The Cleer Audio Arc 5 open earbuds are true wireless earphones made by Cleer Audio, featuring an earhook design that sits outside the ear canal for full ambient awareness, and they arrive loaded with THX Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos support, and a Qualcomm S5 Gen 3 chip. This is a significant step up from the original Cleer ARC, and it arrives at a moment when the open-ear category is getting genuinely competitive.
TL;DR: The Cleer Audio Arc 5 open earbuds pack Dolby Atmos, THX Spatial Audio, Qualcomm S5 Gen 3 processing, and up to 60 hours of total battery life into an open-ear earhook design. The smart case adds an AMOLED screen and UV-C disinfection. It’s a feature-dense package, though independent sound quality testing has not yet been published.
What makes the Cleer Audio Arc 5 open earbuds stand out?
The Arc 5 stands out by cramming spatial audio technologies — Dolby Atmos and THX Spatial Audio — into an open-ear form factor that most rivals treat as a budget or fitness-only category. Add Cleer AI 2.0 for call and sound quality improvements, multi-axis sensors for head tracking, and aptX Lossless and LDAC codec support, and this isn’t a casual product.
The codec list alone is worth pausing on. Supporting SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, LDAC, and LE Audio simultaneously is unusual even for premium sealed earbuds. Open-ear designs typically cut corners here. Cleer hasn’t, at least on paper.
The driver is a customized 2mm super-large magnetic circuit composite bio-diaphragm dynamic coil — a proprietary configuration designed to push more bass out of an open-back design that naturally bleeds low frequencies into the environment. Whether it actually works will depend on real-world listening, and no independent testing has been cited in available sources.
Battery life and the surprisingly smart charging case
The Arc 5 earbuds deliver 12 hours per charge, with the case extending total playback to 60 hours. That’s a strong number for any wireless earbud category. USB-C fast charging handles top-ups.
The case, though, is where Cleer has gone genuinely strange — in an interesting way. It features a high-definition AMOLED touch screen with customizable wallpapers, a built-in makeup mirror, and a UV-C disinfection lamp. That’s either brilliant product design or a gimmick that adds cost without adding value. A UV-C lamp in a charging case is a real hygiene feature that some users will genuinely want; the makeup mirror is harder to justify on a tech product. Still, no other open-ear competitor currently offers anything close to this case specification.
How does the Arc 5 compare to the original Cleer ARC and SHOKZ alternatives?
The original Cleer ARC used 16.2mm neodymium drivers, offered 7 to 18 hours of battery depending on configuration, ran Bluetooth 5.0, and had no spatial audio or AI features whatsoever. The Arc 5 replaces all of that with a more advanced chip, far longer battery life, and a feature set that the original couldn’t touch. It’s not an incremental update — it’s a category rethink.
SHOKZ OpenFit Air and OpenRun Pro 2 represent the other major open-ear option worth considering. SHOKZ has built its reputation on bone conduction technology and sports durability, which appeals to a specific runner and cyclist audience. The Arc 5 targets a broader listener who wants spatial audio and premium codec support alongside the open-ear fit. These are genuinely different use cases, not direct substitutes.
The Arc 5 earbuds carry an IPX7 waterproof rating — Cleer specifies they support water washing — which puts them in solid territory for sports use too. That IPX7 rating matches or exceeds what many sealed earbuds offer, which is notable for an open design.
Cleer AI 2.0 and the Bluetooth spec confusion
Cleer AI 2.0 is the onboard intelligence layer, handling sound quality optimization and call clarity improvements. Multi-axis sensors enable AI somatosensory control and head tracking for spatial audio. Cleer has also indicated that more large-scale language model AI features are coming, though no specifics have been published yet.
One flag worth raising: the Bluetooth version listed across sources is inconsistent. Cleer’s official site states Bluetooth 5.4, while some spec sheets reference Bluetooth 4 profile versions (A2DP 1.4, AVRCP v1.6.2, HFP v1.9). This kind of discrepancy doesn’t necessarily indicate a hardware problem, but it’s the sort of documentation inconsistency that erodes confidence before a product has even been reviewed.
The Arc 5 comes in two variants: a Music version in Obsidian Black, and a Sports version available in Black Flame, Gold Black, Light Feather White, and Black Red. Both carry Apple MFi certification and a Red Dot Design Award. The Cleer+ app handles EQ customization, firmware updates, and expanded controls.
Is the Cleer Audio Arc 5 worth buying over sealed earbuds?
Open-ear earbuds aren’t for everyone. If you need strong noise isolation for commuting or open-plan offices, the Arc 5’s design will disappoint — that’s not what it’s built for. But for outdoor activity, long work-from-home sessions, or anyone who finds in-ear tips uncomfortable, the open design with spatial audio support is a genuinely compelling combination.
What does the Cleer Audio Arc 5 cost?
The Arc 5 has been listed at £109.99 on sale from £199 at A1Smartshop. Pricing varies by region and retailer, and the product is available through Cleer’s own site, Interskytrend, and other authorized sellers.
How does the Arc 5 differ from the original Cleer ARC?
The original Cleer ARC offered basic open-ear audio with Bluetooth 5.0 and up to 18 hours of total battery life, but had no Dolby Atmos, THX Spatial Audio, or AI features. The Arc 5 adds all of those, plus a Qualcomm S5 Gen 3 chip, 60-hour battery, and a significantly more advanced codec stack including aptX Lossless and LDAC.
The Cleer Audio Arc 5 open earbuds make an ambitious case that open-ear doesn’t have to mean feature-light. The spec sheet is genuinely impressive, the case is unlike anything else in the category, and the spatial audio support is a real differentiator. The honest caveat is that no independent reviews have yet confirmed whether the audio quality matches the marketing — and for a product at this price point, that’s the only question that actually matters.
This article was written with AI assistance and editorially reviewed.
Source: What Hi-Fi?
