Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wanted these to work so bad. The QC35 II were the best thing I have bought for air travel, but I needed something with a lower profile like earbuds for wearing while I work. I have never had a pair of earbuds be able to stay in my ears so the idea of skipping that step sounded wonderful. And to be honest the one good thing about these is that the sound quality is really good with only a little bit of audio leaking for other people to hear when the volume is jacked up. And even with the volume up I still have good awareness of the sounds around me which is critical for safety. But there were so many other little things that make these horrible. First, they are not comfortable and caused pain with only an hour of use. I have come to terms with the fact I am a larger person and things are not going to be designed with me in mind, but I expected there to be at least a little bit of adjustability to account for different ear sizes. There is absolutely no adjustability or give. If your ears are not just right these are not going to fit you. I am finding it's not worth the $200 gamble for a small chance that these will be comfortable for you. Second, the charger is separate from the case...... why..... why Bose..... why.... every other competitor in this price range (and even in the lower ranges) has the charger in the case. I travel for a living and space is limited. The last thing I need is to pack a large docking station with a permanently connected cable, with no easy way to manage the cable, on top of the separate case for the buds. Third, the charger uses a USB-A connector. These came out in 2020, there is no reason why it shouldn't be a PD compatible USB-C. And it should be a separate cable that plugs into the charger and not hardwired for easy storage. Fourth, the battery life is not for all day use. I only used them for 6 hours (in 30-60 minute blocks before they were to painful to wear) before they died from a full charge. And hopefully you are by a wall or have a battery bank and the needlessly cumbersome charger to connect these for an hour to get through the rest of the day. Fifth, be ready to get another app if you have any legacy Bose products. You have to download Bose Music to connect/configure these, you cannot use the Bose Connect that my QC35 II requires. It wouldn't bug me as much if I could also configure the QC35 II in Bose Music so I only had to have one app for both devices. Sixth and final, the price. Understanding that Bose products do cost more than other competitive products, every Bose speaker and headphones I had up to this point I felt were worth the higher price. Even if these worked as intended, I would still be grumpy about the price and likely would have returned them on that alone unless they completely blew me away. My wife has a pair of wrap around earbuds that address every issue listed above, with the exceptions of the open ear, that she got for $30... If I'm going to pay 6 times the cost I'm going to expect something at least as functional. In conclusion, these could have been amazing, and I think that is the part that makes this more painful. Out of the dozen Bose products I have used in my lifetime every one has at least met, and most exceeded, my expectations until these earbuds. I expect better from you Bose.