The most comfortable headphones we’ve ever tested will take care of your ears
Read Mashable’s full review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones.
Who it’s for:
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are the most comfortable headphones we’ve ever tried, full stop. And to sweeten the deal even more, they sound fantastic. Pair that with a long battery life and impressive ANC capabilities, and you’ve got yourself the perfect pair of headphones for all-day wear.
Don’t want to pay for headphones that cost $429? We get it. Look for these comfortable headphones on sale during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event, coming Oct. 8 and 9.
Why we picked this:
In hindsight, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised that the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones would be our top pick. Comfort is literally in the name. Still, we can’t get over just how great these things feel to wear. As soon as we put them on, we were immediately impressed with the fit. The cushions are soft and plush, and the adjustable headband always stays in place when changing length. They never felt too tight, although at some points they would become a bit loose if we turned our head too quickly (not a dealbreaker by any means). A lot of headphones advertise “all-day comfort” as a feature, but rarely is that literally true. With the QuietComfort Ultra, we wore them throughout an entire workday and felt zero soreness.
Now, with a $429 price point, you need to be offering something more than comfort to justify the purchase. Thankfully, these headphones sound incredible, too. The sound quality is comparable to other premium-level headphones, delivering robust low, mid, and high tones for music and crystal-clear speaking voices when listening to podcasts or taking phone calls. It’s not the absolute best audio experience we’ve ever had, but it still sits amongst the greats.
The headphones feature three different listening modes: Quiet, Immersion, and Aware. Quiet is the active noise cancellation (ANC) mode, and it works very well. They did a good job of keeping us focused and blocking out any distracting noises. Immersion mode keeps the ANC on, but swaps over to a spatial audio experience compared to Quiet mode’s stereo style. We didn’t notice too much of a difference between the two, but the Immersion mode did sound slightly fuller. Aware mode lets in some outside noise so you’re not completely sealed in, but unfortunately, there’s a faint hissing sound when using this mode that just wasn’t very pleasant. We hardly switched out of Quiet mode, anyway.
We also loved the lengthy battery life at around 24 hours in Quiet mode, strong wireless performance, seamless device switching, and the fact that they can fold up and fit into a nifty little carrying case for storage (that’s included, by the way). One other small downside with these headphones: The on-ear controls are a little finicky. They don’t always do what they’re supposed to do, but they work as expected more often than not. Bose has a companion app that you can use to control everything manually, but we wish we didn’t have to do that to circumvent the headphone’s touch controls.
All in all, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are well worth the large investment for their best-in-category comfort and overall quality, even with a few faults. Still, maybe try to get them on sale.
