For a long time, Bose was the noise-cancelling headphones brand, and you'll still see plenty of people on any commuter train wearing QC35 cans. They're a bona fide modern classic, but the world has moved on in the years since, and our list of the best noise-cancelling headphones tends to be dominated by Sony now.
But the QuietComfort range is back, baby! A model known as the QuietComfort 45 has been leaked in an official FCC photo, as spotted by PhoneArena. This means the headphones have already been submitted for wireless certification and approval, so a launch could happen just about any point from here.
There isn't any information given beyond the name and photo below, which at least tells us that it will come in a cream or white finish, and that the design will be incredibly similar to the QC35 II – rather than moving to the more avant-garde look of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700.
That will please a lot of Bose fans we suspect – the QC35 were popular not just for sounding great and cutting out noise effectively, but also for really comfortable long-term use.
We can gleam a couple of small details from the picture. The micro-USB port will be upgraded to USB-C for one, though you probably could have guessed that would be the case anyway.
There's also still the 3.5mm jack on the other headphone, which is again good to see, though we suspect there'd have been a riot if Bose had removed it, so it's no surprise.
The big question is what kind of price we should be expecting here. The Bose NCH 700 is the premium model is Bose's line-up, and I'd be surprised if Bose brings these in higher – the design is less cool. If there's a benefit of keeping the old design beyond comfort (and familiarity), it's to be fairly cheap to make. If these can come in at around the £200/$250 that the QC35 II current go for, that sounds like a winner.
We're excited for them, in any case – the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds were a recent reminder that Bose still really knows what it's doing.
