I've owned the QC20i (two of them actually). The battery was never the issue. The durability was! I take a great care of all my electronics. And no matter how careful I was, the QC20i never lasted more than 2 years without some sort of connection issues.
Just as another anecdotal data point, my QC20i lasted 2 years, and then I tried to clean them, and the little metal grill went away. I thought it would be good to still have them, so I went to a local Bose store, and they were willing to fix it, which was pretty nice. I've had mine since 2015 and they've been around the world with me multiple times.
Agreed. I've had 3 or 4 of them over the years - great headset and in particular noise cancellation (airplanes, trains, etc.), but man, they break so easily. The plastic on the "brick" comes off, the little plastic ridge that holds the ear tips in place has come off on one side (so the ear tip falls off constantly), if you have the thing plugged in with the airplane adapter to the socket in your armrest and stand up, the whole 3.5 mm plug can rip off, the cable frays, etc. etc.
oh I had a pair of those for YEARS. LOVED them. Battery lasted ages. great small size for traveling. I wish they had a better form factor (I hate that neck thing format).
Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones, Apple Devices, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X9KV0HU
They are $250, wired and have a small battery brick that is not replaceable that is charged by micro usb.
The newer one by Bose is one of those neck things and is $300.