2023 saw Bose introduce several new flagship products, including the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and QuietComfort Ultra Headphones which both impressed us, especially with their top-class noise-cancelling abilities. 

Bose also introduced this new Smart Ultra Soundbar. With similar looks, dimensions and driver configuration to the previous range-topper, the Smart Soundbar 900, it’s reasonable to wonder what the differences between the old and new bars might be, and whether the new model offers enough to come out on top in the supremely popular Dolby Atmos soundbar arena.

Price

The current price of £799 / $899 / AU$1499 puts the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar up against some top rivals, including the Sonos Arc and Sony HT-A7000, which set high benchmarks for Dolby Atmos soundbars at this level. The Arc currently retails for £899 / $899 / AU$1499, while the Sony HT-A7000 costs £969 / $1399 / AU$1699. 

Build

Bose's new Smart Ultra Soundbar sports the design and build quality you would expect of a flagship bar at this price. It’s solid and weighty, feeling robust and well-made.

However, if you’re expecting a brand new look and design over the previous model, you would be mistaken: the new soundbar features a similar outer grille and polished tempered glass top as the previous generation and is also available in black or Arctic white. It measures 105cm in width and 5.8cm in height, so it should fit under most TVs. 

The new Bose features a total of nine drivers: there are three tweeters (one at each end and one positioned centrally on the front panel), plus six ‘racetrack’ full-range units, two of which fire upwards to create the Dolby Atmos effect.

Located on the rear of the bar are HDMI eARC, optical, and ethernet ports. The placement of these main connections is nicely spread out across the middle of the bar’s rear so they are unlikely to interfere with one another. There’s no HDMI passthrough, which you do get from some rivals (such as the Sony HT-A7000) but not others (the Sonos Arc, for example).

Additionally, there are four 3.5mm sockets with three offering users extra functionality: a ‘Bass’ port for a Bose subwoofer to be connected, one labelled ‘ADAPTiQ’ for hooking up the included headset used to calibrate the soundbar, and an ‘IR’ port for adding a separately-sold infrared receiver. The fourth 3.5mm socket labelled ‘Data’, as well as the USB-C port labelled ‘Service’, are both used for servicing purposes.

The Bose features two buttons on the top panel with accompanying status LED indicators. The ‘action button’ prompts Amazon Alexa while the other mutes the microphone. The LED light bar located beneath the ‘action button’ is used to display several different statuses and notifications, ranging from wi-fi and Bluetooth connections to Alexa or telephone call status.