Baseus Bowie 30 Max Review: Premium ANC Headphones With A Competitive Price

It's easy to get headphones wrong, especially if you're on a budget. You could find the most extravagant headphones from bigger name brands, but these will likely cost you. For example, we reviewed the Sony WH-1000XM5 and determined that it's one of the bead headphones on the market. When you spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of headphones, you can (generally) safely assume you're getting a high-end pair.

There are more affordable models available in the market, but you run the risk of getting poor build quality or mediocre sound output (or both), even from popular brands. Aside from that, you'll likely get zero features ­— don't expect to get active noise cancelation (ANC), sound profiles, or spatial audio.

But Baseus is challenging this with its Bowie 30 Max Noise Canceling Headphones. This is the brand's most premium offering, but comes at less than half the price (on Amazon) of top-end headphone models from popular brands. It also has several features like ANC, multiple sound profiles, spatial audio, and more. Baseus sent us the Bowie 30 Max for testing, so let's check out the headphones and see if it can deliver a great sound experience with no compromises.

The first thing that'll probably catch your attention with the Bowie 30 Max is its price. It launched at $149.99, which already a great value for a premium pair of headphones. However, the headphone's current Amazon price is just $99.99, and if you visit the Baseus website, you'll find the Bowie 30 Max for as low as $69.99. At that price, these headphones become quite competitive versus the entry-level offerings of brands like Sony and Bose.

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Despite its affordable price, the Bowie 30 Max still features excellent build quality. Baseus used high-quality plastics and metal for the band and earcups, while you also get memory foam pads wrapped in faux leather. The band also has a thin layer of memory foam It's also built well, meaning you won't hear any creaking when you're wearing it and you're moving about.

One of the concerns about using headphones for an extended period is the weight, but despite weighing a little over 320 grams (about 0.7 pounds), the Baseus 30 Max is pretty comfortable. I could wear it for over three hours and don't feel any bit of discomfort. More importantly the earcups rotate around 120 degrees and the band length is generously adjustable, ensuring that it'll fit just about any head. This makes the Bowie 30 Max headphones perfect for use at home or in the office.

It's also comfortable to use when you're traveling, but you might have some trouble when packing it away. That's because Baseus did not include a carrying case or even just a drawstring bag to protect the headphones. In fact, I use the cloth bag of my old pair of headphones to carry the Bowie 30 Max on the plane. Its earcups do fold up, at least, to save space in your bag; but it's still not as compact as I would like it to be.

The Baseus 30 Max gives you two connection options: wireless Bluetooth 5.4 or through a wired connection via its 3.5mm auxiliary input on the right earcup. It also has a USB-C port right beside the 3.5mm port, but it's only used for charging the device. The right earcup also hosts the headphone's various controls: it has a sliding power switch, making it easier to turn on or off, and the play/pause and volume control buttons right under it. On the other hand, the left earcup plays host to the single ANC button, which lets you switch between Transparency, ANC Off, and ANC On modes.

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I actually prefer this layout better than touch-sensitive controls, as these tactile buttons make it easier for me to control the headphones. The volume buttons also let you go the next and previous tracks, by pressing the buttons for a second and a half. And when you double-press the play/pause button, you can switch the Spatial Audio setting between Off, Fixed, and Head Tracked. Finally, triple pressing the play/pause button will let you switch between music and game modes to reduce the headphone's latency.

The Baseus 30 Max offers a good sound stage for the price of the headphones. Of course, it's no audiophile headphone, so you'll find options out there that sound better. But at its discounted price, I would say that you're getting great value with its sound quality. I have an eclectic taste in music, and I find that this headphone lets me enjoy my tracks no matter what I'm listening to.

When I listen to orchestral music, I could hear every minute detail with clarity, but it also delivers head-pounding base when I play pop and rock sounds. In the meantime, conversations in movies remain clear and legible, allowing you to enjoy watching without disturbing the people around you. The Baseus 30 Max also has a couple of features that make it highly suitable for gaming.

It has a low latency mode which you can activate in the Baseus app. This avoids the slight delay you get with older Bluetooth headphones that makes them unusable for gaming. But more importantly, the Bowie 30 Max offers spatial audio, which you can activate by double-pressing the play button. When head tracking is activated, you get a more immersive experience as the Bowie 30 Max simulates sound as if they're coming from specific locations around you. Although you can use this feature when listening to music or watching a movie, it's also useful if you're a gamer with a large display or multiple monitors. That way, you can get accurate audio cues even if you're looking at another part of the screen or at a different monitor.

The Baseus app lets you fully control the Bowie 30 Max. It will show you the remaining battery left, as well as change settings like Spatial Audio and ANC, which you can already directly do on the headphones. However, it also lets you access a few extra settings and modes, like Bass Boost and changing what the play/pause button does. But more importantly, you could change the headphones' equalizer setting on the app, too.

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When you tap on EQ mode in the app, you get five default options: Baseus Classic, Clear Vocals, Hi-Fi Live, Pop, and Rock Classic. But if none of these satisfy you, you could create a custom sound profile in the app. You get eight sliders for frequencies that range from 100 all the way to 10K 10Hz. The app also lets you save different profiles, so you could have create multiple equalizer settings for different use cases.

The Bowie 30 Max boasts a 65-hour battery life with 70% volume and ANC off, which should be more than enough for seven days of average use. This drops down to 50 hours if you turn on ANC, but even if you have a two-hour commute daily, a single charge should be enough for 25 days. Head tracking effects will reduce battery life to less than 35 hours, but it would still be more than adequate, especially if you primarily use the Bowie 30 Max at home.

Charging the headphones is also pretty easy, especially since it has a USB-C port for power. Unfortunately, it switches off when you charge it, meaning you really have to take it off when you're out power. Thankfully, it charges pretty quickly; it took me less than 45 minutes to get it from near empty to full. A five-minute charge should be enough to get enough juice to enjoy a movie, so, even if you're forget to top-up the headphone's battery, you don't have to wait long to enjoy using it.

The Bowie 30 Max is a great option if you're sticking to a budget but still want to treat yourself to a nice pair of headphones. The sound quality that it delivers is more than enough for most users, plus it has a few extra features that makes listening more immersive for both audio, video, and gameplay. It also has a solid build, and I feel that this pair of headphones would last a few years of regular use.

It does have a few shortcomings, though, like the less-than-compact folded form, lack of multi-device connectivity, and the fact that you can't use it while you're charging it. Nevertheless, Baseus already offered the Bowie 30 Max on Amazon at a good price at launch for around $150. And with all the discounts being offered on it right now (at $99 when this article is set to be published), Bowie 30 Max deliver some of the best value in headphones on the market today.