Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones

🎧 Bose's latest and greatest noise cancelling headphones are a 10/10

Before there were AirPods and other “noise cancelling” products, Bose was the only game in town. My first pair of noise cancelling headphones were the original Bose QuietComfort. I purchased them after I was able to use them on a flight from Tokyo to San Francisco on an upgraded American Airlines flight. After this experience I was sold on always wearing noise cancelling headphones on a plane. I feel that they reduce fatigue on a flight. The only other thing I have found that can also reduce fatigue is flying one of the new composite planes such as a 787 or A350 that have pressurized cabins around 6000ft making it feel more normal.

I’m sure many of you had these headphones at one point. I almost forgot about the little black box that held the AA batteries!

I had a few generations of these, but then moved over to the AirPods Max for a few years.

I love the AirPods Max for long haul flights, except for a few things. They are heavy and they take up a lot of space.

Because I can’t help it, I purchased the brand new Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones. So this is my review.

First, there are a few things to know about these.

• 24 hours of battery life

• Charge using USB-C

• Hardware buttons for Power, and Pause/Play and changing noise cancellation mode

• Touch slider for volume (not a fan, but it’s better than I expected)

• Spatial audio mode, which is pretty good, and aware mode which is also pretty good.

• Pause / Play when you remove the headphones from your head to speak with someone

• Foldable into a small case.

To really use these headphones fully, you need to get the Bose Music app on your iPhone or Android. This app enables you to set options, pair additional devices and more.

The headphones support multipoint Bluetooth pairing, which means they can pair with 8 devices and support streaming audio from two devices at the same time. This means they can be connected to your iPhone and iPad at the same time and auto switch. This is like the AirPods but not as seamless.

In my testing on a recent set of long-haul flights, they performed incredibly well.

Because they are lighter, they are more comfortable on your head. The battery life is plenty for all day flying. The case and size of the headphones are a big improvement over Apple’s current design approach.

The devices are designed to “sleep” for 24 hours and not turn off. I changed this to 45 min as I found that my phone and iPad would unnecessarily stay connected which was confusing, especially when I got off the plane. I learned that this is possible due to a new feature in the Bluetooth 5.3 standard which the iPhone 15 supports.

PS - I often get asked about Sony headphones. Sony makes the worst software. I try and avoid them at all cost. Their usability is poor in my experience despite great design and hardware.