New OnePlus earbuds sport a neat trick I hope Bose and others will adopt – it could change the way you wear your buds forever
Advanced features packed into buds that won't cut you off
OnePlus has announced the OnePlus Buds Clip, as it joins the expanding range of brands offering an open-ear design.
The Buds Clip – much like the Motorola Buds Loop and Bose Ultra Open Earbuds – clip to your ear, leaving the ear canal free.
That means you can have greater awareness of what's happening around you and avoid that plugged-in and cut off feeling.
The new open-ear buds have been developed with Dynaudio and have a clever trick up their sleeve – they can be worn on either ear.
Because these buds clip to your ear, it doesn't matter which you wear on the left and which you wear on the right – they will automatically detect how they are being worn and adjust the sound to account for that.
OnePlus isn't the first to do this: the Huawei FreeClip 2 also support this function, as do the Moto Buds Loop, but it's not something that Bose offers. It is, however, something that in-ear buds and regular headphones don't offer.
There are dual drivers in the Buds Clip, with an 11mm woofer and 9mm tweeter packed into each unit, with dual DACs. There's support for LDAC for Hi-Res music, while OnePlus also promises a Private Soundstage, where reverse waves are emitted to ensure that others aren't disturbed by what you're listening to.
Each bud weighs 5.2g, with 40 hours of battery life promised – that's 9.5 hours from each charge with the case topping it up. If you choose to use LDAC over AAC, the usage drops to a total of 36 hours.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are IP55 protected, while also offer an AI Translate function and touch controls.
The boom in open-ear buds is driven by the desire to remain connected without being cut off. In recent years, the quality of the sound that you get from this type of earbuds has increased, with people choosing not to use traditional buds with transparency mode, but use an open design instead.
Open ear headphones have been popular for those exercising for some time, so you can enjoy music without losing awareness. But the rise in AI interactions gives this type of design another use case – you can wear a light and unobtrusive clip, but still interact with AI without having to block your ears.
With OnePlus withdrawing from the UK or US, the availability of these might be limited and as such price is currently unknown.
