Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II hands-on: the biggest leap forward in noise-cancellation in years
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II might represent the biggest leap forward in active noise cancellation we’ve seen in years. These new buds custom-tune their ANC each time you stick them in your ears, making them far more effective in blocking out everything going on around you. Or at least they were in our hands-on time with them. While we’re going to use these buds a bit longer as we work on our fully rated Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II review, we were impressed during our brief time with the earbuds.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II hands-on: Price and availability
The Earbuds II will be available on September 15 for $299, with preorders starting today (Sept. 7). Initially, you will only be able to purchase them in the Triple Black color, though a white Soapstone version will be available later this year.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II hands-on: Design and fit
The Earbuds II has a similar oval shape as the original Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, but it’s slimmed down; Bose says the new buds are 33 percent smaller. They still protrude a bit from your ear canal; while not as pronounced as, say, the Apple AirPods Pro, they’re a bit more conspicuous than the Sony WF-1000XM4.
They also come with a new eartip fit kit, which has three sets of tips and three bands, to help ensure a more snug fit in your ear. The buds felt very comfortable in my hands-on testing, and were very light.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II hands-on: Active Noise Cancellation
While active noise cancellation is nothing new for Bose or for its competitors, the Earbuds II employ a new technology called CustomTune, which makes the ANC far more effective. Each time you remove the earbuds from their case and put them in your ears, they emit a small tone that’s used to map the contours of your ear canal. From there, an algorithm aboard the buds then custom-tunes the noise-canceling filters. This, according to a Bose representative, allows for much better cancellation in midrange tones — so you’re less likely to hear people talking than with other ANC earbuds.
During a short demonstration, I was very impressed with the noise cancellation. With the earbuds in my ears, I listened to music while Bose played the sounds of a subway through speakers; the ambient noise was rumbly enough so that I could feel it resonating in my chest, but I heard nothing in the earbuds. In fact, at first I thought the vibrations were being caused by the music I was listening to.
To show the Earbuds II’s effectiveness in canceling out spoken words, a representative started reciting part of Alice in Wonderland while we listened to music on the earbuds. With ANC on, I could not hear him at all.
Aware Mode lets you allow ambient noises in, so that you’re alert to your surroundings. Here too, the Earbuds II did an excellent job of allowing me to hear the speaker; his voice sounded so clear, it was as if I wasn’t wearing headphones at all.
Bose’s app also lets you adjust the level of noise cancellation you’d prefer.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II hands-on: Battery life
Bose says the Earbuds II offer up to six hours of battery life; the included case gives you another three charges, for a total of 18 hours. That’s the same as the original earbuds, though a bit less than the Sony WF-1000XM4 and the 1More PistonBuds Pro, which are also atop our list of the best wireless earbuds. The AirPods Pro have a rated battery life of around 4.5 hours, though it remains to be seen if the AirPods Pro 2 will have better endurance.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II hands-on: Outlook
Based on my brief time with the Earbuds II, I was blown away by the effectiveness of their active noise cancellation. If you want to cancel out the rest of the world while listening to music, these could be the buds for you. Stay tuned for our full Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II review, where we’ll go into greater detail on their performance when it comes to music, calls, and see where they rank on our list of the best noise-cancelling earbuds.
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