[stormbeta]

While this is great news for my QC 35's, the newer Bose 700's have me extremely worried for the future of their devices.

Anyone who puts non-tactile touch controls on _headphones_ shouldn't be allowed to design electronics interfaces ever again.

The QC35 had it right with physical controls.

[anarazel]

> Anyone who puts non-tactile touch controls on _headphones_ shouldn't be allowed to design electronics interfaces ever again.

My QC35's died - probably not Bose's fault. Too old to be repaired, apparently. Got the 700's. And I seriously regret it. The fact that it's hard to get the "gestures" right is one thing. What's worse is that the controls trigger spuriously all the damn time.

They also semi-regularly just hang, make a somewhat high-pitched sound, and reboot. They regularly announce "bluetooth off", just after the announcement that a device disconnected. With multiple connected devices there's constant problems with only one of those being audible. Changes which.

[tkorri]

The physical buttons was the exact reason why I bought a pair of QC 35 II's even though Sony WH-1000XM3's were available and Bose QC700 had just been introduced.

I own a pair of Monster iSport Freedom 2's which have a touch control for volume and skipping, and oh boy is touch control a bad idea on headphones. For example when wearing the headphones under a hood, while outside in the rain, it sometimes registers rain as a touch action, so your volume or song changes suddenly. Also the touch control accurancy isn't very stellar indoor either.

So based on my experience, I gladly take physical buttons over touch controls, since for me touch controls are more like a gimmick than good usability.

[jiofih]

Did you actually try the Sony’s? That (rain activating touch) doesn’t happen. You can’t take your experience with a completely different product as universal truth.

[originalvichy]

As a person who lives in a cold country I got annoyed by the 1000XM3 touch controls pretty quickly. I am however happy to report that a year after the release you can update the firmware and disable touch controls.

[joshvm]

Yep, I have the Sony WH-1000XM3s. They're fantastic headphones - really impressive given how awful the ANC was on a previous set of Sony headphones I had (MDR-ZX770BN).

However, the touch interface is bad. Swiping up/down is often confused for left/right, which is probably me swiping the wrong way, but it's not a natural motion. If I take the headphones off and put them around my neck, my chin often activates the headphones by mistake.

That said, I picked them up at an airport. I wore them with a mask on a 10 hour flight and I've never slept so well on a plane. That alone was worth the price and I can suffer the touch controls for now.

[jrockway]

I also have those headphones and I was super weirded out by the touch controls initially, but have found in practice that they are great. I think this is the one time ever that touch controls are better than physical buttons, in fact.

[zaidf]

I think QC 35s are better than 700s. The 700s are less portable (can’t fold and put it in my jacket) and contrary to how Bose positions it (that they’re more modern), they look more like call center headphones.

[DevoidSimo]

I'm not sure what those controls are like, but I've got some sennheiser PXC550s. They have a touch pad which is used for controls. All controls are either a tap on a wide area (the whole earpiece) or a swipe. This is both easy to do and intuitive. i.e. up/down for volume, foward/back for track selection. Done well I don't think not having a button is an issue.

[josteink]

> the newer Bose 700's have me extremely worried for the future of their devices

As another negative anecdote I was gifted one, and simply had to return it.

The acoustic performance was really just underwhelming.

I went back to my Beterdynamic DT-770 headset at a third of the price, and it sounds immensely better. It’s a night and day difference.

[jmiserez]

That was also the case with the QC25/35. With a proper amp the DT-770s sound better than almost any NC bluetooth headphones, it's a different category. That said, I'd recommend you give the Sony WH-1000XM2/3 a listen. They're not perfect, but the sound is much closer to the DT-770.

[macleginn]

I switched from QC 25 to DT-770 recently for similar reasons. DT-770 are also immensely more comfortable.

[m463]

I had an older Dell monitor with those touch-sensitive buttons and the one I recently bought has buttons.

So much more wonderful.

That said, Dell's button user interface sucks. The "user configurable buttons" revert at inopportune times. I set button 1 to select DP and button 2 to select HDMI. When I'm shutting down the HDMI system and the DP system is asleep, I frequently find myself in a scroll-up-down menu selecting an input.

What I think is that at hardware manufacturers the culture favors hardware design (think no-moving-parts buttons). Or maybe the good UI people are working at companies or departments where there is plenty of work to do, like frequent app redesign.

[andreareina]

Physical controls are exactly why I went with my current pair of headphones over the other ones available. It meant giving up active noise cancellation, but fortunately the passive reduction is enough for my purposes.

[jiofih]

The Sony WH has touch controls and they work quite well.

[SlowRobotAhead]

I have the 700s, the important controls are buttons. The capacitive interface is for mute, vol up/down, and next song, it’s not my first choice but really it works fine.

This is a non-issue.

Edit: lol; my opinions from months of first hand everyday use are wrong, and should be echo chamber hidden by people who have never used the product.

[anarazel]

I find pause/play to be super unreliable. Triggers accidentally (even just a warm sweater sometimes is enough), and other times not at all.

Not really important, but standing around and tapping on my headphone to trying and failing to pause the podcast I'm listening to feels pretty idiotic.

Edit: Have them since early October

[stormbeta]

Capacitive controls have zero place on any headphones, let alone ones as expensive as these. The fact that you're willing to live with it doesn't mean it's not still a terrible design.

And I consider all of those buttons to be pretty important - I use all of them regularly, including when I'm not right next to my phone.

I just hope the 700's are an aberration, and that Bose goes back to a more practical design next time.

[Sargos]

>The capacitive interface is for mute, vol up/down, and next song

As a user of bluetooth headphones I am really struggling to think of a button not on that list that is important. The only thing that's really coming to mind is pause but maybe that's what you mean by mute?

Those are literally the most essential buttons and by definition you are mostly going to be touching them when the headphones are on your head where you can't physically see the buttons. This is not a great experience.

[asdfasgasdgasdg]

What are the important controls on headphones if not volume and song skipping? Those are the ones I use the most.

[dvirsky]

Been using the 700 since they came out, I actually really like the touch interface. Skipping is a bit iffy but volume and pause work well, and it's very handy when I'm working out or doing the dishes, and I don't need to fiddle around with buttons.