Earbuds have gotten really good over the past few years. But as the true wireless form factor has matured, it feels like the best earbuds have converged toward two increasingly familiar designs: small earbuds, with or without stems sticking out. And to relatively casual ears like mine, every pair of earbuds sold by any company I’ve ever heard of looks at least a little like very good. Taking all of this into account, it can be a bit difficult to find things to say in an earphone review that I haven’t said before.
I don’t have that problem with the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds. Bose’s latest earbuds, introduced in a bizarre collaboration with “multifunctional brand” Kith, sit on the outside of your ear to pump out sound without blocking out the sound around you. They’re weird for more than one reason, and I think they’re a little pricey for most people. But they’re also kind of cool, and if you have really specific needs when it comes to earbuds, they might be just what you’re looking for.
Bose Ultra Open Ear Headphones
The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds offer a new shape that doesn’t block your ear canal. They’re really comfortable and sound great, but because they let outside noise in by design—and because they’re $299—their appeal is limited.
- The sound quality is surprisingly good.
- Don’t block out the world around you.
- Unusual shape and very comfortable
- beloved
- Not suitable for noisy environments.
- Expected comfort features missing
Price and availability
These buds are not cheap.
The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are available directly from the Bose stores you’d expect: Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and more. They come in black and silver and cost $299.
What are the good features of the Bose Ultra Open headphones?
New look and powerful sound
We’ve seen “open” earbuds before. Sets like the Pixel Buds A-Series and Sony LinkBuds are designed to not completely block the wearer’s ear canal, making them more comfortable and allowing ambient sound to come in so you can stay aware of your surroundings.
But the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds take an unusual approach. The Open Earbuds sit on your outer ear instead of sticking to it like most earbuds. They look like something between a regular earbud and a chunky earring, an association Bose tends to make with the metallic finish on the outer edge of the earbuds. I also think they look vaguely sci-fi, like what people living in the 1980s might imagine personal audio devices would look like in the distant future.
The speaker has a 12mm driver connected to a “battery barrel” with a single physical button; the speaker is located inside the concha, or battery behind the ear. I was skeptical about the design, but I’m impressed after using the earbuds for hours every day for about a week.
The open-ear headphones are comfortable enough on my ears that I can forget they’re there, and the tension between the halves is strong enough that I never felt like they were going to come apart, even while running. Your experience may be different, of course—without any removable parts like swappable ear tips, there’s no way to customize the fit.
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Bose QuietComfort Headphones Review: Part 2, Same as Part 1
Play it again, boss.
The sound quality is pretty good, too. Given the unusual shape of the earbuds, I didn’t know what to expect there, but the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds sound like other high-end Bose earbuds: The sound is clear and detailed, with a healthy amount of bass. In a quiet setting, it’s easy to forget that the earbuds are “open.”
But this fact immediately comes to mind when there’s any ambient sound: Open Earbuds don’t block your ear canal at all, so there’s no isolation or noise cancellation. That’s great for any situation where you want to be able to hear what’s going on around you, like if you’re running outdoors or working in a job where you can wear earbuds but still need to talk to people around you. However, if you want to hear less of your environment, you’re out of luck.
What are the disadvantages of Bose Ultra Open headphones?
High prices and lack of amenities
open ear headphones Opens The design is a strength in many ways, but it’s also a major drawback in many cases. While many traditional wireless earbuds offer a transparency mode to selectively let sound in when needed, the Ultra Open Earbuds don’t give you that option. The only way to hear less of the sound around you is to crank up the volume on your media, and even at max, the earbuds can’t compete with the close-fitting design. Bass response also starts to drop after about 80 percent volume, which can make music sound a bit shrill at high volumes.
So, while I love these headphones for many use cases — working from home, running errands, running outdoors — they’re not suitable for air travel, the gym, or any other scenario where you can’t use them. no I want to hear what’s going on around me. These can’t be the only earbuds I use, and $299 is a lot to spend on a second pair I’ll only use occasionally.
The sticker price is still hard to swallow when you consider that the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds lack the features expected in this segment. The lack of ANC is a given, but the Open Earbuds also don’t support multipoint Bluetooth, ear detection, hands-free voice assistant access, or wireless charging.
The Ultra Open earbuds have Bose’s exclusive spatial audio feature that creates the illusion that sound is coming from in front of you, and the effect is as convincing here as it is on other Bose headphones, but I don’t think that’s a strong reason to buy them. The feature adds a kind of artificial echo effect that interferes with a lot of media, and battery life suffers significantly.
I’m not really impressed with the battery life here, even with immersive audio turned off. Bose says the Open Earbuds last 7.5 hours without spatial audio turned off or 4.5 hours with it on, which is true based on my experience. But the Sony WF-1000XM5, which retails for the same price of $299, last eight hours with ANC or Transparency modes on, and a full 12 hours without those features. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are very comfortable, and because they don’t block out the outside world, you can easily wear them from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to bed — but they won’t last.
Related to
Sony WF-1000XM5 Review: Great Headphones Like No Other
Great sound + great noise cancellation + great battery life = great earbuds
Should you buy them?
Bose Ultra Open Headphones Are Not for Everyone
Since most modern earbuds and headphones offer transparency modes that channel outside sound on demand, open-ear headphones are really for a specific category — and $300 open-ear headphones are very Status.
The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds sound great and are probably the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever used, and for times when I don’t need to isolate myself from the sound around me, they’re great. But since a lot of my earbud use is in places or situations where I don’t want to hear my surroundings, I wouldn’t be able to live without the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds alone, and I can’t imagine spending hundreds of dollars on a pair of earbuds that I can only use in certain situations.
If your earbud usage is almost entirely limited to quiet environments where it’s important to be able to hear what’s going on around you, and you don’t care about features like multipoint connectivity or wireless charging, the Ultra Open earbuds will be great for you. Otherwise, you’re probably better off opting for a pair of traditional wireless earbuds with a decent transparency mode.
Bose Ultra Open Ear Headphones
The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds offer a new shape that doesn’t block your ear canal. They’re really comfortable and sound great, but because they let outside noise in by design—and because they’re $299—their appeal is limited.
