I give a big thank you to Soundcore for selecting me selecting me and giving me the opportunity test, review, and share my thoughts on the new Soundcore Life Q35. By far they are my favorite headphones and I have a few of them over the years including to other models from Soundcore. This review took me a little longer to write than I had planned. After writing up most the review I realized that the article was going to be way to long and decided to break it up into a unboxing article (no video yet) and a real life usage review. Those articles were posted to my personal on my personal website a few days ago. Click the links below to see the full unboxing/first impression review and the real life review.
Below is a summary of the main review…
First Impressions
As always the Soundcore/Anker does an impressive job at package appearance and the box for the Life Q35 isn’t any different. Plenty of information and pictures showing off the headphones. Once opened you will find the headphone case inside with the headphones and accessories stored inside.
The case is nice. It’s a soft blue, almost a grey fabric that matches the headphones. When you open up the case you will find headphones stored in the box and have almost no room to move around and the accessories just hang out in the case. It comes with an audio adapter, AUX cable. Both of these products are better than cheap generic products found at the gas station.
Real Life Testing
For my tests I do real life testing. By that I mean I use my headsets in different situations throughout the day. Everything from casual listening at home, listening in a loud environment, while traveling, listening to music as I fall asleep, while operating a large tractor, operating lawn mowers, riding mowers, to working out at the gym. I will listen to rap, heavy metal, country, other types of music, and audio books/pod casts. But I’m no audiophile. I just know what I like and don’t like when it comes to sound quality.
Sound Quality
After about 20 hours of listening to music, audiobooks, YouTube videos, and watching movies, I have to say the sound is impressive. Depending on what I’m listening to I can change the profile if needed. I couldn’t find a genre of music I didn’t like listening to. All the different sound profiles sound good and change the quality enough that even I can notice the difference. Check out my review for a complete list of sound profile options. (link at top of the page)
ANC
For me, I found that the headphones fit tight enough against my head that it creates a good seal and blocks out a good amount of ambient noise. But when I turn the ANC on I could tell the difference. I only use ANC in noisy environments. The Soundcore Life 35 gives you 3 ANC options to choose from. Those are Normal, Transparency, and Noise Cancellation (within this section you can choose from Transport, Indoors, and Outdoors). To learn more about these features check out my review.
Sleep Mode
Another cool feature is sleep mode. These profiles help you sleep by adding ambient sounds to help improve sleep. You can control the sleep timer, intensity, mix and match the different sounds to help you fall asleep. You have 11 Sleep profiles to choose from.
Listen While on A Road Trip
I ended up getting a ride with my family back to their place in Mississippi so I could pick up my new truck. That ride is about 7 hours and for half of that I was able to zone out and listen to music and my audiobooks. To block out the noise I didn’t need ANC. If my head bumped against the car seat and moved the headphones off my ears a little, I could hear everything
Using the Soundcore Life Q35 Life While on a Tractor Clearing Brush
When I’m at the farm I spend a few hours cutting and clearing overgrown pastures. Our tractor has a loud diesel motor and the brush cutter is loud. It’s even louder when you are clearing overgrown woody brush. I found with most of my other headsets including my Soundcore Space NC the tractor is still loud and I can barely hear the audio.
With the Q35s I could hear the tractor and the noises the brush cutter made but it cut the sound enough I was able to listen to the music.
Using the headphones While Cutting the Grass
With several acres of land comes hours of cutting grass. I have a riding mower and a push mower that I use almost weekly. The Soundcore Life Q35 Headphones is the best option to too hear music and block out some of the sounds the mowers makes (these are not a replacement for hear protection, if you need hearing protection purchase a set that can do music). I found it can easily block out the noises and when I have to lean over to clean out the grass catcher or make adjustments to the equipment they stay on.
I cut the grass the other day and turned on ANC for transportation. I turned it on and off to see the differences. I found that I don’t need the ANC but with it on it blocks out most of the sounds and makes it easier to hear music and audiobooks.
At the Gym
When it comes to working out, I like blocking the distractions that you find at the gym. This can be the typical gym guy/woman talking in large groups to the loud annoying music that the gym blasts over the speaker system. To help with blocking the distractions, I use ANC Headphones for the distractions. The Life Q35 does an awesome job at blocking out the distractions with or without ANC. And they stay on my head and rarely slip off during an active workout. For the workout I use the full ANC profile for noisy environment but if I’m working out with a buddy I can change the profile to transparency or even turn of the off the feature completely.
Talking on the Phone
I’ve only used the headphones to talk with someone once. I was outside on the mower (I turned it off) and it was a windy day. Normally on these days I can’t talk to someone using the handset. But I was able to hold a conversation and the person on the other end had no issues and barely heard the wind
Soundcore Space NC VS Soundcore Life 2 VS Soundcore Life Q35
All three headphones sound good and you won’t go wrong with either set. The Space NC sound sounds good and the noise cancellation works for my needs. They are comfortable to wear for about 2 or 3 hours before my ears start to hurt. The battery life is good but you only get 20 hours if you keep the volume at 80% and NC off. If you use the AUX cable you extend playtime to 40 hours. For the last few years these were my go-to headset for watching movies, travel, yard work, watching movies on mobile devices and computer work. I won’t be retiring these, I will continue to use them for yard work or times when there’s possibility they will be lost or broken.
The Soundcore Life 2 is my least favorite and my wife doesn’t even like them. For her the sound is good, but they won’t stay on heard and they feel too heavy for her. For me, they sound ok, the sound quality isn’t where it should be. From what I can tell from other users the new version is a better option.
Soundcore Life Q35 has the best sound and battery life when compared to the other two headsets. Unlike the other two headsets, you can changed sound profiles via the app and if you need a different type of ANC you have multiple options. As to battery life you get 40 hours of playback to 60 hours when using the AUX Cable.
Final Thoughts
After using for two weeks, I can’t get enough of the Life Q35. They sound good and feel good on my head. The other night I wore them for about 6 hours and actually forgot I was wearing them. With other over-the-ear styles, after about an hour, my ears and head start hurting. A lot of times my ears are bright read. With the Q35, I don’t have this issue.!
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