Pros
- Affordable
- Comfortable, secure fit with upgraded slim C-ring and air cushions
- Good sound for the price
- They’re equipped with 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-calling performance
Cons
- Rounded case is a little slippery
- Can distort a bit at higher volumes
Not too long after the release of Bose’s premium-priced Ultra Open Earbuds, budget clip-on earbuds started appearing, and they sounded pretty mediocre and looked pretty cheap, too. But in the last several months, I’ve tested an increasing number of affordable versions of this new earring style of open true-wireless earbuds that sound surprisingly good. Case in point: Baseus’ Bowie MC2 buds, which list for $80 but can be had for $60 after you apply an instant $20-off coupon on their product page at Amazon or the company’s site.
Read more: The 6 Best Clip-On Earbuds I’ve Tested for 2026
The Bowie MC2 improves upon the earlier MC1 with superior sound and a design that’s a little less generic. (Don’t confuse it for the $10 cheaper MC2 Air buds, which are a slight step-down for sound and build quality.) They’re also a bit more comfortable, thanks to an upgraded “slim wave C-ring” and “air cushions” that come in three sizes.
Equipped with Bluetooth 6.0, they have an IP67 certification, which means the buds 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 volume. (You can customize the controls and adjust equalizer settings in the Baseus companion app.)
Enlarge Image
The Baseus Bowie MC2 are currently available in two color options: white or black.
Cleaner, slightly bigger sound
The buds offer a bit better performance to the Bowie MC1 Pro. I felt they sounded a little cleaner with slightly bigger sound overall and less distortion at higher volumes. (The MC2 has slightly larger 11-millimeter drivers instead of the 10.8mm driver found in the MC1 Pro.)
The sound does change a bit depending on where you place the buds on your ears, with a little bit of adjustment yielding more bass. These buds, like other clip-on open buds, aren’t designed for critical listening. But what’s notable is that the sound is now respectable, with decent bass and treble response along with fairly natural-sounding mids (where voices live). Because they’re open earbuds — and they sound open, which is good — they do better in quieter environments because ambient sound will leak into your ears and compete with whatever you’re listening to.
Enlarge Image
The buds in their charging case. Battery life is rated at up to 11.5 hours.
As far as competing models go, Earfun has improved the sound of its Clip 2 earbuds from its original Clip buds. However, they didn’t fit my ears quite as well as the Baseus Bowie MC2 buds, and the sound ended up coming across as a little recessed (less open) by comparison because the driver sat further outside my ear canal. I also thought the MC2’s sound was noticeably cleaner overall, particularly at higher volumes. Also, the bass response was better to my ears. Again, some of these sound differences may have been affected by the fit, but I’d still rate the Baseus buds higher for sound quality. (I manually pushed the drivers closer to my ear canals to optimize the sound quality to try to eliminate fit as a variable as much as I could.)
While not quite in the same league as Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, Shokz’ Open Dots or Baseus’ own Inspire XC1 clip-on buds, they’re only a very small step down for sound quality but cost a lot less.
Like the MC1 Pro, these have support for the LDAC audio codec (along with AAC and SBC) for Android devices and multipoint Bluetooth pairing. A low-latency gaming mode is also available.
Enlarge Image
The buds from another angle.
Good voice-calling performance and battery life
Voice-calling capabilities are also good; like the MC1 Pro, they have two microphones per bud. Callers told me they heard only minimal background noise, while my voice sounded acceptably clear when I spoke to them from the noisy streets of New York.
As for battery life, the buds are rated for up to 11.5 hours at moderate volume levels with bass boost engaged. (Baseus markets this as Super Bass 3.0.) That’s superior battery life to a lot of noise-canceling earbuds, which are generally in the 6 to 8 hour range. I kept the bass boost on when I was listening to music and the volume around 60% to 70%, so I didn’t quite hit the 11.5-hour mark and registered closer to around 10 hours of playback.
Enlarge Image
Testing them in the streets of New York.
Baseus Bowie MC2 final thoughts
Baseus is quickly becoming a leader in value headphones and earbuds, and its Bowie MC2 buds are easily among the best budget clip-on earbuds I’ve tested as of June 2026. They cost around $60 at Amazon, and Baseus also throws in a bonus item with your purchase. As of this writing, you can get Baseus BP1 Pro noise-canceling buds, which are valued at $24. Baseus bonus items have a tendency to change over time, so that item may be different in the future or not available at all. But at the moment, getting an extra set of budget ANC earbuds with a set of top-value clip-on buds that exceeded my expectations is a pretty nice deal.