Bose Noise Cancelling 700 Headphones Review

The Bose 700 noise cancelling headphones have been out since 2019 and haven’t seen a refresh yet. Is Bose diligently working on and taking their time on a successor or just riding the success of the 700? Time will only tell but in the meantime let’s find out if the current 700 are worth your money by digging further in this review.

Accessories

With the 700 in the box is a hard traveller’s case, a 2.5mm to 3.5mm auxiliary cable (remember the headphone port on the 700 is 2.5mm) which measures in at a little over 43 inches. Lastly there’s also a USB-A to USB-C charging cable measuring at 20 inches. No power out adapter is included as you’re expected to you your own our plug it directly into a computer.

Bose sells additional accessories such as replaceable ear cushions, a very expensive USB-C Bluetooth adapter (I recommend saving money and getting a 3^rd-party Bluetooth adapter instead). Also available for sale is the same traveller’s case and USB charging cable.

Body Design

Okay so the body is well… Unique to look at. It doesn’t look terrible, it’s a little easy on the eyes but it’s certainly an odd design. It’s as if a Bose product designer was at the gym and saw someone shrugging plates and was inspired (this makes more sense by watching this segment in the video review above). Thus, the thin headband was then constructed to wind into each earcup.

The headphones are made of plastic while the headband is made of steel in the frame. It’s probably due to the steel frame that the 700 feels rather sturdy, especially compared to other headphones in similar price range like the Bose QuietComfort 45 (QC45) and the Sony WH-1000XM5 (XM5).

When it comes to liquid resistant, there’s mixed information here. No Bose documentation states an IP rating. However, on the Best Buy USA website someone asked about IP rating and what I can only assume is the official Bose Support account responded stating that the 700 are IPX4 rated. This means they can take a splash of water from any direction. Again, since the official Bose website doesn’t state this, I would recommend being very cautious about getting the 700 wet.

When it comes to being on the go, despite the heavy price tag I’ve placed them in my laptop bag a few times (without the traveller’s case) and they always come out fine, of course don’t abuse them. Something to note is that the 700 doesn’t collapse in (folding earcups), the headband always stays as is.

Despite the headband containing steel, the 700 still weighs a decent 250 grams. It’ll feel a little heavy in the hand but just fine on your head. This falls close to the weight of the QC45 which are 240 grams and have a weaker feeling body.

The 700 comes only in 2 colours: black (which is what I have) and Luxe Silver.

The 700 is an over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones and they feel great to wear. I can wear them for a little over 4 hours straight and I never feel any discomfort and my ears never get hot or sweaty. I find them marginally more comfortable than the QC45. When moving around to clean items off the floor they hardly shift around on my head, they tend to stay exactly in place.

The flex on the headband is slightly tight however it’s not a concern as they’re comfortable to wear.

Placing the 700 around my neck is just okay. I can turn my head left and right and my chin will just rub against the earcups. To get around this, you can rotate the earcups all the way. Surprisingly, doing this doesn’t cause the earcups to press into my neck at all, it’s quite comfortable.

Even though the headband has a steel frame, the interior has a soft silicone-covered foam so don’t be discouraged to read the word “steel” in the build of the frame.

One of the most important items for comfort are the earcups which are made of thick, soft plush protein leather. The earcups have decent rotation to accommodate a variety of head shapes by rotating nicely up, down, forward, and back.

The headphone also has some decent extension length and slides when adjusting the length, it doesn’t have notches to adjust the size.

If the ear cushions get damaged then it’s safe to assume you can replace them yourself, as I wrote earlier Bose sells replacement units.

Controls

On the left is a single button to cycle through 3 noise cancelling levels which you can customise in the mobile app. Pressing and holding this button for at least one second activates conversation mode which allows you to hear your surroundings. To end conversation mode simply press any button or touch command.

The right earcups has most of the controls. At the back top is the power on/off switch which is also used for Bluetooth pairing if held down long enough. The button at the bottom back is used to activate the voice assistant or muting the microphone while on a call. Supported voice assistants are Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. In my testing I used Google Assistant, and it works well.

On the side of the right earcup is space for touch-based controls. Double tap the center to play/pause or answer/end calls, swipe forward to go to next track, swipe back to go to previous track, swipe up for volume up and swipe down for volume down. There are a few more shortcuts but the main ones have been covered. In my experience the swipe and touch controls have always worked perfectly and never caused an issue.

Passive play/pause isn’t present. That’s a feature found in other headphones (even ones much cheaper) that will detect when the headphones are taken off and will pause media, putting them back on will auto play the media again.

Noise Cancelling

Active noise cancellation (ANC) is one asset Bose is well known for. The 700 do a decent job but it feels as though it’s starting to show its age. Humming noises while in a car of from situations such as the fans in my desktop computer are almost non-existent with the QC45 and Sony XM5 but with the 700 it still comes through slightly.

Moving over to noises such as people talking a few feet away or a TV in the next room, again most of the noise is suppressed but they came through as slightly muffled noise.

High pitch noises like someone playing loud rock or a siren will come through a bit more than you would want.

Again, this is most notable with the age of the 700 and the Bose QC45 perform better with ANC. The problem here is that the QC45 are cheaper (significantly cheaper when on sale) but its ANC performs better. If you’re looking to get headphones particularly for great ANC performance and got a ton of cash, go for the QC45 or Sony XM5 instead. Not that the 700 is terrible at ANC, it’s just that there are better options now.

ANC can be adjusted. Basically level 10 is max noise cancellation and the lower you go, the less ANC is working to block exterior noise. Level 5 allows exterior sound to come through a small amount. Level 0 noise cancellation allows for exterior listening mode. Basically, the microphones listen for noise around you and input them into the headphones to allow you to listen to your surroundings. It works okay as exterior sound is much easier to hear with sound being still slightly muffled, but good enough to keep conversation with someone.

Using settings in the mobile app, there is an option to turn off all technology so the noise cancelling, and microphones turn off, so basically the 700 behave as plain, simple headphones. I have to say that the noise cancellation just from the ear cushions alone is incredible. It does a splendid job of blocking out more exterior noise then I expected despite all ANC technology being off. However, this is kind of pointless as it doesn’t save any battery, the battery still performs the same as if ANC is on.

Battery

Battery is a big bummer. Especially if you travel often, you need to remember to charge your cellphone, smartwatch, laptop, and headphones. The last thing you want to think about is charging headphones as they should last a long time. Unfortunately, Bose documents that the 700 lasts only 20 hours. That’s low, especially with competing headphones in similar price range and even much cheaper averaging 30+ hours. In my testing with ANC at level 10 and even at level 0 I always averaged close to Bose’s claim of 20 hours.

As I wrote earlier, turning ANC and aware mode off doesn’t help. I’m not sure why the battery still averages 20 hours. I wonder if it was done intentionally to keep the lifetime longevity of the battery intact as much as possible, regardless this is a huge let down.

When it comes to recharge time, Bose states it’ll take 2.5 hours to fully charge but in my testing, I averaged 2 hours. While recharge time is better than what Bose claims, 2 hours of charging for only 20 hours of use is a letdown.

To make things worse, you can’t use the headphones while they’re charging. They’ll brute force into off mode. You can only continue using them after unplugging them.

The USB-C charging port is located on the bottom of the right earcup.

Microphone Quality

Microphone clarity is terrible. Understandably this isn’t a headset with a dedicated boom mic but the 700 doesn’t hold a candle to the Sony XM5 or the Jabra Elite 85h. Even while in a dead quiet room, the microphone audio is really muffled and just enough to understand what is being said. Do not use the 700 often for meetings and calls, people on the other end won’t be pleased.

Interestingly enough the microphone does a pretty good job of cancelling out background noise. Despite the audio being poor it was a pleasure to cancel out a noisy café environment I replicated.

When it comes to blocking out wind noise, it did just okay. However, despite it doing a decent job of cancelling wind noise, the audio clarity is lacking so it still makes it difficult to understand what is being said since some wind noise can still come through (depending on how windy it is).

Audio Quality

Okay so audio quality is one thing Bose is popular for.

The highs on the 700 are always comfortable to listen to but with a catch. Increasing highs in the Bose app makes almost no difference. It’s odd because you can hardly notice a difference, again at its default level it still sounds good so this isn’t concerning. Thankfully the highs out of the box and at a flat profile do great.

Mids sound just okay but increasing it in the Bose app make certain songs have standout vocals.

Where the 700 surprised me was with bass. On the default flat profile, it’s nothing special but when increasing it in the app, it can get deep. If you play the right song, you can get some deep punch without distorting the song. It’s not the best sounding you can get, the Sony XM5 are better at bass thanks to its dedicated bass adjustment level but the 700 does a decent job given the price.

For action movies and video games it does a decent job. In sequences with explosions, the deep bass helps give that immersive experience.

Supported codecs are SBC and AAC and unfortunately that’s it, that means codecs such as aptX aren’t supported. Thankfully as I mentioned sound is still a pleasure on these headphones.

Software

Available for Android and iOS is the Bose Music app.

From the home screen you can do several things: adjust volume, change the noise cancellation level, set favourite noise cancellation levels for the noise cancellation adjustment button on the left earcup, and change the device you’re connected to.

Perhaps the most important item on the home screen is the equaliser which isn’t a traditional one. It’s a more simplified version with only 3 notches to adjust: bass, mids and treble. Despite it being simple in function, it gets the job done.

Lastly is a shortcut function that can adjust what happens when you tap and hold where the play/pause function is. From here you can have a voice prompt tell the battery percentage, allow your voice listening to your voice assistant’s voice wake up command or open Spotify.

In the Settings section of the app there is an assortment basic function. In fact, a chunk of them are the same settings from the home screen. The other remaining items include renaming your device for Bluetooth display, 700 quick tips for functions, adjusting volume of your voice during phone calls (this allows you to hear your own voice during a call) and so on.

Conclusion

The 700 are pretty darn good but its starting to show its age and due to that, if they were priced lower than it would have got a higher score. That’s exactly the problem, they’re over 3 years old and the competition is just getting fiercer.

If you have enough money to buy the 700 at retail price, you might want to consider the Sony XM5 instead since they’re in a similar price range and can do almost everything better than the 700.

I hope the successor to the 700 will just knock it out of the park, I’m just waiting for Bose to do that.