Surface Headphones

I was recommended these headphones after my old ones stopped working. I use them exclusively for work. Mostly Teams meetings, sometimes Zoom meetings. Overall, they're the best headphones I've used thus far. PROS: - Very comfortable. I have average-sized ears, and these fit over my ears like a glove. The ear cups are shaped such that your ears fit "inside" the cup padding, and the padding is tight against my head without interfering with the shape of my ears. I initially felt some issues with the headband - I was worried that it would give me that lingering head pain that I've experienced with inferior headsets. But that never materialized, and now they just feel good. - The sound cancellation is great. Enough that background noise doesn't interfere. I can't really say much more about this; it just works. If you're looking for absolutely no sound, this ain't it. But for a conventional home office room, it is perfect. - Sound quality. My colleagues say that my voice is very clear. - The controls. On the left, you spin the dial forward/backward to engage or disengage the sound cancellation. There's apparently 13 levels of cancellation; I just treat it as Yes or No. On the right is the volume - same deal. Spin forward to turn up, backward to turn down. There are other controls for calls, music, etc. involving tapping and I haven't really used these, but what I have used of them they work just fine. It's very intuitive. -General Operation. A button on the right side turns them off/on, and the mute button is just to the side of it. There is a sound that plays when you're toggling the mute and let's you know pretty distinctively whether your mute is on or off. - Connectivity. I use these with Bluetooth on a MacBook Air M1, and they're extremely responsive to connecting to my computer when I turn them on/put them on. - Look and feel. They are packaged wonderfully, have a very modern look, and present themselves as a very quality product designed with thought & attention. They have a "weight" to them that doesn't feel cheap at all. CONS: - They frequently produce garbled audio packets. I've been in meetings where the speaker's voice will get garbled regularly, almost as if their internet connection is slow. But others don't report this, so I'm pretty certain it's the headphone bluetooth connection. I'm not sure what is causing this. It's annoying, but ultimately only a moderate inconvenience because it's not so garbled that I can't understand what the other person is saying. - They sometimes get confused. If I have them registered with Bluetooth on my phone and my computer, they'll connect to both my phone and my computer, and when I have to switch between my phone or computer for a meeting or a call, they sometimes don't know which thing to connect to. I really don't think this is an issue with the headphones per se, but it's a thing. A very minor thing. - A quirk on Mac. This is entirely Apple's fault, but worth knowing. When these headphones are put on, Apple Music is brought up on the computer automatically. I haven't figured out how to stop this from happening. Again, nothing against the headphones, but if you are using them with a Mac it's worth knowing. Overall, I'm very happy with how these are performing. Despite the quirks, I'll give them 5 stars as the most superior headphones I've used for work.

In preparing to travel, I purchased Microsoft's Surface Bluetooth headphones. I wasn't sure about this, but the price was good and I couldn't pass up the deal. While not for the audiophile, the sound is good for me. Here's a few other things that I really like about them: The noise cancellation is great. Having tinnitus, reducing the sound of the plane engines helped enormously and it did it well. It also made the screaming baby on a 3-hour flight much more bearable (but I could still hear it). The controls are superb. The sides of the headphones have a rotating ring, and you twist those to change noise reduction (L) or volume (R). You can also just tap the middle of the headphones for pause/play, double tap for skip, etc. They're also capable of passing through or amplifying sound, though in noisy situations it's best to take them off if you're trying to understand someone since it indiscriminately amplifies everything, washing out the voice. The Bluetooth's range shocked me. I noticed it was good around the house even with multiple walls. Today at work, I want for a walk outside. I was easily a football field outside of my building when my songs cut out. I thought I was playing music from my phone, but I forgot I switched to a local radio station on my laptop in the office. One final thing I was surprised about is that it can connect to two devices at once. I was watching a training video . I didn't have my audio cable, so I connected to my work laptop's Bluetooth. To my surprise, I was also able to take phone calls. Maybe this is standard today, but it was a pleasant surprise capability. With this being Microsoft's first attempt, I can see the next version of the Surface headphones being very impressive indeed.

I'm using it primarily for working. My setup is a MacBook Pro and an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S8). My office adopts open space concept, so, it can get a little distracting at times. Many employees opt to use headphones for them to focus on their work. It is very comfortable to wear, even for few hours in the office as well as on the go. Some products out there irritates your skin for long hours usage. Although let's be realistic, we don't use headphones all the time throughout our days. It's only during those times we need to focus, or when we're on conference call, or when we want to tune to our favourite music. I'm using spectacles, and I feel comfortable using it. It doesn't press too hard and the headphone goes over your ears. I advise you to try it out yourself at MS Store, since the experience may vary for your case. Battery life lasts for full day for my usage pattern --from commuting to the office, using it at the office and commuting back home. I typically charge it before calling it a day. Although it's wireless, it comes with a wired jack, so you can be sure it's usable even if the battery is depleted. Charging time is reasonable. You'll get 2 hours for 15 minutes charging, which is nice. Sound quality is good. For my case, the most important aspect is conference call quality and how the other end hear my voice. It performs well on these aspects. I guess for me, it's the small details that makes this product preferable. The radial volume control, the adjustable noise cancellation (you can choose to minimise the noise that disrupts your work, or to amplify the ambient sound around you), pause music when you take it off, navigate through your music with taps instead of buttons, answer or reject the phone call with taps, informing you how many more hours you can use the headphones when you wear it, informing you which device it connects to instead of generic 'your device is connected' (you can connect to multiple devices at once). Overall, I'd recommend this product. However, I'd advise you to try it out yourself and make your own judgement if this headphones suit your needs.

I bought some of these Surface headphones on Prime Day, so we got them at a smoking deal price. I had been considering getting these for a while, and was caught between Sony, Bose, and MS Surface ones. This price put me over the edge and I am very happy I selected these. The others make excellent headphones as well, but these match my Surface Pro and, when comparing to the comfort of the Sony and Bose, I preferred these. I used them on the flight to London the second day I owned them and the noise cancellation was fantastic. It completely tuned out the sound of the airline, and only occasionally I would hear a child or another passenger who was loud and close to me. I was able to get close to 16hours of play time on them. I never once felt they were uncomfortable or heavy or awkward, which I can say has happened with other earphones I've had in the past. It has Cortana built in as an AI, but I really havent used that at all during my time with them so I cannot speak to that. The touch controls are easy to use and effective. I love the dials on each cup that allow you to quickly adjust volume with the right cup, and noise cancellation with the left. Overall, worth every penny.

These headphones are competing directly with the Sony 1000XM3 and Bose QC35II, so when deciding to buy wireless noise cancelling headphones at the $350 price range, it is wise to look into all 3. Noise Cancellation: (Surface Headphones == Sony 1000XM3) > Bose QC35II. The quality of noise cancellation on the Surface and Sony is very close, both standing well above Bose's. I am not too sure why, but Bose's NC gives me a weird headache, and it is not just the QC35 line, but also their in-ear QC20. There are reports of this happening to many other Bose owners, so, personally, I cannot recommend the Bose for the noise cancelling. Both Sony's and Surface Headphones' active noise cancelling is amazing, and for someone who takes bus rides daily, it is a godsend. Comfort: Surface > Bose > Sony When looking at how they rest on your head/ears, the Surface headphones are easily the most comfortable due to its over-ear design. To me, the Sony 1000XM3 are not comfortable since the drivers put physical pressure on my ear's cartilage, so after 20 minutes of listening, my ears would start hurting, and that is because of the on-ear design, similar to the Bose QC35II. As a commuter, comfort was the most important factor when I decided to get the Surface headphones. Sound Quality: Sony > Bose > Surface Both Sony and Bose have years of research and development backing them up, so their products have industry standard sound quality, whereas, the Surface headphones are Microsoft's first attempt at making premium headphones. I am not an audiophile, but I can still clearly tell the differences. For example, compared to the Bose QCII, the Surface headphones lack in the mids and highs. Do not get me wrong, the Surface Headphones do sound good for its main functions are being wireless and noise cancelling. PROS: - Quality noise cancelling . - Surprisingly good to play games with, such as PUBG and Overwatch (when cabled, with NC on). I can actually hear footsteps much clearer, and it beats any of the fake "7.1 surround sound" gaming headphones by a milestone. - Build quality is premium (soft touch material), way better than the Bose. They weigh a tiny bit more than Sony's and Bose's, but it's negligible. - Touch control on the sides, which makes it hands-free. Also, the dials for volume (on the right) and NC (on the left) are really smooth and easy to adjust. - Fast charging, so you can sneak in a couple hours of battery with ~15 minutes of charging (as long as you have a fast charger). - USB type-C - If you run out of battery, they still function as normal headphones with the 3.5mm jack cable (with NC off). - Voice assistant (Cortana, Siri, Google Voice) if you are into that. - It has voice prompts, such as telling you battery life when turning it on. Also, it will pause your music when you take them off. - Phone calls sound clear. CONS: - Battery life (about 12 hours) is much shorter than the competitors. This is due to the voice assistant being on "stand-by" the whole time, which drains the battery. Microsoft is working on an firmware update to let you choose to have it turned off, but I don't think they will reach Sony's monstrous 30-hour battery. - Sound quality is worse than Bose's and Sony's. You can try to tune it differently in the EQ, but they will still lack. Overall: I like them a lot and I would recommend them to people interested in buying wireless, noise cancelling headphones at this price range. My primary use is with my iPhone, so as far as streaming over Spotify, to me they sound great.

Been a happy Surface product owner for a few years but support for these headphones has been pretty poor. First of all the switching between devices rarely works and the rubber headband began separating from the plastic almost immediately and the dials began getting a little rough to rotate about a month after owning them. None of this was enough to keep me from really liking these headphones. They sound pretty good, noise cancellation is good, and they are super comfortable to wear all day. However, after the newest update, they no longer play music. They pair to Android and Windows devices and moving dials and holding the side button all cause the connected device to interact and even make a beeping noise if you max the volume on your device but they no longer play audio. Microsoft support says I'm out of luck and need to pay almost full price for an RMA. Pretty sad considering that in the past this would have probably been a ~5 minute trip to the Microsoft Store to get fixed but since all the stores have been closed you are stuck working with the online support which is a MAJOR downgrade in value for any Microsoft hardware products.

I got these headphones and was really happy with them, sound is good, noise cancelling is good, controls are somewhat sensitive but not a problem. Very quickly I started having problems: - touch buttons stopped working - the headphones would just turn themselves off randomly (especially when paired with Windows which is odd) - headphones would unpair at random I raised these issues to microsoft support, and they were super helpful. They had me send them mine, and sent me back a pair of Surface Headphones II Immediately upon using them I had the following issues: 1. touch buttons not working 2. noise cancelling knob not working 3. noise cancelling significantly worse than the previous pair 4. audio on devices gets automatically paused 5. random power off (especially on windows) 6. mic not working I contacted support again and they had me reset the firmware which worked until I powered the device off and back on. All the issues returned. At this point I have paid to spend way too much time trying to get these very expensive headphones to work, and at that I got a pair back that is worse than the original. If it had been only the first device, that makes sense sometimes you get a lime. But at this point it seems there is a software issue that I should not have to deal with when buying such expensive headphones. This is behavior I would expect from a $20-$30 pair of headphones. It's very disappointing because I really love the design, and was pretty sold on them before I even tried them. I would have been so easy to please. I probably would have even ignored a small bug. In fact I did for a few weeks.

Sounds quality is superb. Active Noise Cancellation is not 100%, but it is acceptable - it cancels maybe about 80-85 of the noise and this is not an issue for me at all. I like the design and on-ear dials with which I can adjust NC and volume - these dials are really awesome. Headphones can be connected to multiple sources at the same time, e.g with my iPhone and my Surface Book and I really like this feature. It's a great product! Well done, Microsoft!!! I highly recommend these Surface Headphones!