Bose Ultra Open Earbuds Review: Who Are They For? - Mark Ellis Reviews (2024)

Buy the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

You’ve probably never seen a pair of Bose earbuds like this before. In fact, brand aside, you’ve possibly never seen a pair of earbuds like this before.

That is, unless you caught my review of the Huawei FreeClip earbuds last year, which were the first of a kind for yours truly and, clearly, for a lot of my audience.

The premise with earbuds like this is to enable the sounds of the world around you to filter into your ear canal as usual while still being able to enjoy your favourite music or podcasts. This makes products like the Ultra Open Earbuds only fit for a very specific audience. As a reviewer, that’s quite a relief; it makes them far easier to recommend, or divert people from.

This isn’t Bose’s first foray into the open earbud market, but it’s definitely its first crack at this particular design.

Bose faces the same questions as Huawei. Are they worth the price? Do they stay in your ears? What’s the sound quality like? More importantly, who are these open earbuds for?

Let’s find out.

Specs and pricing

The Ultra Open Earbuds feature an open ear design with immersive audio, which is powered by Snapdragon Sound.

The feature list reads like a set of promises, rather than detailed specs. It includes the phrase ‘surprisingly private’, which presumably aims to address one of the major concerns about these types of earbuds: can people hear exactly what you’re listening to? I’ll come onto that later.

Bose also tells us that the Ultra Open Earbuds provide all-day comfort, auto volume, and up to 7.5 hours of play time (that drops to 4.5 if you turn on immersive audio). There’s also an IPX4 water resistant rating and button controls, which Bose describes as “simple” and “satisfying”.

There’s, unfortunately, no wireless charging (this feels like it’s becoming standard fare with Bose earbuds), and no multipoint connectivity (ditto).

The Ultra Open Earbuds come in either the White Smoke version I was sent to review, or Black. They’re available to buy now, and will set you back £299.95.

What are open earbuds?

It’s definitely worth explaining how open earbuds work, because they may not feature at the top of your shopping list.

The premise is simple. Rather than fill your ear canal with a driver, casing, and rubber seal, open earbuds clip to the cartilage of your ear. A weight at the rear of the earbud helps with balance and fit, while the driver rests gently inside your ear, sending music towards your ear canal.

This means that your hearing is completely unobstructed. It’s the same technique used by many VR headsets, including the Apple Vision Pro. This results in the wearer being able to hear both the world around them and whatever it is that’s being fed into the earbuds.

There are, as you might expect, some concessions to be had here, and as noted earlier, products like the Ultra Open Earbuds are designed for a very specific type of user.

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds sound quality

Let’s start here, because it’s the most common question I’m asked when covering any type of open earbud.

The Ultra Open Earbuds are a brilliant example where it really is a good idea to read the manual. I didn’t. As a result, I ended up wearing them completely incorrectly for the first few days of testing.

As you’ll note in all of Bose’s product shots, the Ultra Open Earbuds are designed to sit just above your earlobe, angled towards the ground. I was initially wearing them much higher, which resulted in a fairly thin sound that needed to be cranked up to the max to be heard.

With the Ultra Open Earbuds correctly in place, you’re treated to an extremely clear and clean sound without an ounce of distortion. It is classic Bose stuff; refined, built for purpose, and entirely listenable. If there’s any category where you need those facets, it’s this one.

The soundstage is nice and wide, but it should be noted that the Ultra Open Earbuds show their capabilities particularly when listening to well-produced podcasts. I suspect that most users, to be honest, will be using them for that kind of listening.

That said, audio playback for music is just as impressive. They go plenty loud enough, and, during a trip to London this week, the only place I struggled to hear them was on the Tube, which is a horrendously noisy and challenging environment even for regular earbuds.

Time for the caveat. You will never get booming bass or intricate detail in every ounce of the frequency range from a pair of open earbuds. Physics will not allow for this. Remember – these earbuds don’t fill your ear canal; they are simply ‘piping’ audio down towards your ears.

Equally, they don’t offer any form of noise-cancelling, because they are designed to offer the opposite of noise-cancelling. You might see that as an obvious statement, but, trust me – I need to make it, given some of the questions I’ve received in the past about open earbuds.

The Immersive Audio feature works exactly as it does on other Bose headphones. Just like Apple’s Spatial Audio technology, Immersive Audio creates a virtual listening environment which makes it feel as though the sound is coming from in front of you – much like from a pair of Hi-Fi speakers, or a concert PA system. There are two settings – Still and Motion; the former retains the placement of the audio when you move your head, and the latter ‘follows’ you as you change direction.

Immersive Audio is an acquired taste. Just like Spatial Audio, it affects the dynamics of music, and reduces the sound stage width, but it’s quite enjoyable when you’re watching movies or TV shows. It definitely has a place on the Ultra Open Earbuds, but I’m not convinced that many people will use it.

As for that ’surprisingly private’ feature highlight – well, they are – to a degree. In public places with background noise, people won’t hear what you’re listening to unless they’re sitting very close, but in quiet environments, there is, obviously, some sound leakage. Once again, that’s an inevitability with this type of earbud design.

User experience and call quality

Once you’ve positioned the Ultra Open Earbuds correctly, they are very comfortable. In fact, almost too comfortable at times – you genuinely forget they’re attached to your ears.

A case in point: yesterday, I went to put on my over-ear headphones, only to find myself knocking one of the Ultra Open Earbuds onto the floor. I’d completely forgotten I’d left them attached to my ears.

This, again, comes with the territory, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. Bose doesn’t offer the ability to locate your earbuds, either, so if you do happen to inadvertently knock them off your ears without realising, it’s probably curtains.

Despite this, I’ll take the aforementioned comfort as a very welcome trade off. It helps Bose’s claim of all-day wearability – although I’d love battery life to be a little bit longer to fully support that.

If you’re wondering, they stay on my ears brilliantly, whether I’m walking, running, eating (that has honestly been an issue with certain earbuds), or chilling out. I’m yet to sleep with them on, but will do so before my video review, because that is clearly a consideration for a lot of people.

The Ultra Open Earbuds look great, too. Unlike the Huawei FreeClip, which are an acquired taste, Bose has opted for a design which looks purposeful, and befitting of the price tag. The build quality helps there, too – the Ultra Open Earbuds do feel like they could take a beating.

I’m a massive fan of the physical buttons, as you might imagine, but this is one of the only times I’d suggest that touch controls would have been a better choice for accessing the volume. Pressing and holding the buttons is far too much of a faff and results in you over-egging the pudding either way.

When it comes to calls, my testing was rather inconclusive. I could hear the other person perfectly, but they reported a buzzing sound whenever I spoke. It wasn’t loud enough to drown me out, but it was definitely there. This could have been due to the environment I was in, or it might point towards a software update being required, but I will continue to test and report back.

Who are the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds for?

I think there are three use cases for open earbuds.

The first for is people who enjoy running and being active outside but who want to enjoy audio at the same time as being aware of their surroundings (if you’re wondering, the Ultra Open Earbuds work pretty well in the gym, but will struggle to compete with particularly loud, busy gym environments).

The second is for those who are caring for someone at home, be it a small child, elderly relative, or someone else for whom you need to hear. The ability to listen to a podcast while not taking your ear of the ball, so to speak, is game-changing in those scenarios (I speak from experience!).

The third is for anyone who works in an environment where you want to be aware of your colleagues or customers but still have the option of listening to stuff while working. Again – game-changing for the right people.

The Ultra Open Earbuds aren’t for you if you want noise cancelling, or the best audio quality possible. But that isn’t what they’re designed for, either.

Verdict

The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are the best example of this design that I’ve tried so far. That shouldn’t come as surprise. This is Bose; if they enter a category, they’re going to do so with classic, assured aplomb.

They’re not cheap, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise, either. Once again, this is Bose, and you will pay a little bit extra for their experience and heritage. That’s fair, in my book – they nearly always deliver.

The Ultra Open Earbuds are well designed, will suit most tastes, sound great, and should last a long time. I highly recommend them. Just make sure you take into account all of the caveats with this style of earbud before taking the plunge!

Buy the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

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