Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II: Premium earbuds to land Qualcomm aptX Lossless support

It has not been long since Bose announced the QuietComfort Earbuds II, but it has already revealed that a new feature will soon be heading to the premium earbuds. Introduced in early September for US$299, Bose bills the QuietComfort Earbuds as offering the 'world's best noise cancellation'. While that claim does not reference the earbuds' audio quality, Bose may soon have reason to brag about the QuietComfort Earbuds II in this regard too.

According to the company, it will soon enable aptX Lossless, a Bluetooth codec that Qualcomm announced earlier this month during its annual summit alongside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. For reference, the QuietComfort Earbuds II cannot currently leverage any aptX technologies despite relying on Qualcomm's S5 sound platform, with Bose restricting the earbuds to AAC and SBC codecs. In other words, the earbuds only offer SBC when not connected to an Apple device.

Supposedly, aptX Lossless support will arrive in spring 2023 via a software update. Bose has not provided a firm date for delivering the feature though, so we would recommend considering it a loose commitment for now. Theoretically, the QuietComfort Earbuds II should be capable of playing 16-bit audio at 44.1 kHz with aptX Lossless active. Qualcomm aptX Lossless should operate in tandem with the low latency connectivity options that Qualcomm S5 provides, but it remains to be seen how these will interact until Bose provides more details about the earbuds' spring 2023 update, presumably in the new year.

Purchase the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, Triple Black with Alternate Sizing Kit on Amazon