Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Soundcore’s clip-style earbuds are glasses- and budget-friendly

Simon Cohen
By
Woman wearing Soundcore C30i clip-style open earbuds.
Soundcore

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.

Soundcore C30i clip-style open earbuds in black.
Soundcore

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.

Recommended Videos

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.

Related

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.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
Soundcore’s first open-ear earbuds come with an optional neckband
Man wearing Soundcore AeroFit Pro in Electric Purple with the optional neckband.

Soundcore's AeroFit Pro in Electric Purple with the optional neckband Soundcore

The open-ear earbuds landscape has been growing like crazy over the last 12 months, so it's great to see that Anker's Soundcore brand has decided to throw its hat into the ring with two new models: the $130 AeroFit and the $170 AeroFit Pro. Both are available in black starting November 1 from and Amazon, with three additional color options coming toward the end of 2023.

Read more
Anker Soundcore’s Motion X500 packs spatial audio into a more portable package
Anker Soundcore Motion X500 speaker in three colors.

Anker Soundcore has added yet another model to its Motion family of portable Bluetooth speakers -- the Motion X500. It's a scaled-down version of the Motion X600 and includes that speaker's integrated carry handle and spatial audio sound. Anker plans to sell the Motion X500 for $170 when it hits regular retail channels on November 9, but it's also knocking that price down to $130 for those who preorder the speaker before that date.

Just like its bigger brother, the Motion X500 comes in three colors: black, blue, and pink. But unlike the X600, the X500 includes a subtle Soundcore "d" logo embedded in the paint scheme on the speaker's metal grille.

Read more
1More gets into the open-ear earbuds race with the Fit S50 and S30
1More Fit with wirelessly-charging case.

Open-ear earbuds are becoming increasingly popular due to their main benefit: They let you hear the world around you and your music at the same time. And 1More is the latest company to announce a set of open-ear wireless earbuds, but unlike its competitors, 1More isn't being shy -- instead of testing the waters with one model, the company has released two. The 1More Fit S50 are its flagship model at $150, while the more affordable Fit SE S30 cost just $70. Both models are available starting September 7 on 1more.com and Amazon.
1More Fit S50
1More Fit S50 1More

Most open-ear earbuds rely on their shape to position their speakers correctly so that you get the best possible sound. But since all ears are a little different, and most open-ear earbuds are one-size-fits-all, that alignment doesn't always work out. This is why the 1More Fit S50 cleverly include a set of soft silicone guides (or "directional sound loops" as 1More likes to call them). They look like little donuts, and when you stick them just inside your ear's concha, they're designed to keep everything in the right place. Three sizes of guides are included.

Read more