The Most Unnecessary Product Upgrade Ever? These Earbuds Were Near Perfect Already

My Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2nd Gen Review

Courtesy of the author

Two years ago, I declared the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds the best noise-cancelling earbuds you could buy. They still have world-class ANC, gloriously rich audio, and a comfort level that made long-haul flights feel a lot more bearable. But they weren’t absolutely perfect.

The original Ultras suffered from a lack of multipoint Bluetooth pairing, occasional connectivity dropouts for some users, and call quality that was oddly unimpressive when compared to everything else they had to offer.

Now we’ve got the second generation, which looks and feels almost identical, but with a few low-key tweaks that might make all the difference. Going into this review, I wasn’t really sure what to expect to feel. As I said above, the original Ultras ticked pretty much every box. So Bose must have a reason for updating them, right?

Design and Comfort

Bose clearly subscribes to the “if it ain’t broke” school of design, and rightly so. The Ultra 2s are identical in shape and size to their predecessors, right down to the chunky profile which you will either love or hate.