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Bose says it has made the industry’s first ANC gaming headset

Nick Woodard
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Were you looking forward to a quiet, gaming-filled Friday night? Then Bose’s newly announced gaming headset might be just the thing for you.

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Bose has debuted the QuietComfort 35 II Gaming Headset, which the company says is its first 2-in-1 gaming and lifestyle headset, as well as the first gaming headset with acoustic cancellation. The product will retail for $330 and will begin shipping out October 13. It’s available for pre-order now on Bose’s website.

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Here’s everything we know about Bose’s new headphones.

Design

The Quiet Comfort 35 II (or QC35 II, as Bose abbreviates it), has Bose’s classic aesthetic, with a gaming twist. The headset features a detachable gaming module with a Discord- and TeamSpeak-certified boom mic that Bose says can pick up your voice with minimal background noise.

Bose QuietComfort 35 II gaming headset
Bose

Bose also says the QC35 II is made using lightweight materials to cut down on clamping force as much as possible, though that’s a claim that can’t be proven without testing them. Aside from the headphones themselves, the QC35 II come with a travel case, a micro USB charging cable, a 2.5mm to 3.5mm aux cable, and an optional desktop controller.

That desktop controller is an interesting accessory, one that Bose says allows you to lower or raise the master volume and toggle between four different levels of mic monitoring to be able to self-regulate the sound of your own voice. Again, it remains to be seen how well this works in practice, but it’s a compelling concept.

Features

The QC35 II are claimed ot provide up to 40 hours of battery life in wired gaming mode, and up to 20 hours in wireless lifestyle mode. Both numbers are substantial, though not industry-leading, and are bolstered by quick-charging stats that include five hours of gaming after 15 minutes of charging, and up to 2.5 hours more in lifestyle playback.

It should be noted that the QC35 II do not support the low latency required for wireless gaming.

Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II detachable gaming module
Bose

The QC35 II come with Bluetooth 4.2, which is not the latest technology unfortunately, and a claimed range of up to 33 feet. They also are compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa at the touch of the headphones’ Action button, and are also compatible with the Bose Connect app to access lifestyle features more easily. They’re also equipped with a gaming feature that allows you to connect two QC35 II or QC35 headphones together, so you and a friend can hear the exact same audio simultaneously.

Audio quality

Bose says the QC35 II Gaming Headset is the only gaming headset with Acoustic Noise Canceling technology, which is a big deal if that technology is effective. Bose, of course, has a stellar reputation in the noise-canceling space, so we’re going to go ahead and assume that it’s going to be more of the same with these new gaming headphones, which will have three different settings for cancellation.

The headphones also have what Bose describes as its Volume-Optimized Active EQ, which is designed to automatically boost lows and highs, so music, video, and voices stay balanced to your ears. They support audio codecs SBC and AAC and are outfitted with seven total microphones: One in the detachable boom, four for ANC, and two for voice pickup.

On paper, it’s the makings of a quality gaming headset from Bose. Paper doesn’t always translate, though, and we’ll try not to get our hopes too high until we’ve got a pair to test out. That said, Bose has set a precedent that allows us to at least assume the QC35 II Gaming Headset have the potential to be something special.

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Nick Woodard
Nick Woodard
Former Digital Trends Contributor
  As an A/V Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Nick Woodard covers topics that include 4K HDR TVs, headphones…
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