While Bose app is great, it's not something my wife would ever use. Also $169 vs $279, quite a difference. I like the Bose design, better than APP and the Soapstone color would definitely be of my wife's preference BUT a major breaker is lack of multipoint support on these latest Bose QC earbuds. That means they cannot be paired to 2 devices simultaneously, which is a shame because I had old wireless Bose Soundsport (with wire between earbuds) and it had this feature.