If you find traditional wireless earbuds uncomfortable, or maybe they just won’t stay in no matter what you do, there’s still hope thanks to open-ear earbuds like Baseus’s Inspire XC1.

Open-ear earbuds don’t sit directly in your ear canal, which gives them two major advantages over the more common closed design (think AirPods Pro with silicone ear tips): better comfort and situational awareness. There are currently two styles of open-ear earbuds to choose from: the classic ear-hook design and the newer clip shape, which wraps around the side of your ear and resembles an earring. The Inspire XC1 belong to the latter group.

You may not be familiar with Baseus — it’s a relative newcomer to the personal audio space. Yet, every time I try one of its products, I marvel at how it manages to get so much right at prices well below the competition. The Inspire XC1, crafted in partnership with Bose, are no exception.

### Out of the Box

It’s no accident that Baseus created the XC1 in Cosmic Black and Starlight Off-White (pictured here), two colors that mimic Bose’s preferred hues. The charging case’s plastic is very smooth, making it a bit tricky to open the lid. Once open, it provides easy access to the XC1 earbuds, which snap firmly in and out of their charging nooks thanks to strong magnets.

You don’t get wireless charging, but that feature seems rare among open-ear models and almost unheard of with clip styles.

The Inspire XC1 are very comfortable, even after three hours of constant use. They’re a better option than ear hooks if you wear glasses, and most of the time, I can’t even tell I’m wearing them. Once clipped in place, they hardly budged, even during workouts.

With an IP66 rating, they offer excellent protection against both dust and water. Showers are fine, but don’t take them swimming.

### Comfortable and User-Friendly Design

The XC1 earbuds are reversible. Onboard sensors automatically detect the left/right balance when you put them on, which is especially useful for the controls. Baseus uses a single button on each bud, mounted on the battery/electronics pod, and you can decide if you prefer to activate it with your thumb or index finger.

These buttons are easy to click and, unlike touch controls, can be used while wearing gloves.

The Baseus app lets you customize the click gestures with options for single-, double-, triple-, and long-clicks — more than enough flexibility for playback, volume, calling, and voice assistant controls. Additionally, the earbuds have wear sensors that auto-pause and resume your music when you remove or replace them.

Baseus also deserves credit for its handling of Bluetooth Multipoint. In the app, you can add new device pairings and see a list of previously paired devices, making it easy to switch between simultaneous connections.

### A New Experience with Open-Ear Earbuds

If you’ve never tried open-ear earbuds, it’s important to know that by design, they let in a lot of external sound. This is perfect for conversations; you’ll never need to remove an earbud to hear someone speaking.

It also makes them ideal for phone calls because you can hear your own voice without the muffling effect of regular earbuds — better than the best transparency mode.

However, the openness means your music competes with environmental noise. Traffic, coffee shop chatter, or the hum of a treadmill can overpower your audio. No open-ear design can fully compensate for this, but the Baseus Inspire XC1 rank among the best.

### Sound Quality and Performance

To enhance the XC1’s sound, Baseus partnered with Bose on its Inspire line, which also includes the XP1 ANC earbuds and XH1 ANC headphones. According to Baseus, “Bose’s legendary audio engineers have fine-tuned the sound performance.”

The XC1 feature a dual-driver system with a dynamic driver for lows and a Knowles balanced armature for highs — an uncommon setup in the open-ear arena.

While loud environments can challenge the earbuds, especially for spoken-word content like podcasts and calls, quieter settings reveal impressive bass response and clarity.

I tested the Inspire XC1 against leading clip-style models such as the Shokz OpenDots One, Bose Open Earbuds Ultra, and Soundcore AeroClip. The XC1 delivered deeper bass than Bose’s pricier Open Earbuds Ultra, and their midrange and high clarity rivaled the OpenDots One.

Open-ear earbuds naturally offer a wide soundstage with a natural, airy feel, making the XC1 an ideal choice for Dolby Atmos Music tracks.

By default, the Inspire XC1 use Baseus’s “Sound by Bose” EQ preset — a lively mix but somewhat tame in lows and highs. Fortunately, the Baseus app provides six additional presets and an eight-band equalizer for custom mixing. I preferred a custom EQ with boosted lows and highs.

Although some bass notes lacked fine detail during critical listening, casual listening was satisfying.

### Advanced Features

The XC1 support Sony’s hi-res capable LDAC Bluetooth codec if you have a compatible Android phone (sorry, iPhone users). LDAC reveals more detail with lossless audio, but for these earbuds, it’s not worth the trade-off as it disables EQ and Bluetooth Multipoint, plus the connection can be unstable at top quality settings.

Baseus also includes two Dolby Audio modes — Music and Cinema — meant to create an immersive, spatial experience. However, I found these modes washed out the sound, with Cinema sounding muddy.

At 60% volume, the earbuds provide engaging indoor listening. Outdoors, you may need more volume.

### Calling and Battery Life

Calling performance on the Inspire XC1 is good. Whether indoors or outdoors, callers can understand you clearly, and most background noise is minimized. Still, as with most clip-style open-ear earbuds, voice clarity isn’t crystal clear, especially outside where some distortion occurs.

Baseus rates battery life at eight hours per charge, with 40 hours total including the case — numbers only exceeded by the OpenDots One’s 10/40. This rating assumes 50% volume and excludes Dolby Audio or LDAC use.

Since LDAC is power-hungry and can reduce battery life by up to 30%, avoiding it is advisable for longer use.

### Final Thoughts

Open-ear earbuds aren’t for everyone, but with great sound quality, a comfortable clip-style design, and easy controls, the Baseus Inspire XC1 are an excellent choice.

They check many boxes at a price considerably less than their nearest competitors, offering strong water and dust resistance, optional LDAC mode, and Bluetooth Multipoint.

The only missing feature is support for Auracast, which has yet to see widespread adoption.

If you’re after an affordable pair of open buds that compete with the best, the Baseus Inspire XC1 are among the top options we’ve tried.
https://www.wired.com/review/baseus-inspire-xc1/