Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Noise-cancelling headphones on the cheap
Our Verdict
The Anker Soundcore Life Q35 retains most of its predecessor'southward hallmarks and adds LDAC connectivity, just the higher cost might deter you.
For
- Personalized sound with LDAC support
- Fantabulous connectivity
- Super-long playtimes
- Handsome design
- Decent noise neutralization
Confronting
- Very few upgrades
- ANC performs better on previous version
- Some smart controls don't work properly
- Bass overpowers vocals
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Anker Soundcore Life Q35 retains nearly of its predecessor's hallmarks and adds LDAC connectivity, but the higher price might deter you.
Pros
- +
Personalized sound with LDAC back up
- +
Excellent connectivity
- +
Super-long playtimes
- +
Handsome design
- +
Decent noise neutralization
Cons
- -
Very few upgrades
- -
ANC performs amend on previous version
- -
Some smart controls don't work properly
- -
Bass overpowers vocals
Another surprise launch from the portable electronics giant, the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 serves as Anker's newest flagship noise-cancelling headphones. This model upholds many of the aforementioned hallmarks as the Life Q30, including bold audio, hybrid ANC, and long battery life, while adding LDAC engineering and AI-enhanced mics into the mix.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 specs
Price: $129
Colors: Obsidian Bluish
Bombardment life (rated): 40 hours (ANC on), threescore hours (ANC off)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Size: seven.7 x vii.i ten iii inches
Weight: nine.vi ounces
Not a major threat to category leaders similar the Apple AirPods Max, Sony WH-1000XM4, and Bose 700, the Life Q35 is considered a disruptor with plenty of operation to stoke budget shoppers that want feature-laden racket-cancellers at an accessible price. At the same time, they comport many flaws that will accept you lot questioning what is the better investment: this version or the original? Read our total Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review to run across if it'south worth the extra coin.
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Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Price and availability
- $129 from Anker or Amazon
- Bachelor now, only only in blue
The Anker Soundcore Life Q35 is available from Anker or Amazon. It will run yous $129 and is simply sold in one color: Obsidian Blue.
Anker is offer adequate dissonance neutralization and personalized sound for half of the Bose 700 ($399) and Sony WH-1000XM4 ($350), and a third of the Apple AirPods Max ($549). Meanwhile, you tin can check out the original Life Q30 ($fourscore), which performs similarly, just doesn't come with LDAC technology.
For all of the latest sales, feel gratis to bookmark our best headphones deals page.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Design and comfort
- Great looks
- Not very meaty, but yet comfy
Sometimes the right color can brand the design on a pair of headphones. The blue shade that Anker created for the Life Q35 is absolutely gorgeous and it gives this version a more premium look over the original, which also looks attractive with a nice blackness and aureate colour scheme. Small details like the airbrushed "active racket cancelling" text on the side of the yokes and embossed Soundcore logo on the forepart of each earcup make the Life Q35 pop as well.
There isn't any divergence in build quality between the 2 models, equally plastic, aluminum, and simulated leather make up the unabridged construction. Information technology is a massive improvement from the Life Q20, though I observe other models in the same price range (like the Cleer Enduro ANC) to have a fancier, more progressive pattern than the Life Q35. Don't go me wrong though, because this pair of cans is still pretty and durable.
At 9.6 ounces, the Life Q35 is lighter than most competitors, but much bulkier with a frame similar to circum-aural, closed-back headphones (peep the Focal Celestee for reference). Despite this, the headphones provide moderate comfort, thanks to memory foam padding on the headband that doesn't suffocate the skull.
The protein-leather on the earpads is gentle on the ears as well. Fatigue does set in later 1.five hours of wear. You'll also achieve a stable fit with the yokes presenting multiple settings to accommodate different head sizes.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Bear on controls and digital assistant
- Responsive, well-placed buttons
- Siri is effective, Google Assistant struggles
The aforementioned control scheme as the Life Q30 is present, consisting of physical buttons that back up a total suite of commands, including playback, call direction, volume, vocalisation assistance, ability on/off, and enabling ANC/Transparency way. Anker did manage to integrate 1 touch control that lets y'all cycle through the different listening modes when leaving your finger for 1 second on the correct ear cup. The buttons beetle on the rear side of each earcup and are spaced out conveniently to identify and locate them. They're also responsive, and so you'll feel reassured that intended commands are being met with every press.
On-ear detection is also available to automatically intermission music when removing the headphones and resume playback when placed dorsum on your ears, but simply seems to piece of work half of the time.
Voice aid is 50-50 with Siri existence the more reliable pick for executing voice commands. Using the headphones on my MacBook Pro, I was satisfied with the Life Q35's speech recognition, too as the accurateness of results when verbalizing requests. In that location was noticeable latency when firing up the feature, but nothing too worrisome. Google Assistant did non afford me the same performance, frequently misinterpreting basic inquiries like "what is my next event?" for "when is my side by side alarm?" and only registering the last give-and-take of long-winded requests. This was odd, especially since I used the voice banana primarily in serenity settings, that fashion the mics didn't choice up any ambient noises.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Active racket counterfoil
- ANC worse than on the Life Q30
- Sensitive to wind
Anker has made strides with its hybrid active dissonance-cancelling applied science, just I thought information technology was weaker on the Life Q35 compared to its elder sibling. Where the Life Q30 blocked out lxxx% of external sounds, the Q35 teetered around 75%.
There are three dissimilar ANC modes bachelor: Ship, Indoor, and Outdoor. Each of these are engineered to deal with noise in specific environments, just also perform akin and struggle to minimize ambient noises at the highest level.
I was able to ignore distractions like true cat meows, kitchen apparatus timers and loud televisions when inside the house. On the other hand, I could also hear mutual annoyances like keyboard clatter and running faucets, along with my infant's grunts that made for unwanted background effects on hip-hop tracks. Outside was where ANC struggled. The engine dissonance produced past my father-in-law'south Jeep Wrangler Rubicon sounded disruptive, plus wind had a stiff presence.
Since the mics are overly sensitive to noise, this made using the Transparency Mode a bit unsteady. I could sympathise what people were proverb when conversing face up to face, simply voices sounded very distant when speaking from only a few feet away. Furthermore, some noises only came off equally harsh. The whooshing sound created when walking in drafty atmospheric condition didn't allow me to hear what else was transpiring around me. In that location was also a slight echo whenever I spoke to people.
Cutout was a major problem when listening to music and switching between modes. This mostly occurred when cycling through the iii dissimilar ANC modes.
Noise isolation wasn't impressive in Normal way either. I could hear doors shutting and my wife's conference calls when sharing office infinite, as well equally cars whisking past during daytime walks. Adding insult to injury, the headphones bleed out sound at a high rate, as my married woman mentioned twice during work hours.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Sound quality
- LDAC grants lossless support
- However, boominess overpowers details
The big upgrade introduced on the Life Q35 is LDAC technology, which allows for lossless sound even over Bluetooth: a subject Apple tree's AirPods recently tripped over. Truthfully, you won't really pick up on those subtle nuances, as the 40mm dynamic drivers are overly aggressive with lows, giving the sound profile more punch than necessary. Bass lovers might enjoy this, but critical listeners expecting a more than prominent-sounding cowbell on the Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" might be disappointed.
DJ Khaled's "Distressing Non Sorry" featuring Jay-Z and NaS delivered head-rattling bass that was decently balanced. The legendary rappers' vocals took a hitting and lacked crispness, though they were withal audible to go some enjoyment out of the listen. Switching to something more melodic and smoother, I played D'Angelo'south "Cruisin'" and was somewhat impressed by how emphatic the syncopated bass line sounded, only likewise disappointed due to its boomy presence hindering the singer'southward serene harmonies.
My gut told me borer into jazz classics would offer a sense of detail that these cans were programmed to deliver, and the determination paid off. The instrumental separation was superb on Freddie Hubbard's "Weaver of Dreams," starting with the steady how-do-you-do-hats at the kickoff, which demonstrated cracking depth, and leading into some upbeat, pleasant-sounding double bass and piano notes.
Two other quick tidbits to know: the bundled aux cable offers a slight bump in mids and there is some occasional skipping when streaming music via LDAC on an Android device.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: App and special features
- All-encompassing sound customization
- Slumber Mode offers relaxing groundwork noise
The Soundcore app is the hub for extended functionality and provides unlike ways to personalize the cans, from ANC functioning to sound customization. Most of your time will be spent playing with the EQ that hosts 22 presets, each ane made for a specific music genre or content. You become some cool inclusions like Podcast for enhanced vocal clarity, while Electronic is ideal for EDM songs. I'grand besides a fan of the Audio-visual and Jazz presets since they do a noteworthy job of emphasizing instruments. Users can also create their own sound profile past tweaking the decibel levels manually.
A Slumber Mode is available at the bottom right of the homescreen that is basically Anker'south version of a soundscape mode, something that Jabra and Bowers & Wilkins take as well adult for their headphones. I don't see anyone wearing these to bed, but the different settings are useful if you require some sort of white dissonance to mellow out during stressful times.
The widget function returns as well, which allows you to instantly admission listening modes directly from your smartphone; select the data icon in the Ambience Sound setting for details on how to enable it.
Other features rounding out the app are the Ambient Sound setting to manually alter the unlike listening modes, along with firmware updates, toggle controls, and a bombardment indicator for the headphones.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Battery life and charging case
- Very practiced longevity
- Decent fast-charging
Battery life remains the same: 40 hours with ANC on and 60 with ANC off. Obviously, these playtimes are reduced by about an hr or two when taking high volume, streaming, and ANC into consideration. Fifty-fifty then that is still an incredibly sufficient amount of listening time to have and crushes the 20 hours of playtime both the AirPods Max and Bose 700 generate on a single charge. The Enduro ANC delivers over 50 hours with ANC, though.
I've used the Life 35 for virtually iii hours daily over the by week and take about 60% left in the tank. If yous're the type to hawk battery levels, the Life 35 has fast-charging capabilities to ease your anxiety and net you iv hours of use on a five-minute accuse.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Call quality and connectivity
- Largely articulate call quality
- Long Bluetooth range with bonus NFC
Call quality is a step upwards from the Q30, granted it'due south far from perfect. Anker employs two beamforming mics that use an AI algorithm to produce clearer-sounding calls and do away with unwanted noises. The missus mentioned that my voice sounded deadened, both within and outside the house, just said it wasn't as bad as other ANC headphones. My vox was mostly articulate with most distractions around the business firm being completely absent from our calls. Outside presented challenges, every bit construction tools and wind found their way into my conversations.
The Life Q35'south unsung characteristic is connectivity with Bluetooth 5.0 performing exceptionally well. I could pair and re-pair to recognize devices instantly and enjoyed some of the lengthiest range in the category: 50 feet of wireless listening.
Anker also added 2 more wireless features to enhance the wireless experience: multipoint engineering and NFC. The former lets you connect 2 devices simultaneously and seamlessly switch from one to the other, while NFC lets you pair the Life Q35 past placing the back of a compatible smartphone onto the correct earcup. Both worked flawlessly.
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 review: Verdict
The Anker Soundcore Life Q35 isn't this vast upgrade that the price would lead you to believe. Don't error that for failure considering these are still some sleek headphones with lots of features to personalize the listening feel. Merely a handful of models can match its superior bombardment life and the several wireless technologies supported permit for first-class connectivity.
If yous're request whether the additions of LDAC and on-ear detection are worth spending an extra $l, I must respectfully say no. You also need to account for the model'south several drawbacks. The hybrid ANC on these cans don't perform besides as on the Life Q30, nor does Google Assistant or some of the smart controls.
For Anker fans who value wireless audio and long playtimes, the Life Q35 does offer some value, and it's inexpensive compared to other sub-luxury ANC headphones. However, if you lot're seeking something but as powerful with amend sound and noise cancellation, the $149 Cleer Enduro ANC is an accessible and highly recommended option.
- More than: The best headphones with a mic for vox and video calls
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/anker-soundcore-life-q35
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