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A couple of weeks ago, I had almost every New Yorker’s waking nightmare. While riding the subway, I took my AirPods out of my pocket and the case and the buds fell into the unknown, or rather, under the seats. My friend went to retrieve them and she told me that they were covered with some sticky unknown substances. Knowing that my AirPods were the only source of entertainment while working my desk job and exercising, I decided to stick it out and disinfect the hell out of them. I put them on as normal and surprise! It didn’t work out in my favor. I got weird itches from putting the buds inside my ear and lots of scratches and discharge oozing out of my ears. I thought my ears were done for and I would have to endure the strange sensations until I could get my hands on over-the-ear headphones.
But in a turn of events, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds were the perfect solution for my ears. The buds are designed to not touch your ear canal. They wrap nicely around your lobe and sit nicely in your ears. Within a couple of weeks of wearing the buds, my ears stopped having the irritable side effects. You can still hear the outside world quite well—which is good if you’re living in a city and want to be aware of safety and surroundings. But in times when you want to blast the world away, your surroundings don’t compromise Bose’s amazing sound quality.
The sound mix is still comparable to any in-ear headphones on the market, but immersive audio definitely takes it up a notch. If you’re afraid of the Earbuds leaking sound to the air around you, you don’t have to worry. Private music listening is at its prime and I’ve even asked my deskmate and editor Sophie, and she can’t hear a thing when I’m focused and blasting music in my ears.
What I really love about these earbuds is that I can bounce back and forth between audio on my laptop and my phone. With other headphones, I would have to manually switch over the Bluetooth settings between my two devices, but with the Bose app, I can seamlessly switch over to whatever’s playing audio. Though sometimes, I experience some delay from each earbud with the right ear experiencing a second delay from the left.
Music and Style Combined for Gen Z
I love stylish statement pieces. I love music. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
definitely combine my two affinities with ease. Most of the time when I wear these buds, it feels like I’m wearing weightless earrings. I accidentally go into meetings wearing these earbuds because I can still hear everything around me. If anything, it’s my own statement piece that’s around my ears, unlike over-the-ear headphones that sit on my neck. With Bose’s 60th Anniversary Diamond Edition ones especially, the white is piercing and not difficult to spot.
That’s probably why lots of pop icons like BLACKPINK’s Lisa, Central Cee, and Tyla, and Coco Gauff have started to embrace the open earbuds. You can’t shake them off easily with the grip around your ear, and if you do try to remove them without using your hands, you would have to be moving and shaking so much! They stay on your ears no matter how you move—which for some Gen Zers… is a lot!
Bose reported that nearly 80% of Gen Z surveyed listen to music via earbuds or headphones, which doesn’t surprise anyone who is a music lover or walks around a city. They’re statements to make everyone know that you listen to cool music. Also to us young folks, it’s lightweight, affordable, durable, easy to carry around, and easily visible if you’re trying to get someone’s attention.
