Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Pros: - Amazing noise cancellation, almost on par with over-the-ear headphones from Sony and Bose - Excellent sound quality - Very light and comfortable in the ear, especially for their size - Design of the ear tips keeps the ear buds in secure and helps with noise cancelling Cons: - Touch controls are currently extremely limited. No option for volume controls, previous track. See below. - Bose Music app works well but could be designed better. - A bit large/clunky size but understandably needed for noise cancelling technology - Cannot pair a new device without the charging case, and cannot pair a new device if charging case is out of battery After my Sony WF1000XM3 earbuds died after 1.5 years of usage, I waited several weeks for these Bose Noise Cancelling earbuds to come out. I finally saw them in stock at a local Best Buy last week and picked them up on the way to the gym, where I used them for the first time. My first impression was WOW...the noise cancelling and sound quality is incredible! I actually had to do a double take when I first put them in and the noise cancelling kicked in - I thought I was getting lightheaded. Another surprise when I took them out and the background noise of the air conditioning kicked in. I had been resigned to thinking that this level of NC and sound quality could only be achieved with over-the-year headphones such as the Sony WH or Bose Quiet Comfort 35 but I can confidently say that the noise cancellation and sound quality of these is just a small step below that of the Sony WH1000XM3 over-the-ear headphones which I also own. That’s incredible for earbuds to come close to the NC and sound of over-the-ear headphones. Compared side by side with the Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds, I would say that these definitely perform better with sound and noise cancelling. Size wise, these are a bit bigger however they are actually very light for their size. I was successfully able to use them with on a treadmill with them staying secure in my ear, but I know this will vary between people. There were 3 ear tip sizes included in the box, so this may limit some people in finding the perfect fit. The Sony’s came with about 7 tips of 3-4 sizes. My major gripe with these earbuds right now is that the touch control functions leave a LOT to be desired. On day one, Bose only allows the customization of a single command, the touch-and-hold left earbud, which allows either “next track” or “hear battery level”. touch-and-hold right earbud, double tap right earbud, and double tap left earbud are all reserved for Siri (on iPhone), play/pause, and cycle through noise cancelling settings. I personally do not use Siri/voice commands and I also could not care less about cycling through noise cancelling settings (which you can set 3 favorites on the app and cycle through them). I only use either full noise cancelling or I’m not using the headphones at all. So 3 out of 4 controls are either incomplete or not useful for me. This is a major limitation that thankfully can be fixed with firmware/software updates hopefully in the very near future. Another small issue I had a few days ago was when I discovered that the charging case needs to have some power in order to pair the ear buds with a new device. I was at the gym and I needed to pair the earbuds with my iPad (I had previously paired them only with my iPhone). That was when I realized that the Bluetooth pairing button is on the case itself, and since the case was out of battery, I was unable to pair the ear buds with a new device. The ear buds still had 50% battery left so I could’ve used them). As far as I can tell, right now, the only way to pair a new device is with the Bluetooth pairing button on the case and if the case is out of charge, then you’re out of luck until you charge the case. This is a weird and annoying operating decision. With the Sony WF, I could touch and hold both earbuds for 8 seconds to enter Bluetooth pairing. This is also something that can be corrected with a future software/firmware update. Overall, I am extremely happy with the sound and noise cancelling of these ear buds. With the Sony WF, I was still able to hear background noise and music while at the gym with a podcast or music playing with full noise cancelling on. With these Bose ear buds, the noise cancelling alone (without anything playing) eliminates almost all spoken and music background noise and completely eliminates low bass sounds like air conditioning or a car wash in the parking lot. With music playing, all sounds are completely gone. With podcasts with spoken words, I can concentrate on the podcast better than any earbuds I’ve used in the past, and almost as good as an over-the-ear headphone like the Sony WH or Bose QC 35. I do want to comment that that for the high price, these ear buds don’t really give much better value than the Sony WF currently on sale at 178 USD or Apple AirPods Pro on sale at 199 USD. At those products regular retail prices of 228 and 249 respectively, I would go for these Bose ear buds without question, but at the sale prices, it’s probably along the lines of “you get what you pay for”, meaning, a proportionately better product for a proportional increase in cost.