Bose Ultra Open

Bose has announced the new Ultra Open Earbuds, a pair of Bluetooth wireless earbuds that feature an open ear design. The goal here is to be able to listen to your content while being fully aware of your surroundings as your ears remain unblocked at all times. The Ultra Open Earbuds are designed to be worn on your outer ear and hang off your auricles. They have a U-shaped design with a part that sits within the outer ear and a barrel that hangs outside and the two are connected by a soft rubber material. The barrel also features a button for accessing various features and playback options.

The Ultra Open Earbuds features Bose's proprietary OpenAudio technology, which projects audio directly into your ear canal with a powerful transducer and a tightly controlled acoustic structure with minimal leakage, so that the sound is only audible to the wearer. The earbuds also feature the Bose Immersive Audio feature, which uses the company's proprietary digital signal processing and an onboard inertial measurement unit to create a spatial audio effect that makes the sound seem like it's coming from around you. The feature has two modes, Still for when you are sitting still and Motion for when you are out and about.

The Ultra Open Earbuds feature Snapdragon Sound, including the latest Qualcomm aptX Adaptive codec that supports lossless and low latency audio. You also get Bluetooth 5.3 but there's no multi-device pairing, although you can switch back and forth between current and last paired device with a tap of the button. Other features include Auto Volume, which automatically adjusts the volume level based on ambient noise, Google Fast Pair support, IPX4 rating for water and sweat resistance, and Bose SimpleSync for pairing with select Bose smart soundbars and speakers.

The Ultra Open Earbuds have a claimed battery life of 7.5 hours of continuous playback, which drops down to 4.5 hours when using Immersive Audio. The charging case provides another 19.5 (or 12) hours of battery life. A 10-minute charge provides 2 hours of playtime. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are priced at US$ 299 and available starting today from Bose.com and select retailers.