I really prefer in-earbuds to headphones, but even after I got some foam tips for better comfort - my ears still get "swamp ear" and get irritated after long use. I finally decided to see if there was a better solution and stumbled upon these Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which seemed like they could be the answer. After about a week or so of using them, I have been pleasantly surprised at how well they perform. They are by far the weirdest pair of earbuds I have ever owned, and I was considering buying the Sony LinkBuds but I was really hoping for something different like bone conduction rather than in the ear (which seem to be my main problem). I also was hoping that I'd be able to wear them for longer than my in-ear pair, which definitely is the case. Comparatively I'd have to take my in-ears out every so often to clean my ears as with these the only issue is my ear tends to get a tad irritated after long-use but it also could just be my ears getting used to something being there, hard to say right now until I've had them for longer but I just adjust them slightly up or down when I feel discomfort. I actually got these as my "gaming" earbuds, which after turning off "Immersion Mode" and using "Stereo Mode" I feel it's best unless you're listening to music it's just too bassy for regular stuff in my humble opinion (still sounds great, YMMV). Battery life has been a lot better than my other pair of earbuds which would die after ~4-6 hours, so far the lowest I've gotten these have been around 40%. I'm also not too sure how fast they charge, since they live on my desk and I charge them overnight but when I first charged them it took about half hour to fully charge from ~60%. It's a bit difficult to figure out what the optimal spot is for these earbuds to perform their best, I believe for me at least when they're at their lowest on/in your ear it seems to be the best. I'll randomly check that they're evenly pushed into my ears and not falling out from time to time, but generally they're pretty snug fit that don't move much once on. As far as "noise cancellation" or "passive hearing" goes, they do a pretty good job at blocking out sound when turned up I generally have mine around 60% at that's loud enough for me - I can still hear around me, if need be which I like not having to take off my earbuds in between sessions to multitask. There was a recent firmware update that adds auto-volume, which increases the volume in louder environments which is kind of "noise cancellation" in its simplest form. You're also able to control the earbuds pretty well with just the button on either earbud, play, pause, skip track, reverse track, toggle immersive mode or you can customize the shortcut which is nice. I have left as cycle thru still/motion/off immersion, and right as toggle immersion but there's also "switch devices" and "access your voice assistant" as options. I look forward to future updates and possibly v2 of this product if it performs well, a great niche product for an oversaturated market. I would recommend trying these out if you're at all interested, the price is a bit hard to swallow but they may become your favorite pair of earbuds 🫠

I was looking for a pair of noise canceling earbuds and had to go with Bose. I had a pair of bose noise canceling headphones that I was very impressed with. Upon receiving the earbuds, I notice the moice canceling mode did not work. After factory resets, uninstall ingredients the app and cycling the buds on and off multiple times, they still didn't work. I'm mow waiting for a replacement pair to see if they work. To be honest, not impressed with the earbuds. The sound isn't as advertised and disappointed with having to send back the earbuds after having them for only 3 days.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I've had these for a couple of months now but I'm just not wowed. The volume is way to low for me. The fit is great and the idea is solid but being so far from my earhole they make it very hard to hear anything through them. I'm allergic to most silicone pieces that come with buds so I was very excited to see these. My excitement didn't last long. I should have returned them but waited too long.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Had them for a month now and love them. Was skeptical, having tried another brand of open buds but the sound on these are amazing. Comfort is off chart, you'll forget you have them on. Sandstone color is great!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I've in search for ear phones that does not irritate my ear for years and finally decided to purchase this. So happy with this purchase. It's comfortable, decent sound. Although, if your used to over the ear or in ear type of headphones or ear phones, the sound quality is not this same. You can compare open earbuds more to listening to radio, where you can hear all the surrounding sounds.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] At full volume, I cannot hear podcasts. They're loud enough for music, but even putting a stretchy headband over the devices to hold the speakers closer to my ear canal, I still cannot understand spoken word with these.

Have used these new open ear buds for over 3 weeks now and am very pleased. The new cuff ear fit is a huge improvement over the old in ear method for 2 main reasons: 1. It perfectly fits any ear type which allows sharing. This was previously a problem since my wife's ears need a much smaller plug than I do. It also removes the need to clean the ear buds each time they are shared. 2. They maintain the great Bose sound and bass but also allows you to not be cut off from the outside world should someone wish to ask you something. Some other major Pros are: Great Bluetooth range - Better than my Bose QC II's. I can walk around my whole backyard while leaving my phone stationary with no issues. Button control on each barrel - This allows an extremely easy way to pause, skip, volume control, answer calls, etc. This also compares very favorably towards my QC II's as well as other ear buds that get touched accidentally and stop playing or skip. Not noise canceling - These do engulf you in the sound, so although you can hear outside sounds it is very close to noise canceling, basically the best of both worlds. Perfect fit - Although the fit is mentioned above, the cuff/clip method also allows these to not fall out. Even though the QC II's and my other ear buds fit me very well, after a long day or some strenuous exercise there was the possibility, they would slip out. With the cuff/clip method they stayed on while I worked out at the gym, hit the batting cages, worked outside etc. Battery Life - I have used these for 7 hours straight and not run out of battery life. In fact, I have yet to have them cut out due to dead battery. Battery Case - Major improvement in the case as the magnetic grip has the ear buds fit correctly every time. Plus, they connect up towards the top of the case which avoids issues I have had in the past with the QC II's and others where the deep case can get dirty contacts which are hard to clean and cause the ear buds to not always charge correctly. The other plus is 2 different charging lights that give the current status of each ear bud. My other ear bud cases contain one light that shows the status as you put each ear bud in, so it wasn't as easy to know where they both stood at a quick glance. Multiple Bluetooth connections - I had these connected to 2 or 3 different devices at all times and switching between was very easy and seamless. Firmware update - This was very easy to perform and completed successfully. The latest firmware update appears to have solved all of the issues/cons I will list below so it is great to know any other potential problems or updates can be distributed and installed proactively or reactively by Bose in a quick manner. Cons: Connectivity with the Bose Music App - I will start off by saying I believe all these issues were cleared up with the new firmware update, but I will mention them just in case. To be clear, these were only issues within the Bose Music app, my Bluetooth connections never dropped, and I never had any interruptions in listening. Within the Bose Music App, which is used to do things like adjust the equalizer and set various immersive audio settings (which are very cool), I had multiple occurrences where the app would lose connection with the ear buds at times for a few minutes and then reconnect. I tried to force reconnect via various troubleshooting methods but none of them worked, they just seemed to reconnect by themselves after a short period of time. As I mentioned there was no interruption at all in listening, it was just within the app. Along with that a few other times I also had one or the other ear bud drop off unexpectedly and then after 30-90 seconds pick back up again. In these cases, it did seem that if I clicked the barrel button on the ear bud that dropped it would come back, although this did not resolve it every time. As mentioned above, all of these issues have not reoccurred for me since the firmware update, so I do not have any actual current Cons. To wrap it up, I highly recommend these ear buds as they provide much more fit/sharing flexibility, seem more rugged than other ear buds and keep that same great Bose sound.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I absolutely love love my new earbuds. I never thought anything could be better than airpods but these ARE!!! I love the fact that I can hear my music/audio but also be aware of my surroundings. I was always so scared with my airpods when I was running in the park because I did not know if something was happening around me but with my new open earbuds I feel a lot better and safer.

This product represents my first ever purchase of ear buds. I love that this product clips onto my ear instead of being embedded into my ear canal. When earphones were first introduced to the market, I struggled with keeping them in my ears. Because of that, it was an easy choice to choose this product. This product is stylish and comfortable on my ears. The sound is great!

Three weeks in and my Bose Ultra Open Ear Buds are living up to the promotional claims. I was using bone conduction headphones by a company whose name begins with “M” and had all kinds of problems connecting to my Apple products. The Bose ear buds connect as you take them out of their case. Great sound on music and phone calls.