Soundcore Life Q35 headphones: Audio performance is top-notch, so is battery life

As consumers have spent more time at home throughout the pandemic, headphones really have become an integral device in our daily lives. Households have spent more time multitasking—listening to a combination of music, watching entertainment content, and integrating the different aspects of virtual communication involved with home working, home-learning and socialising. Music, work, gaming and health—the device makers have seen healthy growth in sales of wired or wireless headphones, and are rapidly introducing newer products at regular intervals.

A new generation of active noise-cancelling headphones by the US-based audio brand Soundcore by Anker promises to be an audio treat for homebound consumers who have been spending more time watching videos, listening to audio and playing video games, while working and studying. These are the company’s ‘Q-Series’ products—Life Q30 and Life Q35 headphones that come with sound and noise cancellation preferences, and are customisable too. The headphones are equipped with hybrid active noise cancellation, signature Soundcore sound, and customisation for a listening experience with great battery life. They come with a compact travel case too, thereby building ease of use.

Soundcore Life Q30, priced at Rs 7,999 and Life Q35, priced at Rs 9,999, crafted with an ergonomic design, are equipped with memory foam ear cups and headbands, and a lightweight frame making them a perfect candidate for the everyday hustle. To ensure a secure fit, the headphones have ear cups that adjust by upto 15 degrees enabling it to adjust to the shape of the head. The headphones come with an 18-month warranty and are already available with Flipkart. Our trial unit was the Q35 variant; let us take a look at some of its key features and overall performance.

Designed to offer a great audio experience, Life Q35 supports LDAC technology that ensures that 3X more data is transmitted to the headphones than standard Bluetooth codecs. This lossless transfer provides every tiny detail in the music. The Life Q35 headphones are equipped with 40mm silk-diaphragm drivers to deliver sound that’s both high resolution audio and high resolution audio wireless certified. Bass is deep, treble shines, and distortion is cut out.

The Q35 headphones also feature Hybrid ANC (active noise cancellation) that picks four microphones and filters out irritating noises like traffic and airplane engines for a purer listening experience. The multimode ANC enables a switch between Transport, Indoor, and Outdoor modes to find the noise cancelling level that suits every surrounding. Giving one a personalised experience, the Soundcore app enables EQ settings or chooses from 22 presets.

The Life Q 35 headphones offer a seamless audio experience with transparency mode that allows one to hear voices and traffic at a natural level when needed. They are also equipped with crystal precise 2-mic AI uplink noise-cancelling technology to optimise voice and free unwanted noise in the background. I set up the Life Q35 headphones with my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone for both work and entertainment purpose. Trust me, the headphones deliver excellent wireless audio and solid noise cancellation. The earpads themselves do some passive noise isolation. Even if someone is chatting loudly or playing music nearby at high volumes, you will hardly get distracted. While listening to music, the bass does not distort even at top volume levels, and at lower levels, the lows still sound robust and full without overwhelming the audio.

The Life Q35 headphones provide a 40-hour long playback time in ANC mode and 60 hours in normal mode. What’s more, these provide four hours of listening with just a five-minute charge. The headphones sport Fast NFC Pairing and multi pairing options on the connectivity front. They also support two devices at one go and feature a Wearing Detection technology allowing the playback to pause when headphones are removed and resume when put back on.

Key takeaways: The Life Q35 headphones are a perfect blend of customised sound, top-tier design and ergonomics. I am sure this Soundcore creation will be the new fashion statement among the audio lovers.

Estimated street price: Rs 9,999