I could say something trite like, "This is a good first effort for Microsoft," but the Surface Headphones are more than that. There are several noise-canceling headphones that sound as good or better at this price (or less), including the aforementioned models from Bose and Sony, as well as the Beats Studio3 Wireless, AKG N700NC and Sennheiser HD 4.50. The one knock against it is that it doesn't really distinguish itself from a sound standpoint. I also thought it performed well as a headset for making calls. Ultimately these are comfortable headphones with some compelling features, including effective noise canceling, those dials for easily controlling the levels of noise noise-canceling and volume, USB-C charging and that always-on Cortana feature that should get better with time. The midrange is a tad restrained (lacking definition and being slightly recessed) and the headphones aren't as open as one might hope. There's a presence boost in the treble along with a bass boost to create that punchy, exciting sound that's typical of many of today's headphones. According to Microsoft, they've got 40 millimeter low-distortion Free Edge drivers. I thought the headphones sounded quite good, but not as good as the Sony WH-1000XM3, the current top-rated product in this category, and they didn't beat the Bose QuietComfort 35 II either. (I didn't try this but I'm taking Microsoft's word that you can.) It also charges via USB-C, which is useful, and has a quick-charge feature that gives you one hour of music playback from a 5-minute charge. The headphone is equipped with Bluetooth 4.2, not the latest Bluetooth 5.0, but you can connect multiple devices to it and swap between them easily. Macs (however, there's no Cortana for MacOS). It's also worth mentioning that there's no Spotify support yet (it's coming soon), so you can't control music playback with your voice if you use Spotify.Īs you'd expect, the Microsoft Surface Headphones are designed to work with Surface computers, but they also work just fine with other mobileĭevices, including the aforementioned iOS and Android I also composed some text messages (you have to touch your screen to actually send the text) and made some calls (you have to touch your screen to dial the number). It worked fine in a lot of instances - I asked it what the weather was in various cities, for the latest news (I received an NPR podcast) and the daily schedules for the NBA and NHL. You then say, "Hey, Cortana," wait a beat for a beep, then issue your voice command. Sometimes it seems like it's running but it isn't. This is one of the headphone's distinguishing features and from my initial tests with a beta version of Cortana 3.0 for iOS (there's also an Android app and Cortana is built into Windows devices), it's kind of cool but can be hit or miss and underwhelming.įirst, you have to the Cortana app running in background.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |