Thanks to Apple, the age of wireless audio is here and Bose Quiet Comfort 35 is my first serious wireless headphone purchase (the one I intend to keep).
The reason I purchased Bose because I live in downtown and city noise is too much for my morning walk. I could hardly heard anything with EarBuds. It's like I just didn't bring headphone with me.
So Noise Cancelling feature of Bose tempted me. And now I made my first morning walk with it, here my review.
First the pairing. The pairing is easy. I paired it traditional style. Slide Bluetooth button on headphone and select it on my Bluetooth setup in iPhone. The pairing stays. I tested pairing it with my MBA and Apple TV 4. Once paired, devices will be shown on Bose app and you can connect or disconnect them there. It's easy but still, you have to pair them all first (unlike AirPods)
The bummer: You can only connect to 2 devices at once. If you want to pair the 3rd device you need to disconnect one before.
It's not hard though. You just disconnect one and reconnect another in your History list. Still, you can have only two and my Mac feel left out (I leave it on iPhone and Apple TV)
Theoretically, AirPods should be better because it connect to all your devices in iCloud account at once. You only have to select it on those devices (it can even switching on the fly with iPhone and Apple Watch when it connect together). I said theoretically because it's not available to test, yet.
Second: battery life. Battery is great. 20 hours straight listening according to Bose and I don't have anything from my usage to doubt that claim. And you can check battery percentage easily with widget on Lock Screen (just like AirPods) BUT.. but you can check it there ONLY when Bose is connected to iPhone.
It remains to be seen will AirPods act in this fashion or it will show itself in battery widget all the time. (the case level should be there all the time at least)
Third, audio quality. It's clear. If you want to listen to podcasts you will get a very clear sound. I can lower volume to the point I feel my ears are safe finally.
For music, it's up to your personal taste really. I still prefer my wired NAS that's half a price of Bose but can't say it's bad. Have to say Norah Jones music shines with Bose though.
Fourth, Noise Cancelling. This is the selling point of this headphone. If you don't need it you have no need for the headphone. And I have to say Wow! I have no idea how noisy my environment was until I took it off.
I have to say it made my morning walk a success. I can finally hear podcasts (on very low volume) at last.
Fifth, the connection. On the first day in my room I got flaky sound a few time (from both my Mac and iPhone). It's not dropouts but more like what you got when your old 4:3 TV got bad signal. The sound is just flaky like that for a few seconds.
On my 1 hour 5 minutes walk covered almost 5 kilometre with my phone in my left pant pocket all the time, there's not a single flakiness or dropout. None. Nada.
BUT..
There's a disconnection happened once. I'm not sure what caused it. Maybe I was adjusting volume on my Apple Watch too much (which also connect to my phone through Bluetooth). I have to take out the phone, re-select the headphone on the list and all was good again.
(Happy to report on my 2nd morning walk, around the same distance and lasted around the same time, there was no disconnection at all)
Good news though, it handles Apple TV brilliantly. I'm watching Blu-Ray rip through Plex (MKV, file size is around 25 GB.) and there was no lag at all. Audio is perfectly synced.
Sixth, the comfort. It's alright. Nothing to complain. It stays firmly but not too tightly. It doesn't give the impression that I can jog easily with it though.
TDLR: If you need noise cancelling feature, buy it. You won't regret it. But if you don't need it, you can look elsewhere.
The reason I purchased Bose because I live in downtown and city noise is too much for my morning walk. I could hardly heard anything with EarBuds. It's like I just didn't bring headphone with me.
So Noise Cancelling feature of Bose tempted me. And now I made my first morning walk with it, here my review.
First the pairing. The pairing is easy. I paired it traditional style. Slide Bluetooth button on headphone and select it on my Bluetooth setup in iPhone. The pairing stays. I tested pairing it with my MBA and Apple TV 4. Once paired, devices will be shown on Bose app and you can connect or disconnect them there. It's easy but still, you have to pair them all first (unlike AirPods)
The bummer: You can only connect to 2 devices at once. If you want to pair the 3rd device you need to disconnect one before.
It's not hard though. You just disconnect one and reconnect another in your History list. Still, you can have only two and my Mac feel left out (I leave it on iPhone and Apple TV)
Theoretically, AirPods should be better because it connect to all your devices in iCloud account at once. You only have to select it on those devices (it can even switching on the fly with iPhone and Apple Watch when it connect together). I said theoretically because it's not available to test, yet.
Second: battery life. Battery is great. 20 hours straight listening according to Bose and I don't have anything from my usage to doubt that claim. And you can check battery percentage easily with widget on Lock Screen (just like AirPods) BUT.. but you can check it there ONLY when Bose is connected to iPhone.
It remains to be seen will AirPods act in this fashion or it will show itself in battery widget all the time. (the case level should be there all the time at least)
Third, audio quality. It's clear. If you want to listen to podcasts you will get a very clear sound. I can lower volume to the point I feel my ears are safe finally.
For music, it's up to your personal taste really. I still prefer my wired NAS that's half a price of Bose but can't say it's bad. Have to say Norah Jones music shines with Bose though.
Fourth, Noise Cancelling. This is the selling point of this headphone. If you don't need it you have no need for the headphone. And I have to say Wow! I have no idea how noisy my environment was until I took it off.
I have to say it made my morning walk a success. I can finally hear podcasts (on very low volume) at last.
Fifth, the connection. On the first day in my room I got flaky sound a few time (from both my Mac and iPhone). It's not dropouts but more like what you got when your old 4:3 TV got bad signal. The sound is just flaky like that for a few seconds.
On my 1 hour 5 minutes walk covered almost 5 kilometre with my phone in my left pant pocket all the time, there's not a single flakiness or dropout. None. Nada.
BUT..
There's a disconnection happened once. I'm not sure what caused it. Maybe I was adjusting volume on my Apple Watch too much (which also connect to my phone through Bluetooth). I have to take out the phone, re-select the headphone on the list and all was good again.
(Happy to report on my 2nd morning walk, around the same distance and lasted around the same time, there was no disconnection at all)
Good news though, it handles Apple TV brilliantly. I'm watching Blu-Ray rip through Plex (MKV, file size is around 25 GB.) and there was no lag at all. Audio is perfectly synced.
Sixth, the comfort. It's alright. Nothing to complain. It stays firmly but not too tightly. It doesn't give the impression that I can jog easily with it though.
TDLR: If you need noise cancelling feature, buy it. You won't regret it. But if you don't need it, you can look elsewhere.
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