Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
The opposite of what I thought I wanted, and now the thing I reach for every time I walk out the door.
earbuds
The scorecard
Your ear stays fully open, so you hear the surf, the traffic, other runners, the marshal at a race. The right kind of listening outdoors.
Sit forward of the ear hinge, so they never foul your sunglass arms. No pressure point, no ear fatigue on the longest days.
Bose immersive audio gives a richness and fullness I did not think was possible without a seal.
The 7.5-hour claim is a stretch, realistically around 5 with immersive mode on. Still plenty for a long run.
The open design means wind is a real competitor: on exposed ridgelines a strong headwind will fight your music and sometimes win. There is no active noise cancelling at all, which is the entire point outdoors but makes them close to useless in a loud indoor gym.
Trail and road runners who need to hear what is around them, traffic, other runners, race marshals, and glasses-wearers tired of earbuds fouling their sunglass arms.
Anyone who wants to seal out the world on a treadmill or in a loud gym, or who needs true active noise cancelling.
The long run
I came to these as a committed noise-cancelling person, someone who liked being sealed off inside my own sound entirely. So I want to be upfront that these are close to the opposite of what I thought I wanted, and they have become the thing I reach for every time I walk out the door.
The whole premise is that your ear stays completely open. You hear your music or your podcast, and you also hear everything else: traffic, other runners, the surf, the marshal at a race telling you which way to turn. It took a little adjusting, coming from full immersion, but I got used to it faster than I expected, and now I cannot imagine running any other way. For trails, and especially for races where you genuinely need to hear what is happening around you, it is the right kind of listening.
The detail that sold me is where they sit. These sit entirely forward of your ear hinge, which means they do not foul the arms of your sunglasses. That sounds minor until you have done a long run in earbuds that wrap around your ears and spent the whole time fighting the pressure point where they meet your glasses. I have had exactly that discomfort before, and these solve it completely. On my longest races I have felt no pressure and no ear fatigue at all, the cuff design just sits there and lets you forget about it.
The sound genuinely surprised me too. I expected open earbuds to sound thin, and they do not. The Bose immersive audio gives them a richness and fullness I did not think was possible without a seal. They are rated IPX4 for water resistance, which has been fine for sweat and light rain, and they have held up to everything I have thrown at them.
The one catch is the price. At $449 RRP these sit right at the top of the market. I got mine in a sale at $299, which felt far more reasonable for what they are, so I would genuinely wait for a discount rather than paying full freight if you can help it. None of that has changed how much I use them. I will still reach for my noise-cancelling buds on the treadmill indoors, where sealing out the noise is exactly what I want, but for everything outdoors, every run, every race, every walk out the door, these are my go-to now, and I did not see that coming.
From the test
