So, I wanted to wait a little to write a feedback/review so that I could test almost everything related to it. Let me give you the verdict right off the bat. It's a great pair of NC headphones if your "priorities" are clear. What I mean by priorities is that you know what you want, that are necessary to you. Now I know everyone raves about Sony WH-1000XM3, but I felt it wasn't quite for me and I am happy that I made the right decision in going with Bose. I bought this over a month ago during sale when I got it for Rs 20,490 /- It was a dreadful decision to be made since the Sony ones were available for the same price. But looking at my priorities I went away with Bose. Now the pros and cons:
PROS:
1) Noise Cancellation is great. But, people, please understand here that NC does not mean all the sounds in all frequencies are cancelled. The moment you wear these headphones I would say background noise is 20% cancelled, by just putting the headphones over your head(switched off). After that , when you toggle the on switch on the headphone located on the right cup, immediately you will notice the background noise to cancel out almost 70%. After that when you play some music at even very low volume, the NC will work out to cancel almost 90% noise. It's an incredible experience seriously.
2) When it comes to comfort, Bose is literally awesome. It's even in the name QC(Quiet Comfort). I wear this for hours doing programming and almost never feel fatigued or headache.
3) Battery life is incredible. Bose advertises 20 hours, but trust me I got 22 hours the day I got these. I measured time using my phone timer. Everytime I played a song, I would start the timer and when I was finished listening the song, I would simply pause the timer and so forth. I got an even 22 hours which is great. I charge it roughly every 4-5 days using 4-5 hours everyday.
4) Bluetooth simultaneous multi pairing: It's one of the priority that I was talking about earlier that Sony didn't provide. What it means is that it will stay connected to 2 devices at the same time. It works great. It's connected to my laptop and my phone at the same time. If I am watching a movie or doing some work in my laptop and suddenly I get a call from my phone, I could simply just click the middle button on the right earcup and the call would get connected to the headphone which works flawlessly by the way. Sound is crystal clear like you are talking to someone on the phone with little to no quality degradation imho. The person on the other end will not even notice that you are talking handsfree.
5) Bluetooth connection works as advertised 30 feet(~9m). The distance between my room and the kitchen is 32 feet with thick walls, and the connection stays stable right at the entrance of my kitchen.
6) I am talking about the sound quality in my last point of pros because it is subjective, meaning the way I like how the music sounds does not mean you like it as well. You may need little more bass or treble or something. So here's the thing. The reason I didn't want Sony and went with bose when it came to sound quality is because I am pretty habituated with the sound signature of sony. I have a sony 450AP headphone and I have tested Sony WH-1000XM3 at the store, where I found the sound signature to be very similar i.e little over the top bass, sometimes overpowering the mids. Whereas the Bose is almost flat, actually not that flat which is a good thing. You will hear a more clear sound. Vocals, instruments will be crystal clear exactly how the artist thought would sound when he/she made the song.
7) I've heard that Bose's after sales service is supposed to be the best. They take care of their customers unlike others like Sony, where you have to almost beg to the customer support if some problem occurs in the headset and you want them to repair or replace, as I've heard online.
CONS:
1) Sound distortion at very high volumes. It's not a matter of concern in my thinking and I would rather say it's unnecessary to say this point, but I think everybody should understand this logical explanation instead of bashing later on. So I would like to question that, at what point do people increase their headset volume ? Ans: When the background noise is so loud(eg: bus, train, flight etc) that you wouldn't hear your music clearly in case of normal earphones or open back headphones. But these are NC headphones. It cuts back almost 90 % noise, so you don't need to increase your headphone volume more than 70 %. Not unless you want to damage your ears in the long run anyway. So this is a good investment I would say when it comes to ears.
2) I don't think there's any other cons other than the above point. Okay yes, let's clarify something about the battery. Now, the battery is non replaceable, meaning once the battery depletes completely, you have to get rid of these headphones. Now, this may be a decision making point since who wants to buy an expensive headphone only to get rid of it in a couple of years. Let's make some calculation shall we:
Let's say you use these headphones for 4 hours everyday for the rest of its lifetime. This headphone got 500 life cycles to hold ~100% charge, after which battery life will deteriorate. So 500 life cycles * 20 hours charge = 10,000 hours, after which battery will slowly deplete. So if you listen 4 hours everyday, then time taken to deplete 500 cycles will be 10,000/4 = 2500 days = 6.84 years. So after almost 7 years, your battery will start to deteriorate, which is incredible I should say.
LITTLE ISSUES:
1) If connected to Macbooks, you may first hear bad quality sound including your surrounding noises. This is because your macbook has activated the headphone mic, instead of using the normal laptop mic. So to solve the problem got to sound preferences and select macbook inbuilt mic in the input section. You will have to click a few times on the option to activate it.
2) When you wear the headphones for the first time, you may notice pressure on your ears and may feel quite nauseous which is normal. I felt it as well and even thought of returning the product fearing for my life haha, but I read online that it will go away soon. And so it did as well. It went away in 2 days after which I got habituated. So, don't freak out.
3) Bose stopped giving away airline adapters after QC I. So, please read before on what you all get with the package in the amazon contents section on the website before complaining.
4) Also if you are not sure if your headphone is genuine or not, simply download Bose Connect App from the play store or apple store and connect it. If it gets connected, then it's genuine. If not, then fake.
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