Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 review: Beauty and the Beast

Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 review: Beauty and the Beast

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are simply a work of art. They feature a sublime modernistic design that is both convenient to use and an absolute pleasure to look at.

HIGHLIGHTS 

• The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 cost Rs 34,500 in India. 
• The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are available in India in Black colour variant. 
• The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 come with active noise cancellation technology.

If someone asked you to summarise the qualities that you would want to see in a pair of headphones that you would never part from yourself, what would those qualities be? A good audio quality? A stylish design? Easy to use controls? Alexa and Google Assistant integration? A long battery life? What if I told you there is pair of headphones that would give you all of this and more if you were willing to splurge some extra bucks? Bose launched the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 in India last month.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are priced at Rs 34,500 and they are available in India in Black colour variant. The Silver colour variant of the Bose Noise Cancelling headphones 700 that you are seeing in our images hasn't been launched in India yet. So before you start wondering how and when you can get your hands on this gorgeous pair of headphones...or more specifically...the silver colour variant of this newly launched pair of headphones, I would say that you would have to wait for some time before the silver colour variant in India goes on sale in the country.

Coming to the design and sound quality, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are some of the most comfortable pair of headphones that I have ever used. They are stylish, they are light and more importantly, they are extremely comfortable to wear. Whether you are sitting in a noisy working space, trying to focus on your upcoming presentation or outside getting your groceries, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are a perfect companion for audiophiles everywhere. 

And one of the many good things about them is that you can adjust the level of noise that you want to let in. We will talk about that and its sound quality in details, but first let's take talk about the design.

Isn't it a beauty? 

If you have taken a peek at the images of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 above, you would understand why I am gushing about its gorgeous design. It's simple, modern and it oozes class. The design of these newly launched pair of headphones is ingenious and it almost reminds me of the Dyson products that I have reviewed in past - out of the box design approach yet so obvious. It makes you wonder why didn't anyone earlier think of including such a flexible and easily adjusting headband before. 

To get into the details, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 come inside a black coloured casing that houses all the accessories, which includes the charging cord and the 3.5mm cord for the times when you want to listen to music or use the phone in the old fashioned way. It also protects it from the wear and tear of everyday life.

Inside the box, you will find an over-the-ear styled headphones in a gorgeous aluminum mental finish that gives the entire structure a modern appeal. The ear-cups are big and cushiony and designed for long term use. And while they are covered in a leather-like fabric, they don't make you sweaty in the sun. Simply said, you can wear them all day long and they won't tire your ears or make you uncomfortable at all.

The ear cups are connected to a headband with an aluminum frame and a polyester fabric on top and bottom, which efficiently makes the design of the headband light and hence apt for long term use. The headband is connected to the ear cups with a unique and slip-and-slide mechanism, which is unlike most headphones that you will come across in the market. Coming back to the ear cups, the right ear cup has two buttons and two LEDs on it. 

The LED on the top blinks Blue while connecting your headphones with your smartphone. The button near the LED light on the right side is used for turning the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 on and connecting them with your smartphones, while the button on the bottom of the right side is used for invoking the virtual assistant on your smartphone. There is another LED on the bottom of the right cup that blinks White while the headphones are in use. 

It sits right next to a USB Type-C port that is used for charging the headphones using a cable. The left ear cup has a port to connect the cable that plugs in your phone's 3.5mm jack. There is also a button that can be used to control the level of noise cancellation. Now comes the surprise. 

Usually, headphone makers incorporate features such as answering or ignoring a call, adjusting the volume and changing the track. The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 has a touchpad or a touch sensitive section on the ear cups. We will discuss this functionality in detail, in the next section of the review.

Performs like a beast 

When it comes to audio products, Bose is a name that needs no introduction. Having reviewed several Bose products like the Home Speaker 500 and the Bose Sleepbuds in the past, I can say one thing that its products never disappoint in terms of sound. Bose audio products have a distinct sound - one that focuses on balance and clarity rather than highlighting a particular aspect of sounds - that it makes you get lost in the music that is playing on the device, whether it is in your ears or in your room. The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are no exception to this rule.

The sound that they produce is crisp, clear, balanced and almost velvety. It leaves a mark on your sense that you probably won't forget. What makes the experience even better is the cushiony ear cups that transport you to another world. During the course of my review, I listened to a variety of songs ranging from pop to country to rock to sufi songs to even old Bollywood classics and every time, played my favourite tracks, I realized what I had been missing all these years - clarity, especially in case of old Bollywood numbers.

I heard the Shammi Kapoor classic - 'O Hassena Zulfon Wali' - and I could not only hear the drum strokes but also the sound of ghungroos and Maracus in the background. Listening to country songs like Blake Shelton's 'God's Country' and John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads', you can hear every guitar strum clearly and you can distinguish between every note sang. What impressed me even more is that these headphones didn't falter even while playing pop songs like Adam Lavigne's 'Girls Like You' and Avril Lavigne's 'Don't Let Me Go' at high volumes. The voice remained stable and balanced all throughout. In the language of audiophiles, the mids were clear and the highs were balanced. Even with bass heavy songs like David Guetta's 'Titanium' and Alan Walker's 'Faded' there was just the right amount of bass that will make you groove but not blast your ears off. All in all, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are all about balance and so if you are looking for something heavy on the bass side, you might have to dig deeper.

As far the smart features are concerned, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 come with a number of smart features. For starters you can pair them up with Alexa or Google Assistant. You can also talk to Siri. All you need to do to invoke your favourite virtual assistant is press the button the right ear cup. The right ear cup, as I mentioned before, come with a touch sensitive panel. Here's what you can do:

- Double tap to play/pause the music or answer/end a call. 

- Swipe up to increase the volume. 

- Swipe down to decrease the volume. 

- Swipe forward to skip to the next track. 

- Swipe backward to skip to the previous track. 

- Tap and hold to hear the battery level.

All these functions are easy to use and remember and they work flawlessly every time. 

And thanks to its four-microphone system, your calls are as smooth as your music. On the left side of the headphones is a button that controls its active noise cancellation functionality - a feature that Bose is known for. Pressing the button in a loop switches between degrees to which the phone blocks the outside noise with 0 being the lowest (also known as the conversation mode) to 10 being the highest at which point you won't hear any outside noise. You can also press and hold the button to activate the conversation mode. Alternatively, you can also set the degree of noise cancellation using the Bose Music app, which apart from allowing you to adjust the noise cancellation feature also lets you control other features of the newly launched Bose headphones. Here's a thing, while the app inherently is easy to use, it's the number of apps that Bose has in its ecosystem that can sometimes confuse you. For reference, while the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 use the Bose Music app, the Bose Frames, that we reviewed, earlier this year use the Bose Connect app - all of which can get a bit confusing at times. Here comes another good part. 

Apart from the active noise cancellation feature, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 also come with passive noise cancellation feature, which means that they can effectively block up to 80 per cent noise when they aren't turned on.

Lasts long enough 

Battery is one of the most important factors that we look for in a pair of wireless headphones. Especially when you are spending as much as 34.5 grand on a piece of hardware it becomes all the more important you cover all the bases before making the investment. Good news for you is that the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 excels in this department as well. Bose says that the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 can support you for a full 20 hour-long shift on continuous usage. During our review we found that the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 will last for about a week on single charge averaging at around 3-4 hours of use every day. This means that once you have charged it to 100 per cent, you won't need to bother charging it regularly if you use it for only a couple of hours a day. And in any case, the headphones whispers the percentage of charge left every time you turn it on. As far as charging is concerned, it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours for the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 to charge completely.

While all of that is good, one thing that I don't like about the entire package is that Bose ships the headphones with a USB Type-C cable and no charger, which means you will have to rely on your charger to charge the device.

Should you buy Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700? 

In one word: Yes, if you can afford it. The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are simply a work of art. They feature a sublime modernistic design that is both convenient to use and an absolute pleasure to look at. This great design is complimented by an unparalleled audio quality and features such as the ANC and the touch sensitive controls. Granted companies like JBL and Audio Technica are offering ANC at a much lower price, but the degree till which Bose isolates the sound cannot be compared. With ANC at 10 and no audio playing in the headphones, you can hear yourself loud and clear, which can get a bit scary at times. This combined with a velvety soft textured sound is the perfect mix of features that you could ask for in a pair of headphones.

Granted, the price of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 is a bit too high, which may not appeal to lot of people who are looking for something good under 10K but then again not everyone buys an iPhone.