So bose has been routinely releasing varied color ways of their latest Bose NC 700 headphones. But this latest pair of limited edition headphones are particularly special cause they come with a new charging case. But presumably cause of the new case, these headphones retail for $450… $50 more than what your average pair of Bose NC 700’s regularly retail for. 

Now for starters… besides color way there are no hardware differences between these limited edition headphones versus the normal headphones. Which I think is very important to point out cause Bose is no stranger to doing secret hardware refreshes on their headphones. The prime example of this are the Bose QC35’s series 2. Back in November of 2018 Bose quietly added a new accelerometer and gyroscope to their Bose QC35 series 2 so that they can support Bose’s new Bose AR feature. 

So effectively what this meant was that if you had a pair of Bose QC35’s that were manufactured before November of 2018… or if you were unlucky enough to get a pair of headphones that were manufactured before November 2018 from a third party retailer like best buy or target then you wouldn’t have Bose AR support. Now Bose AR is by no means a big deal, but what im trying to say is that Bose has done secret hardware refreshes in the past. 

But instead all of the hardware updates have been done exclusively on the carrying case it self. Now this carrying case is basically the same size as the original case but you’ll notice that there’s a USB C port and a battery status indicator light on the side. And on the inside you’ll notice some other big changes. First off you’ll see that there’s this retractable USB C cable which you’ll use to charge your headphones and on the left side there is now a dedicated pocket for your included cables. 

Cause for comparison, the original carrying case has this somewhat hidden compartment for storing your cables. Which ive always really liked. But instead this is where the new charging case stores its built in battery. Now since all you’re doing is plugging your headphones in to charge you can absolutely use this case with any other pair of NC 700’s so if I were Bose I would definitely sell this new case separately for anybody who wants.

Now tech spec wise this new carrying case promises two full charges for your headphones. Effectively meaning that the Bose NC 700’s have a combined battery life of 60 hours. And I really think this set up would be really attractive to a constant commuter or constant flyer. But I also think this new carrying case is Bose’s preemptive answer to newer headphones that are coming out with longer battery lives than the Bose NC 700’s. 

Cause the Bose NC 700’s have an advertised battery life of 20 hours… which is okay but it is a little below average for premium ANC Headphones. And for comparison, the Sony 1000XM3’s have an advertised battery life of 30 and the Jabra Elite 85H have an advertised battery life of 36 hours. And for the soon to be announced Sony 1000XM4’s im speculating that we’ll see a 35 to 40 hour battery life on them cause from leaked tech specs they’re supposed to be way more power efficient than the 1000XM3’s. And if you want to learn more about those you can click or tap here. 

But unfortunately, even though this carrying case does have a USB C port. This USB C port is strictly used for charging the case. You can’t use it to charge your own phone. And for curiosity sake I also tried plugging in my pixel 4xl into the built in USB C cable and it also didn’t charge my phone. However, I was able get this case to charge my earbuds… but I think thats pretty pointless. 

But over all, I actually wouldn’t mind if we see more manufactures start to offer upgraded charging cases for their headphones. Now I don’t think everybody might want or need this… but I definitely think there’s room for growth here. I think the final form of this would be having a case that just wirelessly charges your headphones when ever you drop them in just like with earbuds right now, but if you were also able to wirelessly charge your phone I think that would be sick. 

And personally I do think this is the direction that we’re heading cause we already have headphones that have wireless charging like the Hyper X club flight s gaming headset. Those headphones have Qi charging so they can use any Qi wireless charger. 

But I think the simpler solution for right now to have headphones that just start charging whenever you drop them into their case would be to just add inconspicuous contact points on your headphones and into the case itself similar to what earbuds have and then just let you plug your phone into the case it self to charge your phone. Cause honestly even though Bose’s new case is cool and all. It definitely does feel a like make shifty. 

But yeah, this was a quick look at Bose new charging case for their Bose NC 700’s. I don’t everybody will need this but it definitely can come in handy for constant commuters and constant flyers. So thats why im relaying hoping bose will sell this carrying case separately cause it can work with any pair of Bose NC 700’s not just these limited edition ones. But if this this is going to become a new trend… please give me a case that can wirelessly charge my headphones and phone.