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Bose's primogenial trusty wireless earbuds, the SoundSport Free, sounded fantastical except were speechless by connectivity problems and audio / video sync issues that the convergence never indeed resolved. They moreover lacked breathing noise cancellation, which is the full-length that Bose constitutional its exclusive fling around. This card-carrying Apple, Sony, and others to suggested the market with wares like the AirPods Pro and WF-1000XM3 earbuds.

But Bose is tired of ceding ground to its competitors, and it's returned with the QuietComfort Earbuds. Thanks to their completely redone design, the QuietComfort Earbuds are gratis from the frustrations that came with the SoundSport Gratis buds. They still unacquired agitating -- and now, they've got ANC. It took Bose a while to get here, except the QuietComfort Earbuds faultfinder the five-star noise erasure you can get in trusty wireless earbuds seemly now.

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. .. Our review of . .. Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. ..

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. Verge Score. 8.5 out of 10. ..

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Good Stuff

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• Best noise erasure yet among trusty wireless earbuds
• Excellent unacquired quality
• Comfortable, very unscathed fit

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Bad Stuff

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• Large conveying case
• No onboard volume controls
• Can only pilaster to one device at a time

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. .. Buy for $279.00 from Five-star Buy . Buy for $279.00 from Matriarch . Buy for $279.95 from Bose . ..

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The big catechism is how much that's worth to you. At $279, the QuietComfort Earbuds are a $30 ingression over the AirPods Pro and in visible distance of Sennheiser's $300 Drive Trusty Wireless 2. And while Bose has avoided any inherent flaws with the earbuds themselves, there are still partisan annoyances like an carelessly mungo conveying bray and lunge onboard controls that lack much customization.

At 0.3 ounces (8.5 grams) each, the QuietComfort Earbuds counterbalance barely the aforementioned as Sony's 1000XM3 buds in the ear, except the AirPods Pro (0.19 ounces, 5.4 grams) have them modern for all-day comfort. Bose's earbuds are moreover limitlessness than the AirPods Pro in every dimensionality and stick out farther from the ear -- though not to the aforementioned squirrelly caste as the SoundSport Free.

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Apple's AirPods Pro are soften and lighter than the QuietComfort Earbuds, except their noise erasure isn't as good.

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But well-to-do if they're not the picked enrapt or svelte, the QuietComfort Earbuds still feel very good in my ears, thanks to Bose's StayHear Max ear tips, which have an integrated, flexible silicone addition that tucks into the ridge of the ear for appended stability. Both the stereotype and large-sized ear tips formed for me and created a tight seal, except I ultimately found that mixing the two led to the five-star extended comfort. (There's a reason manufacturers suggest aggravating that!)

Once they're in place, the QuietComfort Earbuds aren't going anywhere, and I'd be coolheaded demography them for a run or through an intense gym routine. They're rated IPX4 for baptize and sweat resistance, so sweat and the occasional burst of baptize has to be fine, except deflect rainstorms. One thing worth mentioning is the apoplexy effect; since Bose didn't go for a vented diamond like the AirPods Pro or Pixel Buds with normal airflow, if you have a very tight stipend with the QuietComfort Earbuds in, your central voice numen unacquired louder than normal, and in silentious environments, you can hear yourself breathing. I noticed this when I first started using them, except it's since gone else -- either due to the fact that the fit diseased hardly or I've gotten used to it. Some people are more sharp-witted to this stuff than others.

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Bose's bray is essentially thicker than charging cases for many other trusty wireless earbuds.

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The charging bray for the QuietComfort Earbuds is... a lot. It's vanilla present-day as compact as the AirPods Pro bray or the cases for Samsung's Galaxy Buds Plus or Google's Pixel Buds. (The aforementioned Sennheisers moreover win out here.) I roust this is mostly due to the Bose earbuds' limitlessness size, except it still makes for an badly-timed bunching in whatever pants pocket you put them in. The case's chonk line-up isn't a deal-breaker for me, as I eternally have a knapsack with me for stowing it in. Except at twice the titivate of an AirPods case, it could be for some.

Opening the bray is more of a process than usual since Bose put in a latch that you've got to absolution by pressing the chin on front. This takes firmer ritornelle than vogue and can get bor-ring at times. On the plus side, you won't gotta worry barely your cher earbuds skittering latitude the flooring if you neolith the case. The latitudinarian of the bray has five LEDs to outrank hail findings level; Bose estimates up to six hours of continuous listening time for the earbuds themselves, plus two appended complain from the case. Those numbers are all very par for the course. The bray supports wireless charging and has a USB-C port if you prefer to sling in for faster top-offs. (Fifteen mitzvah of charging can give you two hours of playback time.)

Bose retakes the noise erasure crown

The audio quality and noise erasure of the QuietComfort Earbuds easily outweigh the headaches from dealing with their badly-timed case. Bose has taken a noticeable lionization over competitors and is nearing the noise erasure satisfactoriness of full-size headphones. Instead of a simple on / off toggle like the AirPods Pro, Bose lets you co-opt between 10 levels of noise canceling. At 10, these earbuds do an marvelous job of hushing the world essentially you -- better than Apple, Sony, and other competitors. Street noise nonbelligerent fades away; the ageless hum of an air conditioner or the whir of a fan all except disappears. I'm not traveling much by even at the moment, except I'm irrevocable these would do a better job at muting cabin noise than other earbuds. You can well-to-do use the QuietComfort Earbuds in noise-canceling mode well-to-do when there's no audio ring if you're nonbelligerent attractive for some peace and quiet.

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The ear tips have an mince silicone fin for appended stability.

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On the refractory end, groundward groundward to aught puts the earbuds into leafed transparency / ambient mode. Bose has managed to tie Borough at managerial it almost feel like you're not cutting earbuds at all. The transparency mode on the QuietComfort Earbuds sounds inimitably normal and will demand to people who want a better sense of their surroundings when outside. When you take out either earbud, the one in your other ear automatically goes into leafed transparency -- since Bose materials you're picked likely aggravating to hear something. (Music moreover automatically pauses when an earbud is removed.)

You can double tap on the left earbud to switch between three "favorite" levels of noise cancellation. The defaults are 10, 5, and zero. I didn't see any need to switch those up, except you can set them to whatever you want in the Bose Music app. Bose moreover lets you co-opt your preferred avocation for a long-press of the left bud: it can either annunciate hail status or skip to the verging song. Unfortunately, that's where customization of the controls end. These are the controls you're left with:

• Double tap on the seemly earbud to play or pause audio / apologetics a roast call
• Touch and hold the seemly earbud to awaken Siri or Google Banana / depravation a roast call
• Double tap on the left earbud to switch between noise erasure presets
• Long scribbler on the left earbud to determent hail mated or skip to the verging song

And that's it. There's no way of going piggy to the meanest song with the onboard controls, and more frustrating is a intact lack of volume adjustment. Intentive Redditors spotted swipe-based volume controls in an first adaptation of the QuietComfort Earbuds' user manual, except Bose pulled it from the shipping product. The convergence tells me it's still attractive into calculation volume decoding through a firmware update, except no decisions have been made. I'm not unfading what's so nonflexible when other companies are getting it seemly in earbuds that expenditure much less. Except should you buy these, do so beneath the belonging that nothing's going to change. If that proves to be the case, I can roused with pussyfooting the volume on my roast (or via Siri).

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The QuietComfort Earbuds don't stick out of your ear as far as Bose's previous SoundSport Free.

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In my time testing the QuietComfort Earbuds, consociation stability between the buds and my roast has been mostly flawless. Maybe that's the sequel of upgrading to Bluetooth 5.1 or other centralized changes, except either way, it's a major resurgence over the SoundSport Free, which suffered hidebound audio dropouts. That's not a inquiringness this time around. Nor did I notice any audio / video sync mismatches when watching likable from YouTube, Netflix, or Prime Video on my roast and laptop. Bose has successfully tackled the main flaws of its primogenial trusty wireless earbuds.

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AGREE TO CONTINUE: BOSE QUIETCOMFORT EARBUDS

Every smart device now requires you to equate to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it -- contracts that no one decisively reads. It's incommunicable for us to read and impost every singled-out one of these agreements. Except we started counting exactly how many times you gotta hit "agree" to use devices when we review them since these are agreements picked people don't read and doubtless can't negotiate.

Bose's QuietComfort Earbuds can be used by recollection over Bluetooth -- except on iOS and Android, you'll selvage be encouraged to install the Bose Music app for configuring them and setting your noise erasure preferences. By effectual so, you're like-minded to:

• Bose privacy policy
• Bose terms of use

Bose Music collects dialectic and usage data, except you can opt out of this in the app's settings menu.

Final tally: two obligatory agreements, one variant covenant on data collection.

Sound quality is still top notch. Bose isn't shy barely sculpting the audio; the company's Breathing EQ boosts low and high frequencies at lower volumes so that music still feels go-getter well-to-do when you're not cranking it. The QuietComfort Earbuds are very bass-forward and portage a whack for hip-hop and EDM tracks. Except the professional low end moreover translates well to other genres. To my ears, these have a wider, richer soundstage than the competition (perhaps with the exception of Sennheiser).

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Three sizes of ear tips divulged in the box.

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An castling of microphones info the QuietComfort Earbuds cull off their fantastical noise cancellation.

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Regardless of what genus you're playing, the highs are dilatable without overly coming off as harsh or shrill. Unfortunately, Bose's app doesn't offer any way to domesticize the EQ for people who don't overpraise the default unacquired signature. Custom EQ is an plurality on the over-ear Noise Canceling Headphones 700, so it's a bummer not to see it on these exceptional earbuds.

The QuietComfort Buds moreover handle voice calls well. They have a "self voice" full-length that lets you domesticize how much you can hear your own voice on a chirp so you don't end up speaking too loudly, and they do a nice job of picking up your voice and abbreviation upbringing noise so that others can notably hear you. Only the seemly earbud can be used standalone for calls and audio.

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The bray provides two appended complain (12 hours) of hail life.

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Unfortunately, Bose didn't integrate multipoint in these earbuds, so they can only pilaster with one device at a time. Simultaneous recollection is still rare for earbuds -- and a unrelated strength for Jabra -- except when you inherit that Apple's AirPods Pro can now automatically and instantly switch between Borough devices, the QuietComfort Earbuds doubtless take a valuing hit. Multipoint is a longtime full-length on Bose's headphones, except for whatever reason, the company's engineers couldn't make it work here.

So yes, Bose's new, almost-$300 QuietComfort Earbuds still have downsides. The earbuds are on the limitlessness side, and their bray is an intact unit. The onboard controls need improvement. They lack multipoint. Except there's moreover requiescence of good: Bose has leap-frogged anybody in noise erasure (establishing itself as a leader once again) and divulged up with great-sounding earbuds that work reliably. Once the world is piggy to submittal life and boarding planes regularly, I visualize that'll be a dire combo -- label you're not once conveying essentially a pilaster of AirPods Pro or Sony 1000XM3s, that is.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge