Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 review: the new noise-cancelling benchmark

The new earbuds are 30% smaller, a lot lighter and more discreet than their predecessors. They have short, flat stalks that stick down towards your mouth, which make them look a little like old-school Bluetooth headsets.

Each stalk is touch-sensitive for playback, noise cancelling and swipe volume controls, which work well. Remove a bud and the music pauses and switches into transparency mode.

The earbuds last for about six hours of playback and magnetically clip into a flip-top case. The case can fully recharge the earbuds three times. It is much smaller and easier to pocket than its predecessor, but is still 50% larger than the best on the market.

The earbuds calibrate their sound and noise cancelling for your ears each time you turn them on, playing a short violin strum tone when you insert them, using microphones to gauge the shape of your ear canal.

The noise-cancelling level can be customised using different user-configurable modes from maximum blocking to full awareness. The transparency mode is also very good and has a feature similar to the recent AirPods Pro 2 that reduces sudden and very loud noises automatically, stopping you being overwhelmed by the screech of train wheels, for instance.

Call quality is good with my voice coming across loud and clear in quiet environments and still audible out on the street with only a faint bit of background noise leaking through in very loud places.

The earbuds support standard Bluetooth 5.3 with the universal SBC and AAC audio formats. In use with various phones, tablets and computers, the earbuds generally had a strong and stable connection, even in difficult environments such as train stations, but occasionally skipped when unlocking a phone.

The Bose buds only connect to one device at a time, but can switch between up to six paired devices. Only the right earbud can be used on its own for calls.

Bose estimates that the batteries will last in excess of 500 full charge cycles but they are not replaceable and the earbuds are not currently repairable, ultimately making them disposable.

Some replacement parts including ear tips (£15) and a charging case (£90) are available. The earbuds do not contain recycled materials. Bose offers discounts for returning broken products. It does not publish individual product environmental impact reports but does publish annual sustainability reports.

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.

The most impressive bit is the noise cancelling: they set a new benchmark, reducing more unwanted noise than any other earbuds, including the troublesome higher ranges such as voices.