Bose has revealed its first pair of wired headphones in over a decade, in the form of the aptly-named Bose Noice Cancelling Wired Earbuds. The US audio giant has launched the $99 wired buds amid a significant uptick in popularity for the category, especially among younger generations who seem to be enjoying old school plug-and-play simplicity.
Interestingly (and aptly) Wired reports that the idea came to the fore when Bose president of consumer audio Raza Haider noticed all of the Gen Z kids at his kid’s college were wearing wired buds again. There’s no need to charge the wired headphones, or pair them with Bluetooth, for instance, and certainly none of the connection latency we’ve sort of just accepted for the convenience of not being tangled up with cabled.
The USB-C earphones have Active Noise Cancelling, which can be turned on and off via the in-line remote (another welcome return perhaps) with the rest of the media controls. That remote has a microphone built in which is designed to pick up your voice on calls without having to be right up close to your face. So, essentially, you’re getting all the advantages of earbud development since 2015 without the inconveniences and some of the conveniences.
Hopefully, the inconvenience of those cables breaking will also be consigned to the past too. There’s a 4.2 foot, tangle resistant cord that looks to have a certain robustness about it. That, however, will have to play out in testing. Naturally, because of those wires the case is a little larger, but at least you won’t have to charge it.
In terms of design, there’s wing tips to assist with the fit and multiple sizes of earths and are 23g per earpiece they certainly won’t wear you down. There is a slight downside to that USB-C only design, but because they require power you won’t be able to use an adapter to plug into 3.5mm sources.
They’re available in black, white smoke, and dewdrop mint from October 15.
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