Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 review: the most comfortable noise cancelling headphones

"The second-generation QuietComfort Ultra headphones still have an expensive price tag, from 450 (450/$450/A$700), which is more than most competitors, including Sony's WH-1000XM6. The headphones at least look and feel expensive. Bose has polished the sliding aluminium arms and tweaked the colours, while keeping the shape, weight and fit the same as their predecessors. The result is a pair of the most plush and comfortable headphones you can buy. A selection of bolder colours are available."

"The controls for adjusting noise cancelling, immersion modes and playback are all responsive and fairly straightforward. The touch-sensitive volume slider is excellent, and it can double as a shortcut for your choice of action, including accessing your phone's voice assistant or starting music from Spotify or similar. The battery lasts for up to 30 hours of playback with noise cancelling, which is six hours longer than the outgoing model and competitive with the best rivals certainly long enough for a flight or two."

"New is the ability to listen to the headphones while charging via Bluetooth, the headphones cable or directly over the USB-C cable for lossless listening with phones, tablets and computers. The button and slider controls are in the back of the right ear cup while the USB-C and headphones ports are in the left. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian They support Bluetooth 5.4 and can connect to two devices at once, such as a phone for calls and a laptop for music."

The second-generation QuietComfort Ultra headphones cost from £450/$450/A$700, positioning them above many competitors such as Sony's WH-1000XM6. The headphones use polished aluminium sliding arms and refined colours while retaining previous shape, weight and fit, resulting in very plush and comfortable wear. Controls for noise cancelling, immersion modes and playback are responsive, with an excellent touch-sensitive volume slider that can act as a shortcut to actions like voice assistant or starting music. Battery life reaches up to 30 hours with noise cancelling, six hours longer than the prior model. The headphones allow listening while charging, offer USB-C wired lossless audio, Bluetooth 5.4, simultaneous connections to two devices, and support SBC, AAC and aptX Adaptive.

Read at www.theguardian.com