Bose’s new earbuds don’t go inside your ears at all

After a soft launch with fashion / culture brand Kith, Bose is officially announcing its new Ultra Open Earbuds today. Priced at $299, they feature a very unique design that wraps around and attaches to your outer ear instead of extending into your ear canal. A silicone-coated flex arm attaches the “earbud” piece to a round battery barrel that sits behind your ear and also has a button for controlling your music.

Bose designed these to be fashionable; the company’s logo isn’t even present on the outer earbuds. The Ultra Open Earbuds are available in either black or smoke white and feature Bose’s OpenAudio tech, which directs sound toward your ears while minimizing noticeable sound leakage to others nearby. You can expect around 7.5 hours of continuous playback; these don’t have any kind of active noise cancellation, so you’d hope for lengthy battery life. And the earbuds are rated IPX4 for water resistance.

Review: Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds are its boldest, most unique earbuds yet

Image: Bose

The completely open design of the Ultra Open Earbuds means you’ll always have full awareness of your surroundings and hear everything happening around you, which is an important consideration for cyclists, runners, and other potential customers. This isn’t Bose’s first try at open-style earbuds, but the previous Sport Open Earbuds didn’t last long on the market. Now, the company is trying again with a rethought design that’s meant to remain comfortable even if you wear the Ultra Open Earbuds all day long.

Unfortunately, despite their premium price, Bose’s latest buds omit wireless charging and multipoint Bluetooth connectivity — two features that are increasingly common in high-end earbuds. But like last year’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, they do support Qualcomm’s AptX Adaptive for higher-bitrate wireless audio. Bose also includes its signature Immersive Audio mode, which is the company’s proprietary take on spatial audio.

I’ve been testing the Ultra Open Earbuds for a couple of weeks now. I think there’s a real potential market for these, and Bose’s unconventional design works surprisingly well in practice. But the sky-high price, those missing software capabilities, and the total openness — the outside world gets loud sometimes — will limit their appeal for some consumers. Read my review now for all the details and impressions.