Bose – QuietComfort 35 II Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones – Black

DESIGN:
Bose has maintained a very similar design to the 1st generation of the QuietComfort 35. The headband portion has a soft underside that feels very comfortable resting on the top of my head. The band is also foldable which makes the QuietComfort 35 II easy to transport, although the included case is somewhat larger than many of the other over-the-ear headphones I’ve tested.
The earcups are also very soft and comfortable around your ear, which is very important as you’ll likely be wearing these for long periods on an airplane or train. I still sometimes get the “ear sweats” and need to take a break from the headphones after wearing them for an hour or so to give my ears a chance to breath, but this is normal for me with any pair of headphones.
The headphones are large and seem a bit bulky, but the sound quality makes up for it.
SOUND QUALITY:
With “Bose” on the label, you can safely assume sound quality is stellar. And it is with the Quiet Comfort 35 IIs. Bass has plenty of punch and the mids and highs are crips and clear.
When the noise cancellation is active, you will hear a gentle white noise “hum” in the background as the unit counteracts the outside noises. It’s not very noticeable while listening to music, but you can tell it is there when listening to a podcast or talk show.
NOISE CANCELLING
One of the main reasons to pick up these Bose headphones is for their noise cancellation technology. Once you activate the noise cancellation feature, the sounds around you seem to disappear. And I’m not just talking about that fact that these cover your ears. Bose’s noise cancellation technology actively sends opposing sound to counteract the noise around you. Why’s this important? You can set the QC 35 IIs to a lower volume and still hear your music just fine, even in noisy environments. Normally, you would need to crank up the music to drown out your surroundings. So you can spare your ear drums and relax even if there’s a crying baby next to you. Now, if someone’s running a jackhammer next to you, it won’t completely eliminate the sound. But it does a great job of getting rid of the loud hum of an airplane or the clickity-clack of a train.
There are two levels of noise cancellation: high and low. The feature can also be turned off completely. The “low” setting comes in handy when you still need to hear something going on outside, such as an airport announcement. Although, if it’s something important, you’ll probably want to turn off the noise cancelling feature completely. The noise cancellation feature can be controlled via Bose’s Connect app or you can assign the function to the “Action” button.
FEATURES:
Bose touts that the Bose QuietComfort 35s have Google Assistant built-in and can be accessed by pressing a new “Action” button on the left earcup. I assumed the headphones would just kind of “tether” my phone’s internet connection when using Google Assistant. However, the app for these headphones prompted me to install the full Google Assistant app on my iPhone in order to use the feature. I wouldn’t say that Google Assistant is “built-in” if the headphones are depending on my phone to actually run the Google Assistant feature.
Which prompts another question: don’t most headphones already allow you to call up the voice assistant, be it Siri or Google Assistant? Indeed, you can hold the multifunction (middle) button on the QC 35s for one second and Siri will activate on your iPhone (or Google Assistant for Android). So what’s unique about Bose’s “Google Assistant built-in” offering? On Android, the voice interface is a little more verbose and will tell you who the text message is from instead of just playing the normal “ding” notification. For me, I reassigned the “Action” button to control the noise-cancellation feature instead, but heavy users of Google services may find the Google Assistant feature to be worthwhile.
Aside from the Google Assistant feature, the Bose Connect app is very handy and walks you through the setup process and gives you a quick overview on using the QuietComfort 35 IIs. The app can also assist you in connecting additional Bluetooth devices, configuring the Action button, setting the noise cancellation and upgrade the firmware, which I needed to do upon receiving the headphones.
The three buttons on the right ear cup allow you to control your music without getting out your phone. The middle button will play and pause your music (or answer an incoming phone call). Double-tapping the middle button skips forward to the next track while triple-tapping the middle button rewinds. Pressing the + and – buttons will increase and decrease the volume respectively.
BATTERY LIFE
Battery life is impressive and can last up to 20 hours in wireless Bluetooth mode or 40 hours when using the included audio cable. Charging the unit only takes two hours and can be recharged with a standard Micro USB cable.
Upon powering on the QC 35 IIs, an automated voice will announce the current charge level. If the battery needs recharged while in use, you’ll hear, “Battery low, please charge now.” There is also a battery LED indicator on the right ear cup. Green indicates a medium to full charge, while a solid amber LED indicates that the charge is getting low. When it blinks red, it’s time to charge. If you’re using an iPhone, the battery level will also show on the status bar of your phone.
OVERALL
You can’t beat the sound quality of Bose. The addition of Google Assistant seems gimmicky, but you can still summon Siri with these headphones, The noise cancellation feature is superb and makes these great for long plane or train rides.

The Bose headphones are made to last. Quality components and construction.
The Box includes a Carry bag, Aux cable and a charging cable. The headphones came charged (almost full)
I downloaded the Bose app and connected to my phones. It was then I was notified of a firmware upgrade was needed. This took over 30 minutes. I would have hoped it was quicker as I was anxious to started using them. After they were updated I opened the app and was informed by the app that it can’t access my music to play my songs on my phone but I could come back to the Bose app after I started playing my music. I would hope that this would change with further updates to the Bose app.
The app however will let you, Manage connections, Update, Share music with a friend who has another set of Bose headphone and can listen to their playlist,
On to the fit: Fit was perfect for all of my family members from an 8 year old to a teen, then wife and my fat head.
Sound: WOW, I have 3 sets of expensive headphones and the Bose headphones beat them hands down!! I now know I should have purchased these first and not wasted time and money with the others. I love these phones. The quality of sound makes you think you are at a concert.
The low/mid and high tones hit perfect. I could even hear notes and sounds on some of my favorite music I hadn’t heard before.
Bass?? Best Bass in the business when it hits you can feel it. I listened to my music for at least 4 hours while working and there was no ear fatigue at all (even though these are over the ear) some other brands after being used for longer periods do make the ear region uncomfortable, not these.
The only issue I had was some sweating due to the leather on the ear pieces after using them for 4 hours non stop. A microfiber mesh added to the ear piece may cure this. But I am sure this would hurt the noise cancellation.
The noise cancellation is pretty good. When playing music most all exterior sound is blocked. These are great for the office too if you want to block out any noisy coworkers.
The on board buttons include, Volume up, down and pause, an assistant button when connected to your phone (Siri, Google) plus you can answer/hang up your phone. The headphones have a dual built in microphone.
The battery life is about 20 hrs. The devices you can connect to via Bluetooth and NFC making getting started a snap. Range is about 30 feet for paired devices.
SO I find these headphone very nice, comfortable and knock out sound. They are worth e very penny!!
I would definitely recommend the Bose head phones to my family and friends.

I’ve long been a fan of noise cancelling headphones, but it wasn’t until this past year that I really started appreciating the scope of their use. I traveled across the country on a crowded airplane. While thousands of people do this everyday, I can’t say that I was totally prepared for it the first time around. All the ambient noises really took their toll on me and one year later, when I flew for a second time, I had an excellent pair of noise cancelling headphones in-hand to make the flight bearable. At that time, I was rocking the Sony 1000X Wireless Noise Cancelling headphones and I never thought I would find a better, more comfortable pair of headphones. This past week, I was introduced to the QuietComfort 35 II headphones by Bose. I’ve been a fan of Bose products for many years because they have a reputation for designing great, high-end audio gear. I’m happy to say that the QuietComfort 35 II’s don’t disappoint and they really live up to the Bose quality name.
UNBOXING
The headphones arrived in a standard Bose branded box. The outside covering of the box included some basic details of the product in multiple languages. You will also notice the MFi icon along with the Android logo and the Google Assistant built-in graphic. The QuietComfort 35 II are the first Bose headphones to come with built-in Google Assistant support. That is in fact the biggest difference between the QuietComfort 35 II and the original version of the headphones according to Bose’s website. When you look at the specs of the two headphone models, you will see that they are nearly identical except for the weight (version II is 2.6 ounces heavier) and the fact that the original QuietComfort headphones come packaged with an airline adapter.
The QuietComfort 35 II’s package includes a carrying case, charging cable, and audio cable. When you first open the box, you will see the carrying case. All the other pieces are tucked away inside. The case is built very well. There is an exterior mesh pocket that could be used for extra cables or even your smartphone. When you open the case, you will find another interior mesh pocket and the mail compartment where the headphones lay. They actually fold up in a very specific way, but Bose was kind enough to include a small illustration that shows you how to place them in the case.
BUILD QUALITY
The headphones are lightweight and flexible. I really like that the earpieces aren’t static and can swivel around a bit. It makes it easier to wear in my opinion. The headband extends easily and the materials used to build it feels very solid. The padding on the headband is probably the only thing I would change. It’s soft and comfortable to wear, but it’s covered in some sort of suede fabric, which leads me to think that over time, it will soak up sweat and other oils and wear down. I would have preferred to see this padding covered in leather instead.
The inside of the ear pieces are marked with a “L” and “R” to show you which way to wear the headphones. One thing I noticed was that the actual speaker on the inside of the ear cup seems to be angled toward your ear. Many of my other headphones just have a flat speaker. I haven’t been able to find out this sort of orientation would affect sound quality or volume, but I am sure the design was done with purpose. The padding on the ear cups is very nice and seems to wear well. I did notice that the foam segments don’t pull off of the cups as magnets, but it does appear that they might snap off the ear cups. Not wanting to damage the foam, I didn’t try to pry them off.
These headphones have physical switches on them which is a bit of an oddity these days. Most of the headphones I’ve been around lately seem to utilize touch controls (the Sony headphones only have touch controls). So, the tactile nature of the buttons and switches on the Bose headphones was a nice departure from what I was used to. I’m sometimes not a fan of physical switches because they will get caught on things like hoodies, but the on/off switch on the right ear cup was designed in such a way that it avoided that usual problem. In addition to the on/off switch, you will also find the volume up/down buttons, and the play/pause button on the right ear cup. On the left ear piece, you will find the Google Assistant/ANR settings button.
On the bottom of the two earpieces, there is also a port for plugging in the Micro USB charging cable and the audio cable for a wired connection. Even though Micro USB has been a standard for quite some time for charging devices of this nature, I feel with a brand new product like this, Bose should have taken the opportunity to switch over to USB-C for charging.
USER EXPERIENCE
As soon as the headphones arrived, I paired them to my phone. They had 70% battery life out of the box, which made me happy that I could go ahead and start using them. I put the headphones on my head and found very quickly that they were more comfortable than my Sony headphones and they caused less strain on my head, too. I’ve used the headphones for a couple of days off and on and not had any issue with the battery life.
The buttons and functions I were very easy to pick up on without reading the manual but for more in depth features, you will need to read the manual because they are not as intuitive as the ones listed above. For example you have no dedicated button for changing songs. For us iPhone users we can easily remedy this by simply pressing in and holding the play/pause button to activate Siri and asking her to switch to the next track or calling up a totally different album. All the Siri commands that work on your iPhone work via this button so no worries here.
Even though I’ve only had these remarkable headphones for a few days, I’ve been incredibly impressed with them. The comfortable design and sound quality both live up to the Bose name. I’ve worn them for several hours and don’t perceive any earaches or headaches from wearing them too long.
Making and receiving calls is pretty simple. making calls again takes the use of Siri. I found this to be super simple and had no issues with Siri hearing or understanding what I asked of her to do. I don’t currently have Google Assistant installed so the dedicated Google button was used for the ANR settings instead. The sound quality is amazing. I am hard of hearing and I didn’t have any issues with hearing music or spoken words. Music and sounds were crisp and dynamic.
As noice cancelling headphones go, I really like how the Bose headphones block out ambient noise with little effort. I love that the noise canceling is activated by flipping a switch. I’ve not had the chance to use these on a plane yet like I did with the Sony’s but with noise canceling turned up to high I can almost not hear anything else around me so I’m assuming they will work just as well if not better for travel.
CONCLUSIONS
I think the Bose QuietComfort 35 II are the best wireless headphones on the market right now. I’ve officially made the switch over to them as my primary listening companions. If you had the QuietComfort 35 that were released last year, I don’t know that the Google Assistant feature is enough to upgrade, but if you are using a different style or brand of headphone, I think you will be happy with the Bose QuietComfort 35 II.

I already had a pair of these excellent noise canceling headphones. I got my husband a pair for his birthday. Now we can completely ignore each other! It’s great!