The Baseus Bowie MC2 open-back headphones are easily one of the most budget-friendly clip-on models, offering surprisingly good sound and voice call performance.
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David Carnoy Editor-in-Chief/Reviews
Editor-in-Chief David Carnoy has been a core member of CNET’s Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He is also an expert in electronic reading and publishing and the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All titles are available as Kindle eBooks, iBooks, Kobo, and audiobooks.
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Baseus Bowie MC2
Benefits
- Affordable
- Comfortable, secure fit with improved slim C-ring and air cushions
- Good sound for the price
- They feature Bluetooth 6.0 and are fully waterproof and dustproof with an IP67 rating
- Physical button for playback and volume control
- Solid battery life and decent voice call performance
Disadvantages
- The rounded case is a bit slippery
- May distort a bit at higher volumes
Shortly after Bose’s high-end ultra open-back headphones were released, budget clip-on headphones started appearing, and they sounded pretty mediocre and also looked pretty cheap. But over the past few months, I’ve been testing a growing number of affordable versions of this new style of truly wireless open-back earrings that sound surprisingly good. Concrete example: Baseus Bowie MC2 Budswhich costs $80 but can be had for $60 after applying an instant $20 off coupon to their product page on Amazon or the company’s website.
Learn more: The 6 best clip-on headphones I tested for 2026
The Bowie MC2 improves on the previous MC1 with superior sound and a slightly less generic design. (Don’t confuse it with the $10 cheaper MC2 Air buds, which represent a slight drop in sound and build quality.) They’re also a bit more comfortable, thanks to an improved “thin wave C-ring” and “air cushions” available in three sizes.
Equipped with Bluetooth 6.0, they feature an IP67 certification, meaning the headphones are fully waterproof and dustproof, making them suitable for runners and bikers. I also like that they have a small physical control button on each earbud to control playback and adjust the volume. (You can customize controls and adjust EQ settings in the Baseus companion app.)
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The Baseus Bowie MC2 are currently available in two color options: white or black.
David Carnoy/CNETCleaner, slightly more powerful sound
The buds offer slightly better performance at Bowie MC1Pro. I felt they sounded a bit cleaner with a slightly bigger overall sound and less distortion at higher volumes. (The MC2 has slightly larger 11-millimeter drivers instead of the MC1 Pro’s 10.8mm driver.)
The sound changes a bit depending on where you place the headphones on your ears, with a little adjustment to get more bass. These headphones, like other open-back clip-on headphones, are not designed for critical listening. But what’s notable is that the sound is now respectable, with decent bass and treble response as well as a fairly natural-sounding midrange (where the vocals live). Because they’re open-back headphones — and they sound open, which is nice — they work best in quieter environments, because ambient sound will seep into your ears and compete with whatever you’re listening to.
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The headphones in their charging case. Battery life is estimated at 11.5 hours.
David Carnoy/CNETWhen it comes to competing models, Earfun has improved the sound of its Excerpt 2 original sound headphones Clip buds. However, they didn’t fit my ears as well as the Baseus Bowie MC2 headphones, and the sound ended up sounding a little recessed (less open) in comparison because the driver sat further outside of my ear canal. I also found the MC2’s sound to be cleaner overall, especially at higher volumes. Additionally, the bass response was better to my ears. Again, some of these sound differences may have been affected by fit, but I would still rate the Baseus headphones higher for sound quality. (I manually pushed the speakers closer to my ear canals to optimize sound quality to try to eliminate adjustment as a variable as much as possible.)
While not quite in the same category as Bose’s Ultra Open headphones, Shokz open points or that of Baseus Inspire XC1 Clip-on headphones are only a very small step down in sound quality but cost a lot less.
Like the MC1 Pro, these support the LDAC audio codec (along with AAC and SBC) for Android devices and multi-point Bluetooth pairing. A low latency gaming mode is also available.
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The buds from another angle.
David Carnoy/CNETGood voice call performance and good battery life
Voice calling capabilities are also good; like the MC1 Pro, they have two microphones per earbud. Callers told me they heard only minimal background noise, while my voice was quite clear when speaking to them from the noisy streets of New York.
As for battery life, the earbuds last up to 11.5 hours at moderate volume levels with the bass boost enabled. (Baseus markets it as Super Bass 3.0.) That’s more battery life than many noise-canceling headphones, which typically last between 6 and 8 hours. I kept the bass boost when listening to music and the volume between 60-70%, so I didn’t really hit the 11.5 hour mark and got closer to around 10 hours of playback.
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Test them on the streets of New York.
David Carnoy/CNETBaseus Bowie MC2 Final Thoughts
Baseus is quickly becoming a leader in quality headphones and earbuds, and its Bowie MC2 headphones are easily among the best budget clip-on headphones I’ve tested as of June 2026. They cost around $60 on Amazon, and Baseus is also offering a bonus item with your purchase. As of this writing, you can get Baseus BP1 Pro noise-cancelling headphones, valued at $24. Baseus bonus items tend to change over time, so this item may be different in the future or not available at all. But for now, getting an extra set of budget ANC earbuds with a top-rated clip-on earbud set that exceeded my expectations is a pretty good deal.
Editor-in-Chief/Reviews
Editor-in-Chief David Carnoy has been a core member of CNET’s Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He is also an expert in electronic reading and publishing and the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All titles are available as Kindle eBooks, iBooks, Kobo, and audiobooks. See full bio
