Just before CES 2024 kicked off we got a look at leaked images of some new earbuds from Bose, a revival of its Open Ear lineup.
Well, that leak was wrong in terms of the timing, since Bose has waited until a little while after CES to actually unveil the earbuds in question.
However, the substance of the report looks to have been solid. The Ultra Open Earbuds have now been officially unveiled, as part of a partnership between Bose and the fashion brand Kith.
Weirdly, this means the true wireless earbuds will only be available directly from Kith itself on 22 January when they launch, and they don't actually have any Bose branding on them. Instead, the logo featured on the case and buds has been replaced with a stylised Kith one.
That logo is a hybrid one of Kith's and Bose's, which both brands are making a big deal about – it's something that demonstrates their mutual respect, we guess.
Also, while the original leak suggested that these earbuds would hang down off the ear like an earring, the official material demonstrates that the idea is in fact to have them almost clipped around the ear horizontally.
Kith says it'll be like wearing a light ear cuff, and that Ultra Open Earbuds have a flexible grip that should be easy to slip on and off.
As the name makes fairly obvious, these are open earbuds that don't block your ear canal, so the idea is that you can still be fully aware of the world around you while wearing them. You shouldn'y expect noise cancelling or much passive isolation, therefore.
Still, Bose has real pedigree where sound quality is concerned, so these should still deliver high-quality audio.
The Ultra Open Earbuds will apparently give you up to 7.5-hours of listening on one charge, though, although this dips to 4.5-hours if you turn on their spatial music features.
They'll also come with a pretty premium price tag, sitting at $300 with UK and EU pricing yet to be detailed – this should become clear pretty quickly given how soon their launch is, though.
