A Shocking New Design (Bose QuietComfort Ultra OPEN Earbuds)

These are the strangest earbuds I ever tried. How do they even go in/on your ears? Do they sound good? Are they secure and comfortable?

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Disclaimer: This video is purely based on my experiences, research, and opinions. You and only you are responsible for your actions. I made this channel to advise viewers and I truly hope to help you all out. I love making these videos and connecting with my viewers!
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ADDITIONAL REVIEW NOTES:
These are the newest earbuds from Bose, but of the hundreds of earbuds I tested, I have never seen anything like these. I mean when I opened the box, I didn’t even know how to put them in my ears. I had so many questions with these. How do you wear them? Are they secure? Are they actually comfortable? Do they have ANC? What do they sound like?

So these are the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Open earbuds. The name tells us a lot about these earbuds. I want to go over these in order of the questions I had and maybe you have as well.

Let’s start off with Question #1 How do they go in your ears? (design tour)

Aesthetics

#2 Comfort: I could definitely wear these all day - longer than other buds. They never get hot, and never cause ear canal fatigue. You forget they are there

#3: Are they secure?
I ran with these and never adjusted them

You may need to adjust them at first to get the sound right…

#4 Do they sound good?

Volume is surprisingly good. Open buds like this typically need to be cranked, but I like these and often listen below 50%. Sometimes even lower - probably healthier for your ears unless you are in loud environments

Snapdragon Sound should give you the high resolution codecs we like

Large 12mm drivers
Clear, focused, clean bass that is not head shaking and thumpy, but still delivers. Much better than most other open earbuds honestly

Does not quite sound like the audio is in the room with you, but also not in your head like most buds. It is somewhere in between and I really like it

Immersion mode (spatial audio)
Typically I hate this
Very well executed here. Hearing your surroundings adds to it imo. It is quite convincing. I heard a siren in the background of a song and I looked over my left shoulder. I was shocked at how convincing this was

The drawback - the isolation is obviously weak. Loud sounds in your surroundings impact your experience.

SOUND LEAK TEST
What should I compare these to? Get subscribed if you aren’t already.

Do they have ANC?

Mic test

How do you control them?
Buttons are simple and satisfying
Reliable when working out with wet hands, or in the cold
Customizable press and hold function (show the app)

Battery life
7.5 hrs / 27 hrs (about half that with immersive audio on)
Are they durable?
IP rating = IPX4

Auto play/payse =
2 colors = black and white smoke
Aesthetics? - kind of look like regular buds or an earring
Case design
Wireless charging = nope
Mono mode = ?
Bluetooth 5.3
Multipoint connectivity = not really

PROS
Great for biking when you need to hear surroundings but
Spatial audio works even better in my opinion. Almost too good
No cleaning necessary
Hygenic for sharing
Ears never get hot
No interference with most glasses and jewelry, also easily repositionable
90 day warranty encourages anyone to test these out

CONS
They obviously don’t block any surrounding sound
No wireless charging
Requires two hands to put in your ears - right?
Price - they are $299

[david]

Bought these. They are amazing. After you put them on, you don't even know you're wearing them. The sound quality is excellent in my opinion. Call quality, both ways is first-class. I am over the moon with these. Bose has really delivered with this innovative product.

[BigOunce___]

Is this Paul Rudd and Chris Pratts son?

[JeffJacquesmd]

I had a credit with Amazon and bought these for the credit and 27 bucks cash.
In a quiet room good sound quality.
Outside in the world with normal background noise, decently good sound quality while maintaining awareness of surroundings.
Good for working out.
They can be used in mono mode, but you have to connect the left one manually in settings.
Unusable on planes.
Decent microphone quality

[Cesxr._]

This is what I was waiting for, your reviews are always reliable

[rabahmadini]

Been waiting for your review on them watched like 6 reviews and yours was the most helpful as usual

[allemander]

Not being able to use one earbud at a time, for my personal usage style, is absolutely a deal breaker.
Thanks for the thorough review.

EDIT:
I’ve tried several times to post this update in the comment thread below but, for some reason (censorship??), it keeps getting deleted.

I have an update!
As the original poster of this comment thread, after much contemplation & temptation, I have since taken a chance on these Ultra-Open earbuds and purchased them from Amazon on a 5-month, no-interest payment plan, however, while not perfect, I’m quite pleased with these Bose earbuds and I will be keeping them.

I can definitely confirm, after about 12 days of daily use, without a doubt, that these CAN be used one earbud at a time, without any issue. Even switching between my iPhone and iPad is easily accomplished with a ‘button press and hold’ shortcut on either earbud.

They sound great, they’re comfortable and the battery life is amazing, especially the fact that the standby time while wearing them without any audio playing is a whopping 48 hrs!

My limited mic-quality feedback from phone calls has not been favorable but that’s not my primary use for these buds.
Probably my biggest complaint is that the pause feature (while wearing one or both earbuds) fails to respond at least half the time, leaving me to use either my iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch to initiate the pause function, which can be aggravating and really inconvenient.

Overall, these are unique enough, with adequate features that impress, that I’m personally able to overlook the minor complaints I have, which may or may not be the same opinion you have, if you try them.

[elainedempsey]

This is a very comprehensive review! I have seen many on this product and this is the best of all. Thank you. I purchased these and the ONLY reason I will likely need to return them is the mic. The tunnel sound and the environment sounds while talking are too much to be understood. But they nailed it with most every other feature - especially the all day comfort. I agree with you about the wish for wireless charging and the high cost. Thank you again for this review. I will watch for more.

[quantx]

i like the design, especially for working out. i might have to give these a try. great review, really thorough. much appreciated.

[jetpipe]

Bose gets so much hate, but they are a great company and these are a great new first gen innovation. Keep it up Bose you’re doing great!

[sumitkar]

Really solid review - glad the algorithm got me here and immediately subscribed

[anishsomani]

Very helpful. Have been a samsung buds live user for the open style and the lack of mono mode will limit me from trying these. Thanks for testing that

[donttakeitpersonal]

Your a real one for showing the sound leakage I always worry about others being able to hear my music, but with these earbuds it actually isn't that bad. Ik I shouldn't but I usually listen to music at 75% so thank you for even going to 100%! I love that you did that for us this video was very helpful :)

[RuliManurung]

I've tried a bunch of open earbuds (my use case is for cycling), and somewhat surprisingly the best pair I've found has been the very budget-friendly TOZO Open Buds. They have a very cool dual axis ratcheting mechanism that allows you to precisely control where they sit in your ear, and are very comfortable. I tend to leave them in my ears all day and I experience zero fatigue. I would love you to include those in any open earbud comparison/shootout video!

[arleighsimon]

Very thorough review. Thanks. Good job! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[nabeelwillayt]

I always use the immersion option, especially when having long-distance or online calls where the internet connection is low. This mode is heavy; otherwise, you need to disconnect your regular headphones and try to listen using a headset. Secondly, immersion mode is so good in the office while working. You just need more of its use or in a virtual meeting, you require more clarity. It is amazing

[permeusnd]

I like the idea of them kinda clipping/hugging your ear as one of my big bugbears is the ones that go in your ear as they are just never comfy and can pop out and the other more open kind can just fall off, this design looks like ied like it.

[trAllafitti]

Great Video, exactly my experiences with the Bose Open Earbuds Ultra.
Auto-Stop is not needed in my opinion. Due to the open design you better can press the button once than pulling the bud off your ear.
The price is hurting, here in Germany they cost 350 Euros. Thats 380 Dollars 😮
Greetings!

[TheLexikitty]

I use the LinkBuds 24/7 for TTS from my phone as I’m legally blind, recently lost mine and fleas considering these so THANK YOU for testing the Mono mode, I need Mono to extend how long earbuds can last me through the day and that would have been a pain to discover after the fact. 💞

[srivasr]

I saw these on Amazon just today, good to see a review..

[tigerny]

Excelent review
The only test missing was how mic performs in high winds