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The Bose QC35 II were leaked back in august. And the biggest addition to the Bose QC35 II is google assistant integration. But with a few new noise canceling headphones on the market are the Bose QC35 II still king? We’re about to find out, don’t forget to like comment and subscribe and you can watch some of my other videos here after you’re done watching this video.
The Bose QC35 II come in the same Black and silver color ways as the original Bose QC35. They currently retail for $349.95 like the OG Bose QC35 did when they first released and knowing Bose… they will rarely go on sale. And the OG Bose QC35 have gotten a slight price cut to $329.95. If you want to pick either of these headphones up I’ll have links in the description below and ill keep them updated so you can get the best deal possible.
Packaging is identical on the Bose QC35 II so you’ll want to double check you’ve got the right box if you’re buying them at the store. You get a hardshell carrying case, a micro USB cable for charging, and an audio cable. But with the Bose QC35 II you DON’T get an airplane adaptor. But it really shouldn’t be a problem cause planes these days either use the standard audio jack or you can just use one of the two jacks cause the reason planes have dual audio jacks is for redundancy. On the outside, the Bose QC35 II is identical to the original Bose QC35 except for the addition of a new button on the left ear cup. And I’ll go into that in a minute. Build quality is still top notch. You’ve got a stainless steel head band that has no problem flexing, the body panels are glass filled nylon and are more durable than plastic panels, you’ve got synthetic leather on the ear cups and headband, and theres the same alcentara on the bottom of the head band that helps the headphones stay in place when they’re on your head. The ear cups swivel and pivot gracefully and the padding is very soft and stays cooler for longer than other head phones. The best qualities of the Bose QC35 have always been comfort, and build quality.
On the right ear cup you’ve got the same buttons as before. There are two volume control buttons and a multipurpose button. Tap once to play or pause you’re music, tap twice to skip a track, tap three times to go back a track and press and hold to activate siri if you’re using them with an iPhone. And the Bose QC35 II are still using bluetooth 4.2 so you get the same range of around 40 feet and you can connect up to two device at the same time. Which is great cause it makes switching from your phone to your laptop super easy. Also, for those who plan on using a wired connection with the Bose QC35 II, just know the head phones themselves have a 2.5 millimeter jack instead of your standard 3.5 millimeter jack. Which will make replacing Bose’s cheap included audio cable a little harder.
But heres the first problem with the Bose QC35 II. When other manufactures release updated versions of their products they usually upgrade the battery life… But the Bose QC35 II still has the same 20 hour battery life with noise cancelation on like the OG Bose QC35. And they also have the same quick charging. Plug them in for 15 minutes and they should get you 2 and half hours of playback time. And I know some people are going to say they should have switched the micro USB port for a USB type c port. And I agree.
When it comes to audio quality the Bose 35 II sound the same as the OG Bose QC35. And thats not a good thing if you ask me. Sure they sound good, have a good amount of depth and the vocals are good but theres no bass compared to other options out there. And sometimes, the highs just crash. And you cant adjust the EQ from Bose’s App so you have to download a third party app if you want to do that.
And the number one thing I wish the Bose QC35 II fixed was the noise cancelation, and unfortunately they didn’t. Like I’ve said in the past the Bose QC35 give me head aches and theres a lot of cabin pressure when the noise cancelation is on. And after using the Sony 1000XM2 which have no cabin pressure… you can feel the difference immediately. If you were expecting performance improvements on the noise cancelation… there isn’t.
SO what is different on the Bose QC35 II. The only difference is the addition of the new action button on the left ear cup and google assistant integration. And even if you have an iPhone you can still enjoy google assistant. All you have to do is go into the App Store and download google assistant. If you click the action button once google assistant will tell you the time and any notifications you might have. If you press and hold the action button you can talk to google assistant and she will respond to you through the headphones. Just keep in mind you have to keep the button pressed down while you’re talking and release when you’re done… its kind of like a walkie talkie. Using google assistant on an iPhone is limited BUT you can still use the multifunction button on the right ear cup to activate siri by pressing and holding. So you get to have two assistants at your beck and call. And personally I like that, cause for simple stuff I know siri can get it right and for more complicated questions I like to use google. But naturally, using google assistant with an android device will be far superior.
But if you don’t want to use the action button to activate google assistant and can also just repurpose that button to toggle your active noise cancelation. And you’ve got 3 settings to choose from. Theres high where the headphones will block out everything, theres low where the headphones will let in a good amount of noise in but will still filter out noise pollution like the whirling of an ac unit and then theres off. But keep in mind, you can still toggle through the noise cancelation settings directly from Bose’s app on both the New Bose QC35 II and the older Bose QC35.
But honestly, I see no reason to upgrade from the Bose QC35 to the Bose QC35 II. If you’re trying to choose between the two models I say just get the OG Bose QC35… save yourself 20 bucks and go have yourself a nice lunch. Bose should have taken this opportunity to improve their battery life, improve their noise cancelation, and improve their sound quality cause every body else did. But instead they slapped on a button and called it day. And honestly, if Bose is so eager to jump into the voice assistant game couldn’t they have achieved the same thing by pressing and holding the multipurpose button? Maybe the biggest change to the Bose QC35 II might be the PCB so it can handle google assistant, but still it looks like all of the processing takes place on your mobile device. So I wonder if the original Bose QC35 can also get Google assistant integration…. And if so is Bose Just going to keep that feature behind a paywall?