Verdict
The same look , interference - cancellation and speech sound as the previous earbud , but the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are still one of the best true wireless earbuds you could buy
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
TheBose QuietComfort Earbuds IIwere one of thebest interference - cancelling earbuds , so how could Bose improve on excellency ?
It come up with the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds , which at first glance look superposable but beneath the surface they ’ve been muckle of changes .
There ’s nowSnapdragon Soundsupport for gamy caliber speech sound over Bluetooth , and Bose ’s own attempt at spatial in its Immersive Audio applied science .
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That would seem a fair enough raise but do the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds still excuse the in high spirits damage ?
Price
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds went on sales event in 2023 for £ 299 / $ 299 / € 299 / CA$379 / AU$449 .
It does get brush aside quite often , so in the UK it falls to £ 219 which is the same as the Sony WF-1000XM5 .
Design
Bose has n’t tampered with the aesthetics of the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds apart from establish the opprobrious variant a silver lick of key on both the earphones and the charging sheath logotype .
I do , however , feel they fit slightly better than the previous buds , which I imagine is down to the tweaked design of the stability bands . The precursor made me itch my ears after a while but I ’ve had no discomfort with this twain .
Packaged with the earphones are three pairs of tips ( small , intermediate , and large ) , alongside three pairs of the stability bands in the same size to well fit your ear .
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Controls cover playback ( taps ) and volume ( swipe up or down ) , and appear more precise than they were on the QC Earbuds II ( this time spigot are n’t confuse for swipes ) . Sometimes touch controls can be strike or overlook but here they ’re more hit than miss .
The earphone arerated to IPX4to cover against sweat and rainwater , the guinea pig is the same design as well . color are a alternative of fateful , bloodless , and blue and Diamond 60thvariant ( grey ) .
Features
Like the QC Earbuds II the QC Earbuds Ultra supportBluetooth 5.3 , withSnapdragon Soundadded to this model . depend on your twist , there ’s a pick of SBC through to aptX Adaptive or aptX Lossless .
When the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds first launched there was no Bluetooth multipoint livelihood , but over the form of 2024 that feature was impart . Google Fast Pairsupport makes it quick to unite to an Android equipment .
Call timbre remains an odd area for Bose headphone . An update earlier in 2024 was said to play in car find out to aid latch onto voices but I have n’t bump the overall performance to have changed much .
Before the update , the person on the other end said the call timbre was the big he had find out . Cars and large vehicles give out by sounded as if they were screw and crash yesteryear , my voice competing against the noise .
postal service update and the performance remained like , so while pick up of my voice is upstanding , any loud noise that came past was a distraction .
barrage spirit is the same – six hour per explosive charge and 24 hours with the showcase included . A battery drain over two hours confirmed that with 70 % of the battery left . There ’s no wireless excite support – in fact like theOpen Ultra Earbuds , you ’ll need a bargain an additional wireless charging case cover ( £ 49.95 ) .
The Bose app ( formerly Bose Music ) remain the same sleek and simple experience that enables customisation and personalisation of the QC Ultra Earbuds . you may produce several haphazardness - cancelling profile ( with tradition epithet ) , make shortcuts on each bud , alter the sound with presets or the three - band EQ , perform the Earbud Seal Test to ensure the earphones are tucked in , as well as calibrate the Immersive Audio feature .
Bose ’s Immersive Audio become two-channel audio three - dimensional to make it sound as if music was being played right in front of you . you could take between Still and Motion mode , the former mean medicine stays fixed as you plough your promontory while the latter allows euphony to switch so it ’s always centred as you move . Turn your read/write head right and medicine will sound as if it ’s coming from the leftfield .
Noise Cancellation
When I first reviewed the QuietComfort Earbuds Ultra , I found its interference - cancellation performance strange . They did n’t delete noise well than the QuietComfort Earbuds II , do worse in pretty much every aspect .
Having received a raw sample , it turns out that the former sampling I had must have been buggy , as this is back up to the same levels of performance as the QuietComfort Earbuds II .
Not many noises slip past these bud , shush nearby conversations and they remain imperious on the London Underground where even the cheap part of the Victoria Line are blocked out so euphony remain audible .
jazz interference is comfortably managed , and Bose ’s ActiveSense applied science rejoinder , cancelling noise when the Aware mode is engaged to mechanically adjust the noise - cancelling performance . For it to work , the In - Ear Detection characteristic needs to be enable in the Bose app .
The Aware mode is course - leading , which is about as raw and clear as any bud on the market .
So while I intend the Bose propose the haphazardness - cancellation of any true radiocommunication on the market , the competition is not far behind , and in some cases are on par . The Technics EAH - AZ100 are virtually equal in terms of disturbance - offset ( The Technics ’ foil style is just a small less well-defined ) ; while theJBL Tour Pro 3and Sony WF-1000XM5 are not too far behind either .
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Sound Quality
devote how standardized the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are to their predecessors , you may wonder whether Bose made any changes to the sound . As far as I can take heed , no changes have been made .
The original QuietComfort Earbuds were neutral in tone , astute and lean in their presentment , but that changed with the QuietComfort Earbuds II , which extend more mainstream . That ’s acquit over to the Ultra Earbuds , with bass that has a good sense of weightiness but without overdoing it .
That down in the mouth goal presence is bigger than either theSony WF-1000XM5orSennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 , the midrange append with clarity and detail while highs are sharply and clearly delimit in a track such as GoGo Penguin ’s Erased by Sunlight without outwit . The Bose achieve a effective proportion across the frequency kitchen range .
They beat the Sennheiser for clarity and item , though perhaps do n’t quite offer the same levels of insight as the Sony or the Technics AZ100 – at least with the midrange . But the balanced operation the Bose put up across the frequency range ensures they ’re always an piquant listen .
Listening to Benjamin Clementine ’s Nemesis ( made popular byApple TV+‘s The Morning Show ) , there ’s a adorable sense of particular and texture to the woodblock - sound instruments that start the song .
Clementine ’s interpreter is pose understandably and swimmingly , the soundstage is heart-to-heart and roomy – the only nitpick I ’d have is the Bose are n’t particularly dynamical on a major or minor scale .
Neither with Clementine ’s Nemesis or Gregory Porter ’s Concorde do the earbuds really capture the shifts or soaring notes in the vocal inflexions of each functioning .
But they do boast a ok sensory faculty of rhythm with faster - flowing tracks – not the most energetic , but for certain more musical and flowing than the original Bose earbuds .
The Immersive Audio feature expands the soundstage and creates a sensory faculty of depth , but like on theQC Ultra Headphonesand the Ultra Open Earbuds , while the carrying out is reproducible , the levels of clarity and point are n’t as high – music sounds a little softer with it on . But the immersive effect is fun and works – it ’s just not quite an all important feature … yet .
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Should you buy it?
These Bose are an fantabulous ANC genuine tuner , with class leading ANC and transparency modes
If you use the earbuds for calls , the QC Ultra Earbuds execution could be safe
Final Thoughts
Despite the new characteristic , I do n’t think the QC Ultra Earbuds are substantially better than the previous bud . The sound quality is jolly much the same despite the improver ofSnapdragon Sound , and the noise - cancellation remains class - head .
A previous version of this reveiw stated that the noise - cancellation was n’t as good as theQuietComfort Earbuds II , but it turns out I had a pair that had a expert issue .
The Immersive Audio feature is fun , but does n’t put up the same degree of clarity and detail that two-channel music provides , and the wireless performance is fantabulous but I still find the call caliber falls poor of the best such as theTechnics AZ100andJBL Tour Pro 3 .
The QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are an excellent pair of earbuds , and Bose ’s honorable yet .
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How we test
We screen every yoke of headphones we review thoroughly over an extended time period of time . We use diligence - standard test to equate feature properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to review a product .
Find out more about how we test in ourethics policy .
FAQs
There is n’t any wireless charging support for the Ultra Earbuds , but if you purchase the Bose Wireless Charging case then you’re able to call on the original typeface into one that can be wireless charge .
Full Specs
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