Gadgetory

unlike most other tech companies lately Microsoft did a really good job of keeping links to a minimum for their October service event because I was genuinely surprised when Microsoft announced a new surface headphones and even though there are a really good first tribe the surface headphones still have a lot of growing up to do in this increasingly competitive ANC headphone market the surface headphones are Microsoft's first in health design active noise-cancelling headphones and retail for $350 making them premium ENC headphones that compete directly with the sony 1000 XM threes which for transparency are still my favorites and most recommended ANC headphones if you want to pick either of these headphones up I'll have links on description below in a few user links really helps out the channel I suggest you check them out because you never know when these headphones might go on sale since the surface headphones are a pair of lay flat headphones this is why they come included with a pretty large hard shell carrying case so keep that in mind if you plan on traveling with these headphones or on a regular basis these headphones also come included with a 3.5 to 3.5 mm audio cable I'll be it I do feel this audio cable is pretty cheap for a pair of $350 cans but for those wondering these guys can be used passively which is good and finally these headphones are also come included with a USB a two USB C charging cable which is also good to see cuz we're kind of in this middle ground where some companies are starting to fully embrace USB C and some other companies are stinking to microUSB as a cost savings measure now I really have to give credit where credit is due the hardware here is amazing even though they're not using premium materials like real leather fabrics or high amount of metal these headphones just feel very premium these headphones have a slate matte finish all around the underside of the headband is silicone and the headband also has a very sturdy and satisfying click to it whenever you adjust it moving down to the ear cups the volume and ANC does rotate very smoothly in either direction and the padding on these ear cups is not too soft but not too firm the only criticisms I have about the build quality of these headphones is that when you tap on the touch pads you hear a lot of springing I also hate how flush the power button is on these headphones and I would have preferred if the habit itself had a little more padding but overall the build quality headphones is great and I'm a really big fan of these headphones your overall design but when it comes to fit and comfort there are a few things I need to point out when I first saw the surface headphones I was worried that due to their circular ear cups that we're going to rest on you yellow because that's what happens with most of the cans that have circular cups and this is why I always prefer oval ear cups but thankfully the circular cups here are just for aesthetics these ear cups still have an oval cut out if you have medium flush tears the surface headphone should fit you just fine but they're not as spacious as the sony 1000 X and 3 and definitely not as spacious as the bose qc25 but they are more spacious than the sony 1000 x m2 but when it comes to their clamping force the surface headphones do have a very snug fit even after a good break-in period the surface headphones still have a more snug fit than I would like and I do get wear in fatigue after about an hour so for those reasons these headphones are not big head approved when it comes to tech specs these headphones have an advertised battery life of 15 hours with a and C turned on but unfortunately a 15 hour battery life these days is below average if Microsoft wants to be competitive we need to see something around the 25 hour mark the surface headphones also have fast charging but again it's below average microsoft claims of 5 minute charge will get you about an hour of playback time but the sony is getting you 5 hours of playback time from a 10 minute charge and the bose qc25 is getting you two and a half hours from a 15 minute charge and overall the surface headphones barely managed to last me a week from a full charge but the surface headphones can be connected to more than one device at a time which is great if you're a power user and it's one of my biggest gripes with Sony's headphones in general and if you're an iPhone user the surface headphones you also have very little latency making them good for watching youtube videos on your phone which again is one of the m3s biggest weak points and when it comes to active noise cancellation on the surface headphones it's actually pretty decent they don't block out as much No as last year Sony 1000 xm2 or dis year Sony 1000 xm3 but they do block out as much a noise as the bose qc25 and they do so with less cabin pressure than the Bose but definitely the surface headphones has and the easier time blocking out constant low-frequency sounds like road noise and does struggle a bit when it comes to a random higher frequency sounds like chatter so yeah like I said Al see on the surface headphones is decent there's no hissing and it's a very good first try the surface headphones do have a little bit more cab impression than both of Sony's premium A&C headphones but it's definitely more manageable than Bose escapa pressure the surface headphones also do a very good job of preventing wind noise when using ANC outdoors and that's cuz they're NC mics or slightly recessed into the body similar to what Sony has going on on their headphones now like I mentioned earlier these headphones also have rotating dials on both of its ear cups the left one controls a and C and the right one controls volume and personally I really like these dials because you can manually and quickly switch from a and C high to enhance mode which pumps in all of the ambient sound around you to give you an open-back headphones fact which is useful if you're walking around in the city or even if you're in an office but my problem with Microsoft's enhanced mode is that it's filtering and letting in the wrong sounds and has one of these headphones pumps in noise pollution like the rumbling of an air-conditioning unit or road noise if you're in a car not people's voices so whenever someone talks their voice sounds incredibly muffled through enhance mode and for comparison sony has their own ambient sound control they let you control how much ambient noise you want to let in and they also do a much better job of still blocking out the noise pollution you don't want but let's in people's voices so like I said I feel enhanced mode on the surface headphones it is working in Reverse and it's not just a simulation I was having the same issues when I was out in public with these headphones but now let's focus on the right dial this dial controls your phone's volume and can still locally adjust a volume if the headphones are used with a wired connection while powered on both the left and right ear cups have touch pads that respond to the same gestures and they respond very well tap wants to play a pause tap twice the skipper track and tap thrice to go back a track personally I just use the right touch pad because I'm a righty but as of right now you can't dedicate media controls to one year cut and have reassigned hotkeys to the other ear cup and there's no word if these touch pads can respond to swipes like the m3 scan but I really do hope Microsoft pushes out some software updates giving you more control over these touch pads because there's a lot of potential here for PC and Android users just imagine being able to assign double tapping to the left ear cup to open up a program or a game on your PC now when it comes to sound quality the surface headphones are very average estimate separation in the mids is very weak in the same stage is very narrow so everything just tends to blend together right out of the box these headphones have a flat sound signature but through the Cortana app you can go and adjust EQ which is something I always like to see but my biggest issue with these $350 headphones is that their bass does tend to sputter pretty often sputtering isn't an issue if you listen to these headphones at 50 percent volume but if you listen to them at 80 percent or higher than sputtering is going to be more common the surface headphones also sound very different with ANC turned on or in enhanced mode and this is very common for ENC headphones an enhanced mode the soundstage on these headphones opens up a little bit and the sputtering becomes less frequent but it still happens now for the most part if you want to get the best sound quality out of your anc headphones you should listen to them with active noise cancellation turn off but unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how to turn a and C or enhance mode off on these headphones another feature I haven't figured out how to turn off on these headphones is these have auto play and auto pause feature now when you take these headphones off they're automatically positive music and when you put it back on they're gonna start playing your music again now this feature works very well and it doesn't randomly start playing and pausing you music when you're walking around like the Bowers & Wilkins px which also have this feature but personally I would prefer to have this feature turn off I've just never been a fan of this feature in general and other headphones but another thing Microsoft is really pushing on these headphones is Cortana integration and a lot of agency headphones these days have some sort of voice assistant integration Sony is Team Google and Beau's plays nice with both Google and Alexa at least for now in order to summon Cortana you can either press and hold on the touchpad or you can just say hey Cortana which is actually the faster of the two methods hey Cortana what is the current price of Microsoft Microsoft is at one hundred and six point five trading up three point three eight percent as a 3:30 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and Cortana can be pretty useful she greets you and tells you how much battery life you have when you power on the headphones hi you've got about seven hours of battery left you are connected to I phone next s max she tells you when you have notifications and you can ask her to do a lot of things you wouldn't normally ask Google assistant but the thing I like about Cortana is that when you summon her with the hot word you have to pause for a second and then talk and this is pretty jarring cuz we've gotten so used to Alexa and Google assistant where you don't have to pause you just say the hot word and keep talking hey what's that the orbs heretics at the orb to green so this pause makes Cortana feel a little dated compared to other voice assistants and like I said earlier using the hot word to summon Cortana is faster than pressing and holding on the touchpad whereas for comparison both of Sony's and Moses headphones have a dedicated physical button that you can assign to your voices system so as soon as you press and hold this you can just start talking what's the current price of Bitcoin 1 BTC equals 3,740 United States dollars and having a dedicated physical button to summon your voice assistant on your headphones is by far the fastest most efficient and most accurate way to interact with your voice assistant using your voice with the surface headphones is cool but I think Microsoft would have been much better off just using a physical button or they need to update Cortana to at least get rid of that pause but another thing I want to point out about these headphones is that there's no voice mapping during the setup process so anyone can just run up to you and say hey Cortana and just try to mess with you now yeah you can always just turn off the mic but still some people might still want to try to troll you it's kind of like the early days of Xbox one voice commands so you know that's always a possibility with these headphones if you've made it this forward comment down below if you prefer Halo or a Gears of War personally I prefer user work but this is the microphone test on these circuits headphones and it's decent but it could be better but this audio clipping is being recorded by the microphones found on the Microsoft Surface headphones so you can refer to that so like I said at the beginning of this video I feel that Microsoft's new surface headphones are all really good first try even though I really do like the hardware the still room for improvement when it comes to sound quality enhance mode the way you interact with your voices system and better life and like I mentioned earlier I see a lot of potential here for PC power users if Microsoft gives you more control over those two touch pads but I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the surface headphones are a disappointment or vastly inferior to their Sony 1000x and threes because it literally took Sony three tries to get there and see headphones right and still there are a few things I would like to see improved on the 1000x and threes and the surface headphones does a few things better than the 1,000 xn3 but if you're in the market for a pair of premium anc headphones I still think you're better off with the Sony 1000x and threes but I'm still pretty excited to see where Microsoft goes with the surface headphones - if you made it this far guess you enjoyed the video so hit that like button and get subscribed it helps out more than you realize support the channel by clicking on the links down below and I'll catch you next time