Product3 publishers2 min readPublished
Bose splits its open-ear line into a $299 flagship and a $199 sport pair
Both new pairs clip to the outside of the ear and reach buyers on October 1, with preorders from September 19. Bose gave the dust and water rating to the $199 sport model and kept Cinema Mode for the $299 flagship.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Bose announced the Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen) at $299 and the Sport Open Earbuds at $199, with preorders opening September 19 and both pairs on sale October 1.
- The second-generation Ultra keeps the cuff-clip shape and adds a new driver for deeper bass and higher volume, a beveled metal cap and a case that stands upright on a wireless charger.
- The Sport model is the one Bose rated IP54 for dust and water, built around a thinner silicone cuff that the company says stays secure through head shakes and cartwheels.
- Bose is presenting the Sport Open Earbuds as a completely new product even though the name belonged to a Bose model discontinued in 2021.
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Why it matters
- decision Anyone buying for people who move now shops down the price ladder, and the $299 pair has to justify itself on video and volume instead of durability.
- constraint Engadget warns that heavy use of Immersive Audio and Cinema Mode dents runtime, so the nine-hour rating describes a day with the paid-for features switched off.
- capability Google Find Hub and Alexa+ arrive by firmware on launch day, so what the Ultra can do out of the box depends on that update shipping on time.
Volume was the complaint that followed the first Ultra Open around. Gizmodo's reviewer, who used the 2024 pair, wrote that "volume was easily one of the biggest downsides" [22]. Engadget's reviewer at the time called the cuff-clip silhouette divisive, and very comfortable [23]. Bose regards that product as its "flagship open-ear experience" [19], and The Verge credits it with helping kick off the clip-on trend nearly two and a half years ago [24].
Add the case and the cheaper pair lasts longer between wall sockets. Bose rates the Sport at up to seven hours of playback with 22 hours in its charging case, and the Ultra at up to nine hours with 19.5 hours in its case [8][4][6]. That is 29 hours against 28.5 [26].
The size of the Ultra's battery gain depends on which write-up you read. Engadget puts the first generation at 7.5 hours, so the new rating is 1.5 hours better, a 20 percent improvement [4][28]. The Verge says the old figure was seven hours; on that base the gain is two hours, or about 29 percent [5][28].
What the extra $100 buys is sound and software. The Ultra gets a new driver for deeper bass and higher volume [12], Cinema Mode using Bose's TrueSpatial processing [13], a three-band EQ in the app [29], an Apple Music playlist shortcut, and multipoint across two devices over Bluetooth 5.4 [15]. The Sport pair supports multipoint too, along with Auto Volume and the SpeechClarity call feature that isolates the wearer's voice [16][17]. Neither has noise cancelling, because the open design is built to let the room in [14].
Two conditions sort the purchase. If the buds have to survive sweat, the rated pair is the $199 Sport [9]. If the wearer watches video on the phone they are paired to, Cinema Mode is on the Ultra only [13]. A buyer who needs both is buying both, at $498 [30].
What to watch
- Whether Bose publishes a dust and water rating for the Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen) before October 1.
- Whether the Google Find Hub and Alexa+ firmware actually lands on launch day as Bose says it will.
- Whether the first-generation Ultra Open Earbuds get discounted below the Sport model's $199.