Gadgetory

hey everyone welcome back to another video now Microsoft releasing active noise-cancelling headphones seems a little out there but hey you might have a winner I personally bought this at the retail price of 349 dollars putting these at the same price as other premium ANC headphones more specifically the bose and QC 35 s that I have here in this video QC 35 twos that is as always I'll leave my affiliate links down in that video description below click on those links for the most updated prices in real time you never know when these things might go out and say I've got my hands full here I'm Jimmy with Jim's review room and I'm here to help you make that purchase decision welcome everyone to another video now governor of the physical features first the headphones are quality built they feel tight very well put together and at least gives me the impression that don't last a very long time the headband is reinforced metal as well with a ratcheting clicking system are here for adjusting though not intending on trying to break these now but I do this to hear if there's any kind of creaking or cracking areas where there might be a little bit too much flex or any kind of chatter that makes this feel like it's on the cheaper end now with my personal assessment and being fair Bose and Sony headphones feels a little bit more premium though and justified for the price with Bose you have that faux leather up top and whoops drop these here and then this Alcantara material on the bottom not to mention the ear cups themselves are metal and cool to the touch with these Sony's it's plush on the headband and it feels us a little bit more substantial in the hands yet lighter than the surface headphones now Microsoft is not a bad design it just doesn't feel like $350 but one thing I do love about the surface headphones it's the volume adjustment on the right side right here and the active noise canceling dial on the left side a nice simple glide forward and back adjusting levels that you want to obtain and it is smooth now getting back to the physical stuff first before I get deep into the features keep in mind these headphones unfortunately don't fold in and themselves so storing these will be a slightly wider footprint carrying case but keep in mind they're also thin well I didn't mind this at all jumping into comfort had tested these a little after release and for the past several weeks they've been worn at the office while out and about etc and I noticed they are comfortable enough but not as comfortable as the two giants and the markets but the boss is hands-down the lightest and most eerie feeling while Sony did make great efforts and making fares lighter as well the surface headphones comes in at 290 grams which is happy heavier sigh while these sony 1000 x m3 weighs in at 254 grams and boasts at 232 grams at 290 grams they felt more average in comfort and felt to weigh in my head after about an hour of wear it's not bad but as a review and experiencing other headphones on the markets not to mention having several here at the studio to test and compare the surface headphones did just feel slightly heavier over time ever so slight pinching at the crown of the head here moderate draw pressure and slight warming of the ears but to be fair not as warm as the Saudi 1000x m3s looking into the ear cups here those were big ears this felt like the in-between of the three it's ever so slightly recessed in this gives a little more room for your ears to breathe my ears are ever so slightly touching the inside lining but to be fair again Sony I'm definitely touching the inside lighting and with Bose my ears are not touching at all as for the ear pads and ear cup design sound leaking is kept to a minimum the surface headphones are one of the least sound leaking headphones I've ever experienced and it leaks the least out of Bose and Sony now getting back out here power pairing mute with the newest USB C connection or out there last is a 3.5 millimeter plug for physical connections and good to know yes you can use the headphones when they're off and if you have no battery life left and you just won't have a and C or any of the controls to use now jumping into battery life first microsoft claims up to 15 hours with anc on but before you say this is low compared to the market which technically it is and Microsoft's defense they're promoting an always-on voice assistant Cortana versus either Bose or Sony requiring you to press a button for Siri or Google assistant it's give and take at the time as video there a way to turn off Cortana if there is I'll definitely a guy's know if there is let me know in the comment section below so other viewers can see now with my testing at 50% in vine I was able to get 13 hours of use the interesting part if you turn off Bluetooth and go into Wired mode for example using this I'm in the airplane maybe you can get up to 50 hours of playback the most will use this wirelessly of course but the extended better life is there as an option charging from a dead better to full merges of claims less than two hours now moving on bluetooth 4.2 which is fine we don't have the latest bluetooth 5.0 but the wireless bluetooth connection is really really good I tested the distance on these things and surprisingly got up to 100 linear feet even with a signal going through one wall with video on both my Samsung and iPhone no lag or delays on both Netflix and YouTube let's get some fire emojis for that no jumping into features before I discuss Bluetooth performance besides the awesome rotating dials here there's touch sensitive controls as well tapping on either ear couple pause and play double taps and triple taps will skip or go back on your music respectively and a double tap or answer and a phone call and a long hold when your phone is ringing will decline a call now as for phone call performance the surface headphones picked up background noise quite easily though but my voice was still audible and clear the QC 35 twos picked up as much background noise as well but my voice was very clear and those is Sony 1000 XM threes picked up at least background noise but the voice was not the clearest out of the three now last this is only most important features that set the surface headphones apart it's the always-on built-in voice assistant the headphones are always listening and waiting for you to say that command and as a side note if you don't want to use your voice you can always hold down the side of the ear cover here to activate her now in contrast Bose and Sony uses a physical button here which works very well or you can use your voice the difference though with Bose and Sony you have to make sure your phone here you that's the device that's technically always listening not the headphones themselves for boats and Saudi if your phone is in your pockets maybe your bag your desk etc you have to use the button as most likely your phone can't hear you that's where the always-on listening from Microsoft comes into play their headphones themselves is the one that's always listening not your phone in this case and that's something you'd need to ask yourself in deciding if these surface headphones are worth a purchase first and foremost do you need or want Cortana specifically and second are your hands usually busy or do you prefer not to use your hands to activate your voice assistant so with that being said using Cortana command from my weeks of testing I noticed it's somewhat slower in general compared to the competition in rural tests Bost takes about 2 to 3 seconds from the end of my question to me receiving my answer so any was similar as well but here was a core test of what I'm talking about here not the most scientific but you can experience this in real-time yourself to show up being unbiased here basically hey Cortana what's the weather right now right now it's partly sunny and 49 in Charlotte what's the weather right now currently in Charlotte it's 51 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in Charlotte today it'll be partly cloudy with a forecasted high of 52 hey Cortana what is fifty five times five thousand three hundred fifty five times five thousand three hundred is two hundred and ninety one thousand five hundred the answer is two hundred ninety one thousand five hundred what's fifty five times five thousand three hundred the answer is two hundred ninety one thousand five hundred so in the end with Google in Syria it's just so much faster intuitive it just simply flows so anyways alright enough about those voices I'm sure Skynet is going to have a huge ego boost right now let's get into the audio test now first up are the active noise-cancelling test and then I'll get into the music test back here at the studio I just being up front everytime I'm testing and filming headphones in public I'm using my gigantic camera and using my professional binaural microphones and I'm still using those professional microphones of course but from here on out I'll be setting the camera on the table for you guys so it looked a lot less conspicuous in public I had my fair share of security and staff saying stuff and I got our respective you know same tests just different angles and to show you support please be sure to follow me on social media my Instagram is in that video description below all right folks make sure you have your headphones or earphones on yourselves that's the only way to go and hear the effects of the binaural microphones here goes the very first song just one that there's one percent it's like nothing as long as you can show me a good time I don't need promises honestly no big deal as long as you can show don't you suppressor or need some insulin reason to throw my game oh do me a favor pour me another glass for hearts getting poured out looking for tension I'm not looking to me and there you have it folks now first up active noise-cancelling is impressive kind of shocked I honestly wasn't expecting to beat Bose but Microsoft did it it's now the second best ANC performance I've tested here at Jim's review room better than Sennheiser PXE 550 s better than the Bowers & Wilkins px is better than again the boast QC 35 2's which are heavier here and you're hurting yourself in the audio test now the only one it couldn't beat is the Sony 1000 XM threes Sony beats Microsoft just by a smidge here the surface headphones blacks out a very good amount of background noises suppresses a lot of the vocals and chatter around you including that music they had blasting in the background now regarding the audio test blasting this around 70% vine was comfortable and enjoyable listening personally for me overall the audio characteristics are very similar to the Saudi 1000x m3s with the basic sound signature any loud performance the surface headphones is suitable for most average consumers and those who particularly prefer bass I will admit though you might have heard this in a demo but the mid-range is clear enough but it is missing a bit of fidelity or clarity there is a slight sense of that mid-range being slightly recessed and not having a clear separation from base to the vocalist you could hear it when I transition from Microsoft to boast but transitioning from Microsoft is Sony the difference then wasn't as drastic it's only evident when you have them side by side with the competition or heard through my demo here but by itself I can see most consumers experiencing mostly positive audio performances now as for the high notes I never had listening fatigue the music never shrieked there's a good bit of roll-off on the top and preventing their headphones from being tinny your ear piercing it is missing that sparkle up top and simply brightness overall on the headphone now the one thing that I think was missing was the amount of audio separation and the soundstage I wish those were a little bit more appearance the Sony a little bit better and the Bo's did the best here so in the end I don't think these surface headphones hits this out of the park as being the best out there but if you personally value Cortana and the always-on listening feature the active noise-cancelling the audio performance and you're big into using Windows and its features I definitely think you should check these out if you don't care for katana and the always-on listening feature just those two right there I would say Sony provides slightly better ANSI performance slightly better audio performance and combine most other ANSI headphones just simply waste less and have longer battery life these surface headphones are not in my top three ANSI headphones but I can see them being up there somewhere in the top five again if you do value Cortana now it's big enough top headphones next week I'll be working on the best anti headphones for the year so be on the lookout lest I would be really interested in hearing what you have to say in the comment section below what do you think of these surface headphones all right folks hopefully this video helped you in some way you guys take care catch you guys on the next one bye