So if you’re an iPhone user the AirPods Pro 2 are a great default option if you’re looking for a pair of premium wireless earbuds. They sound great, they’re comfortable to wear, they have a small case and they have a lot of other features that other earbuds dont have. But then there are the new Bose QC Ultra earbuds… who’s main standout characteristic is the super comfortable but still very secure fit. Nonetheless, if you’re trying to choose between the AirPods Pro 2 and the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, lets see which ones are right for you.

Regarding pricing, the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds are the newest earbuds here and they have a retail price of $300 which I do feel is very steep, but they like to go on sale for $250. But then there are the AirPods Pro 2 and these have a retail price of $250. If you want to pick either of these two earbuds up they’ll be linked down below, or you can press on the YouTube shopping button.

Now first lets talk about these cases cause cases are very important to me when taking earbuds into consideration, and this has always been one of Bose’s main week points. Now the AirPods Pro 2’s have a significantly smaller case than the Bose QC Ultra’s. Its thinner and more importantly, it has a smaller foot print. So this case is a lot less noticeable when it in your pocket, AirPods have alway been the gold standard when it comes to cases. Where as with the Bose QC Ultra… I feel this case is just a little too big for everyday carry, I think this is a case that you’re going to want to throw into your backpack’s pocket. But more impotently, the AirPods Pros 2’s case has wireless charging, where as Bose’s case doesn’t even though its overall larger. And also, the AirPods Pro 2’s case has a built in speaker and you can track it down using the find my app, which is super useful for when you eventually cant find your earbuds. And also, I like that you can easily remove your earbuds from the AirPods Pro 2’s case, cause with the Bose, for me its sometimes difficult getting these earbuds out their case. So plainly said, the AirPods Pro 2’s have a much better case than the Bose QC Ultra earbuds. Most importantly its smaller… but it also has wireless charging, you can track it down and it has a built in speaker.

But also, the AirPods Pro 2’s have a much better case size to battery life ratio. With the AirPods Pro 2’s these have an advertised combined battery life of 30 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on. The earbuds themselves can go for 6 hours and the case can supply 4 additional charges. And you can always extend the battery life of these earbuds if you use them with their active noise cancellation turned off.

Where as with the Bose, these have an advertised combined battery life of 24 hours with their ANC turned on. The earbuds can go for up to 6 hours and the case can supply 3 additional charges. But unlike the AirPods, you cant use these earbuds with their ANC turned off. So you cant extend their battery life that way.

But more importantly. The bose have a really bad case to battery life ratio cause these only have a combined battery life of 24 hours, while having a significantly larger case than the AirPods and they also dont have wireless charnging.

So overall, if you’re looking for maximum convince out of your earbuds, then the obvious choice here are going to be the AirPods Pro 2 cause they have a smaller case with wireless charging and they have a longer battery life than the Bose. However, if you decide to compromise on the case on the bose, then you’re going to have better comfort. Cause when it comes to fit, both of these earbuds are in ear ear buds… but these earbuds dont fit like your standard pair of in ear earbuds like lets say the Galaxy Buds 2, Linkbuds S or Sennheiser momentum 3’s. The AirPods Pro 2 are a pair of shallow fitting in ear ear buds as in, they dont go in as deep into your ear canals. So the AirPods Pro 2 feel more comfortable cause they’re less intrusive. But the problem with the AirPods Pro 2 and their shallow fit is that they like to wiggle out quite easily. But then theres the Bose And their rather unique fit. Now the bose are also a pair of shallow fitting in ear earbuds, but these are more shallow than the AirPods Pro 2… these rest just right out side the bowl of your ear. So these feel even more comfortable cause they’re even less intrusive. But also, thanks to the built in fins, the Bose are able to offer a much more secure fit than the AirPods Pro 2. So these dont constantly wiggle out. So even though I dont like the case that comes with the Bose… if you decide to comprise on it then you’re going to get much better comfort and lock down than the AirPods Pro 2. But dont get me wrong, the AirPods Pro 2 are also very comfortable, but their constant wiggling out can be very annoying.

Now when it comes to connectivity, with both of these earbuds, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud with your phone, you can use either on it doesn’t matter and this is the connection set up that we expect to see on our earbuds nowadays.

Now with the AirPods Pro 2, thanks to their built in H2 chip, you can easily hot swap between all of your apple devices associated to your iCloud account, making them a great option if you’re an apple power user.

Where as with the Bose, they can be connected to any two Bluetooth devices regardless of eco system, making them a great option if you’re a power user with devices from different eco systems. So with the bose you can use them with an iPhone and then easily hot swap to your PC.

But when it comes to overall performance, both of these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device, but when it coms to audio codecs, the AirPods Pro 2 only have support for SBC and AAC where as the Bose have support for SBC, AAC and APTX Adaptive. However if you want to use APTX Adaptive then your have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC.

But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Now the bose QC ultra earbuds sound decent for a pair of neutral sounding earbuds. They have decent instrument separation and they have good detail. However, these earbuds don't have all that much resonance or kick in their bass. So these earbuds sound good, but they sound a little underwhelming. But the QC Ultra’s also have immersive audio and what immersive audio does is that it puts the vocals right in your face and it pushes the instrumentals back and out. Helping to improve the instrument separation on these earbuds. And immersive audio also does the whole head tracking thing. But personally I think head tracking is just an annoying gimmick so I just set them to motion so that my music stays still. But heres the issue with immersive audio. Now first off immersive audio does take a big toll on the battery life. But more importantly, I have noticed that with some songs, immersive audio will really distort songs that already has an emphasis on the vocals. So personally I find myself not using the immersive audio feature on these earbuds and instead I enjoy the improved battery life.

But then there are the AirPods Pro 2, and I genuinely feel that these sound a lot better than the Bose QC Ultra’s. Now first I like to use these earbuds with their spatial audio turned on and set to fixed. But more importantly, spatial audio on the AirPods Pro 2 doesn’t distort music like immersive audio does on the bose. But also, I think the AirPods Pro 2 have better instrument separation than the bose, and the AirPods have a lot more resonance in their bass than the Bose, making them more fun to listen to. So plainly said, I feel the AirPods Pro 2 sound a lot better than the Bose QC Ultra earbuds.

Now when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds, the bose are using a touch pad. Now these touch pads are fairly accurate and they’re easy to use, but sometimes there can be false inputs. Where as with the AirPods, these have their stems that you can press and you can swipe up and down on these stems to adjust your volume. And overall, I do prefer the media controls on the AirPods over the bose cause they’re a lot more accurate.

But also with the AirPods, you can activate Siri with just your voice and have her do things like adjust your music when your hands are full or you can ask her to do more complex things like place a call or send a text message. Where as with these other earbuds, if you want to talk to your voice assistant you have to press and hold on their touch pad.

But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now the ANC on both of these earbuds is very impressive, but I do want to tapper exceptions here, dont expect the ANC on these earbuds to block out as much noise as a pair of premium ANC headphones like lets say the Bose QC Ultra headphones, Sony 1000XM5, AirPods Max or Sennheiser Momentum 4.

However when it comes to overall ranking… the AirPods Pro 2 and the Sony WF-1000XM5’s are neck and neck when it comes to first place, closely followed by the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, below them are the Bose QC Earbuds 2, Below them are the Sennheiser Momentum 3’s, below them are the Sony Linkbuds S, below them are the Galaxy Buds 2 pro and below them are the Pixel Buds Pro.

Now the reason why I say the Sony WF-1000XM5’s are neck and neck with the AirPods Pro 2 is cause with the AirPods Pro 2’s, they do a slightly better job of blocking out constant low frequency sounds like road noise, where as the XM5’s do a slightly better job of blocking out random higher frequency sounds like chatter. And the Bose QC Ultra earbuds just cant manage to block out more noise than either of these two earbuds in either category.

But the important thing here is, the Bose QC Ultra earbuds block out noticeably more noise than their predecessor the Bose QC Earbuds 2. And even though the Bose QC Ultra aren’t blocking out at much noise as the Sony WF-1000XM5’s… the bose aren’t using foam ear tips like the WF-1000XM5’s. Which give them a slight advantage cause these foam ear tips passively block out more noise than silicon ear tips. But these foam ear tips do get itchy very quickly.

And even though the Bose aren’t blocking out as much noise as the AirPods Pro 2… the bose still block out a lot of noise without a whole lot a cabin pressure. Cause with the AirPods Pro 2, if theres a lot of noise pollution, there’s a lot of cabin pressure, which can be a little uncomfortable.

So even though the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds come in third place here when it comes to active noise cancelation… they come in first place here regarding comfort cause the Bose aren’t relying on foam ear tips to block out noise… and when theres a lot of noise to block out, there isn’t a lot of cabin pressure.

But then theres the ambient mode on these earbuds, now plainly said, the AirPods Pro 2 have a much better sounding ambient mode than the bose cause it sounds more natural and cause their microphone array does a better job of blocking out wind noise. But also, the ambient mode on the AirPods just has more features than the ambient mode on the Bose.

Now both of these earbuds both have an active ambient mode as in they will protect your hearing from random loud noise. However, active sense on the Bose is a little overly sensitive cause it will block out important sounds like road noise and chatter and its also slow cause its slow to react to loud sounds like a dog barking or police sirens. Where as the AirPods just dont have this issue.

But also, the ambient mode on the AirPods have a conversation awareness mode where if you start talking they will automatically turn off your active noise cancelation, lower the volume of your music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you so that you can talk to someone without having to mess around with your earbuds. And when you’re done talking they’ll go back to normal again.

So overall, the ambient mode on both of these earbuds is good, but the ambient mode on the AirPods Pro 2 is just better and it has recently gotten some new useful features.

Mic Bose Quite

But finally heres the microphone test. Now the Bose QC Ultra earbuds have a decent sounding microphone on them to take phone calls with while in a quite room.

Mic AirPods Quite

But I do feel that the AirPods Pro 2 do a better job of focusing on my voice.

Mic Airpods Road

But more importantly, the AirPods Pro 2 do a better job of dealing with noise pollution cause these are doing a better job of reducing this road noise and they aren’t interfering with my voice all that much.

Mic bose Road

Where as with the Bose, these are just letting in more noise pollution and they are interfering with my voice.

Mic bose Chatter

And its the same thing when it comes to blocking out chatter. These are letting a decent amount of noise pollution and they are interfering with my voice.

Mic AirPods Chatter

Where as the AirPods Pro 2, these are doing a better job of reducing all of this chatter and and its easier to understand me. So overall, both of these earbuds have decent enough sounding microphones to take phone calls with, but the AirPods Pro 2 have the better preforming microphone here cause they do a much better job of dealing with noise pollution.

But with all of that being said. The AirPods Pro 2 easily out perform the Bose QC Ultra earbuds in many areas. They have a smaller case here that has wireless chargning and a built in speaker, but more importantly they have a longer combined battery life. The AirPods Pro 2 sound better cause they have more resonance in their bass, and their spatial audio doesn’t distort your music. They also block out more noise, their ambient mode has more features and they have a better sounding microphone on them to take phone calls with. But where the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds out preform the AirPods Pro 2 is when it comes to comfort. Thanks to their unique fit, the Bose are a lot more comfortable than the AirPods cause they rest right outside your ear canals and they offer great lock down thanks to their fins. Their ANC also blocks out a lot of noise, but with less cabin pressure. And I know that for some people comfort is the most important thing when it comes to earbuds and headphones. However if you want the comfort found on the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, you are going to have to make some significant sacrifices.