I’ve been testing these cheap open earbuds for weeks, and they have me wondering why you’d spend more on expensive rivals from Shokz and Bose
Baseus Bowie MC2: Two-minute review I’ve tested a fair few of the more expensive options we recommend in our best open earbuds roundup , such as the Cleer Arc 5 and, more recently, the Shokz OpenDots Air . But a new release has me wondering why you’d spend much more money on a form factor which, honestly, hasn’t changed that much. When I tested the Baseus Inspire XC1 last year, I thought they were a great affordable alternative to the best on the market, but the brand said “hold my beer” with its newer, even-cheaper buds. These are the Baseus Bowie MC2, which cost much less than the XC1; they’re some of the lowest-cost open earbuds I’ve tested to date, but you’re not getting too much of a feature or audio downgrade with the greatly-reduced price. Is that because these are secretly super-buds, or because, at the end of the day, there’s really not much scope for variation in any earbuds of this fo...