Bose is back with its best noise-canceling earbuds yet, which are much smaller, sound better, and could topple Sony from the top spot. Now let’s talk about the bose quietcomfort earbuds 2 review and let’s see the noise cancelling buds.
The new earbuds are 30% smaller, much lighter, and less noticeable than the old ones. They look a bit like old Bluetooth headsets because they have short, flat stalks that stick down toward your mouth.
They are very comfortable and stable in the ear. They come with three sizes of silicone ear tips and three sizes of stabilizing wings that can be mixed and matched to get the right fit. The Bose Music app has a test to see if the headphones fit well in your ear.
Touch-sensitive playback, noise cancellation, and swipe volume controls work well on each stalk. When you remove a bud, the music stops and the screen goes transparent.
The earbuds have a six-hour battery life and magnetically clip into a flip-top case. The case is capable of charging the earbuds three times. It is much smaller and simpler to carry than its predecessor, but it is still half the size of the best on the market.
Specifications
- Water resistance: sweat resistant (IPX4)
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, SBC, AAC
- Battery life: 6 hours (up to 24 hours with case)
- Earbud dimensions: 17.2 x 30.5 x 22.4mm
- Earbud weight: 6.24g each
- Charging case dimensions: 59.4 x 66.3 x 26.7mm
- Charging case weight: 59.8g
- Case charging: HSBC
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 Review
Top-class noise cancelling
When you turn on the earbuds, they calibrate their sound and noise cancellation for your ears by playing a short violin strum tone and utilizing microphones to determine the shape of your ear canal.
It’s difficult to say whether this makes a significant impact because you can’t turn it off, but the earbuds sound significantly better than their predecessors and offer the most effective in-ear noise cancellation I’ve tested.
They drastically lower all of the normal deep rumbles, hums, and roars that competitors manage, but they also perform a considerably better job of suppressing the mid and high tones that active noise cancellation struggles with. Conversations, keyboard clicks, and other higher tones are significantly more efficiently muffled, functioning almost as well as the best large over-ear noise cancelling headphones. They also manage wind noise well, which cannot be claimed for all of its competitors.
The level of noise cancellation can be adjusted utilizing multiple user-configurable modes ranging from maximum blockage to full awareness. The transparency mode is also excellent, with a feature similar to the latest AirPods Pro 2 that automatically lowers abrupt and extremely loud noises, preventing you from being overpowered by the screech of train wheels, for example.
Loads of bass
The sound quality has also gotten better. It still has Bose’s trademark clear and controlled sound, which can sound a little clinical in some more raw genres, but overall they do a good job with a wide range of music styles.
By default, they have a lot of bass, which is sometimes almost too much. With a quick change to the equalizer in the Bose Music app to turn it down a little, the sounds were more in tune with each other. Aside from that, they have good detail in the mids and slightly softer highs, which makes them great earbuds for easy listening. Still, they don’t sound as good as the best headphones from Sony or Sennheiser.
The call quality is good. When I’m in a quiet place, my voice comes through loud and clear. When I’m out on the street, I can still be heard, and only a little bit of background noise gets through when it’s very loud.
Standard Bluetooth 5.3 and the universal SBC and AAC audio formats can be used with the earbuds. When used with different phones, tablets, and computers, the earbuds usually had a strong and stable connection, even in challenging places like train stations. However, when unlocking a phone, they sometimes skipped.
The Bose buds can only be connected to one device at a time, but they can be switched between up to six devices that have been paired. For calls, you can only use the right earbud on its own.
Sustainability
Bose thinks the batteries will last for more than 500 full charge cycles, but they can’t be replaced and the earbuds can’t be fixed right now, so they have to be thrown away.
There are some replacement parts, like ear tips for £15 and a charging case for £90. There are no recycled materials in the earbuds. If you return a broken Bose product, you can get a discount. It doesn’t put out reports on how each product affects the environment, but it does put out annual sustainability reports.
See also; The Best USB-C Earbuds in 2022
Price
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II cost £279.95 ($279/A$429.95) and are available in black or white.
For comparison, the Sony WF-1000XM4 cost £159, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 cost £220, the Google Pixel Buds Pro cost £179, the Beats Fit Pro cost £220, Apple AirPods Pro 2 cost £249 and the Nothing Ear (1) cost £149.
See also; EarPods May Still Be The Right Earbuds For You
Verdict
The second version of Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds is a big step up in every way from the first ones.
They are smaller, lighter, less obvious, and easier to put on and take with you. They are stable and comfortable to wear for long periods of time and have good controls and battery life. They sound better with good, easy-to-listen-to audio and a lot of bass, but they still have Bose’s signature “clean” sound, which can’t match the highs of the best headphones on the market.
The noise-cancelling feature is the most impressive thing about them. They set a new standard by blocking out more unwanted noise than any other earbuds, including voices and other sounds that are hard to block out.
