Before You Buy Apple's AirPods 4, Check Out Bose's New $179 QuietComfort ANC Earbuds

Bose is sticking it to Apple's newly announced AirPods 4 with the QuietComfort Earbuds. Deemed an "everyday" device, the QuietComfort combines Bose's legendary active noise cancelling (ANC) prowess, audio performance, water resistance, long battery life, and affordability, into a more compact package over its predecessor from 2020 of the same name.

Well, this is good news. Bose, a premium audio component maker known for its headphones, earphones, in-car and home audio systems has launched its cheapest earphones yet: the $179.99 QuietComfort Earbuds (we'll save the age-long earbuds or earphones spelling debate for another day). The Massachusetts-based company has a lot riding on this new product—it comes early enough to get on everybody's radar ahead of the holiday shopping season AND seemingly to steal some thunder away from the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC.

While not necessarily version 2.0 of the arguably higher-end 2020 QuietComfort Earbuds, the new QuietComfort continues the oval shape of the outer touch surface, but is probably less than two-thirds the size of the original. Despite the lower price point, the spec sheet shows that Bose didn't cut back on key features. The earphones are endowed with Bose's famous ANC tech (best-in-class, they say) and audio tuning, plus an IPX4 splash-resistant design. 

One interesting feature new to the segment is called Remote Selfie, which allows users to user the QC Earbuds to activate their connected phone's camera shutter. Also on-tap is the always listening "Hey headphones" hotword that can help control media playback, answer calls, or pull up a preferred voice assistant. 

Bose claims that the buds are capable of up to 8.5 hours of playback per charge (which is probably under controlled conditions with ANC off). Nonetheless, these numbers are on par with buds of this size and capability. 

These buds have Bluetooth 5.3 with support for multipoint connection plus low latency audio for reduced audio lag when watching shows or playing games. A lot of these functions can be customized in the Bose QC Earbuds app, and then some. For example, users can tweak the sound to their preference in the app's five-band parametric EQ.

Available now, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds go for $179.99 on Amazon in three colorways (Black, White Smoke, and Chilled Lilac). That's the same price as the ANC-enabled version of the AirPods 4.