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Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds: A Solid, If Uninspiring, Update for 2025

2025 has been an exciting year for headphone enthusiasts, and Bose has entered the fray with its new QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. Are they worth getting excited about? Well, yes and no. Let’s dive into what these earbuds bring to the table—and where they fall short.

Design: Familiar, Functional, and a Bit Bulky

Bose sticks to its tried-and-true design language for the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. You get the signature stabilizer fin and ovoid nozzle to keep them snug in your ears, paired with a chunky arm protruding from the top. This arm houses a control panel with simplistic touch controls, though the Bose app allows you to assign shortcut functions to each earbud individually for added flexibility.

A notable upgrade is the new wax guard on the nozzles, which prevents bio-gunk from clogging the earbuds. This reduces maintenance compared to the previous model, though you’ll still need to clean them regularly—don’t be a gremlin about it.

Connectivity: Standard, with Some Caveats

The earbuds support Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC and AAC codecs, and if you’re using a device with Snapdragon Sound (think non-Samsung Android phones with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or newer), you’ll get access to the aptX Adaptive codec family for higher-bitrate listening. Connection performance is solid, with no noticeable stutters or dropouts unless in-ear detection is enabled. My advice? Turn it off immediately unless you enjoy your earbuds blasting music when you remove them. Pausing, disconnecting, or popping them into the charging case is simple enough to avoid this issue.

Like their predecessor, these earbuds support multipoint connectivity, but there’s a catch: don’t try connecting a new device while audio is playing on the first one. This can mess with the custom tune setup and initial pairing process. Either pause the audio or disconnect the first device entirely before pairing a second.

Bose App: Mandatory but Limited

The Bose app is essential for getting the most out of these earbuds. It lets you customize long-press actions, enable Spotify Tap, switch spatial audio modes, adjust active noise cancellation (ANC) strength, and manage device connections. However, the app’s three-band EQ (bass boost, bass reducer, treble boost, treble reducer) is a letdown. It lacks the granularity needed to meaningfully tweak the sound. The reducers don’t tame the bass or treble enough, and the highs can sound odd when adjusted. A five-band EQ, like the one in Bose’s separate earbuds app, would’ve been far more effective, but we’re stuck with this bare-bones version.

Battery Life: Average at Best

Battery life is slightly worse than the original QuietComfort earbuds, clocking in at 5 hours and 34 minutes on our standardized testing rig compared to 6 hours and 11 minutes for the previous model. The difference isn’t drastic, and with true wireless earbuds, you’re likely popping them into the charging case every few hours anyway. The case provides three full charges, so a single day’s use shouldn’t be an issue. However, heavy users may need to recharge frequently. Thankfully, the case now supports wireless charging, making it easier to keep topped up without plugging into a wall charger.

Microphone: Good, Not Great

Bose touts microphone enhancements, but in our lab tests, the results were underwhelming. While the mic quality is decent, it still picks up background and wind noise, struggling in busy environments. These issues might improve with specific phone apps, but don’t expect miracles. Check out our full written review (linked in the description) for audio samples to hear it for yourself.

Noise Cancellation: Still a Bose Strength

Bose has long been a leader in active noise cancellation, and the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds deliver here. They achieve an average loudness reduction of 85% across our samples, effectively muting much of the world around you. That said, the ANC performance is only a marginal 1% improvement over the original model—within the margin of error. For optimal results, ensure a proper seal, as a poor fit can compromise ANC effectiveness. The Bose app includes a seal test to help you get it right.

Sound Quality: Consumer-Friendly, but Flawed

Bose is known for its crowd-pleasing sound profile, and these earbuds lean hard into that with booming bass and elevated treble. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the mids, which sound recessed. Higher-pitched instruments and female vocals can come across as raspy or off, particularly for genres like classical, pop, folk, or blues—anything not designed for the loudness wars of the 2000s and 2010s. The sound seems to aim for a diffuse field-modified target from recent listener preference studies, but it falls short compared to the Harman target or our in-house headphone preference curve.

The lack of a robust EQ makes it impossible to rein in the exaggerated bass and treble, which is frustrating for listeners who want a more balanced or tailored sound. If you’re a fan of extreme drum and bass, you’ll probably love these. Otherwise, you might find the sound profile limiting.

How Do They Stack Up?

Head Acoustics’ multidimensional audio quality scores give the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds a mean opinion score of 4.8 out of 5, based on feedback from over 200 listeners. That’s near-perfect on a scale where 1 is terrible and 5 is excellent. Most people will pop these into their ears at an airport kiosk or Best Buy and think, “Yeah, these sound pretty good.” That’s exactly what Bose is aiming for—mass-market appeal.

But just because they score highly with the general public doesn’t mean they’re perfect for you. If you’re picky about sound quality or want more customization, you’ll likely be disappointed.

Conclusion: Solid, but Boring

If I had to sum up the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds in one word, it’d be boring. They’re not bad—far from it. They’re solid, dependable, and deliver excellent noise cancellation, much like a Toyota Corolla in the world of earbuds. But at $300, you’re paying a premium for what feels like a minor refresh over the previous model. The upgrades (wax guards, wireless charging) are nice but hardly game-changing, and the lackluster EQ and sound profile don’t justify the price when competitors offer more features or better value.

Bose seems to be banking on brand loyalty and mass-market appeal, which is fine for casual listeners. But if you’re looking for earbuds that push boundaries or offer long-term satisfaction, you might want to explore cheaper alternatives or models with more robust customization.

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