Design & Construction

The Bose QuietComfort Series is getting a new flagship and this time, it is replacing the Noise-Cancelling Headphones 700. This is the QuietComfort Ultra and its certainly does look promising. Diving straight into the design, the QuietComfort Ultra retains the best about the original QC headphones: a soft, flexible metal headband and a premium leather headband. The sleek yet premium aluminium arm extender slides smoothly and has enough resistance for the earcups not to shift the set length. Both earcups bear the printed Bose logo with the headphones having the same soft, thick, and deep leather cushions which is meant for providing a comfortable experience, even for users who wear spectacles like myself. The depth of the earcups are significant; of which your ears will never touch any part of the inside fabric and I got to say, the leather fits snugly around the head with no clamping force. Onto the exterior of the headphones, it gives off this luxurious feel and subtle elegance with a matte-like finish, although made up of mostly plastic, to keep lightweight at 250g. Now, onto the most classic design of all time, the QuietComfort Headphones still stows flat and upwards into a much more compact form. The included hardshell carrying case has with a fabric side compartment for cables to store our 1.2mm 2.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable for wired use and the USB-A to USB-C cable for charging with no airplane adapter included this time. Now back to the headphones. it is all good from here as we have all our familiar controls and buttons. On the left earcup, there is the 2.5mm input and USB-C port at the bottom while the power and multi-function button is at the back of the right earcup itself. The multi-function button allows for playback controls where a single press play/pause, a double press skips forward and a triple press skips backwards with a triple press while a long press will cycle through different noise-cancelling modes of defaults of Quiet for full ANC performance and Aware for transparency mode and more. Controlling the loudness can be done through the sliding touchpad just beside the buttons. A swipe upwards will increase the volume and downwards will decrease it; long pressing the middle of the touchpad will switch between Immersive Audio modes. The QC Ultra supports Bluetooth Multi-point connection, so you can listen to music on your laptop and take calls on your phone. If you like to switch sources, a simple tap on the power button does the job. In terms of call controls, a single press on the multi-function button will answer a call as well as an incoming second call, putting the first on hold, while a double press will end/decline the call. While in a call, double-pressing the Action button will mute the headphones.

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Sound Quality

Neutral, clean and soothing is how I would describe the sound of the QuietComfort Headphones. The bass never manages to distort at loud and maximum volumes and does not bleed into the mids when it is at a low volume level. The bass depth, however, doesn't rattle the headphones and has much better definition than the original QuietComfort Headphones. The highs sound bright and are filled with plenty of details, and the mids do sound extremely crisp. The Immesive Audio soundstaging isn't as wide as the mind-blowing AirPods Max's Spatial Audio but it is definitely on par with the Sonos Ace. The instrument separation is excellent, with distinct left and right channels being heard clearly. If you are not so much of a fan of the out-of-box sound signature, I am glad to report that the QC Headphones work perfectly with all other genres, ranging from Pop to Jazz after you fiddle with the customisable sound settings in the Bose App available for download from the App & Play Store. In the app, you are first greeted with the status of the headphones' battery and volume level. Moving downwards, we have a few tabs here, starting with the modes tab. It allows for the toggling of different noise-cancelling modes like Quiet, Aware, Immersion and more. Each has different levels of noise-cancelling and wind block. However, if wind block is enabled, the ANC setting will be fixed. You can customise and add various other modes with your specific settings in the customisable presets as well. Based on my testing and usage, I would rank the QuietComfort Ultra behind the Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Apple AirPods Max. Its ANC is much better than the Sonos Ace or the Bowers & Wilkins PX8. From the hum of the airplane cabin, traffic sirens and horns, strong winds, and even high-frequency screams or baby cryings, the QC Ultra blocks all that with no cabin pressure. The headphones does feature on-head detection that pauses your music should you remove your headphones. Alternatively, you may also switch to Aware Mode where you can utilise the microphones to take in surrounding noises for safety as well as focus on voice which keeps the ambient noise low and takes in more of human voices instead as well as turn off all settings for passive noise isolation. One notable feature of the Aware mode is ActiveSense which blocks any sudden loud noises like sirens so that you do not get a large wave of noise intake as the mics do suppress it to prevent both hearing damage and random shocks. However, you cannot adjust the volume of transparency like you can on the Sony WH-1000XM5. Comparing the Aware mode with the AirPods Max, I would give the edge to Apple's Transparency Mode as it is simply the most natural-sounding transparency that seems to know what to filter out and take in. Next, there is the source tab where you can connect to your saved devices. With a multipoint Bluetooth connection, the QuietComfort Ultra can connect up to 2 devices at once, and you may add or remove another device from the app. Next, we have the EQ tab that allows you to choose from presets or manually customise your own. There are presets like Bass Boost, Bass Reducer, Treble Boost, and Treble Reducer. Personally, I prefer to customise my own to a V-shaped sound signature. Next, there is the Immersive Audio tab, where there are three settings: Off, Still. and Motion. I usually stick to the Still option for day-to-day music listening, but I can see the potential for Motion mode to be used when watching movies to give it more dimension. Now, you may also customise the press and hold settings for the shortcut button found on the left earcup in the app to either hear the battery levels, access your smart assistant, switch Immersive Audio modes or activate Spotify Tap. However, you can only set one function at any one time, so you may have to give up smart assistant control if you want to change Immersive Audio modes like what I have decided to set here. There is the Tip tab where you can learn about your headphones' controls, should you forget how to use them. You will then see the current song playing and adjust the volume slider or skip songs in the player found at the bottom of the app. Lastly, in the settings, you can change your headphones' name, update the firmware, and set preferences like self-voice volume during calls, Auto-off timing from 5 minutes to never, and the language of voice prompts and on-head detection for auto-pause music when you remove the headphones from your head. Call quality is as top-notch as ever with its proven microphone array that isolates my voice against ambient noises. The caller on the other end feedback that the microphones do not pick up surrounding noise, but I do have to speak up slightly when outdoors. Wind noise reduction was great, as hardly any wind noise could get through even if it was quite strong outdoors. However, when put against the AirPods Max's superior call quality, it sadly fails to beat the competition. 

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Connectivity & Portability

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra support the basic AAC and SBC codecs, together with the relatively new Bluetooth Version 5.3. The battery life peaks at 18 hours with ANC and Immersive Audio on and up to 24 hours with just ANC on. The Ultra does feature Quick Charge capabilities, which only require 15 minutes of charging for 2 hours of playback, and it takes about 3 hours to charge the headphones up from a dead battery. The headphones' connectivity to the app is perfect, as it can detect my headphones when they're already connected via Bluetooth all the time. If you try to watch videos or movies with these, they do not have any latency in audio transmission. 

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PROS

• Neutral, Clean Sound Signature

• Snug & Comfortable

• Lightweight

• Long Battery Life

• Easy Controls For Music Play & Calls

• Strong Noise-Cancelling

• ActiveSense Aware Mode

• Bluetooth 5.3

• Immersive Audio

• Multi-device Connection

• Hardshell Carrying Case

• USB-C Fast Charging

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CONS​​​​

• No Airplane Adaptor

• No Dedicated 6-Band Equaliser

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The Bottom Line

In all, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones debut gives consumers a compelling alternative when choosing a trusted brand for new noise-cancelling headphones. Lightweight modern design, strong noise-cancelling, neutral sound signature, long 24-hour battery life, and a straightforward app interface are some of the features that help it stay on top of the pack when it comes to recommending one of the best. It is highly recommended for daily commutes and long flights. Five colours of Black, White Smoke, Lunar Blue, Deep Plum, and Diamond 60th Edition are available to fit users of different genders and styles.