Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) Review: Light, With Caveats

The QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) replace the QC Headphones at the heart of Bose's Bluetooth range, sitting a step below the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen). On paper the functional changes are slim: spatial audio with head tracking and the ActiveSense system are the only headline additions. Bose says little about the rest, although the revised structure suggests work has gone into the acoustics, the noise cancelling and the hands-free system. The headphones arrived in August 2026 in black, white, turquoise and green. The observations below relate to firmware 8.3.0 and version 13.1.7 of the Bose app.

Still the most travel-minded wireless headphone Bose makes, the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) carries over the small earcups of its predecessor almost unchanged, in the interests of staying light and looking slim on the head. Bose has stepped outside its comfort zone elsewhere, giving the headphone a larger headband styled like the one on the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

That change does two things. It extends the padded surface, and it retires the dated notched adjustment in favour of a discreet internal sliding mechanism, so the headphone can be extended without spoiling its lines. The external yokes of the previous model remain, and the cups fold in the same way, with slimmer arms and thicker metal hinges.

Modernity also arrives in the form of a headband built as a single piece, with no visible screws, where the old model showed play between the padding and the rigid section. The plastic yokes and visible assembly marks are an immediate reminder of where this model sits relative to the Ultra.

The quality of the plastic and its resistance to twisting inspire confidence about durability, but the finish leaves something to be desired. The QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) bets everything on compactness and low weight, at the risk of feeling a little toy-like, where plenty of cheaper headphones give a more premium impression.

The folding design slips easily into a small bag, and the headphone ships with a hard case that is marginally thinner than the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)'s. The earpads are still removable, which is welcome, and still awkward to refit, which is not.

At 239 g, the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) matches its predecessor exactly and remains among the lightest Bluetooth headphones on the market at any level. That counts for a great deal on the move, and the fit is about as secure as anything available.

The earpads make themselves felt around the ears slightly more than the older model's, partly because the synthetic leather is a little less soft and partly because clamping force has gone up. It does not reach the exceptional feel of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), whose pads are both thicker and better padded.

Even so, this is comfortable enough to wear for several hours without complaint. Clamping is negligible in practice and there is no pressure on the top of the skull. Despite their slimness, the cups are wide and deep enough for any ear shape. The reservations are a tendency to trap heat and a headband adjustment that is a touch too firm, though the latter quickly becomes second nature.

Beyond the now-angular edges and the switch that has migrated beneath the cup, the controls will feel familiar. They are made up entirely of large physical buttons and stick to the essentials, which suits newcomers.

The right cup carries + and - volume keys either side of a central playback button: a single press for play, pause and call handling, multiple presses to skip tracks. The left cup holds a multifunction button for the isolation modes and a shortcut (Spotify, spatial audio or the phone's voice assistant), plus a detented slider for power and Bluetooth pairing.

The set is not customisable and it is less tidy than the Ultra's, but it is more practical. Switching isolation modes with a single press is more intuitive, and the slider is far better thought out than a tiny dual-function button, because it makes the on/off state obvious and starts pairing more quickly.

The buttons are responsive and fall well under the fingers, though they are moulded in a cheap-feeling plastic that sets up a resonance in the cups with every press. More regrettably, Bose has not fitted wear detection to pause and resume playback automatically, an omission that is hard to justify on a headphone at this level.

Connectivity moves to Bluetooth 5.4 but still does without advanced codecs, aptX Adaptive remaining the preserve of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), so AAC and SBC compression are unavoidable. Multipoint and Google Fast Pair on Android are present, and the connection proved stable. Bluetooth latency of 250 ms is too high for gaming, and there is no way to reduce it in the absence of a proprietary low-latency mode or LC3 (LE Audio) support.

On the other hand, the headphone now offers lossless wired playback from any source over its USB-C port. The loss of the 3.5 mm input is a shame, not least because it takes passive listening with the headphone switched off away with it. Alongside a standard USB-C cable, the box includes a USB-C to 3.5 mm lead for analogue sources.

The Bose app is a copy of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)'s, minus the wear-sensor and touch-control toggles reserved for that model. The same experience as the premium sibling is welcome, if not thrilling.

The new material amounts to Cinema mode, a head-tracked spatial audio setting derived from the static Immersion mode, and the option of using the headphone in passive isolation. The real strength of Bose headphones is the ability to build a set of profiles selected from the dedicated button, each with a preferred noise-cancelling level and spatial treatment.

Beyond that the options are fairly limited: sidetone volume during calls, management of paired sources, and the delay before automatic standby. The app is clear enough, though duplicated menus are sometimes confusing and the three-band equaliser is too basic.

Bose remains discreet about the acoustic design, publishing neither driver diameter nor any tonal target. What is clear is that this model follows the first QC Headphones with a signature built on energetic treble, cleverly offset by deep bass.

More extrovert than the QC Ultra, which calmed down for its second generation in the interests of respecting the signal, the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) is one of those headphones that flatters the ear by adding a sense of clarity to every recording. Bose knows this territory well, and manages to serve up that artificial character while keeping a good overall balance.

Down low, the emphasis is similar to the premium model's. The region is over-egged, with kick drums a little too powerful and intrusive, but the sub does not encroach excessively on the upper bass. A slight blur persists on controlled lines, where the QC Ultra is more convincing, yet precision here is good.

The bass lift never feels as though it is spilling over, because of a peak around 4 kHz. That demonstrative streak brings voices and energetic instruments forward, makes listening engaging and creates a welcome impression of detail. Combined with a lower midrange that is recessed as a result, it also costs naturalness: some vocals can lack body, while snare drums and guitar riffs take on an extra edge that becomes aggressive at high volume.

Bose has also been heavy-handed with a peak in the extreme treble, exaggerating the brightness and thinness of hi-hats and cymbals. Those percussive elements are not excessively loud, but their occasionally metallic tone can pull attention away from subtler background detail.

If it does not match the naturalness of the flagship, the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) is still measured for a headphone that flatters the upper midrange. General precision is good, nothing gets in the way of vocal timbres, the touch of reverberation is easy to forget, and sibilance is handled better than on many rivals. Fricatives catch a little, but a dip around 8 kHz heads off most of the excess.

Like its predecessors, it disappoints slightly on the scale of the stereo image, which is somewhat congested in both depth and width. Dynamics are respectable, and the Immersion and Cinema spatial modes are among the less denaturing examples, with Cinema the preferable of the two thanks to less echo. Usefully, the frequency response barely changes between noise cancelling, passive isolation and wired listening.

Bose has renamed its noise reduction QuietControl, without dwelling on any particular change from the first version. There are still three microphones per earcup, although the revised structure hints at some rework.

On a par with its predecessor, the noise cancelling remains a serious contender. The most impressive part is its performance in the bass and lower midrange, which is better than the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)'s. It starts earlier in the extreme bass, so it masks vibration more effectively, and it creates a more convincing bubble of silence in town by dealing efficiently with low-frequency content. The QC Ultra does not exceed -23 dB at 200 Hz and still lets through the body of engine noise and resonances of all kinds.

In exchange, passive isolation is slightly weaker here, so residual sounds come through in more detail, where the QC Ultra is vaguer. Set against the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Apple AirPods Max 2, both Bose models remain insufficient to blot out the intelligibility of a lively conversation in a busy open-plan office. The noise cancelling also stays sensitive to pressure changes from slamming doors, which can briefly duck the level of the music.

Aware mode is better than the original QC Headphones', amplifying the surroundings naturally up to 4 kHz. Holding a conversation with the headphone on is easy, with the other person's voice detailed, easy to place and fully intelligible. The treble sits behind the best in class without spoiling the experience, and the presentation is arguably more natural than the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)'s, which gives voices a nasal tone by falling away from 2 kHz.

Bose claims only "even clearer calls", with no detail on the algorithm or the microphone architecture. The step forward is hard to deny, given that the first QC Headphones was unusable in noisy surroundings. More effective systems exist for suppressing ambient noise, but this one now performs. The captured voice stays on top of the interference, clear and free of stuttering. A very loud motorbike passing does cause the voice level to drop drastically; other than that it is a clean sheet against the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

In quiet conditions, the unpleasant reverberation that used to affect the voice has gone, and there are no background artefacts at all, even if the rendering is a little thin.

Bose quotes 24 hours with noise cancelling active, the same as the previous model. The headphone met that claim exactly, playing music for 24 hours at 60% volume. It is a weak figure against the competition, and one of several reasons the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) does not fully justify its place in the range.