Bose QC Ultra Earbuds: Enhanced Noise Cancellation, Superior Audio

Enhanced immersive sound and improved Bluetooth for popular, comfortable earbuds

Bose has upgraded its popular QuietComfort earbuds, introducing best-in-class noise cancelling and immersive audio features. Priced at £300 (€350/$300/A$450), the QC Ultra earbuds are £20 more than their predecessor, the QC Earbuds II, positioning them alongside top competitors from Sennheiser, Sony, and Apple.

While the QC Ultra headphones underwent significant changes, the earbuds received a subtle external update, featuring a few metallic accents. In terms of design, they closely resemble the Earbuds II, maintaining a relatively large size with flat stalks pointing towards the user’s mouth.

The amalgamation of silicone earbud tips and wings ensures a comfortable and secure fit in your ears. The box includes various sizes, allowing you to customize the fit, and the Bose Music app provides a fit test for added precision.

Touch-sensitive controls manage volume, playback, noise cancelling, and sound modes effectively. The battery life remains consistent at six hours of noise cancelling, with the case offering three full charges for up to 24 hours of playback, putting them in direct competition with top rivals.

Specifications

Water resistance: resistant to sweat (IPX4)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive)
Battery life: 6 hours (up to 24 hours with case)
Earbud dimensions: 17.2 x 30.5 x 22.4mm
Earbud weight: 6.24g each
Charging case dimensions: 59.4 x 66.3 x 26.7mm
Charging case weight: 59.8g
Case charging: USB-C

Superior noise cancellation with enhanced immersive audio

The earbuds deliver top-tier noise cancellation, rivaling even larger headphones. They effectively reduce unwanted hums, roars, and higher tones like keyboard clicks and ambient chatter, on par with the QC Earbuds II.

The “awareness” mode is impressive, providing a natural sound and an automatic loud-noise reduction system to prevent discomfort from sharp sounds. Similar to the Ultra headphones, the earbuds offer customizable modes, allowing you to create different combinations of noise cancellation and sound modes for quick switching.

Call quality is superb, effectively isolating your voice from background noise and maintaining a natural sound on both ends of the call.

The earbuds offer impressive sound quality, maintaining Bose’s signature clear and controlled audio processing. This processing adjusts the music balance based on the volume, ensuring a full audio experience even at lower listening levels. While they lean towards a bass-heavy profile, the Bose Music app provides an equalizer for users to customize and fine-tune the audio according to their preferences.

With the new immersive or spatial audio mode, the sounds emanate from virtual speakers surrounding you, creating a sense of space rather than directly streaming into your ears. The “still” mode synchronizes with head movements, maintaining the audio source at a fixed point ahead, enhancing realism. This feature significantly improves the immersive experience of movies and TV shows and is compatible with devices from various brands, unlike most systems.

Moreover, these earbuds represent one of Bose’s initial products supporting Google’s instant Bluetooth pairing and Qualcomm’s high-quality aptX Adaptive audio format, in addition to the standard SBC and AAC formats. These enhancements are particularly beneficial for Android or Windows users. As standard Bluetooth 5.3 earbuds, they are easy to pair using a button on the case. While either earbud can be used independently, they can only connect to a single device at a time.

Sustainability

Bose anticipates the batteries will endure over 500 full charge cycles, but they are non-replaceable, and the earbuds currently lack repair options, rendering them essentially disposable. While some replacement parts, such as ear tips (£15) and a charging case (£90), are accessible, the earbuds do not incorporate recycled materials. Although Bose does not provide individual product environmental impact reports, it does release annual sustainability reports. Additionally, the company offers discounts for returning malfunctioning products.

Price

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are priced at £299.95 (€349.95/$299/A$449.95).

In comparison, the QC Earbuds II are priced at £279.95, the Sony WF-1000XM5 is priced at £259, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 is priced at £189, the Jabra Elite 10 is priced at £230, Google Pixel Buds Pro are priced at £199, and Apple AirPods Pro 2 are priced at £229.

Verdict

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds maintain their reputation as the gold standard for noise-cancelling earbuds, effectively minimizing unwanted ambient sounds better than any other in the market.

They deliver impressive sound quality, reliable battery life, a secure and comfortable fit, and a compact case that’s only slightly larger than the best options out there.

The Ultra version adds a touch of flair with metallic accents. However, the significant upgrades include enhanced Bluetooth capabilities for Android and immersive audio across all platforms, providing a more realistic audio experience for TV and movies, though it might be hit or miss for music. While the added £20 to the price compared to the already excellent Earbuds II seems reasonable for those in the market for new earbuds, it may not justify an upgrade.

There are alternatives with superior sound quality, more tailored features for specific platforms, and more discreet designs. Given their higher price tag, it’s advisable to explore other options, but for effectively canceling out the noise during daily commutes, they remain a top choice.