Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones

The reviewers found the headphones to be a top-tier, very comfortable pair with immersive sound, excellent noise cancellation and strong call quality, with high price and a bass-heavy tuning as the main drawbacks.

A comfortable, well-connected, strong noise-canceling flagship from Bose that sounds good and should stay relevant for years, held back by weak durability, no water resistance, and a few quirks.

A very comfortable flagship noise-cancelling headphone with excellent isolation, long battery life and flexible wired and wireless connectivity, held back by weak stability for workouts, a mic that is disabled when wired, sound that varies between wearers, and only small gains over cheaper Bose models.

Bose's flagship over-ears combine class-leading, customisable noise cancelling with a rich, punchy and entertaining sound in a portable folding design, though they cost more than key rivals, battery life is merely decent, and the Immersive Audio feature is unconvincing.

4.5/5

A pricey but excellent pair of headphones with thrilling, detailed sound and class-leading noise cancellation, held back from a perfect score mainly by mediocre battery life.

9/10

The 2nd Gen is a modest but welcome refinement of Bose's already excellent noise-canceling headphones. Its convenience features, comfort and performance make it a top option, though owners of the original gain too little to upgrade.

Testers found the headphones deliver excellent noise reduction and very good, though somewhat colored, sound, with some fit and comfort drawbacks for larger heads and ears.

The second-generation Bose QC Ultra is a very good, comfortable pair of noise-canceling headphones with long battery life and new wired lossless playback, but it only slightly improves on the original and still trails Sony's WH-1000XM6 for noise cancellation, so it's no reason to upgrade.

~8.5/10

The second-gen QC Ultra Headphones are a modest but worthwhile refresh that adds longer battery life, smarter power management and wired lossless audio while keeping the best noise cancellation on the market, though the price is high and the design barely changed.

9.2/10

A very strong flagship headphone with excellent sound, top-tier noise canceling and calling, and a comfortable lightweight design, held back mainly by its high price and a few missing features like USB-C audio.

After six months of heavy use, the writer still considers these the best noise-cancelling headphones available and very comfortable, but finds the battery life, build, bass-heavy sound, and controls disappointing enough that a rival has replaced them as their travel pair.

The reviewer considers these Bose's best flagship over-ears so far, with great comfort, better battery life and slightly improved noise cancellation, but finds that rivals from Sony, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins sound better and cost less.

Bose's flagship over-ear headphones deliver the best noise cancellation PCMag has tested, along with rich bass-forward sound and comfort, earning an Editors' Choice award despite a high price and middling battery life.