Bose’s new QuietComfort headphones deliver premium ANC for under $200

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a pair of sub-$200 headphones from Bose. Until now, the company has stuck to offering products that hover around $300, including the QuietComfort Ultra headphones (as well as several predecessors) and the most recent Ultra Open earbuds.

But now the second-generation $179 QuietComfort earbuds have arrived, with a new design, Bose’s industry-leading active noise cancellation, and a few other features — wireless charging, multipoint Bluetooth, and more — that are available right out of the box, which hasn’t always been the case with the company’s flagship models.

I’ve been testing the QuietComfort 2024 earbuds for a few days, and while it’ll take me a bit longer to render a full verdict, they already have a lot going for them. Wireless charging doesn’t require a ridiculous extra case. They’re quite comfortable. Eight-plus hours of battery life with ANC on? Pretty good. And I found the noise cancellation here to be on par with more expensive earbuds, if not quite on par. The transparency mode is nice and crisp, too. As for music, you can customize the sound profile with a five-band EQ, which is nice because “less precious, more everyday” sounds can be quite bass-heavy.

But don’t expect to have it all. The charging case is a bit large by today’s standards, and features like immersive audio (“coming soon”), support for the adaptive AptX codec, CustomTune sound personalization, and the ability to sync with Bose soundbars are missing from the QC Earbuds. Still, they do offer some new features that no other Bose product does, like acting as a remote shutter for your phone’s camera. It’s neat, and the shutter trick works pretty well as long as you keep the earbuds app open in the background.

Speaking of which, this app situation is a bit odd. The QuietComfort 2024 earbuds have a standalone companion app that is separated of the main Bose application used for the QuietComfort Ultra range. And there’s a reason for that: Bose didn’t develop this software entirely on its own.

Spokesperson Joanne Berthiaume told me that “the product uses different hardware and firmware than our other QC Ultra earbuds, so we had to use a different app to get it to market quickly. We worked with a third party to develop the app.”

According to Berthiaume, Bose worked with this unspecified partner on the overall look and feel of the app and user experience. But the QC Earbuds app still feels quite different from Bose’s other mobile software. Tap any option and you’re presented with a sliding card interface.

The app does the job of customizing controls, enabling features like low-latency mode, or adjusting the EQ, but the user experience lacks refinement. (The voice prompts on the earbuds themselves also sound absolutely terrible — not that it matters much, but still.) To its credit, the app places pretty much every feature right on the main screen for super-quick access without having to dive into multiple menus.

What East The bottom line is that the QuietComfort earbuds have (so far) worked reliably in my testing. And for a company that has had frustrating and unpredictable connectivity issues with some previous products, getting it right is essential. I had no issues with multipoint, and the low-latency mode made the QC earbuds a good choice for my Steam Deck OLED. No complaints there. I don’t see myself using the “hey earbuds” voice commands much, but the option is there for those who want it. The touch gesture controls also worked well without any false activations.

Bose readily admits that the sound of these earbuds is anything but “precious,” and the QC Earbuds do indeed have a V-shaped sound curve that elevates the highs and lows. It’s a signature Bose sound that many people will find enjoyable. Again, the app lets you override this default profile and use your own preferences, but the overall audio fidelity is a rung or two below the QC Ultras and other earbuds that cost more than these. Stay tuned for more in-depth sonic impressions in the full review. I only had a few voice calls on the QC Earbuds, but so far I’d call them merely adequate.

I want to spend more time with the QC earbuds before I rate them, partly to make sure they continue to work as expected and don’t start exhibiting the random bugs that some older Bose earbuds have. For now, I can say that the ANC lives up to Bose’s reputation and outperforms virtually all competitors. If that’s your main buying factor, these earbuds will certainly have a lot of appeal at their price point and could be a much more practical purchase than the Ultras.

Photography by Chris Welch/The Verge