Bose Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen) Fix the Bass and Add Qi Charging at $299

Photo by Daniel Romero on Unsplash

Bose kept the price at $299 and spent the engineering budget on the three things buyers complained about most. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds 2nd Gen arrived October 1, 2026 with a retuned driver for deeper bass, Qi wireless charging in the case, and battery life rated at up to 9 hours per bud, according to Bose's press materials. Preorders opened September 19 after a September 17 announcement.

The pitch is corrective, not transformative. SoundGuys noted that on the original model "bass was almost absent, calls sounded rough, and the $299 price was hard to justify," which frames the 2nd Gen less as a successor and more as the version Bose should have shipped in 2024.

The $299 Decision That Shapes Everything Else

Price is the headline because it did not move. IntoMobile confirmed the launch figure at $299 in the US and €299.95 in the Eurozone, matching what Gen 1 launched at in 2024 alongside a Kith collaboration that hid the Bose logo. The collab is gone this time. Standard retail, standard branding.

Holding the line on price while adding wireless charging, a new driver, and two years of silicon improvements is unusual in a category where most refreshes bump the MSRP by $20 to $50. It also tells you where Bose thinks the ceiling is. Open-ear earbuds without active noise cancellation have a narrower buyer pool than sealed in-ears, and $299 is already the top of what mainstream customers will pay for the form factor.

The new $199 Bose Sport Open Earbuds, announced the same day, do the work of widening that pool from below. Pricing the Sport model exactly $100 under the Ultra is a deliberate ladder, and it signals that Bose expects the open-ear category to grow enough to justify two SKUs rather than a single flagship.

There is a secondary reading here worth naming. By refusing to raise the price while adding features, Bose is also implicitly admitting that Gen 1 was overpriced at launch. The 2nd Gen is what $299 should have bought in 2024.

What Actually Changed in the Bose Ultra Open vs Gen 1

The hardware delta is small on paper and specific where it counts. Techzeeno's review lists the key spec changes:

• Battery life rated at up to 9 hours per bud, up from the 7 hours Bose currently publishes for Gen 1
• Case now supports Qi wireless charging and stands upright on a desk; Gen 1 was USB-C only
• 10-minute quick charge delivers up to 2 hours of playback
• Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint across two devices, 30-foot range
• IPX4 water resistance, roughly 6 g per bud, dimensions 47 x 26 x 66 mm

The new Cinema Mode joins Stereo and Immersion as a third listening preset, using TrueSpatial processing to widen the soundstage while keeping dialogue centered. SpeechClarity and Auto Volume are the two call and ambient-aware features that did not exist on Gen 1, per IntoMobile.

Codec support is where Android users benefit most. SoundGuys confirmed Snapdragon Sound and aptX Adaptive alongside the usual SBC and AAC, which should cut Bluetooth latency on compatible phones. iPhone users remain locked to AAC, as always. Model number is 897806-0030.

The physical dimensions and weight are nearly identical to Gen 1, meaning the C-arm cuff design did not change in any meaningful way. Anyone who tried Gen 1 and found the fit awkward around the ear will find the same fit here. Anyone who loved it gets the same thing with better internals.

The Battery Figure Bose Doesn't Put on the Box

The 9-hour rating assumes you use the earbuds the way Bose tests them, which is not how most people use them. Techzeeno's breakdown shows battery life drops to 5 hours per bud and 11 hours from the case with Immersive Audio or Auto Volume enabled. Turn both on and the figure falls to 4 hours per bud with 8.5 hours from the case.

That is a 56 percent reduction from the headline number for anyone who actually uses the spatial audio feature Bose spent engineering effort to add. The case still provides an extra 19.5 hours in the default mode, bringing total listening to roughly 28.5 hours between wall outlets, but the margin collapses fast once you turn on the modes that make the product sound its best.

There is also a reporting conflict worth flagging. IntoMobile noted that one outlet, technetbooks.com, published battery figures of 7 hours per bud and 22 hours from the case, which contradicts both Bose's official spec sheet and Techzeeno's numbers. Bose's pressroom figure of 9 hours should be treated as the authoritative claim until independent lab testing settles it.

The 10-minute quick charge for 2 hours of playback is the more practically useful spec. It covers a commute or a workout from a near-dead state, which is what most people actually need from a top-up window.

Why Open-Ear Earbuds Still Refuse Noise Cancellation

The absence of ANC on a $299 Bose product is intentional, not a cost cut. Bose's pressroom states the open-ear design delivers sound through air near the ear rather than through bone conduction, with no seal in the canal and no active noise cancellation so wearers stay aware of their surroundings.

That is the entire pitch for open-ear earbuds as a category. Runners who need to hear traffic, cyclists navigating city streets, parents listening for a kid in the next room, and office workers who want to be interruptible all buy into the trade-off deliberately. The C-arm cuff with soft silicone matte finish anchors around the ear instead of inside it, which keeps the fit pressure-free over long sessions.

It is also a design choice with physics consequences. Without a seal, low-frequency response is harder to reproduce because bass energy escapes into the air rather than coupling to the ear canal. That is precisely why bass was the loudest complaint about Gen 1, and why Bose focused the driver update on exactly that frequency range. Whether the retune succeeds will come down to independent SPL and frequency response measurements that had not landed at the time of SoundGuys' review.

Colors at launch include Black and White Smoke as standard options, with Cherry Chocolate, Olive Green, and Sky Pink available as limited editions. For context on how other open-form audio is evolving, our coverage of AI Audio articles tracks the broader shift toward situational awareness over isolation.

The Firmware Updates That Shipped on Day One

Bose used launch day to backfill ecosystem features that competitors had already. Engadget reported that the day-one firmware added support for Google Find Hub and Alexa+, plus a new Apple Music shortcut that jumps directly into pre-selected playlists from the earbud controls. Google Fast Pair and Find My Android arrived in a subsequent firmware push.

What the firmware did not add is Auracast. SoundGuys flagged the omission as a legitimate knock against a $299 product shipping in late 2026, when Bluetooth LE Audio broadcast is becoming a baseline expectation at this tier. For a product this expensive, missing a standard that AirPods Pro 2 and several sub-$200 competitors already support is a conspicuous gap. It is also one that could in theory be addressed via firmware if the Bluetooth 5.4 radio supports LE Audio profiles, though Bose has not committed to that.

Multipoint pairing across two devices over Bluetooth 5.4 is included and works as expected for switching between a laptop and a phone without manual reconnection. The 30-foot range figure is standard for the class and shouldn't surprise anyone.

Who Actually Benefits From the Upgrade

If you own Gen 1, the case for upgrading rests on three things: whether the bass retune and higher maximum volume are worth $299 to you, whether Qi charging matters, and whether the extra two hours of battery changes how you use them. Bose claims a new driver delivers deeper bass and higher maximum volume than Gen 1, along with improved microphones, per SoundGuys, but those are manufacturer claims that had not yet been independently measured at the time of the review.

For most Gen 1 owners, waiting for independent measurements is the smarter move. A retuned driver is only worth $299 if the retune is substantial, and "deeper bass" is a claim every audio manufacturer makes with every refresh. The Qi charging case can be bought in isolation as an accessory on many product lines, though Bose has not announced whether the new case will be sold separately for Gen 1 owners.

For new buyers, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds review consensus is less about whether the 2nd Gen is good than whether $299 for an open-ear design is defensible when sealed earbuds at the same price deliver ANC, better bass by physics, and often longer battery life. The answer depends almost entirely on how much you value hearing your environment while listening. If you have never wanted ANC, open-ear is the better product. If you occasionally want isolation, a sealed pair with a strong transparency mode is the more flexible buy.

Readers cross-shopping other wearables might also look at our rundown of recent Earbuds articles and the broader News articles feed for context on how the open-ear category is pricing itself.

What to Watch Between Now and Spring 2027

Two things will determine whether Bose's bet pays off. The first is independent measurement of the new driver's bass response and maximum SPL, which will confirm or deny Bose's internal claims and should land in long-form reviews over the next few weeks. The second is whether Bose pushes Auracast support via firmware before competitors use its absence as a wedge, something the company has done before on other Ultra-branded products.

The Sport Open Earbuds at $199 are the other variable. If they deliver 80 percent of the Ultra experience at two-thirds the price, they will cannibalize the $299 tier Bose is trying to defend. That answer arrives when Sport reviews publish and buyers decide which trade-offs they actually care about.

For now, the 2nd Gen is a tidy correction to a product that launched a step short of its price tag. Whether that correction is enough to justify $299 over a growing field of cheaper open-ear competitors is a question the market will answer by spring.