Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds have great sound, a high price

Bose Acoustics: Snake-like Open Earbuds for Tuning Your Ear: The Case in Noisy Environments

Bose’s snake-like Open Earbuds deliver a fresh spin, designed to cling to your ear’s outer edge via a contractible hinge and to fire sound to your ear canal from a vented speaker housing. It works surprisingly well, delivering long-lasting comfort and clear sound that meets or beats most such options I’ve tried, including Sony’s holey LinkBuds (8/10, WIRED Recommends).

You’ll pay a remarkably high price for that distinction, which puts the Ultra in a tight spot. The $300 price of the Apple AirPods Pro makes them more versatile, but it doesn’t make up for their struggles in louder environments. A few technical problems out of the gate are common with new products. The inviting sound makes them worth a look for anyone who is looking for high- performance headphones.

Here’s the gist: the battery barrel sits behind your ear, and a flexible silicone band connects that to the “earbud” part, which wraps around your ear cartilage and just sort of rests somewhere on your ear’s antihelix. It’s not always obvious when you’ve got the right fit, which… is not a thing I often say about earbuds. You can check the mirror or selfies camera to see if the positioning is right. Bose told me that the sound can change slightly depending on where the Ultra Open Earbuds are positioned, but you want to shoot for the diagonal look seen in these review photos and the company’s press materials. When you finally get your earbuds on, you just press the clicky round button on each battery barrel to control them, which feels natural in no time. The earbuds are rated for water resistance so don’t worry about sweat or rain and the Silicone-coated flex arm is good for bending and twisting.

If you want your Bose earbuds to automatically raise and lower their loudness, you can use the Bose Music app’s Auto Volume feature. If you’re in a noisy coffee shop, you’ll notice the volume go up a bit, and it’ll drop back down once you arrive home or sit down at the office. This setting is not meant to drown out your environment; instead, it is meant to keep your private soundtrack on top of everything else happening. It is difficult to hear someone on the other side if you are caught in a loud spot. This downside is familiar to anyone who uses AirPods, Sony’s LinkBuds, and other open-style buds, but those don’t cost nearly as much.

Bose isn’t bad but the lack of noise cancellation in an open-air product like this leaves me frustrated. There’s no multipoint either, a feature that’s becoming table stakes for flagship earbuds and one that would be quite useful on a product you’re supposed to wear all day long. Bose needs to do a better job of accommodating people who juggle multiple devices. I will update this review when multipoint arrives via a software update. If you assign the button to switch source, you can quickly hop from device to device.