Soundcore’s latest wireless earbuds are a new addition to the growing open-ear category, but this time, the company is following Bose’s footsteps with a clip-style design. The Soundcore C30i have a clamshell shape that wraps around the middle of the ear, making them less likely to interfere with glasses. The C30i come in a translucent black color for $70 and are available on Amazon starting April 9. A solid white color is expected to be added later this month.
At $70, the C30i will be very attractive to anyone who liked the look of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, but wasn’t crazy about their $299 price.
These two products are not identical. Unlike the Bose, which uses a flexible, spring-like fit system, the C30i employs a hard-shell design. To help those with smaller ears achieve a better fit, it includes optional silicone sleeves that can wrap around one end of the earbuds.
However, Soundcore has chosen to include its own version of Bose’s Immersive Audio on the C30i — inside the Soundcore app is a 3D-Sound profile that promises a more immersive listening experience.
Soundcore says it uses a large, 12x17mm racetrack-shaped driver to aim sound into your ear canal while still taking advantage of the fact that all open-ear earbuds let you hear your surroundings with perfect clarity. Like many products in this category, the C30i offer IPX4 protection from water and sweat, making them a good option for workouts.
Battery life is a claimed 10 hours when playing at 50% volume, and the C30i’s charging case stores two full recharges, for a total of 30 hours. A fast-charge of 10 minutes should extend listening by 3 hours.
Finally, the C30i use Bluetooth 5.3, including the ability to maintain two simultaneous connections via Bluetooth Multipoint.
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