines advanced signal processing with calibrated drivers to deliver a low-tuned frequency. EarFun claims this gives a rich and impactful bass experience without compromising sound quality.

To test out the BassSurge I tried all three of the Bass Boots EQ presets and there wasn’t much difference from the default EQ. To give it a fair shot, I went to Custom EQ and racked the bass frequencies up as high as they would go and was again, disappointed.

I listened to ‘Jumpsuit’ by Twenty One Pilots for this test, but the bass just sounded completely muddy. There was nothing elevated about it.

The manufacturer says this technology can enhance bass response without distorting the mids and highs. You’re probably not shocked to find I disagree. It ruined the mids. It even made the vocals sound warped.

The mids became robotic and distorted in every song I listened to.

In drum-heavy songs the music just sounded tinny and ear-piercing. I listened to ‘Kickstart My Heart’ by Mötley Crüe and it sounded horrific. There was near constant crackling and it didn’t even sound like Mötley Crüe. Again, I tried multiple presets and customized the EQ, but the tinny midtones were inescapable.

I then tested a slower song, Noah Kahan’s ‘Call Your Mom’, and was pleasantly surprised. The earbuds carried the delicate tones of this song really well. I think this is down to the fact there was nothing to challenge the 14.2mm wool composite drivers.

On top of all this, the OpenJumps’ sound leakage is awful. Sure, they are open-ears so some music escaping into the world is inevitable — but not to this level. My colleague sitting two metres away from me could hear everything.

EarFun OpenJump review: App

• Clunky app
• 30 EQ presets
• My Sound Profile test

The EarFun app is compatible with the OpenJump earbuds and its features improve the performance tenfold, which just about makes them bearable. The app is clunky and hard to use when compared to companion apps I have tested in the past.

The app’s landing page is designed to replicate iOS settings layout, but I would have liked to see something easier to navigate. When you go to the EQ section of the app things look a little more creative, and easier to navigate, but it seems to be the only section that any thought was put into.

The app also offers Game Mode and Theatre Mode, however I can’t say they were particularly effective. Game Mode didn’t change the sound all that much, but the app states it reduces audio latency which may help when playing competitive games — in those scenarios, though, you should grab one of the best gaming headsets.

I found Theatre Mode only increased the volume. Streaming Friends, for example, just sounded tinny.

EarFun OpenJump review: Battery life

• 11 hours of playback on a single charge
• Option of wireless charging
• 42 hours of playback with charging case

The battery life is somewhat of a saving grace for the EarFun OpenJump earbuds. You can get 11 hours of listening with a single charge and indeed I found that after listening for four hours straight I had 70% battery remaining.

The case can be charged wirelessly or with a USB-C cable.

EarFun OpenJump review: Verdict

The EarFun OpenJump earbuds left me pretty disappointed. While they’re cheap, they are unfortunately not so cheerful — primarily thanks to absolutely terrible midtone performance.

The open-ear design is great for when you are out and about and need increased awareness of your surroundings so you feel safer. Also, the My Sound Profile in the app is useful for fine-tuning your favorite music to suit you — but it is frankly the only thing that makes the sound bearable.

When you consider the unreliable touch controls, the ability to make Mötley Crüe intolerable in all 30 EQ presets and the robotic performance when receiving calls? You would be better off spending $30-40 more to get a set of earbuds you actually want to use.