Replacement iPhone earphones on test

Bose Mobile On-Ear Headset

Manufacturer: Bose
UK Price (as reviewed): £146.76 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $199.95 (ex. Tax)

Frequency response: Not disclosed
Carry case: Hard case
Tips: N/A
Cable length: 110cm
Weight: 132g
Remote: None

The name might be clunky – ‘On Ear’ sounds like a surreal relative of those English towns that have ‘On Sea’ appended to their titles – but it does at least clearly point out that these are one of the few iPhone specific earphones that eschew an in-ear design.

The Bose headphones come with a 3.5mm jack and a selection of 2.5mm adaptors so that you can use them with a variety of mobile phones. The microphone is large compared to others in the test and much bulkier than the Apple original. As the headphones are supported by a headband, it doesn’t drag on the cord. It’s high-up on the cable, too, so worked well for voice calls.


Annoyingly for iPhone users, there’s no button on the mic. This doesn’t sound like a massive omission, but you’d be surprised how useful it is, and how grating its absence is. The lack of remote control button seems fundamentally at odds with the elegance of the rest of the iPhone music listening experience, as every time you’re called, the ringing will disrupt your music, but you’ll need to dig around in your pockets to grab the phone itself.

Bose supplies a hard carry case to protect the earphones, which measures approximately 14 x 14cm – more compact than you’d perhaps expect, but the Bose’s cups are hinged and fold up neatly into the semi-circular space formed by the headband. Despite their on ear design, Bose has kept the earphones’ weight down (they’re just over 130g), and in conjunction with the generous padding on the cups it means they’re fairly comfortable to wear. One caveat is that they’re not ideal for people with glasses, as they can pinch your ears into the frame’s arms.

You also have to take care to push the cups back so that they sit over your whole ear if you want to get the best audio quality. As you’d expect from on ear headphones, they’re not very good at blocking noise and they really benefit from having the volume cranked up. They do a decent job with ‘Atlas’ and ‘The Fall’, two of the bassier songs in our selection. ‘Atlas’ opening really rolls and bowls towards you, while the sinister, echoing start of ‘The Fall’ thuds with real presence.

They’re more limited when you ask them to combine bass with higher frequencies - both Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ and The Replacements’ ‘Alex Chilton’ seemed flat and tinny with the Bose’s compared to other earphone sets in the test. The more volume we use used, the more sharp sounds such as cymbals in ‘Alex Chilton’ were rendered sharp and scratchy. We wanted to push them harder with these kind of sounds, so opted for Guns n’ Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, which starts off with exactly this tumbling mix of cymbals, drums and sticky guitars. It was a crinkled mess, like someone screwing up foil. Given their messy way with details it wasn’t surprising they failed the ‘Hey Jude’ test.

To make matters worse, the Bose’s pair their rather average sound quality with an extortionately high price – they’re over £145 on the Apple Store making them comfortably the most expensive set in this test, despite the fact they’re outperformed by many, if not all of the other sets. Even if you’re desperate for an on ear set of headphones for your iPhone, it’s hard to recommend the Bose’s given their price, performance and annoying lack of a remote control.

• Performance
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• 6/10

• Value
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• 4/10

• Overall
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• 5/10

Score Guide