The Noise Alt Buds Open come with a radical design, an unconventional approach, and plenty of questions. Here's our review.
Noise Alt Buds Open price in India is set at Rs. 4,499
The true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones market is largely divided into two camps. On one side, you have the conventional in-ear buds with silicone tips that isolate you from the world. On the other hand, there are stem-styled open-fit earphones that sit loosely in your ear canal. In recent years, however, open-ear earphones have been slowly finding their audience. They are designed specifically for those who dislike the stuffed-ear sensation of traditional canal buds but need to maintain environmental awareness during active routines. Entering this increasingly growing category is the new Noise Alt Buds Open.
The Noise Alt Buds Open in India are priced at Rs. 4,499. The open-ear TWS earphones are part of Nothing's new design-focused Alt lineup. Here's our review.
What sets the Noise Alt Buds Open apart is its physical design, which the brand claims has secured a Red Dot Design Award 2026. In an era where most TWS earbuds look nearly identical, these immediately stand apart. The charging case has a unique, long and pill-shaped design with rounded edges. A distinctive light stripe runs across the top and serves as a status indicator. Our review unit arrived in the striking Chosen Orange colourway, reminiscent of the orange shade CMF uses for its audio products. The colour is vibrant and difficult to ignore. The matte finish also does a good job of resisting fingerprints.
Instead of plugging into your ears, the earbuds themselves use a flexible, C-shaped memory-wire hook wrapped in soft liquid silicon. As a result, the Alt Buds Open loop around the back of your ear, with the pill-shaped main driver anchored right outside your ear. While the mechanism may look unusual at first, it becomes second nature after a few minutes of use. They also feature touch-based controls that work fairly well, though multiple taps were sometimes required to change a track.
The biggest advantage of the open-ear design is comfort. You can wear the Alt Buds Open for extended periods since nothing actually enters your ear. They never felt like they would fall off, nor did they create the pressure or fatigue that can sometimes occur with conventional in-ear earphones. Another benefit is environmental awareness. While walking on the street, I could hear what was happening around me, whether it was approaching traffic or announcements at the metro station.
However, all of this comes at the cost of audio leakage. At moderate volume, people sitting close to me were able to hear faint traces of what I was listening to. Further, ambient noise may sometimes overpower your audio experience, as there is no passive seal to block it.
Noise has packed a decent feature set into this price band on paper. It is one of the few open-ear models under Rs. 5,000 to support high-resolution audio streaming via the LHDC codec. For connectivity, there is Bluetooth 5.3 along with dual device connectivity, which means you can switch between devices without manual re-pairing. Other notable features include LHDC Hi-Res Audio support, a real-time dynamic EQ system, and four microphones with AI-powered environmental noise suppression.
Like other products in the company's portfolio, the Alt Buds Open are compatible with the Noise Audio app, which provides a respectable set of customisation options. You can switch between preset EQ modes, create custom EQ profiles, locate misplaced earbuds using Find My Buds, and manage touch controls. Apart from this, there is the Noise AI ecosystem, which can be triggered with custom gestures on either earbud.
Now you would be disappointed if you were expecting Alt Buds Open to compete with premium in-ear products, including the brand's own Master Buds 2. Open-ear earphones operate under a completely different set of limitations. In terms of audio performance, the TWS earphones clearly prioritise clarity over impact. Vocals are clear, podcasts sound good, and instrument separation is also decent.
Mids and highs are the Alt Buds Open's strongest suit. However, as is the case with open design wearables, the bass is virtually non-existent. While the dynamic EQ attempts to deliver some amount of base to an extent, the lack of ear seal means the sub-bass frequencies escape into the ear before they can reach your eardrum. Thus, listening to EDM, hip-hop, or bass-heavy tracks never feels particularly engaging.
These are by no means an audiophile product for critical bass-heavy music listening; instead, I think the Alt Buds Open are a versatile option built for background music tracking, voice notes, and audiobooks. Moving on, the call quality is handled by a quad-microphone system. The company claims to have used an AI DNN noise suppression algorithm, and it works fairly well here. My voice stayed decently sharp during indoor calls or quiet rooms. However, the ambient noise suppression struggled as soon as I moved outdoors into slightly breezy weather conditions.
Where the Alt Buds Open completely surprised me was battery life. Noise officially claims up to 35 hours of total playback cycle, including the charging case. I have been using the earphones for about two weeks now, and they have yet to die on me, which is impressive. And if you do manage to run out, you can get a generous 3.2 hours of listening time with just a quick 10-minute top-up.
I think the Noise Alt Buds Open successfully deliver on what they initially set out to do. The TWS earphones have a comfortable open-ear design, decent call quality, impressive battery life, and just about enough features. All-day wearability is one of its biggest strengths, and the Alt Buds Open are a practical companion for walks, commutes, office use, and casual listening sessions.
The trade-offs, however, are unavoidable. There is sound leakage, bass is limited, and the overall audio experience lacks the level of immersion expected from a pair of TWS earphones priced at almost Rs. 5,000.
So, if you are specifically looking for open-ear TWS earphones that prioritise comfort and awareness over outright audio performance, the Alt Buds Open are a decent option to consider. That said, the Realme Buds Clip appears to be a slightly more promising alternative with a better core listening experience.
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