Surface Headphones 2: First impressions with Microsoft's Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose 700 competitors

[Redaktion]

The Surface Headphones 2 offers more features than its predecessor at a lower price. Since Microsoft's latest over-ear headphones support high-resolution Bluetooth connectivity, we decided to purchase a pair to see how they fare.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Surface-Headphones-2-First-impressions-with-Microsoft-s-Sony-WH-1000XM4-and-Bose-700-competitors.482633.0.html

[Guillaume Ausset]

> According to Microsoft, the headphones offer up to 30 dB active noise cancellation and 40 dB passive noise cancellation.

Must be a really bad ANC if you get worse isolation when you turn it off ;)

Also very few headphones offer 30 dB of active isolation, and those that do clamp HARD and are incredibly unconfortable if not painful

[Adin]

just buy refurbished Bose 700 or Sony 1000xm3 ...

[S.Yu]

"Punchy and warm" is cause for concern. "Punchy and warm" rarely goes well with resolution and clarity, especially not at this price range, less so with wireless, and I tried Sony's 2nd gen over-ear wireless before and was far from impressed in both wireless and wired mode, and I couldn't shape its signature to satisfactory no matter what EQ I tried, not even the best from Neutron.

[Complainer]

It's 2020, why no Bluetooth 5.0, why no aptX Adaptive?

[Soumyadip Ghosh]

Small software glitches which can be fixed by an update!
Even I had preordered it in May and got it last week. Impressed by build quality, value for money and multi-connectivity. But there are small software problems as follows:
- volume and NC settings are not retained. NC is set to high and volume says maximum volume but is set to 0 when connected to laptop.
- it remembers the setting if using only one mobile device.
- max NC is activated by default during call.
- pairing is always not instantaneous with my phone.
- call volume could have been louder.
- mic picks up even very small sounds from far away but clarity is excellent.
- no setting to disable NC completely to save battery, either it will be in ambient mode or some kind of NC mode.
These are minor issues and should not sway your decision from buying one. I personally am very happy with it and dont regret buying it. Multipoint functioning is the best and mic button is very useful online meetings. You can roam in the kitchen while attending meetings!