The SoundCore C40i earbuds I reviewed in November 2024 introduced to me the concept of the open ear headphone, which are earbuds that point at your ears rather than poke inside them, making them more comfortable to wear. Following hot on the heels of those in my review box are these: the Acefast Acefit Pro, which offer a similar take on the concept at a similar price.
The Acefast Acefit Pro earbuds, which will launch on Kickstarter on January 13th, 2025 for an early bird price of $119 (around £95), have a similar design language to the Acefast Crystal T8 headphones I reviewed in June 2023, but offer a step up in class.
Design and Set-Up
Like the T8s they are available in multiple colors, (grey, green, violet and pink) and have a similar ‘see-thru’ look. The case lid is transparent with a large display in the center, showing digits that light up when you open the case, enabling you to immediately see the charge percentage of the case, and when resting inside, of each earbud too.
While it’s useful, I find this 80s LCD font digital a little garish and do wish it was a bit more sophisticated. At least the wide and relatively flat design is practical and is easy to slip into a pocket. Oddly, the USB-C port for charging is on the bottom rather than the rear edge, which makes it awkward to place on a desk when charging.
When you open the case there’s also an LED light inside, which can be customized in the app. The earbuds themselves also have LED lights with a transparent section over the earbud drivers, featuring the Acefast logo. You can choose to have the LED on the earbuds lit up, and either “breathe” quickly or slowly. While this could be fun, it’s a pity that said logo it’s a better-looking one: personally, it’s not something I’d want to draw attention to.
Setting up the Acefit Pro was simple. You just open the case, remove the shipping plastic covering from the headphones and then it can be detected and added via Bluetooth.
Comfort
Rather than gripping the ear, the Acefit Pros hook over the ear is made of titanium wire, so it should be strong. This makes them very easy to put on, and the speaker driver sits over the earhole.
The earbud material is dubbed by Acefast as “supermolecular liquid silicon”, which sounds like something invented by Tony Stark. He isn’t a real person, and I imagine the tech isn’t either, but all that matters is that it feels soft and comfortable.
At 7.6Kg the Acefit Pros are heavier than that Soundcore C40i earbuds, but they felt lighter to me, likely because the hook design means that the weight is evenly distributed over the top of the ear. Apart from the sensation of the driver resting on the ear, I could barely tell I was wearing them, even wearing glasses.
The app
The Acefast app isn’t the prettiest and could do with some visual polish, but at least the main features are there and are straightforward to use,
From the app, you can turn the lighting effects on or off or choose from an array of colors for the LCD when you open the case, either because you like the way it looks, or to differentiate the cases if you have more than one set in the home.
You can also customize the gesture control of the headphones. As is typical, the sides respond to touch. By default, it was one tap on either side to raise or lower the volume, double tap to pause and triple to skip tracks forward or back depending on the side.
I was also pleased to see that there was a working Custom EQ in the app, which I felt was needed to get the best sound out of the Acefit Pros.
Sound quality
The first impression of the Acefit was that the sound was very clear and bright, with a pleasing timbre to voices. It was also appreciably louder than the Soundpro C40is which was one area they lacked. This could be useful when you’re in an environment with a bit of noise, as by definition, open-ear headphone designs do not isolate sounds. While this gives the advantage that you can hear the environment around you, it does mean that external noises will impact the listening experience – so it’s swings and roundabouts.
By default, I found the original sound to be a little flat, but using the custom controls I was able to improve the bass, thicken up the mid-range and tone down the high end, which was very bright. However, I could not remove this totally, and overall I found the sound on the brittle side. This was emphasized when going back to the SoundPro C40i earbuds, which overall have a more musical, warmer sound.
On the technical side, the Acefit Pros claim to support Hi-Res Audio Support, which is impressive, but even if you’re using an Android phone with suitable codec support, I don’t think these are of high enough quality to make the most of the feature.
I also picked up calls while wearing the headsets and had no complaints about sound quality.
Battery Life
Battery life for the earbuds is given as six hours and three hours of listening the battery life was down to 55 percent, which compares favorably with the Soundcore C40is – I’ll update this review when I get more information on this.
Overall
If you’re in the market for some open-ear headphones that aren’t too expensive then the Acefast Pro’s are worth considering. As with the T8’s the on-case battery level indicator is a useful feature and the colorful LEDs might appeal, especially to a younger audience. While the volume output is impressive and the output is fine, those placing more importance on sound quality might find the Soundcore C40i earbuds a better option.
