Customer Ratings & Reviews

bought open box, everything seemed okay. they were actually broken! won’t buy again from best buy.

Produces good quality sound, but the fitting for me was not there. It hurts around my ears, so I had to return it. The product could be comfortable for someone else's ears but not for me

Bought excellent condition open box and got satisfactory condition. Customer service said “well it’s Christmas time” and that was supposed to make everything better?

Crap. Barely lasted a year. The previous Bose ones we had last about 3 years.

As someone who has always preferred black headphones this is the first time I have ever preferred the white headphones version over the black. In my personal opinion, the QuietComfort Ultra (referred to as QC Ultra going forward) in the white smoke looks very attractive. It goes nicely with virtually anything I wear without looking too loud or obnoxious. I think the silver aluminum contrasts really well with the white smoke color of the headphones. It’s a small detail but it gives it pop compared to the previous generations of Bose headphones with their uniform color. I have never been able to get over how great they look. As the name suggests, and it has been a long time staple of Bose going back decades, the QC Ultra is very comfortable. Even if they may not as comfortable as some of Bose’s other headphones, they still are when compared to its competition of a different brand. I have worn the QC Ultra to sleep and besides the need to sleep on my back (I’m more comfortable as a side sleeper) I didn’t experience any discomfort from the headphones whatsoever. I have worn them all day, even while out and about, and never felt enough discomfort to take them off. The Aware mode of the QC Ultra helps make this possible since it is easily the best hear through mode I’ve ever heard, with the headphones or earbuds I’ve tried. It almost sounds like I’m not wearing anything. Almost. You can still clearly tell as the surrounding environment’s volume does sound a tad lower than reality. But the huge selling point with Bose’s hear through mode is the clarity and the fact that my own voice does not sound digitally processed when I speak in Aware mode, unlike with another popular brand of ANC headphones I use. Calls on the QC Ultra sounded comfortable since I wasn’t annoyed with my own voice when I spoke. I didn’t sound muffled. The caller on the receiving end had no issues with my voice either. It was seamless and unproblematic. As far as ANC goes, it’s one of the best I’ve tried but other brands have caught up so it’s not THE best, but it’s in the top tier. Comparing the ANC between the top tier headphones would be nitpicking at this point as none of them hold a clear true advantage over the other. In most real world cases, they’re all roughly the same in effectiveness. When heard really closely QC Ultra does allow some low frequency sounds through. For example, with no music playing, I could hear a bus pull up to the curb even with the ANC on in Quiet mode with its rumbling engine. However, the ANC does cover high frequency sounds better than another leading brand of ANC headphones. Unfortunately, you cannot turn ANC off to preserve battery life. The sound quality of the QC Ultras are great, especially if you’re a fan of Bose’s signature sound. It’s around the neutral-bright area, with less emphasis on bass. However, if you’re a Bose fan that always found its lack of bass an issue, you’re in luck. The QC Ultra has the most responsive and engaging bass I’ve personally ever heard out of Bose headphones. With that said, the QC Ultra’s bass still doesn’t compare to under brands I’ve tried, even when I maxed out the bass on the EQ of the Bose app. The QC Ultra can thump, but you won’t be able to achieve an exaggerated thump if you wanted it. It’s probably not the best for strictly hip hop listeners or want that energetic thump engaging sound from your music. However, the sound quality only goes as far as the codec’s capabilities. And for most people it will be AAC which is a standard resolution 16 bit codec. Curiously, the standard AptX codec doesn’t exist on the QC Ultra. Instead, it has the premium versions, AptX Adaptive for high resolution 24-bit audio, and AptX Adaptive Low Latency for audio with low latency that virtually eliminates audio delay with video. The problem is, these premium codecs are not available in most devices. Supported devices are listed on Qualcomm’s website. No Apple, Samsung, or Google device support these premium codecs. PCs, Macs, TVs, PS5, Xbox Series X or S, and Switch all do not support them natively. For most people, you will need a USB-C adapter, which is not only an additional cost on top of an already expensive QC Ultra, but you’ll need to live with connecting a dongle to the device you want to use the QC Ultra with. This makes it virtually impractical for phone use, which you would almost certainly need to use without a phone case installed as well. So it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t have LDAC codec support, which Android phones now natively support for years, since Android 8. With my lossless FLAC audio, the degraded sound quality is obvious on the QC Ultra. When paired with a Creative BT-W5 adapter to leverage the QC Ultra’s AptX Adaptive it sounds virtually identical to what I hear with my headphones capable of LDAC. The low latency of AptX Adaptive LL also delivers on the QC Ultra. I was able to play a music rhythm game while wearing the headphones and didn’t experience any lag issues. Normally the game is unplayable with wireless headphones since it requires precise timing. Not the case with the QC Ultra on AptX Adaptive LL. Immersive Audio. Unfortunately, I am sad to say that I found this feature to be a total (and absurdly expensive) gimmick. Make no mistake, you will NOT get realistic sound with this feature. I would describe them as a glorified adaptive EQ with head tracking. I’ve read other reviews talking about Immersive Audio uses spatial cues. They’re making stuff up to hype up something they apparently like. And like all gimmicks, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. Just not real or factual to claims that you’ll hear or read. What quickly exposes Immersive Audio is video, which is why Bose exclusively uses music to highlight its Immersive Audio feature. It even prepared a demo on its app despite the fact that it’s supposed to work with all audio. When you listen to any video with close-up speech or whispering with Immersive Audio on, it sounds ridiculous as it has no sense of spacing. It sounds far away and echo-y when it’s supposed to be immediately in front or behind you. It’s just as bad with gaming. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider there is a jukebox playing. Without Immersive Audio, you can hear the jukebox isolated to one location like it’s supposed to be. With Immersive Audio, the jukebox sounds like it’s hooked up to surround sound, which is absurd, especially within context of the game’s location and story. That’s exactly what Immersive Audio does. It will successfully widen your audio’s soundstage. The problem is, it will do regardless of whether it needs to. It’s like a better version of a virtual EQ setting. It applies that virtual spacing to everything you hear. And unlike Bose’s claim, it makes a lot of audio sound unrealistic. With less complicated audio productions, like orchestral music, Immersive Audio can sound very pleasing to the ear. But with some pop music, like Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, or One Kiss, where the sound was already engineered in stereo for with special effects to make it sound spatially dynamic, Bose’s Immersive Audio, with its algorithm or whatever it uses to modify the sound to create a spaced out sound, makes a complete mess of the original work. A lot of the clear engaging effects are softened for the “wideness” effect. On top of this, Immersive Audio uses drains the QC Ultra battery life faster than if you didn’t use it. Battery life remains disappointing compared to its competitors even with Immersive Audio disabled. It last me about 23 hours with my usage. Charge time is noted to take 3 hours, but with a 45W Samsung fast charger, I was able to cut that time to 2 hours and 20 minutes. Still, unlike its competitors it doesn’t have a quick charge for quick listening. When I charge the QC Ultra for 3 minutes from 0% battery, it still leaves me with battery life of 5% and warns me of low battery. The QC Ultra is that it uses a 2.5mm jack on the earcup. Given how few devices use 2.5mm, it will feel like a proprietary cable even though it isn’t. You’ll be hard pressed to find any use for the 2.5mm to 3.5mm for anything other than the QC Ultra in wired mode. The controls are physical buttons that are loud and clicky. I’m not a fan, as they feel cheap. The volume is controlled using a touch-sensitive strip on the right earcup. It will take a while for your muscle memory to adjust but you’ll probably get the hang of finding it like I did. The assistant button is activated by holding the volume touch strip. Unfortunately, unlike Bose’s QC 35ii, there is no native assistant on the headphones. It uses the phone’s assistant, which sounds like no big deal at first, until you realize how intrusive this can be. Every time you activate the assistant it’s just as you would on the phone itself. This means having the Google Assistant app minimize the app you’re using to be in focus. You will need to manually switch back to your app each time you activate Google assistant from the QC Ultra. This isn’t true when the assistant is built-in like on the QC 35ii, where the Google Assistant app does not show up on the phone at all when the assistant button is used. The Bose app is basic without any real features that you can’t already do on the headphones themselves. You’re basically using it for the EQ. The EQ is then saved on the headphones themselves. As nice as the QC Ultra sound, and as comfortable as they are, other companies have caught up (including nearly matching the comfort of Bose) and offer more useful features for less the price of the QC Ultra, especially since competing brands have had their headphones out for a while, and the QC Ultras have just released.

The cable for connecting to the plane is broken and I found out after 14 days warranty. This is extremely disappointing for Bose product that costs almost 500 dollar

After using it 3 times they just stopped turning on.

I was not impressed. Very poor sound quality. I returned the headphones within a few days of purchasing. My old Boise headphones sounded better.

What a great pair of headphones. I’ve been sticking to wireless earbuds lately because they’re convenient when working out, but you miss out on some sound quality with them. While I still prefer the earbuds at the gym since I have trouble keeping over-the-ear headphones on, this is a great option when I’m not at the gym. Setup was simple with their app, it basically connected the Bluetooth for you and its intuitive to use. There are only 2 buttons on the headset which I appreciate since it makes operation simpler to remember. You can connect two devices at once to the headset via Bluetooth when enabling Multi-point…I have my PC and mobile phone connected at once. I’m really impressed with the auto sleep function. Once you take the headphones off your head, they go into a sleep mode to preserve battery. When you put them back on, they wake up. From my experience so far, they seem to know the difference between being picked up and being put on your head (ears to be exact), so they won’t wake up just by moving them around. Also, if someone tries to talk to you while the headphones are on, if you pick up the right side to listen to them, it pauses audio. This is a nice feature to have, and the sleep function seems to do a good job at preserving battery. So if you use them regularly, you don’t really need to worry about turning them on and off. Now the immersive sound. I have an Atmos gaming headset for my PC games, and have a 5.1.2 Atmos home theater setup, so I definitely appreciate spatial sound. These seem to be on a different level with immersive sound. There are 2 options, Still and Motion. I really like the Still option. The sound moves between the headphones as if a concert is happening in front of you. It also seems to have a much richer sound when enabled. The Motion option is if you are moving, but so far I prefer Still mode. The side of the headphone has a touch sensitive volume slider. Its okay, not great. I’ve had some trouble getting it to change volume at times, and it works well other times. I like to control most of headphone settings from the App since its very easy, and better than trying to remember what buttons does what and how long to hold it, including switch between Immersive profiles. I don’t think anyone would regret getting a pair of these, they really do sound great.

Bose always does an amazing job and these are no exception. Style wise these things look great. They are also sleek and compact for how well they work. Thy fit nicely in a small case which is perfect for traveling. They are extremely comfortable, just as the name suggests. These fit well over my ear rather than on my ear so that even after a long time wearing them, they still feel nice and don’t hurt my ears at all. They are also very light so they don’t feel like they’re weighing down your head, and the size adjustment in the headband gets large enough for even my head (which has been a problem with other headsets) and doesn’t feel like it catches your hear or pinch at all. The noise cancellation works really well, and I think the over the ear function helps a lot with this vs. ear buds or on the ear models. I mowed my lawn for the last time of the year and I was able to keep the volume at a fairly low and reasonable level so that even when the mower was turned off, I didn’t feel like anything was overpowering. The realistic sounds also threw me off. When I was mowing, a new song started playing with some stomping noises and I didn’t recognize the song and thought someone was walking up behind me. Connecting to my phone was a breeze and I liked messing with the demo mode for the app. I can take calls without an issue on the headphones, but I don’t know if there was anything special about the call quality since that is more about what your phone wants to do. I also like that I can wear them without playing any music and they actually do a really good job of helping to tune out ambient noise around me to make it easier to work or focus. It also comes with both a USB-A to USB-C charger (the headphones themselves use usb-c, so you could use an alternative cable if you have it), as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, which honestly most of my devices don't use anymore but I might get some mileage out of on an airplane. Finally, it can connect to two devices at once. This is nice when I'm working and can play music on my laptop but still get a call from my phone. I found out how necessary this was when the sound cancellation worked so well that I missed a call that I didn't hear. Overall, the best headphones I’ve ever owned.

Was good for a week and the right side decided to stop working total garbage

DEAD in 8 months. Charger port melted out of headphones!

Returned, wouldn't stay on my head during my workouts.

Terrible!!!! Unbearable popping noise. Will return

This is a new brand headphone that I just bought it, but the buttons don't work properly!

Did not like the earphones. Not compatible with TV

I recently bought these headphones for a replacement of my old JBL ones. I was a bit on the fence because of the price however I absolutely love them. The noice cancelling features surpasses my old ones and they do not fall off my head like my old ones. They feel comfortable on my small head and are adjustable.

Bluetooth won’t connect had them for one month biggest waste of money

I Do not recommend these at all. Way too overrated and overpriced. Too quiet for all songs i tried.

Not worth the extra money. The Q-35 functions just as good with more intuitive controls. The ultra has a long lag between turning on and connecting to devices. Same thing when turning off. It’s difficult to tell if they are on or off leading to a dead battery. It also requires one to download Bose app for additional controls. The headset buttons require some deciphering, such as the volume control—it’s not an actual button(s)—but rather a slide you gotta feel around to ensure the volume doesn’t explode in your ears. I use them on airplanes and the noise canceling struggles against the roar of engines, something the 35’s handle quite easily. On the plus side, they are comfortable. The sound quality is what you can expect from Bose. Overall, nice, but not worth the price premium (they charge extra for the black too).