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Open-ear design earbuds have been getting popular, likely because active noise-canceling tech has gotten so good that people have forgotten what nature sounds like. The Ultra Open Earbuds are Bose’s attempt at the trending tech, and they’re decent. But at their current price of $199.99 (originally $299.99), they are also a steal. This is the lowest price they’ve ever been, according to price-tracking tools .
Open-ear designs are not for everyone—especially audiophiles. They have the same downside as bone conduction headphones : They let noise pollution in, and the bass and some mids are weak. But you can hear if a cyclist is about to pass you as you’re running on the bike path.
The Bose Ultra Open are not waterproof, but they are water-resistant with an IPX4 rating , meaning they can take some splashes, but don’t put submerge them in water. There is a wireless charging case you can get separately if you don’t want to use the USB-C connection to charge it. You’ll get about 7.5 hours of juice if you have the Immersive Audio feature off, and about two charges with the case for a total of around 27 hours.
While these earbuds don’t have multipoint connection, they do have a feature to pair two devices simultaneously and switch between them by pressing a button on the earbud—a controlled multipoint connection of sorts. They are compatible with Bluetooth 5.3 and work with the AAC, AptX Adaptive, and SBC codecs , so Android devices will get better audio than Apple users. Both users will be able to customize the EQ on the app and use features that you can read more about in CNET’s review .
