Quick Summary
Bose has revealed new QuietComfort Earbuds, delivering noise-cancelling in an "everyday earbud" to take on Apple's recent AirPods 4.
That sees Bose's late 2024 entry sit below the top-tier QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds – but with a lower price to reflect its savvy positioning.
We're big fans of Bose products here at T3. From the best headphones to the best earbuds and beyond, the brand's QuietComfort range has gone from strength to strength in recent years – with the brand picking up T3 Awards 2024 gongs for Best Travel Headphones and Best Earbuds for the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds respectively.
Those top-tier Ultra products are pricey offerings, though, and while they represent great value, the brand has seen a gap for an all-new earbuds product – the aptly named QuietComfort Earbuds, which sit at the exact price to take on Apple's just-revealed AirPods 4. Try not to get confused, mind, as the older QuietComfort Earbuds II were discontinued – so we're going full circle with the numbering convention.
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are the spiritual successor to their higher-numbered cousins, though, an "everyday earbud" with active noise-cancelling (ANC) on board but, crucially, at a lower price than the top-tier Ultra product. The QuietComfort Earbuds will retail for £179 in the UK ($179/AU$289) and come in Black, White Smoke or Chilled Lilac colours.
In some regards the lower-spec QuietComfort Earbuds read better than their Ultra counterparts, thanks to an 8.5-hour battery life extending the longevity per charge. The included case hold a further 2.5x charges, so you'll be knocking on the door of 30-hours total with that.
The new earbuds' ANC is said to offer the same "best-in-class noise cancellation the Bose brand is known for," thanks to six microphones for this task and voice pick-up for calls too. There's also IPX4 water-resistance, so if you like to get sweaty and use your earbuds for sport then Bose has got you covered.
So what's different about the QuietComfort Earbuds compared to the Ultra version? The pictures show a different scale and fit, which are altogether less AirPods in design. At launch there won't be any Spatial Audio either – as championed by the Ultra model – but that will come via software update in 2025, according to Bose. Seems like great value overall, then, for these differently-designed 'buds.
