Bose has been the brand to beat when it comes to noise-canceling headphones for quite some
time, and rightfully so.
But recently they’ve started to see some legitimate competition.
Now, here’s their response.
Hi, I’m Carl with Abt, and in this video we’re gonna be giving you a closer look
at the Bose NC700 noise-canceling headphones.
They aren’t the replacement for the super popular QC35s, but a step above them.
They incorporate a lot of the same features as the 35s, but Bose changed the style and
added some tricks, some you may recognize from other brands, that make these stand out
as the premium model in their headphone lineup.
Starting with the design.
I’ve watched several videos on the 700s and this seems to be one of the most talked-about
aspects, and not everyone seems to like it.
I, personally, do.
You’ve got this well-cushioned headband that tapers down into two circular stalks
that attach to the ear cups, which move smoothly up and down and hold their position well.
And they rotate, but they don’t fold up quite as compact as the QC35s.
But they still fit nicely into this updated carrying case with a little magnetic door
to hold the charging cable and headphone wire.
The headband’s got this soft-touch material underneath with a little padding inside.
It feels like they had room for a little more cushioning in there, but don’t get me wrong,
it’s still comfortable.
Plus the headband itself feels really durable.
You can bend it all around and it never feels like it’s gonna snap.
As you get down to the earcups you’re gonna get some very soft, leather-ish material which,
to me at least, seemed to get hot a little quicker than the ear cups on the QC35s.
Otherwise, I’d say these are even more comfortable than the QC35s, which I like a lot, even though
these are a little heavier at almost 9 ounces.
As far as controls go, you get the best of both worlds here.
There’s two buttons on the right ear cup, ones for power and bluetooth pairing, and
the others for the voice assistant feature, which thankfully can be mapped to work with
google, alexa, or a third assistant, like Bixby.
On the left ear cup you get a single button that can be used to turn on the external mics
to hear what’s going on around you with a long press, or with short presses, it’ll
cycle between three noise-canceling levels of your choosing, which you can set in the
Bose Music App.
Now, moving back to the right ear cup, you also get touch controls.
These allow you to play and pause, skip and rewind, change the volume, answer a call and
check the remaining battery life.
So you can do pretty much all you’d ever need to do with these, right on the headphones
themselves.
The two other things to note on the ear cups are one, a USB-C type charging port, and two,
there’s a 2.5-millimeter analog input if you want to hardwire these.
But the other side of the cable is 3 and a half millimeters.
This is the same thing they do on the QC35s, and I don’t really get it.
But, that’s Bose.
Battery life on these is still really good at about 20 hours on a full charge, which
takes about 2 and a half hours, and they made a little improvement that I think could make
a big difference to some people.
On the QC35s, a 15 minute charge gets you about 2 and a half hours of use.
On the 700s, that same 15 minute charge gets you about 3 and a half hours.
So if you’re in a rush, you get a little more breathing room with the 700s on a short
charge.
Plus, these also work on the Bose Music App vs the QC35s which work on the Bose Connect
app.
I, personally, like the Music app better.
I just hope that someday you’ll be able to use all your connected Bose products from
a single app.
The interface is well laid out so any changes you want to make are done really easily.
Of course, having a great design and app are only part of the equation.
The most important parts of headphones like these are the Noise Cancelling abilities and
the audio quality.
As far as noise canceling’s concerned, these are the best I’ve ever tried on.
With those ten levels to choose from you can really fine-tune how much ambient sound you’re
cancelling out.
And even at the highest level, there’s almost no feeling of pressure on your ears like you
can sometimes get with this type of headphone.
And audio was terrific too.
I thought I knew what I was gonna get from these because I already own the QC35s and
I’ve listened to most all of Bose’s other headphones, and there just haven’t been
any dramatic changes, but these really do sound better.
The bass was surprisingly full and deep which really brought out the mids and highs.
Bose is typically known for just hanging out in the middle, but these really sounded dynamic.
Call quality was exceptional as well.
People could hear me clearly even if I was in a loud area and I had no problem at all
hearing them.
All in all, this is a well thought out pair of headphones deserving of the label, premium.
The fit and finish are in line with headphones that cost twice as much.
The sound quality was far better than I expected it to be.
And noise canceling worked better than any other headphones I’ve ever tried on.
So if you’re in the market for a new pair of noise-canceling headphones and you’ve
got a little bit of a budget to play around with, don’t buy anything until you try these
out.
As always, we appreciate you checking out our video.
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Thanks a lot and well see you in the next one.