Bose has long been known for crafting some of the best noise-canceling wireless earbuds and headphones available. However, their products have also carried a premium price tag. The second-generation Bose QuietComfort Earbuds break this trend, offering exceptional performance at a remarkably affordable $179. This price point represents a significant $100 drop compared to the original QC Earbuds and a $120 reduction compared to the current flagship, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. Initially, I was concerned that Bose might have compromised quality to achieve this lower price. Fortunately, these fears were quickly dispelled. The QC Earbuds not only deliver superb sound and silence but also introduce hands-free voice commands that don’t rely on Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa. In fact, their performance is so impressive that I’m questioning the need to spend more on the QC Ultra Earbuds.
While not as compact as Apple’s AirPods Pro, the QC Earbuds strike a perfect balance between comfort and stability. While slightly bulkier than their pricier siblings, the earbud design remains nearly identical, ensuring a comfortable and secure fit. The silicone eartips create the necessary seal for optimal sound quality and noise cancellation, while the silicone stability bands provide a large contact area inside your ear’s concha for a secure fit. Bose thoughtfully includes three sizes of both eartips and stability bands, ensuring a comfortable fit for most users. For me, the default medium eartips and small bands provided a perfect fit right out of the box, allowing me to wear them comfortably for extended periods without any discomfort or pressure. The earbuds feature IPX4 water resistance, making them suitable for sweat and rain but not for immersion in water.
Aesthetically, some might prefer smaller earbuds. However, the slightly larger size of the QC Earbuds comes with benefits. The touch control surfaces are easy to locate and the buds are easy to grab when opening the charging case. Speaking of the case, it’s also on the larger side, but smaller than the first-generation QC Earbuds, which was notoriously bulky. Thankfully, Bose has included wireless charging in the case, a feature absent in the QC Earbuds II and QC Ultra Earbuds. The new case also feels more robust than the QC Ultra Earbuds. The lid is held securely closed by strong magnets and the hinge remains stable in both open and closed positions.
Connecting the QC Earbuds was a breeze, as was using Bluetooth Multipoint to connect to a second device simultaneously. However, the real test lies in the core functionalities: Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and sound quality. I’m happy to report that the QC Earbuds excel on both fronts. While I haven’t had the opportunity to fly with them yet, their performance in noisy environments suggests they’d be excellent companions for air travel. Traffic noise, background chatter in cafes, and droning sounds like fans or air conditioners were significantly reduced. While I can’t quantify it, subjectively, the ANC felt as effective as the QC Ultra Earbuds, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, and Sony’s WF-1000XM5. Professional equipment might reveal slightly less attenuation of specific frequencies, but unless you’re an ANC aficionado, you’re unlikely to notice the difference.
Many wireless earbuds offer decent ANC, but transparency mode is where the real differences emerge. Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 continue to reign supreme in this area, providing a truly immersive experience that feels like wearing no earbuds at all. I was astounded by how close the new QC Earbuds come. Even when earbuds effectively let in outside sounds, they often struggle to reproduce your voice naturally. The QC Earbuds address this issue, making them perfect for both face-to-face conversations and phone calls. My only criticism is that switching between ANC and transparency modes requires toggling through a “normal” mode first. This is a minor inconvenience that Bose should address. However, the mode switching is very fast, especially when assigning it to a single tap command (more on control customization in a moment).
The QC Earbuds sound quality closely mirrors that of the QC Ultra Earbuds, with one caveat. They deliver that classic Bose sound: deep, resonant bass response coupled with energetic mids and highs. There’s a wealth of detail, a pleasingly wide soundstage, and no perceptible distortion. However, I noticed that the amplification, or perhaps the drivers’ response to the amplification, isn’t as consistent as I’d prefer. At 40% to 50% volume, the sound is somewhat restrained. This initially raised some concerns, but cranking the volume up to 60% brings the sound to life, and the sweet spot seems to be between 65% and 70%.
Bose offers four preset sound profiles and a customizable setting (via a simplified five-band equalizer) for fine-tuning the sound. This surpasses the control offered on the QC Ultra Earbuds (four presets/three-band equalizer), but I wish we could save more than one custom setting. The caveat arises when using the earbuds with an aptX Adaptive or Snapdragon Sound-capable Android phone. The QC Earbuds only support SBC, AAC, and LC3 Bluetooth codecs, whereas the Ultras add aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for hi-res audio and CD-quality sound. However, since iPhones don’t support these aptX codecs, the two earbuds are on equal footing from a sound quality perspective for iPhone users. For Android users, the story is different. As I mentioned in my QC Ultra Earbuds review: “With aptX Adaptive (and a reliable Bluetooth connection), you can achieve far greater fidelity. It’s not theoretical. When listening to the QC Ultra on a Xiaomi 12 Pro and a Motorola ThinkPhone, the soundstage exhibited noticeably better precision, depth, and detail compared to listening on an iPhone 14 (AAC only). It’s the same quality improvement I’ve experienced with other equally capable wireless earbuds or headphones.” The QC Earbuds also lack Bose’s Immersive Audio (its version of spatial audio with head tracking). I believe Bose’s implementation of this technology is currently the best available. The company has hinted at potentially adding Immersive Audio to the QC Earbuds, which would be a welcome addition. However, I urge caution with such promises. Bose has made similar promises about future features (e.g., Bluetooth Multipoint and aptX Adaptive for the QC Earbuds II) and failed to deliver.
I firmly believe that physical buttons on earbuds are superior to touch controls (they minimize accidental commands and are easier to use with gloves). Despite this personal preference, Bose has done an excellent job with the touch controls on the QC Earbuds. Each earbud offers four available gestures: single, double, and triple taps, plus tap-and-hold. Each gesture can be customized with your desired command, a valuable feature absent in the QC Ultras. The only omission I miss is the QC Ultra’s excellent swipe gestures for volume control. By default, ANC is controlled by a tap-and-hold gesture. However, as I mentioned earlier, assigning it to a single tap significantly speeds up mode switching. All the standard control functions (calls, volume, track skipping, etc.) are available, along with a less common feature: camera shutter control. Bose calls it Remote Selfie, but its functionality extends beyond selfies. As long as your camera app is open (even if your phone is locked), you can use this command to trigger the shutter. With four gestures per earbud, you have eight possible commands at your disposal. Want to control even more actions? You can utilize the wear sensors for instant pause/play when you remove an earbud.
Now, let’s discuss those hands-free voice commands I mentioned earlier. Once enabled in the companion app, you can say, “Hey headphones…” followed by phrases like “play,” “pause,” “next,” “volume up,” “Aware on,” and so on. Basically, any action you can trigger with a tap control on the earbuds can be triggered with a voice command. It works flawlessly out of the box, but Bose recommends training the system to recognize your voice (it takes less than a minute). The key point to remember is that you must pause after saying, “Hey headphones” and wait for a tone confirming that the earbuds have heard you before proceeding with the command. I learned this the hard way after several failed attempts. While I’m not a big fan of hands-free voice commands, I certainly see their value for those who are.
When I first discovered that Bose had created a new standalone app for the QC Earbuds (appropriately named Bose QCE), I was slightly annoyed. Why not just use the existing Bose Music app, which already controls most of Bose’s wireless headphones, earbuds, soundbars, and more? However, it’s hard to argue against the decision once you use the new app. Its interface is clean and well-organized, making almost every setting accessible with a single tap. Even better, the various cards serve as both explanations of features and the quickest way to adjust them. While some cards might be slightly redundant (Noise Control, Fast Mute, Assistant, and Remote Selfie are essentially the same as the Touch Controls card), I think many users will appreciate this approach. I’m also a big fan of the Battery Prediction section. I’ve never seen remaining battery life expressed as both listening time and talk time, and it’s a standard that every company should adopt. The one area where the QCE app falls short of the Bose Music app is in managing paired devices. You can enable or disable Multipoint, but that’s about it.
Call quality on the new QC Earbuds might be the best Bose has ever achieved on a set of wireless earbuds. While still not perfect, it’s an improvement over the QC Ultra. There are still situations, such as an 18-wheeler driving past, where a noisy environment can distort your voice to the point of unintelligibility. However, unlike with the Ultra, your callers won’t be distracted by these sounds, as they are not picked up at all. In quiet settings, the QC Earbuds also exhibit a slight advantage in clarity.
Battery life is another area where the QC Earbuds break the traditional Bose mold. With up to nine hours of playback time with ANC enabled (8.5 according to official specs) and a total of 31.5 hours when you include the case, these are easily the longest-running earbuds Bose has ever produced. However, these figures assume a 50% volume level, which, as discussed earlier, isn’t ideal for sound quality. You can expect slightly shorter battery life if you listen at higher volumes. If and when Bose adds Immersive Audio, these numbers will likely decrease, as it reduces the QC Ultra’s battery life by a third. The only missing feature is a quick-charge option, but then again, Bose has yet to offer quick charging on any of its QuietComfort wireless earbuds.
If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a big fan of the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. However, there’s one small detail that might give you pause: a lack of support for Auracast. You might not be familiar with this relatively new Bluetooth audio-sharing platform, but it’s poised to become a significant player in our wireless audio experience. From a future-proofing perspective, it’s the one thing I wish Bose had included. However, setting aside this omission, the new QC Earbuds are a fantastic set of everyday earbuds. Even better, their price point is not only more accessible than any previous Bose earbuds but also challenges the pricing strategies of traditional competitors. If I were Sony, Sennheiser, or even Apple, I’d be sleeping a little less soundly right now.
