Quality makes a brand; the more famous a brand is, the easier it is to be counterfeited. This unwritten rule never seems to go wrong. Bose is an audio company that has been so successful because of its quality and long history. The Bose QC25, one of Bose’s most successful noise-canceling headphones, was mercilessly copied. This time let’s see what the difference is between the clones and how to recognize them.
DESIGN
There is almost no difference if left in this state. However, the fake Bose QC25 does not have the natural opening in the headband position as on the real Bose QC 25. The feeling of wearing the device is also quite comfortable. One more note is that the earpad part of the fake does not fit the real one; it’s a bit bigger.
Pay attention to the headband; you will notice an unusual difference. The fabric covering the fake headband has more holes, not as smooth and delicate as the real thing. The plastic details in the folding joint of the earphones on the real headphones are very meticulously polished, with no excess plastic or error handling. On fake ears, of course, these sloppy errors will appear. The color of the earcup and the plastic details are also slightly different. The earcup of the Bose QC 25 real version has a yellowish tint, and the fake one will be slightly red. The plastic surface surrounding the earcup of the Bose QC 25 is soft and round. As for the fake, many places are not round, bumpy, and the surface is not smooth.
The battery cover part during the test showed. There is a jam situation on the fake, and it is very difficult to open this cover because there are many excess plastic edges. This situation does not appear on the real Bose QC25.
The 2.5mm jack that connects to the headset has a big difference. Although the fake cable still has a mic, the jack foot only sees two green rings; on the Bose QC25, the real version is three rings. Both wires have the same diameter size.
The control buttons on the fake are made very sloppy. The buttons have a distorted shape; the button response is very poor. The blue plastic strip at the bottom of the real Bose QC25 is also omitted. Excess plastic Via appears in part adjacent to the conductor on the fake.
The Bose QC25’s included onboard adapter is gold plated. The plane logo part is much sharper than the fake one. The jack of the fake is also just a cheap type that is not gold-plated.
The box part is quite difficult to distinguish. If you look closely, you will see that the leather material of the fake is quite bad because it is a cheap type, even on the inside. The zipper of the real Bose QC25 box feels more secure.
We have also partly recognized the difference between the physical structure between the real Bose QC25 and the fake. Now we will measure the real quality of the other fake ear.
SOUND QUALITY
There is a difference between the mid-range and the treble range. Mid and treble on the Bose QC25 are smoother. Treb is higher and clearer. The sound is more balanced and refined. On the fake, the high-mid sound is pushed too much, and the low-treb is also boosted, which will make the sound unbalanced, sometimes listening to the phenomenon of sib and sharper sound. However, overall, the sound of the clone version is not too bad. Frankly, by comparison, this fake earphone has a sound quality that eats away some of the famous brands’ headphones out there. This result surprised me quite a bit.
BATTERY LIFE
When turning on the noise-canceling mode of both headphones, the battery life test results are almost the same. Battery life is approximately 30 hours continuously.