Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Received these Saturday from Bose after I pre-ordered them when they were announced. I am thoroughly impressed so far. Packaging is simplistic and straight to the point with two peel back tabs that let you inside. From there, you will see the NCH 700's case which was smaller than I thought because they don't fold up like the QC35II's. The case fits in my work bag just fine. However, I do have say it's not as small overall as the QC35II's case. The NCH 700 case has a little magnetic flap inside that stores the audio and USB-C cable. No airplane adapter. Thank you Bose for going USB-C with the NCH 700's. What's left is manuals and warranty cards. The feel of the NCH 700's is nice. It's a streamlined design that grew on me and looks very modern. Weight is slightly more than the QC35II's. Build quality is significantly superior with more metals being used and most importantly, the comfort is similar. I would maybe give the slight edge to the QC35II in comfort due to the lower weight, but the NCH 700's is still a very comfortable headphone. The headband adjustment is smooth and should accommodate a wide variety of head sizes just fine. Ear-cup openings is similar to the QC35II with the left and right labels inside the ear cups for easy notation on how to put the headphones on. Controls are great and I can say the touch controls are very responsive and intuitive. Swipe up for volume increase. Swipe down for volume decrease. Swipe forward for the next track. Swipe backward for the previous track. Double tap to play and pause. Tap once to accept and incoming call. Tap and hold to reject the call. Tap and hold to go to a shortcut predefined in the app. The current shortcut available was to have the voice prompt alert you of the current battery life in which she tells you the estimated time until the battery is dead. There's 3 dedicated buttons on the NCH 700's. The two on the right is responsible for Power on/Bluetooth pairing and voice assistance/mute mic. The one on the left is to cycle between the 3 preset noice cancelling modes defined with the app. The right earpiece houses the USB-C port and the left earpiece houses the audio input port. The app provides a lot of functionality control. You can on the fly scroll though the noise cancelling/ambient modes from 0-10. 0 being like having no headphones on at all and 10 being in your own little acoustical chamber. You can launch Bose AR apps and experience augmented reality with he NCH 700's. Pretty cool. You can select the sources that are connected and add a new source or remove an existing source. The NCH 700 can connect to up to 2 devices at once. You can set your voice assistant between Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa. You can set how much of your voice is heard during phone calls or voice assistant interaction. If you're familiar with the QC35II's Bose Connect app, it's pretty much similar settings you can control. Sound on the NCH 700's is clean, open and balanced when at moderate volumes. No frequency really stands out so you get an accurate representation of your music. I would say they sound similar to the QC35II but with a tighter bass. The Sony WH1000Xm3 in comparison sounds more warm and full with a more engaging and alive presentation similar to being at the concert. The Bose sounds more accurate and clear and more like being in the studio. A flat and accurate sound will not sound exciting to everyone however so do keep that into consideration if you're eyeing the Bose.. Sound is subjective overall so you can't go wrong with what you enjoy listening to. I really enjoy the NCH 700's sound. It's a smooth and clear sound that plays well with all genres. The main issue I have with the Bose NCH 700 sound is that when you want to crank the volume, the bass literally begins to disappear in the mix due to the active EQ implementation from Bose. I personally do not like this as it makes these headphones sound harsh and tinny. Noise cancelling is insanely good on the NCH 700's. The Sony WH1000Xm3 is still a bit more effective at reducing outside noises especially in the midrange and treble frequencies. Unfortunately, both headphones get those distortion artifacts when the ANC pressure within the ear cups is disrupted from sudden vibrations to the headphones. For example this can be caused by being on a bus while on a bumpy road or running with your headphones on. The ambient aware mode is very natural feeling on the NCH 700 and it's great being able to have awareness while listening to audio in situations where you don't want to blocked completely from the world. Would be cool if it had the Sony's right hand palm over the ear cup feature where it seamlessly kicks in ambient sound and lowers the music volume so you can quickly hear someone or something and then once your hand leaves the right ear cup, everything reverts back to normal. The Bose NCH 700 does this with the button on the left ear cup. If you press and hold the button for about 2 seconds, it pauses the music and pipes in the nosies around you. When you press the button again, it reverts back to the previously set ANC setting and resumes playing audio. The NCH 700's perform exceptionally for voice mic quality on calls and interacting with your voice assistant. It's amazing how clear your voice is projected onto the other line while using the NCH 700. These are killer for conference calls even if you dare take them in the middle of Times Square, NYC. Overall, the NCH 700 is a welcome evolution to the Bose headphone line up and I'm sure these will win the hearts of many. Highly recommended!