Anker Life Q35 Review: Premium ANC and Great Sound For a Tidy Price
Anker has steadily built a solid reputation for its audio hardware products and its active noise canceling (ANC) tech comes highly rated. So, do the Anker Life Q35 wireless headphones stack up?
- Brand: Anker
- Battery Life: 40-60 hours
- Bluetooth: Yes
- Noise Cancellation: Yes
- Quad-mic hybrid noise cancellation is superb
- Excellent 40-60 hour battery life
- High-resolution Bluetooth
- Sleep Mode feature might be useful for you
- App to adjust EQ
- Vocals can be muddy
Anker has carved out a solid reputation in the world of headphones and earbuds. So much so that each new Anker release now comes with serious expectation: What's next from one of the leading Chinese hardware manufacturers?
On the audio testing bench are the Anker Life Q35 high-definition wireless headphones, the latest a greatest from Anker's Hybrid ANC range, promising to deliver high resolution audio direct to your ears for 40 hours at a time.
So, let's take the Anker Life Q35 headphones for a spin and see how they stack up.
What's in The Anker Life Q35 Box
Lurking inside the Anker Life Q35 box are:
- Anker Life Q35 wireless headphones
- Headphones carry case
- 5mm AUX cable with inline volume control and microphone
- USB Type-C charging cable
- Airline headphone seat adapter
No, your eyes don't deceive you. The Anker Life Q35 wireless headphones do in fact come with an airline headphone seat adapter. While most international travel is curtailed at the time of review (due to COVID-19), the prospect of a holiday is an alluring thought for many, and the airline seat adapter will come in handy in the future.
Anker Life Q53 Specifications
The Life Q35 headphones come with some tidy specs, not least the inclusion of Sony's new LDAC wireless audio codec and the Hi-Res Audio and High-Res Audio Wireless certifications.
- Style: Over-ear, closed-back
- Color: Blue, Pink, Beige, Gray
- Drivers: 40mm dynamic
- Frequency response: 16-40,000Hz
- Diaphragm: Silk
- Impedance: 16 ohms
- Microphone: 2 beamforming mics with AI-Enhancement
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC
- Battery life: Up to 60 hours
- With ANC: Up to 40 hours
- Fast charge: 4 hours playback on a 5-minute charge
- Full charge: Roughly 1 hour
- ANC: Multi-mode hybrid active noise canceling
- Weight: 270g (9.6oz)
Along with the impressive range of audio specs and substantial battery life come a few extra tricks. For instance, you'll note that NFC appears as a connection option, allowing you to tap to pair your device with the Life Q35 headphones rather than fiddle about with Bluetooth pairing.
The Anker Life Q35 uses Anker's Soundcore companion app, which gives you control over EQ settings, ANC options, and more.
Anker Life Q35 Delivers Comfort in Design
The design comforts of the Anker Life Q35 begin with the unboxing. The foldable headphones are contained within a handy travel case. The case is covered in a suede-like material, nicely soft to touch but providing enough grip that you won't suddenly drop the headphones during transit.
Under the exterior surface is a semi-hard-shell case which, while I didn't attempt to bash up or drop from a great height, will certainly keep the Q35 safe while you're on the go.
Onto the headphones themselves. The earpads come with thick, comfortable memory foam padding, which do somewhat mold around your ears. Having worn the Q35 headphones for many hours during testing, I didn't once encounter that irritating feeling of ear fatigue that comes from overheating or too much pressure.
The adjustable headband is also covered in soft memory foam, and you can move the earcups through 15 degrees to find the right angle to deliver maximum comfort. The earcup coverings are manufactured using protein-leather, also known as Pleather, meaning the Anker Q35 Life headphones are suitable for vegans.
Coming in at 270g (around 9.6oz), the Life Q35 headphones weigh no more or less than their competitors, and you certainly won't find them heavy.
Another nice touch on the aesthetic side is the metallic exterior of the headband. It's a small touch but adds another texture and style to Q35, giving them a solid if not progressive visual style.
Battery-wise, the Q35 will last you all day, with or without ANC switched on. During testing, The headphones topped at around 37 or so hours with ANC switched on, which isn't far off of Anker's suggested 40 hours, and I had similar success with ANC switched off. All in all, the battery life delivers and will keep the music flowing for at least two days if you don't require any ANC, perfect for daily use or long periods of travel.
The Life Q35 Headphones Have Some Tidy Hardware, Too
Anker is an innovative hardware manufacturer, and the Life Q35 headphones deliver on that tradition.
The Life Q35 wireless headphones come equipped with Bluetooth 5.0. Bluetooth does have its long-standing and well-documented latency issues, but they're not really noticeable with the Q35, at least not enough to detract from any listening experience.
Bluetooth 5.0 supports multipoint connections, meaning you can connect to two devices simultaneously, handy for managing work calls, music, video, and other media types through a single headset.
However, Bluetooth 5.0 isn't working alone.
The Anker Life Q35 wireless headphones also use Sony's proprietary audio codec, LDAC, which allows for high-resolution audio streaming over a regular Bluetooth connection. The result is a maximum bitrate 990kbps at 32-bit/96kHz, delivering delightfully crisp and clear audio.
LDAC is a high-resolution audio streaming codec, but it is also simultaneously lossless and lossy. That means its default transmission mode, known as Best Effort, automatically switches between three bitrates (330/660/990) but delivers on average three times more data than standard Bluetooth.
What this mainly means for the Life Q35 wireless headphones is that no matter where you are or what music you're listening to, the LDAC Bluetooth codec will ensure outstanding audio.
The Life Q35 wireless headphones are also equipped with Anker's outstanding Hybrid ANC, which uses four microphones to filter external noise. The Hybrid ANC works in conjunction with the Multi-Mode ANC, with which you can switch between the three integrated ANC modes using the Soundcore app.
There's also a Noise Cancellation button on the left earcup while holding the outside of the right headphone for one second enables the passthrough transparency mode.
In that, it easy to switch between modes on the fly, whether you're using the touch control or the Soundcore app itself.
How Do the Anker Life Q35 Wireless Headphones Sound?
Getting down to the business end of things: do the Anker Life Q35 headphones deliver on sound?
Punchy, deep bass. Clean, clear middle. Not forgetting the crisp treble, rounding out the audio experience. Take the Q35s for an extensive audio test drive, and you really get the sense that Anker has worked hard at developing the soundstage where it matters most.
Running through several go-to audio testing playlists, and the Q35's deliver where they should and, most of all, when you want them to. The previous version of these headphones, the Life Q30, was somewhat bass-heavy, drowning out or disturbing the rest of the audio experience.
With the Life Q35, that bass-heavy tone has been turned down somewhat, allowing all audio levels to work with great unity. However, the bass-rich tone still remains, which can, at times, deliver a muddy vocal clarity.
It's not enough of an issue that you'd consider sending the headphones back—far from it. The overall sound quality is brilliant, especially when you factor in the ANC that helps to create a wonderful sound environment to experience audio within, and in many ways, the ANC balances out the bass-heavy soundstage.
On the flip side, tracks focusing more on the top end of the scale sound great, with high-pitched guitars and screaming trumpets a particular treat.
Furthermore, with some tweaks to the EQ using the Anker Soundcore app, you can meld the headphones to your ideal audio style, playing around to your heart's content until you find the right balance. The default Soundcore Signature EQ might not be for everyone, but there are also 22 other inbuilt EQs.
In many ways, you pay for what you get. Anker's Life Q35 headphones will bring you many hours of audio pleasure at a very reasonable price, and the additional perks such as High-Resolution Audio make the Q35 a very attractive prospect.
Anker Life Q35 Sleep Mode
One nice touch for the Life Q35 is the sleep mode found in the Soundcore app. The ambiance won't suit every user, but you can use sleep mode to deliver a series of ambient noises into your ears as you slip into slumber for the night.
The Sleep Mode includes ambient sounds, including fans, chimes, waves, wind, nature, and so on. When paired with the integrated countdown timer, you have a handy sleep mode that could help you wind down to catch some shut-eye.
Whether you can manage to fall asleep with actual headphones on is another question entirely, and honestly, it wasn't for me due to the position I sleep in. Still, the ambient tones were a nice way to wind down for a short period before pulling the covers up.
Anker Delivers Great Audio and Tidy ANC With the Life Q35 Headphones
As mentioned above, price is often the deciding factor when it comes down to buying a new pair of headphones, regardless of brand, make, or style.
The Anker Life Q35 retail for $130. For all the features you get at that price point—the brilliant ANC, the 40–60-hour battery, the high-resolution Bluetooth, the slightly bass-heavy but otherwise brilliant soundstage, the stylish design—Anker has yet again pulled out an excellent set of headphones from its seemingly infinite bag of tricks.
When you look at the direct competitors of these headphones and check the price tags, you might well find yourself hurrying back to the Anker Life Q35 wireless headphones to grab what many will feel is a steal.
source https://www.makeuseof.com/anker-life-q35-review/
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