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Pros
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At a reasonable price
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Comfortable and secure fit with slim C-ring and air cushions
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Good sound for the price
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It is equipped with Bluetooth 6.0 and is completely water and dust resistant with an IP67 rating
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Physical button for power and volume control
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Strong battery life and good voice call performance
cons
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The round case is a little slippery
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It can distort slightly at higher volumes
It wasn’t long after Bose’s premium price was released Ultra-open earbudsbudget earbuds were starting to come out, and they sounded pretty mediocre and looked pretty cheap too. But in the past few months, I’ve been testing out an increasing number of affordable versions of this new style of earrings Open the true wireless earbuds This looks surprisingly good. Example: Baseus Bowie MC2 budswhich costs $80 but can be had for $60 After applying a $20 instant coupon on their Amazon product page or company website.
Read more: The 6 best earphones tested for 2026
The Bowie MC2 improves on the previous MC1 with superior sound and a slightly less generic design. (Don’t confuse it with $10 cheaper.) MC2 water buds, which is a slight step down to the sound and build quality.) They’re also a little more comfortable, thanks to the “slim wave C-ring” and “airbags” that come in three sizes.
Equipped with Bluetooth 6.0 technology, they are IP67 certified, which means the headphones are completely water and dust resistant, making them suitable for runners and bikers. I also like that they have a small physical control button on each earbud to control playback and adjust the volume. (You can customize the controls and adjust equalizer settings in the companion Baseus app.)
The Baseus Bowie MC2 is currently available in two color options: white or black.
A cleaner, slightly bigger sound
Buds perform slightly better for Bowie MC1 Pro. I felt it sounded a little cleaner with a little more sound overall and less distortion at higher volumes. (The MC2 has slightly larger 11mm drivers instead of the 10.8mm driver found on the MC1 Pro.)
The sound changes slightly depending on where you place the headphones on your ears, with a little adjustment resulting in more bass. These headphones, like other open headphones, are not designed for critical listening. But what’s notable is that the sound is now respectable, with good bass and treble response along with fairly natural mids (where the vocals live). Because they’re open earbuds — and their sound is open, which is a good thing — they work best in quieter environments because ambient sound will seep into your ears and compete with whatever you’re listening to.
The buds are in their shipping case. Battery life is rated at up to 11.5 hours.
As far as competing models go, the Earfun has improved their sound Clip 2 Earphones out of the box section Sprouts. However, they didn’t fit my ears quite as well as the Baseus Bowie MC2 headphones, and the sound ended up sounding a bit sunken (less open) in comparison because the driver sat far outside my ear canal. I also thought the MC2’s sound was noticeably cleaner overall, especially at higher volume levels. Also, the bass response was better to my ears. Again, some of these sonic differences may have been affected by fit, but I would still rate the Baseus headphones higher for sound quality. (I manually pushed the drivers closer to my ear canals to improve sound quality to try to eliminate fit as variable as possible.)
Although they are not on the same level as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, Shokz Open Points Or of Paisius Inspiration XC1 Clip-on buds, they’re just a very small step up in sound quality but they cost a lot less.
Like the MC1 Pro, these devices support the LDAC audio codec (along with AAC and SBC) for Android devices and multipoint Bluetooth pairing. Low-latency gaming mode is also available.
Buds from another angle.
Good voice call performance and battery life
Voice calling capabilities are also good; Like the MC1 Pro, they have two microphones per bud. Callers told me they heard only minimal background noise, while my voice sounded acceptably clear when I spoke to them from the noisy New York streets.
As for battery life, the headphones are rated for up to 11.5 hours at moderate volume levels with the bass boost turned on. (Baseus markets this as Super Bass 3.0.) That’s superior battery life compared to a lot of noise-cancelling earbuds, which generally ranges between 6 to 8 hours. I kept the bass boosted when I was listening to music and the volume was around 60% to 70%, so I didn’t quite hit the 11.5-hour mark and recorded roughly 10 hours of playback.
Tested on the streets of New York.
Baseus Bowie MC2 Final Thoughts
Baseus has quickly become a leader in value headphones and earbuds, and its Bowie MC2s are easily among the best budget-friendly earbuds I’ve tested as of June 2026. They cost about $60 at Amazon, and Baseus also offers a bonus item with your purchase. As of this writing, you can get Baseus BP1 Pro Noise canceling buds, which are $24. Baseus reward items tend to change over time, so this item may be different in the future or may not be available at all. But for now, getting an extra set of budget ANC earbuds along with a set of great value buds that exceeded my expectations is a pretty great deal.
