Bose 700 Headphones Wireless Headphones Review

These headphones have a futuristic look that stands out among Bose's more traditionally designed over-ears. They have a distinctively shaped headband that integrates directly into the ear cups without any visible hinges. They're available in 'Black, 'Luxe Silver', 'Triple Midnight', and 'Soapstone' color variants.

The headphones are very comfortable. They're lightweight and well-padded, so you can wear them for long listening sessions without feeling much fatigue. However, they clamp onto your head more tightly than the Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35 II Wireless 2018. The ear cups are also somewhat shallow, so your ears might touch the drivers, which can be uncomfortable and annoying over time.

They have decent controls. They cover a lot of functions, and it's easy to pair them with multiple devices. However, the touch-sensitive surface is small and can be tricky to use. They also don't provide much feedback besides a few audio prompts. If you're looking for headphones with easier-to-use controls, check out the Microsoft Surface Headphones 2 Wireless.

On the right ear cup:

• One press: Turns headphones on or off.

• One press: Accesses voice assistant. When on a call, mutes and unmutes the mic.

The touch-sensitive surface:

• Double tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends a call.
• Tap and hold for one second: Ηear the headphones' battery status or decline an incoming call.
• Swipe forward: Skips your track forward.
• Swipe backward: Skips your track backward.
• Swipe up: Turns the volume up.
• Swipe down: Turns the volume down.

On the left ear cup:

Noise control button:

• One press: Cycles between ANC presets. There are three by default, and you can customize them in the Bose Music app. The default preset '3' (ANC level 0) is advertised to provide 'full transparency' so you can hear ambient sound without pausing your audio.
• Press and hold one second: Turn 'Conversation Mode,' which pauses your audio and lets in ambient sound, on or off.

These over-ear headphones aren't very breathable. Like most similarly designed headphones, they trap some heat against your ears and can make them feel hot, especially during physical activity. It won't be a big issue during casual listening, however.

They aren't very portable. They aren't extremely bulky for over-ear headphones, but unlike other models like the Jabra Evolve2 85 Wireless, they don't fold onto a more compact format. They'll take up some space in a bag or backpack. However, the ear cups swivel inwards to make them smaller and more comfortable to wear around your neck.

They come with a great hard carrying case. It has a less bulky design and a slightly more premium feel than the one that comes with the Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35 II Wireless 2018. It can protect the headphones from minor drops and water damage and has a magnetic pocket to store the accessories. You can also separately purchase a wireless charging case for these headphones.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have impressive build quality. They have a sturdier build than the Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35 II Wireless 2018 and Bose QuietComfort 45/QC45 Wireless. They also have a more premium look and are constructed with materials that feel high-quality. The headband is made of stainless steel, and the plastic used for the ear cups feels solid. Since the headband attaches directly to the ear cups, there are fewer moving pieces to break. The point where the ear cups and headband join feels like a potential weak spot, but it won't be an issue unless the ear cups are pulled apart with a lot of force.

The Bose 700 Headphones have decent stability. They're stable enough for casual listening sessions, but the swiveling ear cups feel a bit loose, and they may fall off your ears if you move your head around a lot, like during a workout. If you like over-ears for workouts like runs, the Beats Studio3 Wireless are less likely to slip around on your head.

• Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• 1/8" to 1/16" audio cable
• Hard carrying case
• Quick start manual

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have a slightly bass-heavy and warm sound profile. They have a bit of extra boom, which can please fans of bass-heavy genres like hip-hop and EDM. Their balanced mid-range makes them suitable for vocal-centric content like podcasts, too. Their app also has a graphic EQ to help you customize their sound.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have okay frequency response consistency. There's hardly any variation in the bass range across users, possibly due to their noise cancelling feature checking for bass consistency. However, their treble delivery may vary depending on their fit, seal, or positioning on your head, so it's important to ensure you get a good fit each time you use them to hear a consistent sound.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have great bass accuracy. The rumble of low bass is reproduced accurately. There's some overemphasis in the mid to high-bass, so in songs like Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, the well-known bassline at the beginning of the track has a bit of extra punch and body.

Their mid-range accuracy is fantastic. The range is balanced and even, so vocals and lead instruments are clear and present in the mix.

Their treble accuracy is adequate. The low-treble is very well-balanced, so vocals and lead instruments are present and detailed. However, the underemphasis in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals dull and lispy.

These headphones have impressive peaks and dips performance. There's a slight dip in the low-bass, so they lack a bit of thump, but the peak in the high-bass adds a boomy quality to the mix. The small dip in the low-mid to mid-mid range can nudge vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix, while the peak in the high-mid makes those same instruments honky or harsh. The dip in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals dull and lispy.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have an impressive imaging performance. Bose typically has good quality control, and their headphones tend to have well-matched drivers. Weighted group delay for our unit falls mostly below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers of our unit are well-matched in amplitude and phase response; however, there's a slight frequency mismatch. As a result, some objects, like voices or footsteps, may not be accurately placed within the stereo image. However, imaging varies from unit to unit depending on the manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics.

They have a poor passive soundstage performance. Their soundstage is a bit unnatural or odd, and audio seems to be coming from inside your head instead of from speakers around you. Because of their closed-back design, it doesn't seem as open or spacious as that created by most open-back headphones.

The Bose 700 Headphones have a good weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a bit of distortion in the treble range at normal listening volumes, but the rest of the range falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings we used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when the headphones are used in this configuration.

The Bose 700 Headphones have an excellent noise isolation performance. The ANC feature is adjustable with the companion app, and when it's set to its highest level, these headphones can easily block out most background noises, including bus and plane engines, voices, and the hum of nearby AC units.

There's no way to switch off the ANC feature completely, and the headphones block out more noise when they're completely off than when ANC is set to the lowest level, '0'. The lowest ANC setting feeds some mic input to the headphones, providing a bit of talk-through. This also seems intentional because Bose says ANC level '0' allows you to hear your surroundings. You can see a comparison between their noise isolation performance when the headphones are off and when ANC is set to '0' here.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have a decent leakage performance. They leak some sound across the range, so the audio that escapes sounds relatively full-bodied but not very loud. Even if you're listening to your music at high volumes, it won't bother people around you in a moderately quiet environment like an office.

There are reports online that some users have issues muting the mic when using a PC. On their website, Bose suggests turning on voice prompts in the Bose Music app so you can hear confirmation that the mic is muted. They also note that you can't see that the mic is muted on your PC.

The mic has a good recording quality. It makes your voice sound natural and understandable but also a bit thin.

The headphones rely on Bluetooth profiles, which define the specifications for how data is communicated between devices. When you connect these headphones to your PC, they use Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), a Bluetooth profile for audio playback. A2DP is a one-way profile, which means that if you're using this profile, the mic won't work on any device or OS. The headphones can enable Headset Profile (HSP) or Hands-Free Profile (HFP) if you want mic and audio compatibility. However, both profiles can lower sound and mic quality. We noticed a drop in audio and mic quality when using these headphones during a conference call. Users have also reported this issue when using their Macbooks and ThinkPad devices. Unfortunately, there's no real way around this, as this is how Bluetooth profiles work.

The Bose 700 Headphones have a great noise handling performance. The mic can separate your voice from background noises, even if you call from a noisy environment like a train station. Even with loud sounds, your voice isn't cut out or lost in the noise, unlike that of the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless.

These headphones have an impressive battery performance. They provide nearly 21 hours of continuous playback from a single charge, and they charge in about two hours. You can use them passively with the provided audio cable when the battery is dead, but you can't use them while charging. They have two auto-off timers: one that can't be disabled and turns the headset off after 10 minutes of undetected motion, and one that you can adjust in the app that powers off the headphones after a set time while you're still wearing them.

The fixed auto-off timer made testing battery life challenging; therefore we suspended the headphones from a fixed surface with a bungee cord and pointed a fan in their direction to make them move continuously during our discharging test.

You can also buy a wireless charging case separately, which the manufacturer advertises to store up to two additional charges. Also, please note that battery performance can vary with real-life use.

These headphones are compatible with the Bose Music app, which differs from the Bose Connect app that many of this manufacturer's other models use. This app has a sleek interface that's fairly easy to use. You can set three different ANC presets, activate talk-through, adjust the auto-off timer, change voice assistant settings, and access a list of Bose AR-enabled apps. There's also a 3-band graphic EQ for sound customization. However, you need to create an account to use the app, which can be frustrating for some.

These headphones use Bluetooth 5.0. They can pair simultaneously with two devices but don't support NFC for quicker pairing. Their PC latency is likely too high for gaming without noticing a bit of delay, but it's much lower on iOS and Android devices. Some devices and apps offer some latency compensation, though.

They use a 1/8" TRS to 1/16" TRS audio cable, which is somewhat common but can be a bit trickier to find than a regular 1/8" to 1/8" cable. They come with a USB-C to USB-A charging cable, which you can't use for audio.

These headphones can connect wirelessly with Bluetooth-enabled PCs or connect via analog connection with the included 1/8" to 1/16" TRS cable, although you can only receive audio this way.

These headphones are compatible with PlayStation consoles if you plug the included audio cable into a controller. However, you can't use the microphone in that case.

You can plug them into your Xbox One controller but only receive audio.