Bose QuietComfort Ultra vs Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3: Which noise-cancelling headphones win?
Bowers & Wilkins went back to the drawing board with the Px7 S3, creating a new pair of headphones from the ground up. The result is a pair of headphones with good battery life, solid ANC, and stunning sound quality.
The ANC kings remain a solid option for those looking for a new pair of noise-cancelling headphones. They're very comfortable and feature the best noise cancelling of just about anything. Battery life leaves something to be desired, but not enough to be a deal-breaker.
Bose has long been the class leader for ANC, with the QuietComfort Ultra headphones dominating our best noise-cancelling headphones list for some time. The algorithm that Bose uses is simply the very best that you'll find just about anywhere, and it more than justifies their higher price.
But the cans fall apart slightly when you look at other specs, like battery life and sound. That's where the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 step up to the plate.
B&W's latest headphones pack in a stunning design, excellent build quality, and some of the best sound you've ever heard. While they've yet to see a US release date, the Px7 S3 might be a better pair of headphones than the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones in the long run — so let's see how the sets of cans stack up against each other.
Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
Price
£399 / AU$599
$429 / £449 / AU$645
Colors
Canvas white; anthracite black; indigo blue
Lunar Blue; Deep Plum; White Smoke; Black
Size
Not specified
Not specified
Weight
10 ounces
8.8 ounces
Battery life (rated)
Up to 30 hours
Up to 24 hours
Connectivity
Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD support
Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC, AAC and LDAC, aptX HD support support
Special features
ANC, pass-through audio mode, Bluetooth multipoint, customizable sound, quick charge, Spatial Audio, Bluetooth LE, audio hand-off
ANC, Immersive Audio, Bluetooth multipoint, customizable EQ, quick charge
This is going to depend on where you are in the world. If you live outside of the U.K., the Px7 S3 are a much better deal than the QuietComfort Ultra. The B&W cans will set you back £399, as opposed to the £449 of the Bose.
They're both available on Amazon.co.uk, and stock is fairly regular. The Bose are older and have seen discounts, but they are rarer than we'd hope. Unlike the equivalent Sony option, the WH-1000XM5, there haven't been as many discounts. Still, if you're in the U.K., the B&W cans are the better buy.
There's a different story in America. Here, you'll find the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones for $429, and… no price tag for the Px7 S3 while Bowers & Wilkins work out post-tariff pricing. I'm hoping things are as opportune as the U.K., but that remains to be seen.
Alas for the B&W cans, the Bose option is available in both markets to buy — and thus they take this round early on.
Thanks to their metal hinge design and sublime finishes, the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones look suitably worth their loftier price tag. I really like them.
There are color options galore, from a diamond colorway to navy blue. Unfortunately, the build quality isn't quite there though: They rattle a bit too much for my liking, and when placed in their protective case, the left earcup can become pinched. As a result, my review unit has an unfortunate mark on the cushion. They're not built poorly, but you'd hope for more for the price.
Despite the single color all over approach, the Px7 S3 have some lovely texture variation to catch the fingers and the eyes, and their shaping is far more interesting than the Bose.
There's an air of luxury in the way that the Bowers & Wilkins look, and it extends to the build — they feel great in hand, and don't rattle, no matter how much you might wiggle them around. The hinge is sturdy, the headband creak-less, and the earcups feel lovely.
Both are very comfortable, but I found the slightly firmer foam of the B&W meant I could wear them for longer than the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.
The carrying cases are comparable as well — B&W's feel nicer with no fake leather and a nice textured finish, but both are protective. The Px7 S3 case won't pinch any earcups either. Despite the Bose's folding abilities, both cases take up about the same amount of space in a backpack.
In the end, the design and build of the B&W cans take the cake.
Spoiler alert! If you've got all physical controls, you dominate in this field. The Px7 S3 features physical controls, so you can already imagine where this one is going to go. The buttons on the Bowers & Wilkins are small and clicky, but easy to make out thanks to textured surfaces.
They're split over the two earcups, with the right housing the power and ANC controls, and the left containing the playback and volume control. Thanks to those physical controls, I've found no accidental pauses, skipping, or ANC toggling.
The Bose have a mixture of physical and touch controls, the latter of which is super interesting — but it doesn't work all that well. The 'multi-function' and power buttons are both on the right earcup, joined by a touch-sensitive slider control… thing.
The Bose have a mixture of physical and touch controls, the latter of which is super interesting — but it doesn't work all that well.
This is what you'll use for the volume — and little else. You swipe up for more volume and down to decrease the noise. Playback is controlled with the 'multi-function button.' This needs multiple presses or a hold to control playing, pausing, and the ANC — and that's annoying. A multi-press is one thing, but one button for almost everything is almost as annoying as accidental button presses with an overly sensitive touch panel.
The volume slider is annoying too – sometimes you'll increase the volume too much without meaning to, or decrease it beyond the desired spot. It's very imprecise, which is not great.
As you might imagine, the B&W cans beat the Bose option here.
Bose has never had sound quality at the top of the list, but the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones still sound pretty good. A great deal of attention has been paid to the sonic capabilities of the cans, and, as a result, they're some of the best-sounding headphones that Bose has ever made.
There's some excellent bass on offer, although it does have a habit of becoming unruly. Detail is good, and the dynamics are fun, giving you a very solid-sounding pair of headphones.
But… the Bowers & Wilkins blow them out of the water. They're more controlled, more detailed, more spacious, and far more mature in the sonic presentation. They're a masterwork for the price, packing in sound that is only rivalled by headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more.
The Bose don't sound bad — but they don't sound anywhere near as good as the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3.
Both headphones offer very similar feature sets, and you'll not be wanting for anything with either: Both have multiple ANC modes like transparency, although only the B&W can turn it completely 'off.'
On the Spatial Audio front, the Bose packs in Bose's own 'Immersive Audio' feature, which uses some fancy wizardry to make your music sound bigger. Some love it, and some hate it — I'm closer to the latter category rather than the former.
The B&W will have a spatial audio component, although it's coming in a future update so I don't know how good it is yet. B&W tell me it's all about making the sound feel like it's coming from a pair of stereo speakers in front of you, which sounds intriguing — but I'll reserve judgment for when I've actually heard it.
Both the Bose and the B&W apps are easy to use and helpful, although the latter does connect to your favorite streaming services for a very cool feature if you've invested in other B&W devices. You can hand off music to WiFi-connected speakers from your headphones and vice versa so that the music doesn't stop — it's fun, and works well.
The Bowers & Wilkins are also going to get Auracast in the future, which is something that the Bose option doesn't have.
Overall, I'm going to call this one a tie — mostly because I can't try the biggest features of the Px7 S3 quite yet.
This section doesn't need to be very long — if you want the best ANC, buy the QuietComfort Ultra headphones. The noise cancelling is like magic, blocking out every ounce of noise even when music isn't playing.
The lack of any external noise is almost eerie, but it makes them the best ANC headphones you can buy right now. It would be nice if you could turn it off, of course, so that you could increase the paltry battery life (I'll get to you later), but it's still incredibly impressive.
That's not to say the Px7 S3 noise cancellation is bad, far from it – it's just not on the same level as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Still, at least you can turn it off when you've blocked out the sound of that baby at the back of the bus.
The battery life available in the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones is fine, but not great. They fall well below our expected minimum 30 hours with only 24 hours of staying power on tap. That's better than the likes of the AirPods Max, but nowhere near as good as the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3.
The B&W feature 30 hours of battery, in line with our expectations for noise-cancelling headphones in 2025. You can even extend that if you turn the ANC off, something you can't do with the Bose headphones.
That's six hours more — and my testing showed that I might even be able to get them to last longer, depending on volume level with ANC on.
Charging stats are in Bowers & Wilkins' favor as well. A 15-minute charge boosts them up to 7 hours of life, while the same time plugged in for the Bose only nets you another 2 hours of use. To fully charge the headphones you're looking at 2.5 hours with the B&W, but 3 for the Bose.
Bose's battery life simply doesn't match up — the Px7 S3 win this round.
First things first — the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 aren't yet available in the U.S., making the Bose the winners overall by default. But, the moment the B&W are available in the U.S., they'll take the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones to school, and take all their lunch money. And their shoes.
The Px7 S3 are just a better pair of headphones all around — they're built much better, with no rattles and creaks, and they don't get pinched when you put them in their excellent carrying case. Their sound is the very best around, and their battery life completely outmatches the staying power of the Bose.
If you want ANC, you're better off with the Bose, of course. But you'd be missing out on one of the best headphones around, which block plenty of noise without completely silencing the entirety of the rest of the world.
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra are a good pair of headphones, but the Px7 are just better. I'm just hoping they aren't dead on arrival, thanks to a massive price hike the moment they hit U.S. shores.
Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
Price and value (5)
4
3
Design (15)
15
14
Controls (10)
9
5
Sound quality (25)
25
20
Active noise cancellation (20)
19
20
Call quality (10)
8
9
Connectivity (5)
5
5
Battery life (10)
7
5
Total Score (100)
92
81
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