I love everything about these buds but they do have hiccups. First the good. They sound fantastic. Noise cancelling is fantastic. The way they lock into my ears is fantastic. Once you put them in your ear, you twist them and they are locked in. Now for the bad but after 2 months of frustration, I stumbled upon a simple setting adjustment and it's fixed. I'm not sure why they started messing up but one day I was wearing them while riding my lawnmower and they kept trying to connect to Siri non stop. Then my right bud quit working. I shut off everything Siri related in my phone but my ear buds still kept trying to connect to it. I gave up wearing them until today. In the Bose app there's a setting to turn off "in ear detection". I now have both buds working with no disruptions. I have no clue why I needed to change this setting but it fixed them so I'm happy. You can't beat the sound that comes out of these!!

I've had these Bose QuietComfort earbuds for almost a year and they've been great!

I used to have a pair of regular non ANC earbuds, but I found myself always increasing the volume to try to block out the excessive ambient noise at the gym. However, at night, I could hear my ears ringing. I became very concerned about this, so I looked into ANC earbuds and ordered these Bose QuietComfort and the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds.

After trying both of them for a week, the Bose QuietComfort earbuds were noticeably quieter and better at handling ambient noise and thus listening at lower volume than the Sony WF-1000XM4. The Sony WF-1000XM4's audio quality was about the same as Bose, perhaps a bit better, but what good is this if it isn't very effective at blocking ambient noise and you have to raise the volume to appreciate it, which is precisely what I do not want?

So, I returned the Sony WF-1000XM4 and kept the Bose QuietComfort earbuds, which also sound very good and fantastic when you're streaming Master quality tracks. I was blown away by the audio quality when listening to Master quality tracks vs the regular tracks, what a huge difference!

I also compared them with my daughters' Air Pods Pro and what a joke. The Apple Air Pods Pro ANC paled in comparison to the Bose and the audio quality was worse, it was awful. There is simply no comparison.

These earbuds are so good at blocking ambient noise, that I no longer carry the Bose ANC 700 headphones when I travel! Yes folks, they are that good and much easier to carry! I've set many times on the wing area of airplanes and these earbuds work their magic all the time!

They are very comfortable to wear and stay on once in place, the touch controls are very accurate, the voice assistant is great, answering and making calls is very good, no complaints from the other party, well built, as I've dropped them several times and they continue working without any issues.

Battery life is also great! I workout on average for 90 minutes, if the gym is too busy I'll easily clock in 120 minutes, without any low battery warning. I wipe them, put them back in their case, and they're ready to go the following day. I workout 5 times a week, and I will not recharge the case for almost a month!

And the best part about them is that these earbuds have saved my hearing, since I listen to them at about 1/3 the volume I was listening to with the other non ANC earbuds I had, and I no longer hear any ringing in my ears at night!

Now, recently I had the opportunity to acquire the Bowers & Wilkins PI7 earbuds.

And yes they do sound better than the Bose Quiet Comfort earbuds, in fact noticeably better than all of the earbuds I tried, but they are after all much pricier, and despite this, their ANC and especially the battery life, is not as good as the Bose QuietComfort earbuds.

So for the office, I use my Bowers & Wilkins PI7's, because of their outstanding audio quality, but outside of it, Bose takes the prize for checking all the boxes!

I therefore highly recommend these Bose QuietComfort earbuds, because you may not know it, but they'll save your hearing!

Update: EQ has been added with a firmware update. Sony's WF-1000xm4 earbuds just came out as well and have have retaken the ANC crown. They also sound better. But these are still more comfy and have more touch control options. I've loved both.

To preface, I may not be an audiophile, but I love earbuds and headphones. I have bought and tried a ton, and of the ANC ones, I've tried all 5 major players right now (Sony WF-1000XM3, Sennheiser Momentum TWS 2, Jabra Elite 75t/85t, Airpods Pro, and Bose QC Earbuds).

The Bose QC earbuds have the best ANC bar none and it's not even close. This was enough to justify any other con these earbuds may have. To give context, I recently was on a commercial flight with these, the Sennheiser TWS 2, and the Sony WH-100XM3 and XM4 over-ear headphones. These freaking beat out the over-ear headphones! I know it sounds crazy, but I am not joking when I say these clearly cut out more plane noise than all of those. Reviewers always say "adjust your expectations" when it comes to ANC cuz these are smaller than actual headphones, but I always though that was bogus. ANC should cancel out a large degree of noise, whether you have headphones or earbuds, and paying a premium for any product that does it partially well is a waste of your money. ANC should not be a gimmick, and these prove that god tier ANC has arrived to earbuds.

Sound quality isn't the best, but it was plenty good enough. People complain about not having an EQ in the app, but if it's that important to you, just download Wavelet.

Now for the cons, which to me, aren't really even a big deal.
- Yes, they're huge (buds and case), but the buds justify their size with the ANC performance and theyre light, comfortable, and stable. If the case bothers you because it sticks out of your pocket all the time then for pete's sake put in your bag or something. It's not that hard.
- Battery life IS much lower compared to every other earbud, that's true. But let's be honest, are you really gonna notice if you have to charge once a week vs. once every 2 weeks. Not really.
- Bad app connection: maybe I was lucky, but I never had this problem. If you are struggling to connect to the app, uninstall the app and erase your buds pairing connection to your phone. Then download the app first and follow the instructions step-by-step, including re-pairing your earbuds. That worked for me.
- Controls: some people don't like touch controls, but I personally like these ones, especially since they now have volume control. The only thing you can't do it go back a track, which is honestly the least useful function anyways.

In short, buy the buds. ANC and sound quality are more than enough to justify price and "cons". You'll thank me.

In the noisy city where i live, taking public transit to work often makes it hard for me to hear my music, often needing to put my music on Max volume for me to be able to hear my music the way i want, and even then i still hear the noises of the city. These do such a good job of isolating the sound of my music so that it's the only thing I hear, which is perfect for me. I don't want to hear the noises of the city, and with these on, I don't have to

I know there are better ANC options in the form of on-ear/over-ear headphones, but those are too big and usually make my ears feel clammy & sweaty. So I went with these, since I've used Bose wired earbuds before and love Bose headphones that I STILL have (it's 5 been years, maybe more)

In the box
It comes with 3 swappable ear tips so that you can have the best fit for your ears (the medium size comes on the earbuds by default). And charging case, which houses the earbuds themselves. As well as a USB to USB-C cable to charge the case with.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way:
The charging case, I saw the reviews saying the case was big, and then I saw the customer pictures and thought that it wasn't so big. I was wrong, this thing is HUGE. You can't really tell just how tall the charging case actually is. Don't expect to put this case in ANY kind of pocket, be prepared to carry the case in a bag. This wasnt a huge deal for me since I carry a bookbag everywhere I go. The case itself opens with the push of a button, not with a magnetic lid. I don't think this is a pro or con, i didn't mind it when I got used to it.

Lack of touch control features, with the touch controls you can swap between three levels of ANC (0%, 50%, and 100% by default, but you can change thee presets on their app), skip to the next track, raise the volume, pause/play music and answer/end calls. You can also bring up your phone's voice assistant (for me it was the Google assistant). This is it... You CANNOT go to a previous track to repeat it, or turn the volume down. I do wish I had the ability to change what the touch controls do, since personally, I do not use the Google assistant feature or swap noise cancellation levels at all. Which would have freed up those gestures for volume down and previous track. On top of the fact that this next feature makes the swappable ANC levels obsolete

Other:
When you take one earbud off, it pauses your media (assuming you have music playing) and turns off active noise cancellation, which is nice when you are trying to have a conversation.

Putting on the headphones so that they 'seal' against your inner ears is actually very easy. Their app shows you how to properly put on the headphones, for a perfect seal every time (i know it seems trivial, you should just put them in your ear right? Nah there's a technique to it lol)

The battery life is nothing to write home about, but i didn't feel like they died too quickly. I only needed then to commute to and from work, and during my lunch break, which is only 3 hours a day, and i charge them every night. They don't have the best battery life but they don't die on me every hour either. At the end of an hour ii am usually at around 80% battery on each earbud. I also place them in their charging case between use and that is enough to get me through the day.

The Good:
The sound quality and noise cancellation is top notch. Which is no surprise, since that is what Bose does best. I seriously cannot put into words just how amazing these sound, and how well they isolate my music from the world around me. I played around with turning the ANC on and off in the app and i was honestly shocked at how much noise was being cancelled by the earbuds. it almost seems criminal to talk so much about the few features i didn't care too much about, and talk so little about what i bought these earbuds for, which they do an amazing job at, but honestly there's not much i can say other than they are amazing in both sound and ANC.

TLDR; If all you care about is sound quality and ANC, and want them in an earbud form factor, look no further. Get these.

If the quality of life features such as gesture controls and portability are the primary reasons you are looking wireless earbuds, i think you can find more affordable options.

Background: I'm an audiophile who is about $4.5k deep in his stereo setup so it is surprising to say this but I really dig these earbuds. Bose usually targets non-audiophiles as their sound signature is a "sculpted" V shape whereas audiophiles look for neutrality or a straight line across the frequency spectrum.

The Value Proposition: With that in mind, I think people overestimate the ability of more expensive wireless options like the Sony and Senhesier to deliver that neutrality, regardless of earbud/over-ear design. Most of us use iPhones as music players which don't accept hi-res wireless codes and are a PIA to use with wired headphones without carrying around a radio shack/dongle city. These Bose look like a comparatively good value: at $200 they undercut the companies mentioned above that have ANC earbuds which are $280 and $250. That it just more than I want to spend on a pair of earbuds, which typically have a short shelf life anyway due to loss, poor build quality, depleting battery life, and rapidly changing tech"¦

Sound: these are a far cry from the first Bose I owned, the OG quiet comforts in middle school with the battery box built into the 3.5mm cable. Dynamic range, note-to-note distinction, and tonal accuracy are improved significantly. They're much more musical even if detail retrieval isn't top of the line. But how could it be with standard AAC, SBC codecs? Moreover, even if they did have more advanced codecs like APT-X HD and LDAC, my iPhone is my mobile music player and doesn't accept them anyway. So really unless you're on Android, paying for them is a waste of money. You're not getting the data. Overall; sound signature is controlled, bass heavy, and musical if not neutral. I can live with it for a mobile solution because I do critical listening at home due to the inherent compromises of mobile, which leads to my next point nicely.

Active Noise Cancellation: This is where these earbuds shine. Whether you're living in the city, commuting to work by train, dealing with construction, trying to mow the lawn, whatever: these babies block out the world with the best ANC I've heard in an earbud and you are immersed in your music. I accidentally turned on my 1100W stereo in the next room to 50% volume with a butt dial and had no idea it was playing while wearing these. Without this quiet space, you're wasting your time trying to hear the music in detail. That is why I think these are an incredible value proposition that make sense for a mobile solution.

Battery: It's fine, expected 6 hours without the charging case. That is better than Apple by several hours. I expect to have these for 3 years and then upgrade to something with longer battery life as technology improves and lithium ion depletes with age.

Calls: They're great, I use them for Zoom calls almost every day. If they could connect to multiple devices at once that would be cool, but it is no dealbreaker.

Build Quality: Last but not least, audiophiles know that with consistent use wear and tear happens so we prioritize a robust build that will hold up with thousands of hours of listening. These things deliver. I'll take the bulkier case with a stronger hinge. The slightly bigger earbuds are fine because they're built solidly. I just can't get on board with the chintzy Apple/Beats products that look like they're built from dollar store plastics, like they're going to fall apart in 6 months. Same thing for cheap alternatives from Anker and similar budget brands (you get what you pay for).

Wrap Up: mobile music listening is full of compromises and I think Bose has created an excellent product that delivers where it counts. If you want to do critical listening, do yourself a favor and invest in a pair of open-back headphones and amp at home or better yet a stereo setup you can enjoy with others. What Hi-Fi is a good, accessible place to start for recommendations and Stereofile is more advanced. For everything else, when I'm running around doing errands, on the plane next to a screaming baby, or just trying to cut down the noise of traffic/construction while working, these will deliver nicely. Plan to keep, will update in 1, 6, 12 months

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Updated 10/2022: I'm happy other buyers found this review useful. Forgot to update this sooner, needless to say, still love these babies - the version 1's - and they would still be the wireless buds I would spend my money on today inclusive of new models.