review

Cleer ARC II Review Sport Open Ear True Wireless Earbuds

Thursday, July 06, 2023

 

Whether you're on the track, hitting the gym, or exploring the great outdoors, the Cleer Arc II Sport lets you experience music like never before, fueling your drive and passion. Because in those crucial moments, when it's just you and the challenge ahead. You have the power to own the moment!


The Cleer Audio Arc II Sport is the latest addition to the second-generation Arc series of open-ear earbuds. These earbuds offer an upgraded open-earbud experience with several notable improvements over the original Cleer Arc such as motion head control, IPX5 sweat resistance, enhanced battery life and Snapdragon sound.


One of the key features of the Arc II Sport is its open-ear ear hook design with built-in metal swivel hinge similar to the Cleer Arc. Unlike the predecessors, the Arc II Sport come with IPX5 water resistance rating. These also have highly responsive touch controls, which work well, letting you accept calls (answer/end/reject), skip tracks and control volume. The earbuds built-in microphones work pretty good for calls, specially outdoors in windy conditions delivering your voice loudly and naturally while suppressing background voices and wind noise.


A built-in UV-C sterilizer is another new feature that you won't find on the original Cleer Arc. The UV sterilizer consists of a tiny UV led inside the earbud charging dock designed to target the part of the earbud that rests against your ear. This feature is likely to appeal OCD type individuals, although the UV-C led doesn't completely sterilize the earbuds. The Arc II Sport charging case closes magnetically and, it's covered with durable fabric material. The dimensions of the charging case are similar but the weight is 102 grams, which is 20 grams heavier than the Cleer Arc case. Would have been neat if the case supported charge-out to double as a powerbank for charging external devices.


Battery life is longer, around 8 hours of playback time at 60% volume. The charging case provides an additional 27 hours of battery life. In terms of fit, the Arc II Sport has similar weight and dimensions to the original Cleer Arc - 14 grams per earbud - which is heavy and one of the drawbacks of this design. Much like sports earbuds with earhooks, you will experience ear fatigue or discomfort a lot quicker than with regular in-ears. This is mainly due to the weight and rather firm rubber ear hook design of the Arc II Sport. The fit is comfortable for a good hour workout.


Speaking of workouts, if you plan to use them solely for the gym, the Arc II Sport integrate head control functionality that allows you to control various functions such as skipping tracks by turning your head to the right or to the left. Head control is neat but on the Arc II Sport it needs finer adjustments to make it more user friendly. At the moment, there is no way for the user to change head control gestures such as side-to-side head turn, which becomes an issue when crossing a road. Unfortunately, the Cleer+ app doesn't offer head control adjustment.


The Cleer+ app is easy to use and navigate and doesn't require you to give out your email. The app gives access to health management features, battery indicator for earbuds, 6 sound presets, a well as a custom mode to create your own sound signature via a 5-band EQ.


The Cleer Audio Arc II Sport has similar hardware to the Cleer Arc - 16.2mm neodymium dynamic drivers - but the Arc II Sport has upgraded specs with the latest bluetooth 5.3 chip, multipoint connectivity, AptX Adaptive audio, AptX Lossless (Snapdragon Sound). Cleer claims Arc II Sport supports AAC codec but, it actually isn't supported - at least not on Android 10 devices.


The integration of AptX Lossless with Snapdragon Sound makes the Arc II Sport sound a lot more improved with more powerful volume audio, heartfelt bass, lower latency and better sound reproduction. It's important to note though that both AptX Lossless and Snapdragon Sound require compatible devices, which means your smartphone or music player must support AptX Lossless and Snapdragon Sound to fully benefit.


The Cleer Audio Arc II Sport can be connected to up to 2 devices at the same time. You can switch between devices effortlessly, so you can enjoy music from your tablet (or PC) and quickly switch to your phone for calls. You can also use the Cleer Audio Arc II Sport earbuds independently of each other for mono listening. Worth nothing though, the reconnection isn't instant - it takes approximately 4 seconds for the earbuds to reconnect after being removed from the charging case.

  • volume test
  • gaming/movie latency test
  • UV-C cleaning test
  • Cleer+ app walkthrough
  • Unboxing with user guide

Potential deal breakers
  • Ear fatigue
  • Available only in two colors: black/red and red
  • No active noise cancellation (ANC)
  • Case doesn't support charge-out
  • Not as bassy as in-ears earphones
  • Doesn't support AAC
  • Heavier charging case than Cleer Arc
  • Long re-connection delay (~4s)
  • Blinking bluetooth status lights during audio playback
  • Partial UV cleaning
  • Temperamental head control
  • Don't block external outside sounds


Selling points
  • Head control 
  • App doesn't require email registration
  • Built-in EQ
  • Eartip-free design
  • Premium feel
  • Weighty hardshell charging case
  • Clear calls with background noise reduction
  • 35 hours total playtime
  • Cleer+ mobile app support
  • Safer alternative to earbuds
  • Unrestricted open ear design
  • Multipoint connectivity
  • Responsive touch controls
  • 10-minute quick charge
  • Built-in UV sterilizer
  • AptX Adaptive audio
  • IPX5 water resistance rating
  • Low-latency via AptX Lossless (Snapdragon Sound)
  • Bluetooth 5.3 chip
Accessories included are a charging cable. You can buy the Cleer Arc II Sport from amazon. 

 

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