After introducing its new QuietComfort 25 noise-canceling headphone recently, Bose is at it again, rolling out the $129.95 SoundLink Color (£119.95, AUD$179.00), its lightest -- and least expensive -- portable Bluetooth speaker, and $249.95 SoundLink Bluetooth On-ear headphones (£219.95, AUD$329 ), the first on-ear Bluetooth headphones from Bose.
The SoundLink Color, which comes in multiple colors (black, white, blue, red, and mint), weighs 1.25 pounds and measures 5 inches wide, 2.1 inches deep and 5.3 inches high. Bose says it's designed "to fit easily into a handbag, knapsack or the palm of your hand."
The speaker remembers the last eight devices you've paired it with and gets up to 8 hours of battery life, which is pretty decent for a very compact Bluetooth speaker (a lot get 5 or 6). It recharges in 3 hours. We haven't heard it yet, but based on Bose's efforts with its previous Bluetooth speakers, we expect it'll play loud and sound comparatively decent for its size class. (We'll post our first impressions as soon as we get our hands on a review sample).
As far as the new SoundLink On-Ear Bluetooth headphones go, they're relatively lightweight (5.5 ounces) and should be very comfortable, particularly for an on-ear headphone.
Since we haven't heard them yet, we don't know how they sound, but Bose's AE2w sounded very good for a Bluetooth headphone and Bose says this new on-ear model features "crisp, powerful sound," with "all the audio performance of a Bose wired headphone."
Bose is also talking up the headset features. There's a new two-microphone system that "rejects distractions like wind, so callers can hear what you're saying more, and the sounds around you less." And Adaptive Audio Adjustment technology "automatically changes volume based on speech level and ambient noise, letting you move from a quiet building to a busy street without missing a word."
The headphones come in black or white and can get up to 15 hours of battery life (or two hours after a 15-minute charge).
The SoundLink Color speaker ships on September 25, while the new SoundLink On-Ear Bluetooth heapdhone is available now. In releasing the new products, Bose has also renamed the AE2w the SoundLink Around-Ear Bluetooth headphone. It remains priced at $249.95.