Pros
- Affordable
- Comfortable, safe match with upgraded slim C-ring and air cushions
- Good sound for the value
- They’re outfitted with Bluetooth 6.0 and are absolutely waterproof and dustproof with an IP67 ranking
- Physical button for playback and quantity management
- Solid battery life and first rate voice-calling efficiency
Cons
- Rounded case is a bit slippery
- Can distort a bit at increased volumes
Not too lengthy after the discharge of Bose’s premium-priced Ultra Open Earbuds, funds clip-on earbuds began showing, and so they sounded fairly mediocre and regarded fairly low cost, too. But within the final a number of months, I’ve examined an growing variety of reasonably priced variations of this new earring model of open true-wireless earbuds that sound surprisingly good. Case in level: Baseus’ Bowie MC2 buds, which listing for $80 however could be had for $60 after you apply an prompt $20-off coupon on their product web page at Amazon or the corporate’s website.
Read extra: The 6 Best Clip-On Earbuds I’ve Tested for 2026
The Bowie MC2 improves upon the sooner MC1 with superior sound and a design that is rather less generic. (Don’t confuse it for the $10 cheaper MC2 Air buds, that are a slight step-down for sound and construct high quality.) They’re additionally a bit extra snug, because of an upgraded “slim wave C-ring” and “air cushions” that are available in three sizes.
Equipped with Bluetooth 6.0, they’ve an IP67 certification, which implies the buds are absolutely waterproof and dustproof, making them appropriate for runners and bikers. I additionally like that they’ve a small bodily management button on every earbud to regulate playback and alter quantity. (You can customise the controls and alter equalizer settings within the Baseus companion app.)
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The Baseus Bowie MC2 are at present obtainable in two colour choices: white or black.
Cleaner, barely larger sound
The buds supply a bit higher efficiency to the Bowie MC1 Pro. I felt they sounded a bit cleaner with barely larger sound total and fewer distortion at increased volumes. (The MC2 has barely bigger 11-millimeter drivers as an alternative of the ten.8mm driver discovered within the MC1 Pro.)
The sound does change a bit relying on the place you place the buds in your ears, with a bit little bit of adjustment yielding extra bass. These buds, like different clip-on open buds, aren’t designed for important listening. But what’s notable is that the sound is now respectable, with first rate bass and treble response together with pretty natural-sounding mids (the place voices reside). Because they’re open earbuds — and so they sound open, which is nice — they do higher in quieter environments as a result of ambient sound will leak into your ears and compete with no matter you are listening to.
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The buds of their charging case. Battery life is rated at as much as 11.5 hours.
As far as competing fashions go, Earfun has improved the sound of its Clip 2 earbuds from its authentic Clip buds. However, they did not match my ears fairly in addition to the Baseus Bowie MC2 buds, and the sound ended up coming throughout as a bit recessed (much less open) by comparability as a result of the driving force sat additional exterior my ear canal. I additionally thought the MC2’s sound was noticeably cleaner total, notably at increased volumes. Also, the bass response was higher to my ears. Again, a few of these sound variations could have been affected by the match, however I’d nonetheless price the Baseus buds increased for sound high quality. (I manually pushed the drivers nearer to my ear canals to optimize the sound high quality to attempt to remove match as a variable as a lot as I might.)
While not fairly in the identical league as Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, Shokz’ Open Dots or Baseus’ personal Inspire XC1 clip-on buds, they’re solely a really small step down for sound high quality however price quite a bit much less.
Like the MC1 Pro, these have help for the LDAC audio codec (together with AAC and SBC) for Android gadgets and multipoint Bluetooth pairing. A low-latency gaming mode can be obtainable.
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The buds from one other angle.
Good voice-calling efficiency and battery life
Voice-calling capabilities are additionally good; just like the MC1 Pro, they’ve two microphones per bud. Callers informed me they heard solely minimal background noise, whereas my voice sounded acceptably clear after I spoke to them from the noisy streets of New York.
As for battery life, the buds are rated for as much as 11.5 hours at average quantity ranges with bass increase engaged. (Baseus markets this as Super Bass 3.0.) That’s superior battery life to lots of noise-canceling earbuds, that are usually within the 6 to eight hour vary. I saved the bass increase on after I was listening to music and the amount round 60% to 70%, so I did not fairly hit the 11.5-hour mark and registered nearer to round 10 hours of playback.
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Testing them within the streets of New York.
Baseus Bowie MC2 closing ideas
Baseus is shortly turning into a pacesetter in worth headphones and earbuds, and its Bowie MC2 buds are simply among the many finest funds clip-on earbuds I’ve examined as of June 2026. They price round $60 at Amazon, and Baseus additionally throws in a bonus merchandise together with your buy. As of this writing, you will get Baseus BP1 Pro noise-canceling buds, that are valued at $24. Baseus bonus gadgets generally tend to vary over time, in order that merchandise could also be completely different sooner or later or not obtainable in any respect. But for the time being, getting an additional set of funds ANC earbuds with a set of top-value clip-on buds that exceeded my expectations is a fairly good deal.
