Gizmodo put Bose back in open earbuds on September 17. Ultra Open 2nd Gen is $299. Sport Open is $199. Preorder started September 19. Street date is October 1. WIRED’s open-ear roundup, dated September 18, still names Shokz OpenDots 2 as best overall and lists the 2024 Ultra Open as the premium clip, at 7.5 hours, not nine.
Those two pages are one week apart and not the same test. James Pero had not worn the 2nd Gen yet. WIRED’s OpenDots 2 numbers are from a tester who has been living in clips since 2022. If you preorder Bose because the brand did ANC well, you bought the wrong shape.
Mashable’s ANC headphone roundup on September 21 is the third pile: Sony WH-1000XM6 at $450, Soundcore Space 2 at 50 hours with ANC. Cups that seal. Not clips. Do not mix the tables.
We already did AirPods 5 versus 4 and Bose QC Ultra Earbuds versus Sony WF-1000XM6. Those are tips in canals. This pair sits outside. Traffic stays in. Bass is a claim.
Price and ship date
Bose Ultra Open 2nd Gen: $299. That is a hundred dollars over Sport Open and in the same neighborhood as a lot of closed flagship buds. Gizmodo says the original Ultra Open was one of Bose’s more interesting 2024 products. The sequel adds a new driver aimed at bass and volume, which Pero says was the first pair’s weak point. He used the original. He has not published a 2nd Gen score in this piece. The driver is a press line until he, or WIRED, wears it.
Shokz OpenDots 2: WIRED does not print a street price in the spec block it published. It calls them pricey and notes cheaper OpenDots Air and OpenFit Air 2 just launched, with testing still open. Earlier in the same guide, Shokz OpenFit Pro is $250 with a warning that the “open plus ANC” trick does not cancel much, so $250 might buy two dedicated pairs instead. Do not invent an OpenDots 2 number. Do invent a rule: if Bose is $299 and Shokz’s own $250 open-plus-ANC pick is already a maybe, you need a reason beyond the logo.
Preorder September 19, wide availability October 1, black or “white smoke,” limited Ultra Open colors cherry chocolate, olive green, sky pink. Sport Open gets eucalyptus green. Colors are not a seal.
If you need buds this week, OpenDots 2 is the one WIRED already ran in rain and underwater. Bose 2nd Gen is a calendar.
Pero’s Gizmodo piece is two minutes of launch notes, not a lab. He is already looking forward to wearing them. That sentence is the tell. WIRED’s OpenDots 2 writeup is the opposite: rain, beach, full submersion, glasses, hats, and a warning that open buds will not be your flight companion. One is a SKU sheet. One is a use case. Pay for the use case.
The Sport Open C-shape is Bose admitting the original Ultra Open clip was not a gym product. IP54 and a textured button are the fitness claims. Seven hours is shorter than OpenDots 2’s ten and much shorter than OpenRun Pro 2’s twelve. If your run is an hour, seven is fine. If your run is a long Saturday, the band wins and it is not even in this $299 fight.
Battery and IP, not vibes
WIRED OpenDots 2: 10 hours in the buds, 40 with the case, Bluetooth 6.1, IP57, wireless charging. The writer fully submerged them more than once. IP57 is the same rating they cite for AirPods Pro 3 and Galaxy Buds4 Pro.
Gizmodo Ultra Open 2nd Gen: 9 hours, up from 7.5. Wireless charging case that can sit upright. No IP rating in that article. WIRED’s first-gen Ultra Open line is IPX4, Bluetooth 5.3, 7.5 hours and 27 with the case, no wireless charging. Treat 2nd Gen’s water rating as unpublished in these three pieces. Do not assume IP57.
Sport Open, because Bose shipped two SKUs: 7 hours, IP54, $199, C-shape, silicone, textured playback button, sweat and light rain. Same SpeechClarity and Auto Volume as Ultra Open 2nd Gen. Smaller body, smaller cell. If you actually run, that is the Bose SKU, not the $299 clip. It is still not Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, which WIRED lists separately as a headband, 12 hours, IP55, bone plus air conduction, no case.
Mashable’s closed cans are a different battery story. Soundcore Space 2: 50 hours with ANC, 70 off, eight-band EQ, seafoam/white/black, cheaper, creaks, weaker ANC than the expensive ones. Sony XM6 over-ears: $450, about 30 hours in that comparison. If your day is a plane, you wanted that list, not this one.
What open actually does
WIRED’s definition is the one that should have been in the Bose post: tiny speakers on the ear, outside sound in. Hooks or clips. Good for running, biking, chores, glasses. Bad for long-haul flights and, in their words, daily gym sessions if you wanted isolation. OpenFit Pro’s “noise canceling” on an open bud is “not much.” Do not buy Bose Cinema mode as a movie theater.
Gizmodo’s software list on Ultra Open 2nd Gen: SpeechClarity (AI to isolate your voice on calls), Auto Volume (steps up in louder rooms), Cinema mode with TrueSpatial for movies and TV. Those are Bose trying to make an open bud behave like a closed one. Auto Volume is the honest one: the world got louder so the bud got louder. That is not ANC. That is a volume war with a bus.
WIRED still likes first-gen Ultra Open for sound quality and physical buttons, and still says they are only worth it if you want the best clip-on sound and will pay for it. 2nd Gen’s new driver is Bose answering that sentence. Until a measurement or a week of wear lands, it is a datasheet.
OpenDots 2 are clip-ons: speaker at the canal opening, other end behind the ear, top of the ear free for glasses and hats. Aeroclip runner-up: 8 hours, 32 with case, IP55, Bluetooth 5.4, no wireless charging, Soundcore app with EQ and multipoint. PearlClip Pro at $50 is the “do I even like clips” tester, 7.5 hours, 30 with case, IPX5, fussy app.
If Bose’s $299 is your first open pair, WIRED would rather you spend $50 on PearlClip Pro and find out whether you hate the leak. That advice survived a Bose launch.
ANC roundups will lie to you
Mashable’s September 21 list is cups and in-ears with seals. Sony XM6 over-ears at $450 if you care about premium ANC and did not already buy XM5s. Sony’s XM6 buds in the same article: 8 hours, 24 with case, $328, more oval than XM5, less fatigue, tighter seal, more passive ANC. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) as most comfortable, $249. Those are silicone tips. They share a brand with Ultra Open. They do not share a job.
We already put Sony WH-1000XM6 against Bose QC Ultra 2 on the sealed side. This week’s Mashable numbers belong there. If a store page puts Ultra Open 2nd Gen next to XM6, the store page is confused.
OpenFit Pro at $250 is the other trap: open plus a little canceling, worse at both than buying OpenDots 2 and a cheap sealed pair. Gizmodo even links Shokz OpenDots 2 as the competition Bose has to beat. Believe that link.
Soundcore Aeroclip, WIRED’s runner-up, is the value argument Bose has to beat at $299. Eight hours, 32 with the case, IP55, no wireless pad, an app with EQ and multipoint. Ryan Waniata used them for the dog, the baby, the bike, dinner. That is the open-ear job. Bose wants you to watch movies on Cinema mode. Waniata was making dinner. If your life looks like his, the extra hundred dollars is a driver claim you have not heard.
PearlClip Pro at $50 remains the sane first buy. Fussy app, IPX5, 7.5 hours. You will know in a week whether clips annoy you. Returning a $299 preorder in October is worse.
Winner
Shokz OpenDots 2, unless you already loved first-gen Ultra Open sound and you can wait until October 1.
WIRED has hours, IP57, wireless charging, and a tester who dunked them. Bose has a $299 preorder, a driver claim, 9 hours, and a review that has not happened. Sport Open at $199 is the Bose I would actually take to a run, and it is still 7 hours and IP54 against OpenRun Pro 2’s 12 hours if you wanted a band.
Take Ultra Open 2nd Gen only if physical Bose buttons and the 2024 sound are why you stayed, and you accept that Cinema mode will not be a plane. Take Mashable’s Space 2 or XM6 if you wanted quiet. Do not take a clip to a flight because the case sits upright.
Buttons versus touch is the one first-gen Ultra Open point WIRED still cares about when running or biking. 2nd Gen does not change that in Gizmodo’s launch note. If you hated capacitive stems, Bose still has a case. If you wanted IP57 and 40 hours in the case, Shokz already shipped it. Wireless charging on OpenDots 2 is in WIRED’s spec table. Wireless charging on Ultra Open 2nd Gen is in Gizmodo’s. Call that a tie and look at the hours.
Specs next to each other
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen), $299: 9 hours (Gizmodo), up from 7.5, wireless charging case, SpeechClarity, Auto Volume, Cinema/TrueSpatial, metal and bevel, preorder Sep 19, on sale Oct 1, black / white smoke / limited cherry chocolate, olive green, sky pink. IP not stated in the Gizmodo launch. First-gen in WIRED: IPX4, BT 5.3, 7.5 + 27, no pad.
Shokz OpenDots 2 (WIRED best overall): 10 hours, 40 with case, BT 6.1, IP57, wireless charging, clip-on, glasses-friendly, no street price in that spec box, cheaper Air models incoming.
Bose Sport Open, $199: 7 hours, IP54, C-shape, silicone, SpeechClarity, Auto Volume, eucalyptus limited, same ship window. Not the OpenDots 2 competitor unless your use is sweat.
Mashable, for the sealed people who wandered in: Soundcore Space 2, 50 hours ANC / 70 off; Sony WH-1000XM6, $450, ~30 hours; Sony XM6 buds $328, 8 + 24; Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen $249. Different aisle.