Bose QC45 headphones specs leak and they’re everything I’m looking for – but one crucial detail is missing

The latest in a long line of leaks tells us everything but the one thing we really need to know

Bose noise cancelling headphones
(Image credit: Bose)
Carrie Marshall
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published
in News

I’m excited about the Bose QuietComfort 45, which could turn out to be the most-leaked headphones ever made: after the US FCC accidentally leaked photos of them and then Bose managed to leak the QC45s again through their own Bose Music app, there’s been yet another leak. 

This leak has lots of details, so it tells us pretty much everything we want to know apart from the main thing I want to know, which is how much they’re going to cost. Until we know that, we can’t predict whether these noise cancelling headphones will bring Bose back to the top of our best noise cancelling headphones guide. 

This time out the leaker is Staples, who accidentally leaked the QC45 in a product listing page. As What Hi-Fi reports, the office supplier has confirmed a whole bunch of predictions including improved noise cancellation, an “aware mode” that brings in some exterior noise so you’re aware of your surroundings, and the ability to tune the headphones via the Active EQ app.

Lighter, smarter and longer lasting

The listings indicate that battery life has been improved to deliver 24 hours compared to the 20 hours of the QuietComfort 35, and that battery is also smaller so it may make the headphones a little lighter too. Fast charging will enable you to get 2.5 hours of playback from just five minutes of charging, and there’s Bluetooth 5.1 with multi-point pairing for two devices. The QuietComfort 45 look very much like the QC35 and QC35 II, so they’re likely to be very comfortable too.

The one thing we don’t know is the price worldwide, but the leak suggests that the US price will be $329. That works out at about £250 for the UK and $500 for Australia, although so far Bose hasn’t confirmed any of this so these prices are informed guesses. That price may be a little high given the current cost of the Sony WH-1000XM3 and Bose's own Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 model, but we'll see what happens in practice.

Launch is “soon”, and we’d expect the QC 35 IIs to feature prominently in our best Bose deals when their successors go on sale.

Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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