Cleer Arc 5 review: feature-packed open earbuds with issues | Tech Radar

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A touch-screen case, Dolby Atmos and a posture test: I spent a month with Cleer's open earbuds that have it all (except top-tier audio)

Cleer Arc 5 offer an incredible amount of perks, I just wish they sounded better

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The Cleer Arc 5 have a great battery life, fantastic suite of features, and fit surprisingly well. However, for the money you're paying, you'd hope for the audio quality and volume to be better.

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Almost every one of the best open earbuds I’ve tested, has been designed for sports users. They let you hear your surroundings at the gym, remain aware when running in a busy area, and keep alert when cycling on a road. I don’t think Cleer missed this memo – the brand’s intentionally going for something completely different.

The Cleer Arc 5 are open earbuds designed not for sports, but for the rest of us. I was skeptical when I first saw them, but they’ve surprised me — in both good and bad ways.

The presence of Dolby Atmos and THX Spatial Audio means these are suited for watching a TV show or movie on your commute, and their support for a range of better Bluetooth codecs, including LDAC and apt X Adaptive, shows Cleer is aiming for audiophile-quality earbuds here. Those are some exceptional features for a form factor that naturally competes with loads of extraneous background sounds.

Cleer’s app hides loads of other features too, including a posture test which uses the buds’ positional tools, and the ability to set sedentary reminders if you’re too often stuck in one spot.

The design department makes it clear that these aren’t sports buds. Though surprisingly sturdy during a run, the buds are much bulkier than your average svelte runners’ wear. And the presence of an on-case display, full of controls and settings, clearly signposts this as not for active users. When I go to the gym or for a run, the case is always left at home.

Unfortunately, despite the impressive specs and clear focus on listening quality, the Achilles’ Heel of these earbuds is the sound quality. There’s a real lack of expansie through the soundstage, and both treble and bass feel poorly defined. The open-ear form factor doesn’t help here, especially with a max volume that’s simple not loud enough, but many similar earbuds I’ve tested sound a lot better.

It’s a shame that these don’t sound fantastic, and is surprising too when you see the price tag. For some users, I see the feature set trumping the sound quality. The fantastic battery life, health features and spatial audio might trump below-average sound. But it begs the question who these are designed for, if not audiophiles or fitness fans.

The Cleer Arc 5 were announced on March 16, 2026, only four months after their predecessors. That was a quick turnaround!

You can buy the Arc 5 for

To my mind only the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and Shokz Open Fit Pro cost more, but they’re both explicitly designed for sports, while the Cleer is aimed at an audiophile market.

If there’s an area where the Cleer Arc 5 stand out, it’s in the feature set — it seems that this is what the buds were designed to do.

It starts with the basics: the battery life here is great for open earbuds. You’re getting 12 hours of listening per charge, with 60 hours once you factor in the charging case itself. Beyond a few endurance-focused earbuds, those figures are at the top of their class.

Boot up the Cleer+ app on your phone, and you’re getting a smorgasbord of tools — admittedly in a pretty confusing lay-out. You can use the app to toggle spatial audio, change between EQ modes and create custom ones, change what the touch and gesture controls do, change the case wallpaper, edit what tools are available via the case, and more.

The equalizer is an 8-band one, giving you some control over your sound, though in this day and age I’d say that 10-bands were more common. I preferred using this over the presets, which didn’t have a noticeable impact on a song’s sound.

The “and more” features I alluded to earlier are pretty out-there, hence needing a whole extra paragraph. They’re health ones: you can set up sedentary reminders to get you to move about, add volume limits to protect your hearing, and do a posture test which uses the gesture controls of the buds to evaluate whether you’re sitting straight.

For office workers, this latter is a genuinely useful feature, and I used it to ensure my seat and chair were level when working at my desk. However, for it to work properly, your phone needs to be at eye level too — I messed it up by leaving my mobile o, n my desk, and when I bent over to look at it, the test was ruined.

One feature you’re not getting in the Arc 5 is any kind of noise cancellation. It’s admittedly very rare in the open-ear space, but not unheard of (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Let’s start with the Cleer Arc 5’s big new feature: its charging case. Big literally: it weighs 97g all on its own, and measures 8.3 x 6 x 2cm, making it one of the biggest earbud cases I’ve seen in years.

This size isn’t just to house some pretty big earbuds, but it does that with a few extra twists. It has built-in UV charging for the buds, and a mirror inside the case for some reason. For some reason, the left earbud is housed on the right, and vice versa, which was confusing for a while until I learnt to switch.

But no, the big selling point here is a screen build into the charging case. You can use it to flick between a few menus: battery, music controls, spatial audio settings, general settings, equalizer and remote camera shutter. The interface feels akin to a smartwatches’: very basic.

For changing quick settings like EQ or skipping songs, the case was quite handy: I didn’t need to dig my phone out of my pocket and get distracted by the 120 notifications from that group chat I forgot to mute. But you can’t use the case to change playlists, create an EQ or dig deep into settings, so it won’t replace your phone completely.

The earbuds also have touch controls too, which were quite easy to trigger with a tap anywhere on their body, yet never accidentally picked up an unintentional touch.

I suppose that brings us onto the earbuds. These are pretty huge, and heavy too, weighing roughly 24g each. I haven’t seen an open earbud quite this big, and was expecting them to fit pretty awfully; thankfully, I was totally wrong. I went on many runs with the Arc 5, and not once did they threaten to dislodge, or wobble more than the average open-ear does.

I’d put this down to some smart balancing of the bud and counterweight. They were always comfortable to wear, even if the weight didn’t exactly make them easy to forget.

The Cleer Arc 5 comes in black or white, and I tested the latter. They have an IPX7 rating, which makes them sweatproof but not suited to swimming. I would avoid taking them out in heavier rainfall too, just to be safe.

I was expecting the Cleer Arc 5’s sound to be its outstanding feature. Between its 16.2mm drivers, support for LDAC, apt X Adaptive and apt X Lossless, and high price, it seems like these could be some of the best open earbuds yet.

I’m quite surprised to report that I was wrong, and I didn’t really love listening to tunes on the Arc. The quality isn't terrible, but it's not on par with the expectations you'd have from those aforementioned specs.

Music sounds compressed, with neither the high-end nor low-end differentiated in a way that gives any sense of sound stage or distinction. Snare drums lack bite, distorted-guitar walls turn into crunchy puddles, bass wobbles over plenty of other low- or mid- instruments. The buds would perhaps sound better if they were in-ears, but hovering a few mm over your ears, it doesn't fly.

Low-end is poorly defined yet too prominent in the mix: The Human Race by BYRNE starts with a harmony that sounded more like a glitching speaker than a bass singer. This line’s meant to repeat in the chorus with a bass guitar, and it completely overrides the harmony. In 311’s Good Feeling, the bass trips over all the other instruments, replacing the usually-energetic, fun chorus with the sonic equivalent of a stubbed toe.

Also affected is the treble, as vocals and higher lines lose prominence and energy. Take, for example, Morningsider’s Thinking it Over: a string motif is dropped in the mix in the introduction, and completely lost in the pre-chorus.

I’ll concede that if you listen to acoustic or folky music, you may not notice this issue as much. In songs like Caamp’s 26, the reduced instrumentation meant I could still basically hear everything.

Well, I could hear it until I stepped outside. The Arc 5 falls into a common trap with open earbuds: their maximum volume isn’t high enough to compete with noisy surroundings. When I was running near a main road, I could barely hear my songs.

The Cleer has quite a few neat features. I really like what the case display achieves, and the fit is solid. Plus, the movie listening features offer tools that many other earbuds don’t.

However that’s a really high price for any earbuds, let alone open-style ones — and especially not for ones that, frankly, don’t sound amazing.

There’s no way that these buds offer you value for money; you can get better audio quality for a lot less, especially if you’re happy to buy non-open-style buds.

There are loads of features available here, and most of them work flawlessly.

There are loads of features available here, and most of them work flawlessly.

They're bulky, as is the case, but it all somehow manages to work together well.

They're bulky, as is the case, but it all somehow manages to work together well.

These don't have the quality, sound stage or vibrancy you'd expect for the price.

These don't have the quality, sound stage or vibrancy you'd expect for the price.

You need office earbuds The open-ear form factor, easy case controls and health features might make these buds suitable for office workers who need to be attentive to their surroundings, but still want to listen to music.

You love case controls Earbuds charging case controls seem to be surging in popularity – if you’re sold on this kind of tool, the Cleer are a fine example of the art.

You watch movies on your phone The presence of Dolby Atmos and THX Spatial Audio are almost unheard of in open earbuds, possibly because it’s a weird marriage, but still some might appreciate it.

You’re an audiophile I didn’t love the music quality here, and if you want great-sounding open earbuds, you’ll find plenty of better-sounding options.

You’re on a budget Most open earbuds I’ve seen cost a good

Huawei Free Arc If you want comfortable, understated earbuds that sound fantastic, the Huawei Free Arc remain some of my favorites. They’re also much cheaper than the Cleer, especially because they’re a little older. Read our full Huawei Free Arc review

Shokz Open Dots One If you want any open earbuds, and don’t mind jumping to the slightly-different clip-on style, these Shokz will appeal to you. They cost slightly less than the Cleer, and feel much lighter. The clip-style format also lets you hear your songs a lot better. Read our full Shokz Open Dots One review

I used the Cleer Arc 5 for roughly a month before writing this review of them. In that time, they were paired to a succession of Android smartphones, mostly the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Moto Edge 70 Fusion.

I listened to the Arc 5 on runs, walks around my neighborhood, office sessions, long trips on public transport and at home. I mostly streamed music via Spotify Lossless, and Apple Music, but also watched movies on a variety of streaming services, played games, and tested a few other music streamers.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets for Tech Radar for over seven years now, including testing audio kit for nearly as long. In that time I’ve handled other Cleer gadgets as well as many, many other open-ear buds.

Tom Bedford is a freelance contributor covering tech, entertainment and gaming. Beyond Tech Radar, he has bylines on sites including Games Radar, Digital Trends, Android Police, Tech Advisor, Whatto Watch and BGR. From 2019 to 2022 he was on the Tech Radar team as the staff writer and then deputy editor for the mobile team.

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Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards

• A touch-screen case, Dolby Atmos and a posture test: I spent a month with Cleer's open earbuds that have it all (except top-tier audio)

• Cleer Arc 5 offer an incredible amount of perks, I just wish they sounded better