Rechargeable Battery

A new feature of these headphones is a rechargeable battery.  All noise cancelling headphones need power to operate their electronics, and most seem to use a regular AAA battery, with a life of perhaps 30 - 40 hours per battery.

Bose chose to provide a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery, with about a 20 hour maximum life.  This battery life will reduce with each subsequent recharge cycle, and by the time you've recharged the battery perhaps 500 times, it will be down to something less than 10 hours between charges.

Twenty hours might seem like a long time, but on an international trip, it is barely enough for the flights one way, plus waiting time at airports, etc.  In other words, you'll always need to travel with the battery charger and/or spare batteries.

Furthermore, these batteries slowly lose their charge - they lose perhaps 5% - 10% of their charge every month even if not being used.  This means that if you're storing your headset between trips, you'll probably want to recharge the battery before leaving home; and if you forget, you might find yourself with only a half (or less) charged battery, meaning the headphones stop working in the middle of a flight.

While this isn't a problem with a regular AAA battery powered device (simply put in a new battery) you're completely stuck, if on a plane, with the Bose rechargeable battery powered QC3.

Perhaps you might think a good solution is to always travel with a spare battery.  They are light (0.4 oz) and don't take up much space, indeed there's even a helpful space for one in the carry case, so this seems a practical idea and partial solution.

If you feel that way, you've walked right into a financial trap.  Bose will be delighted to sell you another battery (although at time of writing they are on 3 - 4 week backorder), and they'll charge you an outrageous $50 for the privilege.

And, wait - how about the charger.  The regular charger comes with a standard US plug on it.  But if you're traveling internationally, Bose will be happy to sell you an international charger with a series of replaceable plugs for most other counties and their different power supplies.  But they'll charge you another ridiculous $50 for this unit.

Bose seem to have a simple rule of thumb when pricing their products - take their cost price and multiply it ten fold.  The QC3 probably costs them less than $35 a set (they are made in China), and the batteries and chargers probably cost them less than $5 each.  With such huge margins, it is fair and reasonable to expect Bose to include an international type charger as part of their standard kit, and to enclose a spare second battery as well.

Instead, Bose hope you'll spend another $100 - in addition to the $350 it costs to buy the headphones to start with.  In total, $450 for headphones and a decent set of accessories.

In contrast, the QC2 headphones seem better in all respects and have no need for another $100 in accessories.  Their purchase price - $300 - is accordingly their true complete price.  And the Solitude headphones, at $200, are, as always, by far the value leader, offering something almost indistinguishable to the QC2, but at $100 less.