Welcome to the battle of the Bose headphones. The QuietComfort 45 (QC45) vs Noise Cancelling 700 (700). The QC45 was released in 2021 whereas the 700 was released in 2019. Despite the 700 showing its age, it actually does better than the QC45 in a number of areas. Before diving into the comparison, just keep in mind to check each headphone’s induvial review for more detail on each product. Let’s dive into the comparison.
Price
Here’s how the headphones compare for pricing:
- QC45: $449 CAD or $329 USD
- 700: $479 CAD or $379
While the QC45 is only slightly cheaper, when it goes on sale it can be $90 (CAD) cheaper than its regular price, that’s a huge difference, and that tends to happen a few times a year. The 700 can have a similar price decrease while on sale, however that rarely happens and they rarely go on sale.
Connectivity
Both allow connecting using a wired connection and Bluetooth connection.
The headphone jack on the QC45 is 3.5mm while on the 700 it’s 2.5mm but it comes with an adapter to fit 3.5mm audio devices.
If the battery dies on either headphone, you can continue to use it with the headphone jack.
Both support multi-point connection which allows staying actively connected to 2 devices at a time. This works great if you have them paired to a computer and cellphone, if listening to audio on the computer and your phone rings, the computer content will pause so you can quickly answer your call.
For both devices I was able to keep 5 devices in memory which means I don’t have to sync Bluetooth all over again, I can just switch between devices quickly in the Bose Music app (more on the app later). There’s no information for either headphone on how many devices you can keep in memory but 5 should be fair for most people.
Bose advertises a wireless range of 33 feet for both headphones, but they performed better in my testing. The QC45 supports Bluetooth 5.1 and I was able to go about 55 feet and one floor up in my house from my audio source. The 700 I can reach about 45 feet on the same floor with a single wall between the headphones and the source device. So, the QC45 perform better for range.
Accessories
For accessories both come with a hard traveller’s case, an auxiliary cable (the one with the 700 is 2.5mm to 3.5mm), and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. No charging adapter is included with either headphone. There are also a few accessories you can purchase for both headphones including replacement case, USB cable and even replacement ear cushions. It’s pretty much even for accessories.
Design & Comfort
Even though the 700 is quite unique looking I still find it more attractive than the QC45 which has more lines and visible edges, perhaps because the QC45 earcups fold in slightly whereas the 700 doesn’t. Of course, appearance is personal preference, but the 700 clearly is the sleeker looking of the 2.
I’m glad the 700 doesn’t fold in as it usually means sacrificing a sturdier body and to make things even better, the 700 has steel inside the headband for a stronger body.
Both headphones are not officially water resistant. I write officially as there is some conflicting information for the 700 but more details on that are in the review. Be careful not to get either device wet.
The QC45 has a weaker feeling body but is 240 grams, which is only 10 grams lighter than the 700 which comes in at 250 grams. That’s impressive for the 700 which feels tougher.
The QC45 comes in 4 colour options while the 700 only comes in 2 colours.
Both are over-the-ear-headphones and are comfortable to wear. I can wear either one for 4 hours straight and it never bothers me and my ears never get sweaty. There is a disadvantage to the QC45, while moving during chores like laundry or vacuuming, when bending over they’ll slide forward just slightly. They won’t fall off your head but they’ll need to be shifted back a bit which is weird for over-the-ear headphones. Also, it’s tough to tell but the 700 are just slightly more comfortable.
When placing the QC45 around my neck, they aren’t comfortable when turning my head left or right as my chin rubs into the earcups. Turning the earcups up end up digging into my neck. With the 700 around my neck, it’s the same situation as my chin rubs against the earcups when turning my head. However, when turning the earcups up on the 700, my chin never touches anything and the earcups don’t bother my neck at all.
The interior of the headbands for both headphones are made of different material but both are equally soft.
The earcups on the QC45 seem to have just slightly less cushioning than the 700 but as I wrote earlier, both are quite comfortable to wear for an extensive period.
Both headphones can have the earcups extend almost the same amount. The only difference is that when extending the QC45 it does it in notch intervals while the 700 slides to the exact spot you want.
It’s safe to assume that the ear cushions can be replaced for both headphones, as I wrote earlier you can buy replacement ear cushions on the Bose website.
Controls
The controls on the QC45 are all physical buttons and not designed well. The primary controls are on the back of the right earcup and where the issues are. The buttons are placed too close together so often I’m pressing volume down when I meant to press the middle multi-function button.
The multi-function button itself is another issue. Depending on how you use it, this single button is used for over 10 functions! Single tap for play/pause or answer/hang up a call, double tap for next track, triple tap for previous track and the remaining functions are just for call controls alone. It’s confusing to have that many functions on a single button.
The 700 despite being older has a much better design. There are a few physical buttons but the main control buttons are touch based on the right earcup. Double tap to play/pause or answer hung/up a call, 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. It’s a lot easier to naturally get used to these controls.
Both headphones do have a dedicated function to activate your phone’s voice assistant and does a fairly good job in my testing. I tested this with Google Assistant.
Despite both headphones being expensive, they’re both lacking auto play/pause detection. Basically when you take the headphones off your media content will automatically pause and when you put them back on then your content will automatically resume.
Noise Cancelling
Here’s one area the QC45 performs better than the 700 and where the 700 shows its age.
For low humming sounds like in a car or the fans from my computer running at max when I’m exporting a video, the QC45 will cancel those sounds out completely. With the 700 they come through just ever so slightly, it’s not very noticeable but since I’m comparing the headphones I did notice it.
For regular noise such as a TV playing in the same room as you or people talking near you, again the QC45 do a much better job than the 700. This type of noise with the QC45 is hardly noticeable whereas with the 700 it’s low rumbling muffled noise.
High pitch sounds can’t be cancelled out completely like certain rock songs playing on a sound bar in the same room but once again the QC45 does a decent job of cancelling out a significant amount of the noise compared to the 700. Not that it’s terrible on the 700, but the QC45 is better overall for noise cancelling.
The 700 does allow you to adjust the active noise cancelling (ANC) level from 10 cancelling out the most noise to level 5 which allows some noise to come through faintly using the onboard microphones, and level 0 which turns off ANC and allows all noise to be heard purposely. The QC45 only allows full ANC mode or Aware mode which is the same as the 700’s level 0 mode.
While in Aware mode for the QC45, surrounding audio within 10 feet sounds incredibly clear (quite impressive actually) and very easy to keep a clear conversation with someone. The 700 is decent but talking to someone close by sounds like being on a typical Zoom or Teams call.
The QC45 does not have regular headphone mode, while the 700 does. This means you can turn off ANC technology and the on board microphones from projecting sound into the earcups, basically that the 700 will operate like regular headphones. However, this feature is useless which I’ll explain why shortly.
Battery
The battery on both headphones is a letdown. Here’s a breakdown of how things fair:
- QC45: 23.5 hours for both ANC on and Aware mode
- 700: 20 hours for both ANC level 10 and ANC level 0 (like Aware mode on the QC45)
For the 700 when using them in regular headphone mode with all additional technology off, I still only get 20 hours. This doesn’t make sense as the battery should last longer but it seems as though Bose is capping this for some reason.
Overall battery performance isn’t ideal considering headphones from competing manufacturers (from Jabra and Sony) at similar and even much cheaper prices last 30+ hours.
Recharge isn’t impressive either. Both headphones average 2 hours which isn’t great for their lacking battery performance. Again, competing headphones tend to average 90 minutes charging for longer battery.
Another big disappointment is that when either headphone is charging, you can’t use them. They’re forced in power down mode and can’t be turned on until you disconnect them from charging.
The only minor good thing about battery is that both have a USB-C port on them for connecting the charging cable.
Microphone Quality
Another thing both headphones have in common is poor microphone quality, although the QC45 does still sound better of the 2 but still not impressive. If you don’t watch the video above, the best way to explain it, it sounds like someone talking to you over a Zoom call using their computer microphone. The 700 is bad, it’s like talking to someone but with a door between you (as in real life with no headphones).
One thing they both do a decent job of is cancelling out background noise if you’re in a noisy café or open concept office environment. Of course, that still doesn’t excuse the poor clarity of the microphones.
Audio Quality
I found audio quality a bit surprising in my comparison. Despite the 700 being a couple of years older than the QC45, the 700 are overall better.
For mids, they get incredibly sharp on the QC45, especially if you increase them in the app equaliser (more on that later). Some songs can get too sharp and piercing and I need to lower the treble. The 700 just sounds right no matter what. Nice clear high pitch sound but never enough to annoy you.
Mids are pretty equal on both, vocals can sound great if you listen to the right content.
Bass is hard to tell but when continuously using them I find that the 700 can get just slightly deeper. Thankfully it also never distorts the music content. It’s still pretty good on the QC45 but for those more into bass and want a Bose headphone than the 700 is the better product.
The 700 shows that despite how old it is, it’s still rock solid for audio quality performance. This performance also carries well for action movies and games if the bass is increased.
Both headphones only support SNC and AAC, no aptX. Honestly, it’s not a real concern as both do sound pretty darn good when it comes to audio quality.
Software
Both headphones use the Bose Music app. We’ll go over features for the QC45 first since everything the QC45 can do in the app, the 700 can also do but more.
From the home screen you can control volume or you can simply control it from the device it’s connected to. There’s also “Modes” which allows you to select between Aware mode and ANC on. You can select the source device you’re connected to, again in my testing I have 5 devices in memory I can switch between. The last main function is the equaliser which only has 3 notches for bass, mids and treble. This isn’t a full regular equaliser but it serves its purpose well.
Again, the 700 can do everything the QC45 can except you can turn ANC completely off (regular headphone mode) or adjust the ANC level from 10 to 0. With the ANC adjustment you can also assign favourite levels to the ANC physical button on the left earcup for quickly cycling through different levels. There’s also a shortcut setting which you can decide what action will take place when pressing and holding where the play/pause touch feature is.
The Settings section for both headphones is also similar and also repeats the main functions found on the home screen for either headphone. The only standout items are changing the Bluetooth name of the headphones, adjusting microphone playback level so you can hear your own voice while on a call and assigning your preferred smart assistant on the 700 (ex. choosing between Alexa or your device’s default voice assistant).
Conclusion
What I found interesting is that despite the QC45 being 2 years newer than the 700, the 700 had some strengths over the QC45.
The question remains, which one should you get? I’ll give you my personal opinion, since your opinion can be different based on what headphone function is most important to you. I prefer the 700. Yes, they’re older and a bit more expensive, but I liked that they have slightly better audio, they look better, stronger body, better controls, ANC adjustments, etc.
However, when the QC45 go on sale and you’re tight for cash, it’s a very tempting purchase. As I mentioned earlier, here in Canada they can go on sale for $90 cheaper.
So, pick what you will but that’s a wrap for this comparison.
