Bose QuietComfort Ultra Review: Strong but Not Perfect
Our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra review after two weeks of testing: measured performance, battery figures, and whether it is worth £379.
Priya Raghunathan
The verdict, briefly
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra is Bose's 2024 entry in a crowded audio market, and at £379 it is competing against some of the strongest hardware we have tested. After a fortnight of daily use, the headline is straightforward: it delivers the most comfortable over-ears we have worn.
The one-line answer: Buy it for the most comfortable over-ears we have worn. Think twice if this would bother you daily: an overly bass-forward tuning.
In the hand
There is nothing experimental here, which is mostly to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra's credit. The detail worth calling out is that we forgot we were wearing them, which is rare in this category. Against the rest of the audio category it feels considered rather than novel.
How it performs
Our testing runs the same suite on every device so figures stay comparable across years. The figure worth quoting is Extras: Immersive Audio, multipoint. That places it comfortably above average for its price bracket.
| Specification | Bose QuietComfort Ultra |
|---|---|
| Type | Over-ear, closed |
| Codecs | SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive |
| Battery | 23h with ANC |
| Weight | 253g |
| Extras | Immersive Audio, multipoint |
How we tested
Every figure quoted above comes from the same protocol, run on every unit in this category. This one spent two weeks of daily listening, including commutes, calls and at least one flight. A blind A/B panel of four listeners, level-matched to within 0.5dB, using the same eleven-track reference playlist across every pair.
| What we measure | How |
|---|---|
| Battery life | Continuous playback at a metered 75dB with noise cancelling on, run to cut-off. |
| Noise cancelling | Attenuation measured against a recorded cabin-noise loop, reported by frequency band rather than as one number. |
| Call quality | Recordings made on a busy street and in a quiet room, judged by the same panel blind. |
| Comfort | Clamping force measured, then a three-hour wear session logged for hot spots. |
| Latency | Audio-to-video offset measured on a fixed test clip over each supported codec. |
We deliberately do not report frequency-response graphs presented without listening notes — they describe a tone, not an experience.
The honest caveat: Fit dominates both isolation and bass response. Our panel has four head shapes; yours is not one of them.
What we liked
- The most comfortable over-ears we have worn
- Excellent cancellation of office chatter
- AptX Adaptive support
Taken together, those strengths make it a natural fit for people who wear headphones for four hours or more at a stretch.
The compromises
- An overly bass-forward tuning
- Shorter battery than rivals
- Immersive Audio is a gimmick
None of these are dealbreakers on their own. Whether they matter depends entirely on how you intend to use it, which is why the section below matters more than the score.
How it compares
The closest alternatives on price are Sony WH-1000XM6 and Sonos Era 300. All three have been through the same tests, so the figures below are directly comparable rather than collected from different reviews.
| Model | Price | Our score | Standout | Weak point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bose QuietComfort Ultra (this review) | £379 | 4 / 5 | The most comfortable over-ears we have worn | An overly bass-forward tuning |
| Sony WH-1000XM6 | £399 | 5 / 5 | The strongest noise cancellation on low-frequency rumble | Expensive |
| Sonos Era 300 | £449 | 4 / 5 | Genuinely convincing spatial audio from one box | Expensive for a single speaker |
The Sony WH-1000XM6 scores higher at £399, so the Bose QuietComfort Ultra has to win on the most comfortable over-ears we have worn rather than on the total.
Is it worth the money?
At £379 the Bose QuietComfort Ultra asks £49 more than the category average of £330, against an average score of 4 out of 5 across the audio we have tested. Its own 4 works out at roughly £95 per point. You are paying a premium for a genuinely better result, which is defensible if the most comfortable over-ears we have worn is what you are buying it for.
If the budget is the binding constraint, the Nothing Ear (3) at £129 is the floor we would still recommend — below that the compromises stop being ones you can live with.
Two weeks in
Two weeks in, the figure that stopped mattering was type — Over-ear, closed is more than adequate and you forget about it by the third day. What kept surfacing instead was that an overly bass-forward tuning, which is easy to shrug off in a spec comparison and harder to ignore at 6pm on a Friday. On the other side, we forgot we were wearing them, which is rare in this category turns out to be the sort of detail you only appreciate after living with the alternative.
Who should buy it
Buy the Bose QuietComfort Ultra if you are people who wear headphones for four hours or more at a stretch. Skip it if this is something you would notice every day: an overly bass-forward tuning.
Buy it if:
- People who wear headphones for four hours or more at a stretch
- You want the most comfortable over-ears we have worn
- You value excellent cancellation of office chatter
Skip it if:
- You need an overly bass-forward tuning to be a solved problem
- The Sony WH-1000XM6 at £399 already covers what you need
- You upgraded within the last two years — the gap is not worth the outlay
Verdict
Buy it for the most comfortable over-ears we have worn. Think twice if this would bother you daily: an overly bass-forward tuning.
Score: 4 / 5 · £379 at the time of writing.
Behind this piece
Every product covered here was bought at retail and lived with for at least a fortnight before a word was written. Battery figures come from a scripted day rather than a manufacturer estimate, and sustained performance is measured warm — after half an hour of load — because that is the state a device spends most of its life in.
Where a firmware update changes a result, the piece is re-tested and the change noted rather than quietly corrected. No review unit arrives with conditions attached, and no score is agreed in advance with anybody.
Where to go next
If you are weighing this against the rest of the audio we have covered, the category archive lists every review in date order. The closest comparisons we have published are Bose QuietComfort Ultra vs AirPods Pro 3: Is the 2025 Model Worth the Change? and Bose QuietComfort Ultra vs Nothing Ear (3): Is the 2025 Model Worth the Change?.
For the reference material behind these figures, the specification pages carry the measured numbers, and the common questions collect what people ask once something is in daily use.
