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Pros
- Comfortable, secure fit
- Very good sound and noise canceling
- Good battery life
- Case has wireless charging
- Voice-control features built into buds
Cons
- Buds and case are a little big
- Voice-calling performance could be slightly better
- Voice-control features are a bit hit or miss
In recent years, when it came to its new earbuds, Bose has focused on premium noise-canceling buds with premium price tags. But now it’s released more affordable QuietComfort Earbuds at $179 (£180) for folks priced out of its $299 (£300) flagship QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. The new QC Earbuds, as Bose calls them, don’t perform quite as well as the QC Ultra Earbuds, but they do offer strong sound and noice-canceling performance while adding a few features not found in the Ultras.
If you did a double take on the name of these buds, I did, too. And by “too” I mean that Bose released the QuietComfort Earbuds 2, the predecessor to the Ultras, a few years ago. And while Bose has now gone backward by naming these the QC Earbuds, the idea going forward is that this will be the more affordable, mid-range model while the Ultra Earbuds will be the flagship. This is sort of similar to what it’s done with its full-size QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and step-down QuietComfort Headphones, although the QC Headphones feature a legacy design based on the QC 45 headphones.
Watch this: Bose QuietComfort Earbuds Review: The Price Is Right
Bose QC Earbuds 2024 design
Available in black, white smoke and chilled lilac, the new QC Earbuds have a totally new design. Their shape reminds me a bit of Bose’s old Sports Wireless Earbuds, which didn’t have active noise canceling while these do. They also have a similar ear tip and stability band system to the Ultras that really helps you get a secure fit.
And that fit is one of the strengths of these earbuds. Bose earbuds tend to be a little larger than a lot of earbuds on the market, but they typically offer a comfortable, secure fit. There are three sizes of ear tips and stability bands — they’re essentially sport fins — to choose from.
My review sample came in this chilled lilac color.
They did stick out of my ears a fair bit (they do look a bit large), but I got a tight seal and really secure fit using the largest ear tips and the medium-sized stability bands. I had no problem running with the buds. They didn’t budge in my ears, and they’re IPX4 sweatproof and splash-proof.
Bose QC Earbuds sound quality and noise canceling
As I said, the QC Earbuds have active noise canceling and it’s very good. While it’s not quite as good as what you get with the flagship Ultras, which feature arguably the best noise-canceling on the market, it’s pretty close. They also have a transparency or “aware” mode and I found it to be natural sounding with only a very faint hiss. No problems there.
These buds also sound quite good. Like Bose’s other earbuds and headphones, they’re designed to work well with a variety of music and offer generally smooth, punchy sound that’s very pleasant for listening. While some competing buds offer a little more detail and clarity, the bass has a good kick to it without sounding booming.
Testing the QC Earbuds’ noise canceling on the streets of New York.
The QC Earbuds don’t sound quite as good as the Ultras, which have a bit more depth and extension (they offer slightly richer sound). But I did think the QC Earbuds buds played loud and most people should be satisfied with their sound quality.
You can also tweak the sound a bit as Bose had added a customizable five-band equalizer to its new QC Earbuds app. That app has been designed exclusively for these buds; it doesn’t work with the Ultras, which use different firmware and a Qualcomm chipset that supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound and its aptX Adaptive codec. These support the AAC and SBC audio codecs.
Bose QC Earbuds features
The buds have a few features not found in the QC Earbuds Ultra. For starters, the charging case has wireless charging. The case is a bit big and feels a little cheap in comparison to the Ultra’s case, but Bose has finally added wireless charging.
And the battery life is good. You can get up to 8.5 hours of playback time at moderate volume levels — and that’s with noise canceling on.
The second new feature is the ability toggle between noise canceling on, aware mode and a new off setting. Some people really wanted that off setting, which helps conserve battery life.
I got a tight seal and really secure fit with the ear tips and stabilizers.
These don’t have the Ultra’s Immersion mode that widens the soundstage a bit and is kind of a spatial audio mode. But Bose says the Immersion mode is coming soon, though it could be months before we see it.
The buds also have some interesting voice-control features, including the ability to snap a selfie using a voice command through the buds. I found the voice commands to be a bit hit or miss. You have to say, “Hey, headphones” to activate the voice command mode, and sometimes it kicked on when I said the wake command and sometimes it didn’t.
When it’s working, voice control allows you to skip tracks forward and backward and raise and lower volume, among other things. There are also the more standard customizable touch controls. In my tests. the touch controls were responsive; I didn’t have an issue with them.
Other features include ear detection sensors, a low-latency mode for gaming and video watching and multipoint Bluetooth pairing, though you can’t have multipoint on to use those voice commands because if you’re paired with two devices simultaneously, the buds don’t know what phone to issue the voice commands for.
The QC Earbuds also feature a new companion app for iOS and Android.
Bose QC Earbuds voice-calling performance
Bose says the earbuds have three microphones for noise canceling and voice-calling. I was slightly disappointed with the voice-calling performance. The buds do a very good job reducing background noise, but sometimes callers said my voice sounded muffled or glitched while I was talking. I sometimes had to repeat what I’d just said and talk louder.
I tested the buds in the noisy streets of New York and under harsh conditions, which included some wind noise. They just didn’t perform quite up to the level of other premium buds I’ve recently tested, including the AirPods 4, Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Google Pixel Buds Pro 2. Hopefully, my review sample wasn’t wonky, but I thought that voice-calling performance could be slightly better and hopefully we’ll get a firmware update that tweaks the algorithm so my voice comes through more clearly in noisy environments.
This is the first Bose earbuds case to have wireless charging, a feature you get with most premium true wireless earbuds.
Bose QC Earbuds final thoughts
In the final analysis, I think the QC Earbdus offer a comfortable, secure fit, sound very good and have top-notch noise canceling. I like the new features, particularly the voice commands, but the voice control doesn’t work as well as it does with Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Hopefully a firmware upgrade will fix that.
I do think the buds and case are a little big compared to what you get with other buds. And while the voice-calling performance had its plusses (good background noise reduction), callers said my voice sounded a little muffled and sometimes glitched in noisy environments.
The long and short of it is I came away impressed with the QC Earbuds, despite a couple of small shortcomings. Overall, they’re very good buds and certainly worth considering, especially once they are discounted to $140 or less. Hopefully we’ll see some firmware upgrades that tweak their performance and also add that Immersive Audio mode in the not-so-distant future.
