Bose-Infused Baseus Inspire XH1 Headphones Exceeded My Expectations

8.1/ 10
SCORE

Baseus inspire XH1

Benefits

• Comfortable fit with an attractive, sturdy design

• Affordable price

• Very good sound for the price

• Decent performance in noise cancellation and voice calls

• Strong battery life

• Hard case included

Disadvantages

• Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio mode doesn’t really improve the sound

• Noise cancellation could be a little better

• No USB-C audio sensors or ear detection that automatically pause your music when you remove the earbuds

The budget brand Baseus offers two new headphones for 2025: the Inspire XP1 And Inspire XC1 — and a set of full-size headphones, the Inspire XH1 reviewed here, all of which feature Sound by Bose and offer good value for money.

Learn more: Best Noise Canceling Headphones of 2025

Best known for its affordable power banks and chargers, Baseus is somewhat new to the audio market, although it has some earphones and earphones which costs less than $75. The new Bose-infused models I tested represent a departure for the brand as it ventures into more premium territory. For its part, Bose has also collaborated with a handful of other affordable audio brands, gradually expanding its “Sound by Bose” initiative.

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Like the Inspire XP1 and XC1 earbuds, the Inspire Available in a few different color options, not only are the

I had to refer to the instructions to figure out that you held down the volume buttons to skip forward and backward through tracks. But overall, the controls for playing and switching between noise cancellation are good, and the Baseus companion app for iOS and Android is simple to use. Additionally, the headphones come with a hard case, which isn’t always a standard feature at this price.

Good sound quality for the price

The sound quality of budget headphones and earphones has steadily improved in recent years. Although the Inspire XH1 sits more in a mid-range price category, its sound compares well to more expensive headphones.

Equipped with 35mm drivers, the headphones indeed offer Bose-type sound, rather well balanced and offering good clarity and punchy bass, as well as a fairly wide soundstage. The sound lacks the more articulate refinement and depth of higher-end headphones, but the XH1s are tuned to work well with a variety of music genres and have enough warmth to prevent listening fatigue.

They have a slightly V-shaped sound profile, with slightly boosted highs and lows and slightly recessed mids (where the vocals live). But the sound is less serious than Nothing is CMF Headphone Prowhich is also good value for money. However, I prefer the sound of the Inspire XH1 because it is a bit clearer and defined.

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You can change the sound profile slightly in the Baseus companion app for iOS and Android, which includes a “Sound Fit” test to create a personalized sound profile tailored to your hearing. Android users have the option to use the higher-resolution LDAC audio codec (SBC and ACC audio codecs are also supported), and there is a low-latency mode for gaming and watching videos, as well as a volume-limiting hearing protection setting.

Baseus touts the headset’s Dolby Spatial Audio feature, but I was a little disappointed with the spatial audio mode because it didn’t seem to improve the sound quality. I should note that these headphones do not have the more advanced spatial audio with head tracking. They also don’t have USB-C audio, although they come with a cord for wired listening.

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Average noise cancellation…

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd generation) are best in class when it comes to noise cancellation, right next to The Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones for ANC. Alas, the Inspire XH1 falls far short of offering top-notch noise cancellation. You get a good passive seal from the well-padded memory foam earcups, but the earbuds did only a good job of dampening the hum/rumble of an HVAC unit in my apartment at their highest ANC setting.

Although they reduced some background noise when navigating the streets of New York and its subway system, the previously mentioned Bose and Sony headphones (and Apple’s AirPods Pro 3) made the XH1’s noise cancellation about half as effective in comparison. I would give the noise cancellation a B-.

…but decent transparency mode and good voice call performance

The transparency mode isn’t top-notch – it just can’t match the natural sound of Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 in their transparency mode – but it sounds natural enough. By this I mean that when you have the headphones in transparency mode, which allows sounds from the outside world to enter your ears, you hear sounds pretty close to what you hear when you take the headphones off.

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I felt better about the XH1’s voice call performance after testing it in some pretty harsh conditions. Equipped with five microphones and the required AI noise reduction algorithms, they did a very good job of reducing background noise on the noisy streets of New York. Callers said my voice sounded a little digitized and robotic at times, but they could hear me quite clearly. I’d rate the voice call performance a B+ or even an A-, and they did better than the Inspire XP1 earbuds for voice calls (I rated the XP1 a B for voice call performance).

Battery life is another strong point. The headphones have a battery life of 100 hours with noise cancellation turned off and up to 50 hours with noise cancellation turned on at moderate volume levels. I fell a little below 50 hours in my battery test (it was more like 48 hours), but that’s still pretty good.

Baseus Inspire XH1 Final Thoughts

While I can’t say I was totally blown away by any facet of the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones, they are pretty competent overall.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for a set of comfortable, well-designed over-ear headphones that mostly offer solid performance across the board and cost significantly less than high-end models from Sony, Bose, and others, these certainly fit the bill.