Cleer Put a Touchscreen on an Earbud Case and It Works

Open-ear earbuds have spent the last two years proving you don’t need to seal your ear canal for good sound. The pitch has always been comfort and awareness over isolation and bass. It’s worked well enough to turn the category from a niche curiosity into a real segment with picks at every price. Cleer Audio has led that push since the original ARC, sharpening the formula each generation while rivals scrambled to keep up. The ARC 5 is the latest result, and it feels less like a small update and more like Cleer planting a flag.

Price: $219.99
Where to Buy: Cleer

At $219.99, the ARC 5 is the first earbud with both THX Spatial Audio certification and Dolby Atmos optimization. That combo has existed in over-ear headphones and in-ear monitors for a while, but putting it in an open-fit design shifts the game. You’re getting spatial processing through a driver that doesn’t seal against your ear on purpose.

The engineering challenge is real. It explains why this certification took so long to reach the category. Cleer also packed in Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound S5, aptX Lossless codec support, and head tracking powered by a 6-axis motion sensor. The result is a spatial audio setup that rivals what sealed earbuds have offered for the past year.

What the ARC 5 brings to the table

The big addition is THX Spatial Audio, layered on top of the THX Headphone Certification the ARC 4 series already carried. Where the last generation delivered balanced sound and accurate stereo imaging, the ARC 5 pushes all of that into three-dimensional space. Dolby Atmos optimization and head tracking create a soundstage that shifts as you move. It’s a strange thing to hear through earbuds that leave your ear canals wide open. The 16.2mm drivers handle spatial processing alongside Cleer’s DBE 4.0 bass system, which adds low-end weight without the muddiness that hits most open-ear rivals when they force bass past what the form factor supports.

Then there’s the case. Cleer fitted the ARC 5 with an AMOLED HD touchscreen charging case that works as a standalone control hub. You can manage playback, adjust EQ settings, check battery levels, and trigger UV-C cleaning without reaching for your phone. Smart cases have shown up on products like the JBL Tour Pro 3, but Cleer brings the idea to open-ear buds at a lower price than most sealed earbud versions. It sounds gimmicky on paper. Then it quietly becomes the thing you reach for every time you want to skip a track while your phone sits across the room.

Comfort gets a solid redesign this generation. The ear hooks are thinner than the previous ARC 3, which cuts the pressure that builds during long listening sessions. Cleer also reworked how the drivers sit relative to the ear canal, sharpening clarity and spatial projection without needing a tighter fit. Each earbud weighs 11.5 grams, and the full package with the smart case hits 117 grams. That’s light enough to forget in a jacket pocket and sturdy enough to toss in a gym bag.

Battery life that outlasts the competition

The ARC 5 delivers up to 12 hours of playback per earbud, which puts it ahead of most open-ear rivals right away. With the charging case, total battery life stretches to up to 60 hours. A ten-minute quick charge gives you four hours of listening. That kind of top-up speed kills the dead-earbud-before-a-commute problem. Bluetooth 5.4 handles the wireless link with multipoint support, so switching between a laptop and phone skips the re-pairing dance that still haunts too many wireless earbuds in 2026.

Call quality runs through Qualcomm cVc microphones with AI-enhanced noise suppression. Open-ear designs have always struggled with call clarity because the mics pick up more outside noise than sealed options. The dual-mic setup on the ARC 5 is tuned to cut background sound while keeping your voice natural. IPX7 water resistance handles sweat, rain, and the occasional sink splash without worry.

How it stacks up against the ARC 4 lineup

Cleer placed the ARC 5 as the top tier in a three-model lineup that still includes the ARC 4 at $99.99 and the ARC 4+ at $129.99. All three share the same 16.2mm driver, Bluetooth 5.4, THX Headphone Certification, and IPX7 rating. The split happens in the details. The ARC 4 skips head tracking, Dolby Atmos (it runs Dolby Audio instead), and the on-earbud power button the ARC 5 and ARC 4+ both carry. The ARC 4+ adds head tracking and Dolby Atmos but doesn’t get THX Spatial Audio or the AMOLED smart case.

Battery life follows the same stepped pattern. The ARC 4 runs seven hours per earbud with 32 hours total from the case. The ARC 4+ bumps that to nine hours and 34 total. The ARC 5 jumps to 12 hours per earbud with up to 60 hours total from the smart case. Only the ARC 5 gets the smart case, so the lower models still rely on a phone for EQ and settings. For $120 more than the entry-level ARC 4, the ARC 5 adds spatial audio, a touchscreen case, better battery, and a thinner ear hook. Whether that gap is worth it depends on how much spatial audio content you use and how often you’d reach for a case-mounted display.

Who this is built for

The ARC 5 is for listeners who already like open-ear buds and want the best version out right now. Commuters on packed transit get spatial audio and awareness in one package. Runners and cyclists get IPX7 protection and a secure fit that doesn’t block traffic noise. Office workers get a comfy all-day earbud that handles calls cleanly without cutting them off from nearby chats.

Compared to Shokz, which uses bone conduction and sacrifices sound quality for awareness, the ARC 5 keeps both. Against the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, Cleer matches the open-ear comfort but adds spatial audio, a smart case, and longer battery life at a lower price.

What the ARC 5 doesn’t do is chase sealed earbuds on isolation or deep bass. There’s no active noise cancellation here, and there shouldn’t be. The open-ear form factor exists because some listeners don’t want total isolation. Adding ANC would undercut the whole design. If heavy bass and silent commutes are what you need, the ARC 5 isn’t pretending to be that product. It’s the best version of something different entirely.

Price: $219.99
Where to Buy: Cleer

Cleer has also earned credit beyond the spec sheet. The ARC 5 picked up both a Good Design Award 2025 and a Red Dot Design Award 2025 before it hit shelves. That speaks to the design work behind making an earbud with this many features still feel clean and light on the ear.

The Cleer ARC 5 is available now in black or white at $219.99 from Cleer Audio’s website.