There is nothing that makes your journey into the outside world better than a pair of headphones and your favourite playlist of songs. The problem with that isolation is that most headphones block out too much of the outside world and that leaves your safety at risk. Especially If you’re in a hectic work out session that is already distracting enough.
This is why we have seen the introduction of bone conduction headphones, or the introduction of “transparency” modes like in the AirPods Pro which allow for a little more background noise in a person’s ear. Bose has announced a different approach with they believe will provide an even better system to achieving full ambient noise while still providing the wearer with a high quality of audio fidelity.
Rather than sitting inside the ear like most earbuds, the newly announced Sport Open Earbuds will “gently grip the ear’s outer ridge” and sit above the ear canal. Bose claims this new approach allows them to work with “no ear tip, virtually no skin contact, and without the squeezing and vibrations from bone conduction.”
Along with its unique approach to sitting on the ear more than inside of it, the earbuds will also reportedly provide eight hours of battery life on a charge, have a dust and water resistance rating of IPX4, and support Bluetooth 5.1. There will be buttons on each earbud to control audio playback and active the voice assistant with the standard microphones built-in too. Along with a charging carry case which will increase the playback time of the headphones, Bose also offers a music app in which a person can control their Bluetooth headphones.
It’s great to see manufacturers try and address this common problem, especially for runners, and it will be interesting to see if Bose’s approach really does lead to a better overall sound output along with allowing for better background noise. Bone conduction is definitely also an approach which I am excited about, though with the technology still quite expensive and the mild vibrations annoying at times, it still has some way to go.
At $200, Bose’s approach appears one that is perhaps cheaper and a little more feasible if they can prove that it works well too.
For more earbuds, read our guide – https://www.criticalhit.net/gaming/best-gaming-earbuds-guide/.
Last Updated: November 3, 2021
