Bose QuietComfort Buds Review: Excellent Sound Behind a Bulky Build

Bose precocious refreshed its fashionable QuietComfort lineup with the second-gen QuietComfort Earbuds. They’re priced astatine $180 and available in three colorways: Black, Chilled Lilac, and White Smoke. This is the 2nd iteration of the massively fashionable QuietComfort buds released successful 2020. With the other, much premium QuietComfort exemplary priced astatine $300, this 1 is the midrange offering successful Bose’s in-ear line.

Bose continued its bequest of providing rich, elaborate dependable and almighty noise-canceling connected these buds, too. The cancelation managed to soundlessness the incredibly chaotic kids astatine the preschool close adjacent to my house, which a batch of earbuds neglect at. However, the unwieldy acceptable of these buds made it hard for maine to bask them properly. They felt bulky successful my ears and ample capable for my coworker to constituent their immense size out. The all-plastic assemblage besides didn’t assistance their aesthetic and gave them a boring, bland look. I would’ve besides liked to spot amended particulate and h2o absorption connected these buds compared to their four-year-old predecessors and somewhat amended measurement controls. More connected that later.

Bose QuietComfort Buds Review: Design and Fit

The Bose QuietComfort buds, conscionable similar their predecessors, are reasonably bulky. They’re monolithic oval integrative peripherals that looked rather unwieldy plugged into my modestly-sized ears. I judge the aesthetic could’ve been improved by simply a amended prime of materials, adjacent if the size was retained. Master & Dynamic is impervious of that. Its earbuds athletics a akin bulky look, but they crook retired stunning with the inclusion of solid and metallic connected the body. The bland all-plastic assemblage connected the Bose QuietComfort buds doesn’t assistance their aesthetic. Granted, M&D’s buds are priced astatine $400, and the QuietComfort outgo little than fractional astatine $180. But I’ve reviewed acold better-looking buds successful the aforesaid terms range. 

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Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The bulky assemblage has different disadvantage, too: an uncomfortable fit. These buds measurement a whopping 9 grams each. Your mean earbud weighs betwixt 5 and six grams (Apple AirPods Pro astatine 5.4g, Sony WF-1000XM5s astatine 5.9g), truthful 9 grams is unarguably sinful. My ears already person trouble adjusting to in-ear buds, but they happily judge ones with a compact signifier factor. Google’s flagship Pixel Buds Pro 2 are a caller example. To connection an improved fit, they had been dramatically reduced successful size and value compared to their predecessors, and they hugged my ears perfectly choky throughout. 

My ears were precise unhappy with the caller Bose buds, though. Though my full reappraisal play was spent with the smallest receptor extremity size, my ears either kept rejecting them, plopping them retired randomly, oregon started to consciousness fatigued soon aft wearing them. 

Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

I had precocious hopes for the helping tips and stableness bands connected the buds, but it’s disappointing that they didn’t bash overmuch to assistance with a amended fit, either. I recovered the ratio of the earbud assemblage to the stableness set beauteous non-proportional; arsenic in, arsenic compared to the remainder of the gigantic body, the bands were rather inconspicuous and didn’t play overmuch of a relation successful gripping the wrong of my receptor well.

Bose QuietComfort Buds Review: Controls

The default controls connected these buds see tapping erstwhile for play/pause, doubly to skip the track, thrice to rewind, and clasp to rhythm betwixt ANC (called Quiet connected these buds), Ambient Mode (called Aware), and Off, which is for turning some ANC and Ambient Modes off. All gestures are customizable connected the companion app, Bose QCE. I tried adding onboard measurement controls via the app and picked ‘hold’ arsenic the gesture. Weirdly enough, it fto maine tweak that connected the app, but it didn’t construe to the enactment connected the buds changing. Every clip I’d hold, it would archer maine it was looking to pair, adjacent though the buds were already paired, and the clasp motion wasn’t acceptable to pairing. It worked erstwhile I changed the motion to a treble oregon triple tap, though. But those weren’t arsenic intuitive arsenic measurement controls. 

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With specified a monolithic aboveground area, the QuietComfort buds missed the accidental to delegate swiping to tweak the volume. For instance, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro allows up-and-down swiping connected the stem, and the Pixel Buds Pro 2 lets you swipe horizontally. With each motion (single/double/triple tap, hold) already fulfilling an important action, determination was a superior request for a swipe option. Due to the unintuitive controls, I ended up controlling the measurement connected my phone, which wasn’t ideal.

Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

Bose QuietComfort Buds Review: Sound and ANC

Say what you volition astir the QuietComfort’s aesthetic, but Bose knows however to bash ANC exceptionally well. We crowned the QuietComfort II (now renamed QuietComfort Ultra) 1 of the best noise-canceling earbuds. I unrecorded adjacent to a very loud backyard for pre-school kids, and I justice a batch of earbuds’ ANC by however they tin artifact that sound out. Hearing however good these buds did that for maine was pleasantly surprising. Without offering an overly aggravated acquisition which often results successful an uncomfortable eardrum suck, the QuietComfort buds silenced the children’s changeless screams and the traffic’s rumble highly well. The Aware oregon Ambient Mode lets maine perceive the extracurricular satellite again but successful the astir earthy way. A batch of earbuds marque the mistake of overdoing the artificial ambient sound to specified an grade that the mode ends up sounding excessively artificial to beryllium enjoyable. The Aware mode connected the QuietComfort keeps your extracurricular sound real.

Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The dependable illustration connected these buds didn’t necessitate maine to scope for the EQ settings connected the companion app. Usually, I messiness astir connected the equalizer a bit, sometimes conscionable retired of curiosity. But erstwhile you travel crossed a illustration arsenic balanced arsenic this, you don’t privation to tinker with it. The low-end offers conscionable the close level of thump and oomph and makes definite to ne'er overstep into overly thick. The treble, adjacent astatine the highest notes, retained its crispness. Sometimes, cranking the measurement up connected earbuds makes the high-end travel disconnected arsenic excessively harsh and sharp. The QuietComfort buds besides maintained the brightness and richness it delivered astatine little volumes. Interestingly, I enjoyed the midrange the most. These buds emphasized vocals incredibly good and enactment them connected a abstracted furniture earlier the precocious and debased ends.

Bose QuietComfort Buds Review: Battery and Water Resistance

Like their four-year-old predecessors, the caller Bose QuietComfort Earbuds besides athletics an IPX4 h2o resistance. The ‘X’ indicates a blank space, which means there’s nary particulate absorption connected these buds. The ‘4’ refers to their endurance against water, but considering that fig goes up to 8, that isn’t truly an awesome score. I expected a somewhat improved h2o absorption connected a mentation launched 4 years aft the archetypal generation. 

The buds past astir 8 hours connected a azygous charge, which is modular for wireless earbuds. They enactment wireless and speedy charging, giving you 3 hours retired of a 20-minute charge. Bose claims the charging lawsuit holds 2.5 afloat charges, truthful you’re looking astatine implicit 20 hours connected the case. 

Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The QuietComfort Buds’ Bluetooth 5.3 supports multi-point connectivity for up to 2 devices, which means they tin simultaneously link to 2 of your gadgets (phone and laptop, for example). They besides enactment mono-listening, meaning you tin perceive to your euphony connected conscionable 1 bud oregon not miss your contented erstwhile you instrumentality a bud retired to perceive idiosyncratic better. The buds diagnostic deterioration detection, too, truthful they automatically intermission your contented if you instrumentality some buds retired of your ears. 

Bose QuietComfort Buds Review Verdict

Bose is an aged subordinate successful the audio peripherals manufacture who has mastered dependable and sound cancellation well. Its QuietComfort enactment is 1 of the astir fashionable wireless earbuds. Despite the bulky physique of these buds, I can’t contradict the unarguably balanced dependable illustration and almighty sound cancellation. The artillery beingness is agelong capable to easy past you a week of emblematic usage (around 3 hours daily). Its features, specified arsenic wireless charging, speedy charging, mono listening, and deterioration detection, are each supported.

In a clip wherever each earbud shaper is trying to streamline their products arsenic overmuch arsenic imaginable (Samsung drifting distant from its modular Galaxy Buds plan to adopt an AirPods-style stem attack connected the Galaxy Buds 3, Google shrinking its Pixel buds adjacent much connected the second-gen), it’s confusing wherefore Bose didn’t see trimming its tremendous peripherals. Overall, though, the institution prides itself connected its industry-leading sound, and it did bash justness to that. If you tin get past the aesthetic, heft, and ergonomics of the Bose QuietComfort buds, you volition bask them.

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