Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds

Terrible for everything but music and noise cancelling – Hubby gifted me with these earbuds for Christmas 2024 after my 3yr old Jabra's launched themselves out of the closed case and broke after being dropped once. ** editing 16-1-25 after using them more and for calls etc** - Call quality is absolutely terrible. Do NOT buy these headphones to use them for calls or meetings!! - They're excellent at… Read more

sound deadening while shopping though which is why my hubby bought them for me. It cuts out almost all noise except things like buses and trucks parked next to you. But all voices, babies crying, lifts, trolleys etc are all so muffled you can't hear them when you have music on even on the lowest settings.

The pros: - Sound quality is excellent. - Noise cancelling is great! I can't hear hubby typing or dogs barking etc while its on. - Mens voices still come through but it makes it super faint (slightly louder when there's no music but its still 10x better than my old jabras were) - Hear through is good if a little loud. It seems to amplify the external sounds to some degree. - They let you fiddle with the mixer to get exactly the best sound you prefer - Bass is great and can be boosted for those of us who find deeper tones more relaxing. - Battery life is good and they come charged ready to go. - They feel well made and solid. - There are lots of options to get the best fit for your particular ears. -They came with the silicone case when he bought them. - I like that they are more visible than my old Jabra's so when I go shopping, people can see I’m wearing headphones and not just talking to myself lol - Black colour is fine and unisex. - Sounds of scenes sound true to life and depth of tones is great. I use the 'calm' meditation app daily and the train scene really does sound like I'm on a train. Its much better sound than my old jabra's ever gave. Paired with the great noise cancelling of these headphones, its super helpful for meditation. - Pulse, swallowing, heel strike as walking, hair on collars etc are all very faint while noice cancelling is on. 1000x better than my jabras ever were. It's so lovely to not be able to hear my own breathing and heart beat unless I want to (turning music off you can hear it more but its still very low)

Cons: - Price- these are significantly over priced. - Connectivity to each other and the phone sometimes drops out and is very hit and miss. I mean, it works most of the time, but even mid use it just drops 1 earbud. - You absolutely can NOT lay on your side or have anything touching the earbuds while wearing them or it rapid cycles through all the noise cancelling options. There is no way to stop this either and there is no way to "lock" the ear buds to their most sound deadening setting. Its infuriating when my hair or the pillow etc slightly brushes it and it pauses the song or meditation or just cycles the settings. Extremely enraging. - Call quality is absolutely terrible. It's muffled, crackly and tunnelly for the other person even in excellent full reception for both parties. Quality was so bad we gave up on 1 call. (in full reception) - Calls pick up every sound in the background except the person speaking. Hubby could hear every single background sound in the grocery store (including people talking an isle away) on our call except me talking and I was talking quite loudly. - There's no way to clip the case closed. (I think there's a magnet but its so weak its non existent) I'm scared the lid will flip open very easily and launch the buds out of the case. - There's NO mute button-- please be aware of this before buying. You CAN NOT mute YOUR own microphone. For meetings or calls. There is just no functionality there for it. This is a massive fail on Bose. Even the cheapest earbuds have that functionality. Had I known that I likely wouldn't have gotten these ones as muting my microphone to shield hubby from my dogs loud barks or the blender etc is very important while on calls. - I significantly prefer the actual button on an earbud to get functions. My old Jabras allowed me to have multiple functions on each earbud that were different to each other and changed between calls and music listening. These don't. You get 3 useless functions and they are SO sensitive that when your hair touches it, it can swipe the sensor and activate it... Even the simplest of bumps will activate them, which isn't very good when you're just wiping your hair away from your face etc. - Being so large they do make your ear sweaty. More so than my old jabras did. - The sound they make when each ear piece is put into your ears is quite loud. Not really sure why that’s even necessary for each ear. - The ai voice assistant needs a lot of work... she sounds so robotic and clunky in her speech. - They are large and I really mean big! You absolutely cannot lay on your side with these in without severe ear pain. - They're heavy. Even after a few hrs of wear my ears ache and are sore. On the outsides too because these earbuds take up your entire ear. - The connectivity between the buds and the app is a little lack lustre. I have to open the app every single time to put them into the best noise cancelling mode there is and to turn off their stupid surround sound options that make it sound like its outside your head (called immersion). As opposed to normal earbuds where you get "hear through" (ie can hear your environment as well) or "noise cancelling" (where the earbuds play sound into your brain and block out all external sounds). These headphones have yet another function (immersion) which baffles me as to why its necessary- but it makes it so that the sound is outside your head and when you turn your head the sound either follows you or it doesn't or swaps ear to ear. I cannot for the life of me think why anyone would want this in headphones. And the worst part- they default back to having that set as the default setting every single time, despite me having "remember my settings" turned on. - Its difficult to get the best fit. I swear sometimes the A.N.C stops working altogether because when I first opened them I couldn't hear hubby speaking but yet now I can perfectly, even though its definitely on. Nothing else has changed. Perhaps he just talks louder while he's gaming, I'm not sure. But its enough to make me open the app and remove then re try the headphones... - The noise cancelling is good but not all that good against plastic sounds (eg a dog pushing a drink bottle across the floor lol) and deep or loud male voices. Helps to have music on over the top for a true noise cancelled effect.

Things that could be better: - the entire cons list - More colours. - More colours for the silicone case too. I need high vis and being silicone I can't put stickers or the like on them. - Lower the price considering they don't even offer the most basic functionality of a mute button on a phone call.

Overall I do like these earbuds but i definitely would NOT recommend them to anyone wanting to use them for anything other than sound deadening and music/media use. They're terrible for calls etc, better to go with something like Jabra brand. At least they provide excellent call quality and have a mute function during calls.

Way overpriced for patchy positives lots of cons – The new Bose Quiet comfort Ultra earbuds are way over priced for a product with far too many CONs. PROS Compact Case Great battery life Great sound CONS Case doesn’t clip closed - easy to lose buds More difficult to put earbuds back in case They pick up your pulse - VERY annoying If your case is loaded and not in use your device will still turn… Read more

them on so you can’t hear anything on your phone till you go in and turn off Yr Bluetooth - very annoying The tap n slide functions are not at all smooth to pause, change setting (quiet/Aware modes) and volume slide nowhere as good as the earlier Quiet Comforts.

As usual, these companies don’t continue the best version, the older Quiet Comfort Earbuds, and put out newer defective products. Engineered Obsolescence. For $400+ this product is poor effort from Bose.

Bose Ultra QC Earbuds: Be aware these buds do not have an option to disable the touch controls – Be aware these buds do not have an option to disable the touch controls - if you wear a hood or have long hair they are useless. Because this feature is lacking I can't recommend them. I have found out the hard way, contacted support, and there is nothing they can do. I wouldn't buy these again, as I like to run / walk with a hood in the winter… Read more

and rain. For the price this is disappointing - Both my previous old Samsung buds, had this feature... I shouldn't have assumed that Bose would have. If you have short hair and never wear hoods then you'll be fine as the noise cancelling is really good.