Despite being a lover of new technology, I rarely recommend readers buy the latest, most high-end devices.

When the new iPhone 15 was announced, I recommended last year’s iPhone 14 Pro line instead. Similarly, upon testing the truly excellent OnePlus Open folding phone, I wrote that — unless you’re certain about buying a folding phone — you shouldn’t buy it. It’s too expensive, given the durability concerns. 

My review of the Nothing Phone (2) was so complimentary because it’s an affordable phone with the quality design of a flagship. My recommendation is only stronger today, given their recent announcement that the Phone (2) is the only Android phone to support iMessage. No more blue bubbles! 

This happens because most sectors of consumer electronics are sufficiently mature that the difference between the best and the average laptop phone or laptop or tablet is a matter of diminishing returns. Highly experimental devices like virtual reality headsets are the exception to this — Apple’s upcoming $3,499 Vision Pro headset looks to be leagues ahead of the competition. The other, oddly, is noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones.  

There are options I can recommend in the $100, $200, $250, etc. price range, and they provide great quality for the price. Yet if you want ultra-comfortable, great-sounding, no-compromises Bluetooth headphones, you have to pay to get them. For $429, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra are not cheap, but they’re worth every cent. These are the best noise-canceling headphones on the market and by no small margin. 

A premium pair of headphones has four core requirements: that their noise-canceling is excellent, that music sounds great on them, that they’re comfortable to wear for extended periods, and that the build quality feels worthy of the price. The QuietComfort Ultra meets all of these requirements in a way no other option does. 

Bluetooth audio quality still lags behind wired headphones — my Audio-Technica M50X and Philips Fidelio X2HR still far surpass any Bluetooth options despite being fractions of the price — but the convenience of Bluetooth is worth the compromise. Even so, the QuietComfort Ultra headphones have a great, balanced sound, with a wide soundstage and notably clearer, warmer, base-emphasized sound compared with their predecessor, the 2019 Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 — my daily headphones for several years. 

Most importantly, they sound better than the competing Sony WH-1000XM5 and Apple AirPods Max, as well as being the most comfortable of the three, without any sacrifice in build quality.

Bose has been making the QuietComfort line for several years, and despite having a dedicated fanbase among tech enthusiasts, their plasticky build quality, ugly buttons, and aversion to style meant their previous products never appealed to me. By contrast, their premium NC 700 looked and sounded great, but their metal band construction hampered comfort, increased their weight, and meant they couldn’t fold down. 

By contrast, the Ultra perfectly blends practicality with style. The headphones have a plush leather band, cold metal arms, and great soft-touch plastics but remain remarkably light — I sometimes forget I’m wearing them — and can fold up into a compact soft-touch carrying case. Volume adjustment is controlled by swipe gestures on a ridge along the right cup, but everything else is managed with an easy-to-reach rear button.  

Finally, there’s the noise-canceling, where the QuietComfort Ultra beats every alternative. Upon receiving my review unit, I first tried this out in my apartment, with the windows open but no audio playing on the headphones — and all background noise completely vanished. There was no hiss of the kettle, no rumble of traffic, nothing. Though this was in a fairly quiet setting, to achieve complete silence is remarkable, and it means that playing music at even moderate volume will cancel out most of a loud subway commute. 

Along with this, the battery life is great, it supports the latest high-fidelity Bluetooth standards, the microphone quality has a marked improvement from prior generations, and it has a solid transparency mode — almost as good as those on AirPods, the industry leader. 

There’s also a spatial “Immersive Audio” setting, which Bose has marketed heavily. It heightens the occasional track, but I usually keep it turned off as most songs just sound flattened and off. Aside from this optional gimmick though, I have no complaints about these headphones.  
In short, the QuietComfort Ultra earned their price tag. If you’re in the market for superb Bluetooth headphones, they’re the pair to buy, and they’re currently $50 off on Amazon for Black Friday.