The Verge's review of the second-generation Bose QuietComfort Headphones concludes that while they are a solid product, they fail to distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive market. Bose was once the noise-cancelling pioneer, but rivals such as Sony and Apple have now overtaken it on performance, and even cheaper mid-range headphones are closing the gap, meaning the £/$359 QC Headphones need another way to stand out that the reviewer feels they lack.

The headphones sit as a step-down model beneath the $449 QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2, sharing a similar design but with more plastic and fewer metal accents, plus new colour options including mauve and light avocado green. Sound quality is described as Bose's best default tuning yet, improved further by a 3-band EQ, though the midrange can sound muted. Noise cancellation is strong enough for flights and background noise but not as aggressive as the Ultra model, which the reviewer says avoids an uncomfortable "eardrum suck" sensation; the headphones drop the 3.5mm jack in favour of USB-C, though an adapter cable is included, and they lack AptX Lossless or LDAC high-res codec support.