Soundcore Life Q35 Headphones Review

Welcome to my review of the Soundcore Life Q35 Bluetooth headphones. These are a follow-on from the Life Q30 headphones from Soundcore. With features such as NFC pairing, hi-res audio, and active noise cancelling, how well will they perform?

Block Out The World, Enjoy The Q35

As always, once you’re done here you can hop on over to our reviews page to check out more from us.

The Hardware

First of all, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find the headphones come in a grey travel case. This case is pretty tough so it’ll help your headphones survive the travel bumps and bangs whilst in your bag. It’s also soft to the touch with a nice feeling material on the case, the case seals with a zip that goes almost the entire way around the sides.

Of course, we also have the headphones inside of this travel case. There is a choice of three colours of the Soundcore Life Q35 headphones. Black, blue, and pink. I have the blue ones for my review and they’re actually a very nice colour, as you can see below. Also inside of the travel case is a small quick start guide, a 3.5mm inline cable, and a USB C charging cable. One thing I am not actually sure of is whether or not the travel case is the same colour for all options.

The Soundcore Life Q35 has an RRP of £129.99 and in my honest opinion, I’d happily pay that for them. The battery life is incredible, as expected from a Soundcore product. The sound quality, to me, is of very high quality.

Design and Functionality

The design is a typical design for on-the-head headphones. The ear cups are of an “over the ear” style. One thing I do like is how each ear cup can fold up making the headset smaller. This is how they fit in the travel case that’s provided. The headphones themselves are very comfortable, and even in extended periods of use, I did not find my ears getting uncomfortably hot. Yes, they did get hotter than they were, but realistically I would expect this.

One key point to take from me is, that they block out a lot of sounds whilst wearing them. Unless of course, you turn transparency mode on. I can honestly admit that with the headphones on, and transparency mode enabled, I was able to hear the content I was listening to whilst still being able to hear everything around me. I’ve even had a conversation with my wife whilst I was playing a game and had these hooked up to my TV through the Bluetooth feature on my TV.

This is thanks to the quick tap to enable or disable ANC. Literally, pop your finger (or hand) on the right-hand ear cup for a second and it’ll enable/disable ANC for you. It’s that easy. You can also do this in the mobile app.

We have five buttons in total on the Soundcore Life Q35. On the right, we have a play/pause button, volume up, and volume down. On the left, we have a power button and an NC button. The NC button is to enable or disable noise cancellation at the tap of a physical button.

I also find these have quite a low latency. I was able to play games with ease without a huge latency. For example, if I played Fortnite, it was a very small delay. The delay was so little that I was able to play most games without being at a handicap. Yes, they won’t compete with a hardwired set or directly connected wireless headset such as the PlayStation 3D Pulse when it comes to latency, but to have the option of these also is fantastic.

The sound quality is actually very good for a Bluetooth headset also. My ears certainly enjoyed that all ranges could be heard. These were not too powerful to make other sounds come across as distorted, or too punchy. The headphones work very well in all avenues that I tried them with, games, music, and movies. I’ve read online that the battery life can range anywhere up to 60 hours on a single charge when not using any form of active noise cancellation, 40 hours with it. I concur, the battery life is incredible on these headphones.

Should you run out of battery, it’s not a huge issue as if you’re near a charging point (or power bank) then 5 minutes of charging will give you another 4 hours of listening time. It will take around 2 hours to fully charge the Soundcore Life Q35 headphones.

Key Features from the Soundcore site:

Gold Standard of Sound: Custom silk-diaphragm drivers accurately reproduce music across a wider frequency range and cut out distortion to deliver sound that’s both Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified.
LDAC Technology: 3 times more data is transmitted to Life Q35 active noise cancelling headphones than via standard Bluetooth codecs. This lossless transfer ensures you hear every tiny detail in the music.
Multi-Mode Noise Cancelling: 2 microphones on each earcup detect and filter out distracting noises in your vicinity. Switch between Transport, Outdoor, and Indoor modes for a tailored noise cancelling experience.
Comfortable and Convenient: Life Q35 active noise cancelling headphones can be worn all day thanks to their lightweight build and memory foam padded earcups and headband. A built-in sensor detects when they’re removed from your ears and instantly pauses the audio.
AI-Enhanced Calls: The beamforming microphones on Life Q35 active noise cancelling headphones pick up your voice with incredible accuracy by using an AI algorithm that’s been tested thousands of times. Calls sound crisp, clear, and free of unwanted noise.

Connection and Software

There are two options of connection here. You can use Bluetooth to pair the headphones to your mobile (or other) device, you can also pair via Bluetooth using NFC, tap your phone on the side of the headphones and it’ll come up with a pairing request. It’s that simple. There is a 3.5mm jack on the headphones, and a cable with an inline controller has been provided.

Should the headphone’s battery run out and you’re nowhere near a charging point, you’ll be able to whip out the trusty old cable and still be able use the headphones. That’s if your mobile device has a 3.5mm headphone jack or adapter. If not, you can charge them via a USB C cable when near some power.

Software-wise, as with most new hardware from Soundcore, we’re using the Soundcore app. This allows us to tweak our equaliser, change which active noise cancelling mode we’re using, update the device firmware, and more.

Conclusions

Without a doubt, these are the best headphones I’ve ever used. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve not used any real high-end equipment. But for the price range, these are most definitely the best I’ve used and I highly recommend them. You can read more about them at the official Soundcore website.

I give the Soundcore Life Q35 Bluetooth headphones a solid score of 10/10.