{"Mpow"? Never heard of them!} Exactly.
And you would think there would be no comparison. I mean c'mon. It's Bose.
But before I begin, full disclosure:
The Bose were free. Like, I found them on the ground kind of free. So, to be fair, they could be like, super old, possibly damaged, who knows. You think I'd just up and buy $150 earphones? HA.
The Fit
The Mpow have an over-the-ear design with their drivers kind of sitting over your ear at a downward angle, while the Bose have a little piece of silicone that fits inside your ear to help them stay put. The eartips on the Mpow are stiff, while the tips on the Bose are super soft and malleable.
I have to give it to Bose for comfort. They are way more comfortable to wear over long periods than the Mpows. However, I think the Mpows stay better, and since they are both "sport", that kind of makes a big difference. Plus, the over-ear design reduces movement noise.
The Wire
And on that note, the wire that connects the two sides are very different in each brand. In the Bose, the wire is soft and floppy and a little sticky. It reminds me of a wet spaghetti noodle, and it's super annoying because it sticks to your neck and they're impossible to properly fold up to put away. The Mpows, on the other hand, have a kind of weird pre-folded design like a Pretzel that you have to forcefully unwind when you want to use them. Even after using them for years, I still have to deduce how to unfold them each time and check to make sure I'm putting them in the right ears. But as annoying as that is, the wire is stiff and non-sticky, and barely noticeable on my neck. Plus, it springs back to that pretzel shape when you put them away.
Mpow wins this one.
Connectivity
Both units connect to my phone with no hassle, even on initial setup. The Bose talks to you (which is kind of creepy, actually) and tells you what it's connected to. The problem I have with them goes beyond a connection to my phone, however. It has a + and - on the wire that are inoperable for volume control. Now, to be fair, it may just be my unit. I mean, it's entirely possible that the person that owned them before me got all pissed when they stopped being able to control the volume of their music using the wire and tossed them on the ground. I mean, they did spend $150 on this shit lol. But it's also entirely possible that it may just be an iOS compatible device and I may not be able to control volume this way. Which is complete bullshit. I probably wouldn't be able to answer calls with it either. The Mpow has its volume control on the right driver. You can answer a phone call with it too. But you can't pause or skip any tracks, unfortunately. But as it stands, it at least works.
So another point goes to Mpow.
Sound
The moment you've all been waiting for. The Bose has to win this one, right? I mean, what else did I spend $150 for (hehehe) if not for the expensive drivers in the earbuds, amirite?
Well hold your horses, buddy. It's not that simple. It's true that I'm not a true Hi-Fi aficionado. I don't spend the big bucks on my music tracks. (In fact, I don't spend any bucks on my music tracks). But I did want to truly put the Bose to the test to see what all these Hi-Fi shenanigans were about. I wanted to know if I, the lowly introvert*, could make out the difference between cheapo earbuds and a good quality pair. I even downloaded a couple of apps that would test the ranges of my earbuds.
And the truth of the matter is, is that I couldn't. I believe the Bose has a lower bass range of an extra -5db before I stopped being able to hear it, but that was about it. I tried a couple of songs that had a good range of sounds (from Classical to Trance) but the only difference that I could discern was that the Bose pair are inherently quieter (as in, I had to turn them up a notch for the same sound volume as my Mpows). So that, coupled with the fact that I can't control the volume using the inline controls means that they're pretty worthless to me.
So who wins?
Actually, the super cheap and light wired ones I carry with me when my wireless ones run out of juice. Plugging those cheapies in gives me better sound than anything wireless that I could provide. But no really, the Mpows win hands down. It makes me really glad that I didn't actually spend $150 on these Bose ones, because I would have been sorely disappointed!
*Yes I know that didn't make any sense. I did that on purpose.
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