Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Pros: Immersive sound experience, all-day comfort, and excellent noise-canceling performance.
• Cons: Bugs can cause connectivity issues, and the case is larger than competitors’

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On paper, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) tech specs may seem painfully incremental, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. It’s impressive how seemingly innocuous updates from one generation to the next can significantly enhance the user experience, and Bose is a masterful player in this regard. 

They add essential features that were missing from the 1st-gen product, and do something better while retaining the same price tag. However, they also retain some signature Bose quirks that I wish didn’t bother me as much as they do.

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I traveled with the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 on two trips, and while they haven’t replaced my Pixel Buds Pro 2 completely — for reasons I’ll explain later — there’s a lot to like here. Here’s how it went. 

Built for comfort

The new Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 prioritize function over aesthetics. They are designed for outdoor use and provide all-day comfort in a familiar style. The earbuds themselves feature a guard to manage earwax buildup, which Bose says helps make it “easier to capture and remove earwax after prolonged use.” I haven’t faced any earwax issues with the new Bose product, but this design also gives them a snug fit.

The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing earbuds and are larger than the competition. Based on their appearance, I was skeptical of the fit based on the earbuds, but during my few weeks of usage, I haven’t had them accidentally fall out of my ears once. 

I’ve worn them on airplanes, during commutes, and even on walks (IPX4 rating for sweat resistance) with Transparency mode on, and encountered no accidental earbud drops at all. I love the comfortable fit of these earbuds, thanks to their soft eartips with support bands. I’d rate them above Sony’s WF-1000XM6 earbuds and Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 in terms of comfort.

Like the earbuds, Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2’s charging case is bulky and awkward-looking, but it’s built to last. They come in Black, White Smoke, Desert Gold, Midnight Violet, and Deep Plum color variants. I’ve been using the White Smoke model, and despite accidental drops, I can’t find a single scratch on my unit. 

It has fared much better than my Pixel Buds Pro 2, which got dirty within a week, and the AirPods Pro 3, which acquired several unknown scratches. That said, this case can be inconvenient to carry, especially if you want to place it in your pocket.

Immersive Audio is a hit

What does the large earbuds size get you? Same drivers as before, but with even better sound. The QC Ultra Earbuds 2 produce pleasing audio with boosted bass and highs. They support AAC, SBC, and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codecs (including aptX Lossless), as well as Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair for quick device-to-device connections.

The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 offer an enjoyable sound performance. At default settings, paired with Apple Music on my iPhone (SBC) and Vivo X100 Pro (AAC), they have a strong bass response. You have four basic EQ presets (Bass Boost, Bass Reducer, Treble Boost, and Treble Reducer) to choose from, which can be further adjusted within the app. 

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The earbuds do a great job at reproducing the sub-bass and don’t sound too sharp at high frequencies. I enjoyed listening to my favorite songs through various genres, including rock and acoustic music. They sound spacious and full-bodied, with good instrument separation when multiple instruments are present in the mix.

The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 are among the best earbuds for spatial audio. On most products that opt for proprietary spatial audio formats instead of Dolby Atmos, audio reproduction sounds artificial and shrill. But Bose has done a brilliant job with its Immersive Audio mode. You can choose between Still mode (head tracking disabled) and Motion mode (head tracking enabled). I chose the latter for the most part and loved it.

They are one of the rare earbuds that sound natural while making music sound more lively in spatial audio, on par with the AirPods Pro 3. But I could wear the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 for longer durations than Apple’s earbuds. As ZDNET’s audio editor, Jada Jones says, these earbuds sound “just warm enough to make long-term wear and listening easy on the ears.” 

The low- to mid-frequency range struggles a bit, but the overall experience is brilliant. If you want to experience immersive audio, these are the earbuds to go for.

How’s the performance in general?

If the AirPods Pro 3 are the new ANC champion of earbuds, the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 aren’t far behind. Thanks to eight microphones and new algorithms, they can cut nearly all bothersome frequencies, from ambient public chatter in cafes to the rumble of airplane engines. 

In fact, Bose’s AI-powered active noise cancellation, ActiveSense, is one of the best uses of AI on a consumer product. It employs noise cancellation when your environment becomes too loud, which is ideal for public settings where noise levels are ever-changing. ActiveSense adapts to these changes in the background swiftly and smoothly. 

Also: Bose just did what Apple couldn’t with the QuietComfort Ultra headphones – and I’m sold

Bose’s transparency mode, dubbed Aware mode, is equally good and my default noise setting. Human voices sound natural, and you can adjust them to match the noise level in your environment. It automatically adjusts without lag when I’m talking to someone, and external noise naturally fades into the background when I’m done. Bose’s feature performs more naturally and smoothly than Apple’s Conversation Awareness or Sony’s Speak-to-Chat feature.

The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 are rated to last up to six hours with ANC on and four hours in Immersive mode. The case can provide an additional 24 hours of playback time. Although their battery life isn’t the shortest, it’s also not the longest, which could be an issue on long-haul flights.

Lastly, the Bose app is easy to use. The Settings menu offers intuitive controls for adjusting the EQ, Modes, Source, and more. You can also create your own noise-cancellation mode, which can be a bit tedious and may result in a loss of ActiveSense. However, it is worth trying if you’re not satisfied with the default ANC modes. The Earbud Seal Test and Fit Test are additional features for fine-tuning your experience if you’re not satisfied with the fit.

Watch out for these caveats

I’d like to point out two issues that occurred randomly during my usage and relate to connectivity and firmware.

First, when multipoint is enabled and you have connected the earbuds to two devices once, they continue to search for the second device after being removed from the case. I connected the earbuds to my iPhone 17 Pro Max and Vivo X100 Pro. Now, I don’t carry my Vivo on commutes. 

So, when I take the earbuds out of the case, they connect to my iPhone but keep the pairing tone going, looking for a second device. As a result, you can’t just connect and play your music. The pairing tone interrupts your music for a few seconds. I had a similar issue with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones, but it was resolved later.

Second, the earbuds sometimes connect separately or don’t connect to my iPhone at all. I have to put them back in the case and take them out again to reconnect. Moreover, installing an update was a frustrating experience. I had to reset the device and reinstall everything just to get the update to transfer to the earbuds. 

Also: You should probably clean your earbuds right now (or else this happens)

The QC Ultra Earbuds 2 debuted with SpeechClarity, a feature that uses Bose’s patented technology to detect speech and process it for enhanced clarity. This feature is only accessible through an update; it wasn’t installed in the earbuds out of the box. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this update to install on my unit, but ZDNET’s Jada Jones reports, “With this feature enabled, I didn’t receive any complaints about warbled or muffled speech when calling friends and family. Even in windy or noisy environments like a busy grocery store, the earbuds’ microphones held up well.”

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) retain their large form factor while improving in various areas. If Bose can squash the aforementioned bugs, these would be my go-to recommendation for the immersive audio experience. At $299 (or $219, at the time of writing), these are priced as a premium, but they’re worth the ask. They are comparable to the new AirPods Pro 3 in terms of noise cancellation but offer a more comfortable, secure fit. 

If you’re looking for a pair of earbuds that fit well, sound great, deliver excellent ANC, and complete the feature set with an exceptional spatial audio experience, the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 are an easy recommendation.