Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open earbuds

Open earbuds are becoming increasingly common, yet with all the releases from brands like Shokz, Soundcore, and JBL, it's a 2024 release that has reigned supreme: the Bose Ultra Open.

Chances are, if you're interested in buying open earbuds, these are the ones that piqued that interest. And especially in the category of premium cuff-style open earbuds, they've remained virtually unchallenged. That is, until Sony released the LinkBuds Clip earlier this year, giving a much-needed alternative to the LinkBuds Open.

Mashable rates the Bose Ultra Open earbuds as one of the best open earbuds options available — and having tested them myself, I can personally attest to their impressive sound quality. But their price point is nothing to scoff at, so I decided to put them to the test against the (slightly more affordable) Sony LinkBuds Clip.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Pricing and specs

The Sony LinkBuds Clip earbuds cost $229.99 and come with the following specs:

• Microphones: 2

• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (AAC/SBC codecs) with multipoint

• Battery: 9 hours per charge (37 hours with case)

• Quick charge: One hour of extra play time after three minutes of charging

• Charging: USB-C only (cable not included)

• IP rating: IPX4

• Spatial audio: N/A

• Colors: Lavender, black, green, and greige

• Materials: Plastic

The Bose Ultra Open earbuds, on the other hand, cost $299 and come with the following specs:

• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (AAC/SBC codecs) with multipoint

• Battery: 7 hours per charge, 4.5 hours with immersive audio (19.5 hours with case)

• Quick charge: Two hours of extra play time after 10 minutes of charging

• Charging: USB-C

• IP rating: IPX4

• Spatial audio: Immersive audio

• Colors: Black, white smoke, moonstone blue, midnight violet, lunar blue, driftwood sand, desert gold, moonlight grey

• Materials: Plastic, metal, and silicone

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Sound quality

When I first tried the Sony LinkBuds Clip, I knew they would pose a real threat to Bose's audio supremacy. Testing them head-to-head with the Ultra Opens revealed some less-than-ideal aspects of the soundscape, however.

The Bose Ultra Open buds can undeniably reach louder temperatures. Mashable Contributor Simon Cohen pointed to the LinkBuds being rather quiet in his review of the earbuds, needing to put them up to 80 percent battery at most times. I had the same experience, even just sitting in my home office.

Some songs do reveal this difference less — Chappell Roan's "My Kink is Karma" sounded noticeably louder on the Bose buds, but Japanese Breakfast's "Kokomo, IN" (a less instrumentally dense and overall quieter song) sounded roughly the same.

In fact, that latter song revealed where Sony's strength did lie: the details. Where Bose is loud, Sony is precise, giving a sound profile that features each component of a song — from a softer string accent to punchy percussion — while never sacrificing the overall blend. Picking out these individual elements wasn't quite as easy on the Bose buds.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Listening modes

The Sony earbuds come packed with plenty of ways to customize your listening experience. There are four listening modes you can select through the companion app: standard, voice boost, sound leakage reduction, and background music.

While I mostly stuck to the standard mode, I appreciated modes like the sound leakage reduction when I worked in quieter spaces like a library, where open earbuds can legitimately show one of their biggest flaws in leaking a minor amount of sound.

Sony also featured a custom equalizer with 10 bands in its companion app, plus four presets and three spots for personal settings.

Bose, on the other hand, has four presets and a three-band custom equalizer. Where it does have Sony beat is in the presence of an immersive (or spatial) audio feature that can be adjusted for motion and still modes. While neat to have, open earbuds by nature aren't the most sound-first way to listen to music, so I didn't find myself using this mode too often.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Design

Let's talk cuff design. One of the major benefits is that, done right, it can be a great way to have as unobtrusive an open earbud as possible while still being secure enough to stay in place for activities like running or bike rides without giving you too much to worry about.

Thankfully, both Sony and Bose do this design right, and while your stance on their aesthetics may just boil down to a matter of preference, I did find Bose to have a slightly more elegant version of the cuff.

Both earbuds are incredibly comfortable and easy to wear for hours on end. Earring wearers or folks used to having any accessories on their ears may find that they altogether forget they're wearing the earbuds.

Though the shape is similar, Sony's speaker component is slightly more bulbous, which makes it ever so much more present on the ear. While I couldn't tell for sure, I also felt the flat, paddle shape of the Bose speaker brought it closer to my ear canal, which could certainly account for the better volume read from those earbuds.

As a note: Cuff-style earbuds can take some adjusting to find just the right spot where their sound quality really shines. Luckily, both of these were easy to move around the ear, but it's worth playing with when trying them out.

In terms of aesthetics, the Sony buds have more of a cute, retro look, while Bose leans into the stylish, futuristic design. Sony has four colorways: lavender, greige, green, and black, with colorful case covers available for purchase for $12.49. Bose, on the other hand, has double the amount of colors: black, white smoke, moonstone blue, midnight violet, lunar blue, driftwood sand, desert gold, and moonlight grey.

Both are IPX4 rated, so they're both safe to sweat in during exercise.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: On-ear controls

While never really the make-or-break feature of any pair of earbuds, the on-ear controls are an important part of the design, especially for earbuds you plan to use during exercise.

If you're dead set on touch controls, you may prefer Sony's, but as a tactile control freak, I love Bose's design here. Let's break it down.

Sony's touch controls lie on the band portion of the cuff. It is easy to touch it by accident, so a single press doesn't correlate to any action — pausing or playing music comes from a double tap, and a triple tap can be programmed to your choice of action. Even after weeks of use, I would find myself triple instead of double-tapping, or sometimes find I wasn't tapping hard enough. Turning on a higher sensitivity setting through the app helped rectify the former issue somewhat, but for $229.99, I hoped for better.

Bose, on the other hand, ingeniously put a small button on the top of the cylindrical battery portion of the bud that sits behind the ear. It's simple to register a press without thinking: one press plays or pauses music, while two switches the song. It's intuitive, it's smart, it's the best design for touch controls on open earbuds I've encountered so far.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Battery life

This section really just comes to numbers: Sony's buds can handle nine hours of playback, and 37 hours with the case total. Bose can handle less, with seven hours per charge — that drops down to 4.5 hours if you're listening to immersive audio the entire time. With the standard audio settings, you'll get 19.5 hours of charge in the case.

Bose could've done better here. After all, the press release for these earbuds stated that the Ultra Opens "were made to be worn throughout the day." They do have 48 hours of standby mode if you're not listening to music constantly, so that may help some, but overall, you'll have the better battery life experience with the Sonys.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Companion app

The two companion apps are quite similar, laying out most of their features in rectangular menu options.

I appreciated the look of Sony's a bit more, from the color matching the earbuds to the option to decide which panels live on the home screen in the app. I also liked the menu up top that opened up to every customization available for the earbuds in one handy list.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Microphone

Open earbuds aren't known for having the best mics, and these two premium options are unfortunately no exception, as I discovered upon recording voice notes with both.

Sony has the slight edge for having a more consistent pickup: my voice could be clearly heard, even though I can speak on the softer side. The Bose earbuds, on the other hand, required more consistent projection on my part — otherwise, there would be some mild clipping of my voice that made me strain to make out the words I was saying. Definitely not ideal for a phone call.

Sony LinkBuds Clip vs. Bose Ultra Open: Which is better for you?

If you're looking for a pair of open earbuds that sound great, you're likely to be pleased with either option here, especially if you're open to paying premium prices.

While Bose's design and volume have some edge over the Sony LinkBuds Clip, the $70 price discrepancy makes it hard to say that edge is worth it. If you can catch a good deal on the Bose earbuds, and you anticipate needing more variation in your volume, they might just be worth it to you.

But for everyone else, the Sony LinkBuds Clip offer the better overall experience, and for a more palatable price point. That said, Bose's earbuds are two years older, so a new release from the brand may reignite this challenge in the near future.

Read our full review of the Sony LinkBuds Clip.

Read our full review of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.