Baseus XH1 Headphones Review: Better Than Anything Else At The Price

Bose wants to expand its reach, but it's doing so without actually manufacturing new products. Over the last few years, we've been seeing more products with so-called "Sound by Bose," like the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds. The latest Bose-tuned headphones come from a lesser-known company — Baseus — in the form of the Baseus Inspire XH1.

The Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones are available for $150, which puts them squarely in the midrange category, and makes them a whole lot cheaper than the best that the likes of Sony and Bose have to offer. But just because they have an audio response that's tuned by Bose, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're good headphones. How do the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones actually perform, and do they beat the competition at this price point? I've been using them for a while to find out.

The Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones are designed to look and feel premium, and they achieve that quite well. They're largely built from plastic, but the plastic feels strong and high-end, and I like the matte feel. That's not to say they're the most high-end in look and feel, though. These headphones may seem like they're built to compete with the high-end — but they're actually midrange, and for their price point, they look quite nice. Plenty of headphones look and feel cheap at under $200, but the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones do better than most.

There are plenty of controls, too. On the left earcup, you'll find a power button, along with noise control button, a USB-C port for charging, and an aux port for wired listening. On the right earcup are the playback controls — including a volume rocker that doubles as a way to skip forward and back when you hold down on the buttons and a play/pause button.

The control selection isn't bad, and you can customize other controls for the play/pause button in the Baseus app. There, you'll be able to select controls for double-tapping, holding, and triple-tapping the button.

The Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones have plenty of padding in the ear cups and under the headband, and as a whole, they're comfortable enough. I was able to wear the headphones for hours without finding them uncomfortable.

But they weren't quite the most comfortable headphones out there. The headband has a soft-touch covering, but it's slightly rubberized, which can tug a little on your hair from time to time. The ear cups also got a little warm, though to be fair, that's not uncommon. These are minor complaints, though, and for the most part, the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones are comfortable and lightweight.

Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones is their battery life. The headphones can last a whopping 100 hours on a single charge  — though, to be clear, that's with ANC turned off. With ANC on, they'll hit 65 hours, which is still very good.

It's not the best out there — the Marshall Monitor II ANC headphones hit 70 hours with ANC, for example — but the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones are in the upper echelons of high battery life, which is very helpful. They charge decently quickly, too. A 10-minute charge will get you 12 hours of usage, according to Baseus, so it's easy to top up in a pinch.

The headphones work with the Baseus app, which I really like. It has a clean design with simple controls, and it's easy to find the settings you want to find. From the main screen of the app, with the headphones connected, you can switch noise modes and toggle settings like Dolby Atmos and Low Latency Mode. You can also dive into setting for audio and controls.

Of course, there's also an EQ that you can access in the app. By default, the headphones have the "Sound by Bose" tuning, but there are six other presets, and you can create a custom EQ using eight bands ranging from 100Hz to 10kHz. It's a solid EQ — eight bands is higher than many alternatives, including from Bose itself, which only offers a three-band EQ for its headphones that aren't labelled with specific frequencies (they're simply labelled "bass," "mid," and "treble"). Generally, the app works well and is easy to use, which is great to see at this price point.

The main event, of course, is audio response, especially considering the "Sound by Bose" tuning. To be clear, it's not exactly clear what that branding means — it could simply be an EQ curve, or it could be Bose actually having a hand in tuning the drivers. Regardless, the headphones sound great. They deliver deep, powerful bass, reasonably crisp highs, and, as a whole, an enjoyable listening experience.

Of course, they're not the most natural-sounding, especially with the default "Sound by Bose" tuning. You'll get exaggerated bass, and scooped mids, and I prefer something slightly flatter. Thankfully, I was able to get a decent tuning with the EQ, which helped.

The bass response in particular was impressive. The headphones were able to reproduce even deeper sub-bass frequencies — and did so better than plenty of headphones twice their price. The high-end response wasn't quite as impressive. There was a decent amount of detail, and things like cymbals and other percussion were crisp enough, but a little more high-end extension and clarity would have been helpful. Even with the EQ, it was difficult to dial in a response with crisp, detailed highs. The soundstage was a little limiting, too. Instruments sounded slightly overly layered and cluttered, though it wasn't over the top.

The noise cancellation on offer by the headphones was pretty good, but that's an area where Bose didn't have a hand. The ANC was able to block out consistent noise relatively well, making them pretty good for planes, for example. But it didn't cut out anywhere near as much noise as the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones, which are the best-in-class right now. The transparency mode wasn't all that great, either — it didn't do a very good job at reproducing high frequencies, and it introduced some hiss into the mix.

The headphones also support Dolby Audio spatial audio tech — though I didn't love using it. It sounded fine, and it can make audio sound a little more immersive, but it also sounded a little fake. That's not uncommon for spatial audio algorithms. All that said, in context, these headphones have a lot to offer. No, the ANC is not as effective as on Sony's headphones — but those headphones are triple the price. Frankly, the ANC and audio response was excellent for headphones in this price range.

The Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones are excellent headphones in this price point. They have a premium design, sound great, and have handy features like a solid EQ and well-designed app. They don't match Bose's self-built headphones, like the QuietComfort Ultra headphones, but they seriously compete with headphones in the $150 price range, and even beat plenty of headphones under $250 or so.

The competition

The majority of headphones at $150 don't come close to the quality on offer by the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones. For example, the Anker Soundcore Space One Pro headphones retail for $200, but don't have anywhere near the same battery life, plus they don't sound as good. For anyone looking for headphones at under $200, the new headphones from Baseus are the way to go.

Should I buy the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones?

Yes. They're excellent headphones at their price point.