The Bose 700 are our best wireless headphones and the company has long enjoyed the reputation as having the best active noise cancelling around, but when it comes to active noise cancelling in the true wireless earbuds space, Bose is nowhere to be found.
The company’s fitness focused SoundSport Free have been well-received when it comes to audio performance and overall quality, but as is often the case with fitness earbuds, they are not geared toward sound isolation.
That is finally set to end this year with the Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700, which Bose has teased but not offered extensive details beyond a sketch and brief ad copy.
Fortunately, thanks to a variety of leaks, we have quite a bit more to go on than what Bose has given us, so here’s a close look at what to expect when Bose officially releases the Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700.
Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700: Price and release date
(Image credit: Bose)
There is nothing official to go on from Bose regarding the price just yet, but based on Bose’s other headphones and some of the competition, we can assume that it will likely fall somewhere around $200 to $300.
This would put them squarely in between its standard true wireless earbuds, the SoundSport Free (soon to be replaced by the Bose 500 at presumably the same price point), and the full over-ear Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 at $400.
It’s possible that Bose would go slightly lower in order to better position itself against other strong contenders in the active noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds space, like the $249 Apple AirPods Pro or the $229 Sony WF-1000XM3. However, Bose will likely let its reputation justify the slightly higher price tag.
As for the release date, Bose has only said that it will be launching in 2020; presumably the company will want them out in time for the holiday buying season so we expect them by late October or early November.
Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700: Design
A lengthy unboxing of a pre-release version of the Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700 gave us an extensive look at what is presumably the final design for the hardware, if not the packaging.
The earbuds represent a slight change from the SoundSport Free moving to a more elongated oval than the largely circular design with gel tips to ensure they hold securely in your ear and a variety of tips to create a solid seal for passive noise cancelling to augment the active noise cancelling features.
Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700: features
The noise cancelling is the highlight feature and Bose is claiming “noise cancelling that’s comparable to our most powerful banded headphones.” It’s a bold claim that certainly hasn’t been the case with any previous true wireless earbuds before, but we’ll have to wait to test them before we can find out if this was just hyperbole.
Additional features include touch controls and “a choice of virtual assistant” that presumably means you can use Google Assistant, Siri or Alexa as with the traditional Bose 700 headphones.
And while these probably won’t get the fitness focus of the Bose 500 earbuds, the box does claim sweat and weather resistance, so you shouldn’t need to pick up a separate earbuds for working out. The box also mentions a “transparency mode,” which will certainly be welcome to those that might want to use them exercising outside to ensure that they can hear the environment around them.
Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700: battery life and charging case
According to the stated figures on the box in the aforementioned leak, users can expect six hours of listening time on the earbuds with another 12 hours from the case, which will support wireless and USB-C charging.
That’s a bit of a hit and miss as six hours of battery life for the earbuds holds up well against the likes of the Apple AirPods Pro with 4.5 hours, but the case falls well short at half of the AirPods’ 24 hours of additional battery life.
The unboxing doesn’t doesn’t give us a size comparison for the case, but it appears quite a bit larger than the AirPods Pro’s and, with a somewhat thicker and less pocketable design, which makes the limited battery in the case even more confusing.
Bose Noise Cancelling Earbuds 700: Outlook
While it is likely to be one of the pricier true wireless earbud options on the market, it is hard not to be excited about Bose’s entry into noise cancelling earbuds given its track record in the over-ear headphone market.
The design looks comfortable and, while we would have loved to see a bit more battery life out of the charging case, the battery life of the earbuds themselves is solid and should be plenty to get anyone through even an extended weekend of listening.
If it can actually deliver noise cancelling that is on par or even close to its over-ear Bose 700s sibling, this will be an easy addition to the best wireless earbuds and best noise-cancelling headphones when it launches later this year.
Today’s best Apple AirPods Pro deals
Apple Airpods Pro with…
Source