So right now Bose is somewhat of a weird company. Right now I like the Bose NC 700 Headphones, but I dread every single time they get an upgrade. I absolutely love their Smart Sound Bar 300, cause the thing sounds great and its tiny… but then bose starts to get weird when it comes to their Earbuds. 

Even though the Bose QC earbuds block out the most amount of noise for truly wireless earbuds… Im not a fan of the Bose QC earbud’s ANC cause it does give me headaches. And that’s why I still prefer the ANC on the Jabra Elite 85T’s. But I also don’t like the Bose QC earbuds cause their case is colossal. 

But now we’ve go the Bose Sport Open earbuds. Now I get it, these things are niche and they’re targeting people who like to work out but also don’t like in ear earbuds. Im one of those people. But I can’t help but feel that these things are very much a beta product cause execution on this could have been much better especially for earbuds in 2021. Now im completely writing these things off… but keep in mind these things are for a very niche costumer that doesn’t mind putting up with some quirks.

Now first lets address the case… this case has a very large foot print, its way larger than AirPods or Galaxy Buds case and its even larger than the Bose QC earbud’s case. But this case is noticeably thinner than the Bose QC earbuds case and its way thinner than the Powerbeats Pro case. Now given that these earbuds are marketed as workout earbuds and they have ear hooks… I feel the size of their case is negligible. Now the outside of this case has a rubber feel to it similar to a basket ball and on the inside its felt. But the crucial thing about this case is that it doesn't charge the earbuds… its a normal everyday case. And one thing I really don’t like about this case is that they don’t magnetically attach to the earbuds… so I feel we’re missing half the product here. 

Now another thing about this case is that the earbuds don’t automatically power on when you take them out of their case… you gotta press and hold the button on the right earbud to power them on. And when you put the earbuds back into their case, they don’t automatically power off. You gotta turn them off yourself. Now yeah the earbuds will automatically power off if they’re inactive for a preset determined amount of time… but I can’t help but feel bose just completely skipped out on the case here. Cuase I think this case should have least had magnets in them to at least tell the earbuds its time to go to sleep. 

Now since these earbuds don’t have a case that charges them like most other truly wireless earbuds on the market right now… you get a separate charging base. Now this charging base has really good magnets in it so it makes putting your earbuds in really easy. But personally I don’t like that this base is still using a USB A port… I don’t know about you but a lot of my wall adaptors are using USB C now. 

Now when it comes to battery life these things have an advertised battery life of 8 hours which I think is okay, but given their size I was kind of hoping bose would have stuffed in a larger battery in them. But when it comes to fast charging… its not the best. Bose claims that a 30 minute charge in their cradle will get you 3 hours of playback time. But the Galaxy Buds Plus will get you and hour in just 3 minutes, AirPods will do it in 5 minutes and the Powerbeats pro will get you an hour and a half from that same 5 minute charge. 

But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves… these things are very unique. They have ear hooks just like the Powerbeats Pro, but they don’t don’t actually go into your ear canals. the drivers  on these earbuds just rest on your ear cartilage and shoot sound down to your ear drums. If you’re somebody that doesn't like in ear earbuds while they’re working out I think this is awesome. And if you’re somebody that works out outside… specially if you’re a runner or a cyclist then being able to both hear your music and hear your surroundings is great especially for safety. But when it comes to over all comfort… I think Bose could have done better. Specifically these ear hooks are solid plastic, they aren’t adjustable like the silicon ear hooks that you’ll find on the Powerbeats pro. So personally I think that people who have thicker ear cartilage will have a problem wearing these things. Personally I can make these earbuds work, but I’ve found that after an hour of wearing these things my ear cartilage starts to get tender. But then there’s their weight… these earbuds weigh in at 13.8 grams which may not seem like a lot… but since these earbuds are resting all of their wight on your ears you can really feel them shifting around when you’re moving around with them on. Cause for comparison sake, the Powerbeats pro weigh in around the same as the Bose earbuds, but since they are doing a much better job of dispersing their weight between the your ear canal, the bowl of your ear and you ear cartilage… you don’t feel these earbuds shifting around as much. So over all I feel that long term comfort for the bose earbuds is very meh. 

Now when it comes to connectivity, Bose claims that these earbuds should be used together all the time… but technically these earbuds are using a hero and side kick set up. So if you want to use one earbud at time you gotta use the correct ear bud. In this case the right earbud, the hero earbud.

But from a performance standpoint these earbuds do have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using and iPhone or an android device, and when it comes to audio codecs these earbuds are strictly using SBC and AAC.

But now lets talk about listening to music… now these aren’t a pair of earbuds that you get cause you want the best sound quality, these are solely for playing something to distract you while you're putting your body through toucher that most people avoid. For that give yourself a tap on the back. But in all seriousness, these things sound a little shallow, their bass is flat, and the main focus here are the vocals. And unfortunately their app does not allow you to customize their EQ like you can with the Bose NC 700 Headphones. Like I said, the sound on these earbuds is just good enough to distract you while you’re working out. Now if you’re someone thats considering getting these to workout with in your commercial gym… keep in mind these things don’t block out any noise, so whatever your gym is playing, its going to over power the bose earbuds. And also keep in mind, everybody can hear exactly what you’re listening to if you’re in a quieter environment. So thats why I mentioned earlier, I think these are better for people who like working out outside, like joggers, cyclists, or hikers. These earbuds can distract you with their music, but you can still be fully aware of your surroundings. 

And when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds… each earbud has a physical button. At first I assumed that these earbuds had touch pads, but I guess that was too much to expect out of these guys. Now with the right earbud you press and hold to power these things on and off, you can tap to play or pause, double tap to skip a track and triple tap to go back a track. The left earbud is used to activate your short cut which really is just getting a read out of your current battery status… and pressing and holding activates your voice assistant. But more importantly these earbuds don’t allow you to adjust the volume of your music and you also can’t customize the lay out of the buttons either like you can with a lot of other earbuds now. And I can’t help but feel that the placement of these buttons are a little awkward to get at. I really feel that these earbuds would really benefit from touch pads just given the way that these things rest on your ears.

But finally here’s the microphone test… now the microphone is located in the right earbud, the hero earbud that I mentioned earlier. Now its not terrible cause this microphone does a decent job of picking up my voice… but there is a constant hissing in the back ground. So I wouldn’t actually take phone calls with these earbuds… but they’ll get the job done for a quick call. 

So with all that being said… I definitely get that there could be a market for a product like this. Specifically joggers, cyclists, or hikers that want to be aware of their surroundings at all times, but they want something with ear hooks, and they don’t like in ear earbuds. Cuase if that wasn’t the case there are plenty of in ear earbuds that have great sounding ambient modes. But in their current state the Bose Sport Open earbuds feel like a beta product. Their lack of an actual charging case severely reduces their over all battery life when compared to all other truly wireless earbuds on the market right now, and since their case is effectively dumb you gotta manually power your earbuds on and off. Which feels very weird now in 2021. But also fit wise these things do need adjustable silicon ear hooks cause your ears do get tender after awhile. Their use of a hero and sidekick set up does feel last gen. the placement of their physical buttons are awkward to get at, and their sound is just good enough to distract you. Overall I think its cool that bose is experimenting… but its very hard to justify getting these.