Sony WH-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones with Mic, 30 Hours Battery Life, Quick Charge, Gesture Control, Ambient Sound Mode, with Alexa Built-in – Black

Excellent sound. Bass is a mix between punchy and crispy, a type of headphones you can use for not just Dance music but Rnb and more Pop tracks. The bass is just right. Vocals aren't destorted by it as well, and are clear throughout. The best sound I've heard from headphones is these. They're a perfect all-rounder as even classical, metal, dubstep etc. that I sometimes listen to are all great. Noise cancelling is phenominal. I have had these headphones on to read a book in a living room with people chatting and a TV on and it doesn't fully block them out but certainly blocks it enough for your focus to be invested in whatever you're doing. People have said these are the best NC headphones and I can believe them. When wearing on just one ear, it does give you a bit of a headache at first because of how much difference in isolation in each ear is. That's impressive. Even without music, I can wear these. Battery life is not the best compared to some of my previous headphones but I can see I'm on max settings: NC on and 80% volume. Still lasts a fair amount. Not that I charge these up every day of anything, more like every week or one and a half. I've just had headphones that can do two weeks+. That said, quick charging is very quick and the usb-c makes it a whole lot better as my phone has the same charger. Build is great. Lightweight, comfy and durable. I have dropped these off my bed a few times and slept with them on and leant on the earcup when I'm asleep and from what I can see and feel they're not giving in in the slightest. Cushion for the top of your head is the best I've had for headphones and I rarely have to take it off my head because of the headband. Cups are nice, can get sweaty but never really uncomfortable. Design is stylish and cool, no complaints. Touch controls I have turned off because when I leant near anything, it would stop the song or replay it so I just turned it off. Can't say much on their performance otherwise. Overall, amazing headphones. Well worth the extra bit of money because these may have come out a few years ago but everything is premium and in my opinion, no corners are cut on this product.

I am very happy with my purchase of Sony noise cancelling headphone (Sony WH-1000XN3). Due to the COVID-19 lockdown since last year, I have been quite happily placed under 'Hikikomori' mode in my room studying and working. The only issue has been that my room is situated on the side of the road and I have zero tolerance to noise of various kinds, which include traffic noise outside my house day and night by big lorries, noisy motorbikes and cars driving above the speed limit often blasting music out loud, people’s slamming the car doors after getting out of the car, people walking and talking (quite often loudly on mobile), screaming and shouting school kids on the road during school run, walkers with barking/yapping dogs , and many more etc. Even with the secondary glazing installed on the windows, my study/ work still gets constantly interrupted by the noise outside, which has driven me almost insane! Then I came across this noise cancelling headphone while trying desperately to find any solution to alleviate the noise issue. The headphone really works by shutting most of the unwanted noise out. It doesn’t mean it will be 100% noise free depending on where you are, but it actually takes the edge off the unpleasant noise when I wear it and it’s almost as if I were sitting in a soundproof room. The good thing is that when I wear it in my room, I no longer hear most of the noise I mentioned above and I can now concentrate on my study/ work. If you have an aversion to noise like me while trying to concentrate on your study or work in a room, this is the one for you to buy! The price mark at 200+ pounds may put off some people, but you won’t be disappointed with the product. There is also an ambient sound option too, but I would prefer not to use it as simply wearing it paired with my laptop or other device is sufficient enough for me. Battery power is long enough for me too. Having worn it over 1 week (using on average 4 – 5 hours a day), I still have 20% battery power left. In terms of the comfort level of wearing this headphone, I am quite happy wearing it over long hours (around 1 hour+ at a time). I have large ears and it has taken me a few days to get used to the headphone first, but my large ears fit into the headphone cups just about, so it doesn’t give me discomfort or pain, provided that I take a little break at regular interval. The only tiny issue could be that it may generate heat for wearing it for a long period of time. It’s not so bad in the winter time (at the time of writing this review), however I would be interested to find out the comfort level when I use it during the summer time (or the nasty heatwave). Some people may use the headphone outside, but I would very much prefer to use it indoors. I have also tried and tested listening to a variety of music (pop, rock, classical, Jazz and opera from my collection) from my laptop. The sound quality is good enough for me, after all I purchased the headphone purely for noise cancelling effect, so I am not that bothered about if it provides a mega bass sound effect etc. The headphone is a heaven sent and I have to make sure to take good care of it for the longevity.

been using these for over a year now. here are my thoughts: (1) travelling -- these headphones are a damned life saver on a plane. Not only do I get to actually hear the film or music I'm listening to, but I don't get off the plane with hearing that doesn't recover for a few hours. It's totally comfortable to wear them on 11+ hour flights. the USB-c support means I can charge them on my laptop, phone or nintendo switch charger. I can even use my laptop as a backup battery for them using a double-ended usb-c cable. (2) exercise -- these headphones are NOT designed to be used for exercise, and not water or sweat proofed. However, I've found they work just fine in light rain and when I work out. It's great to be able to cancel out the noise around both figuratively and literally at the gym (3) taking meetings -- I had the WH100XM2s and the bose QC30s, these seem to be the best of all of these. Even in fairly windy conditions I have never gotten a complaint about wind noise. With ambient sound off, you can hear yourself pretty OK. Always a joy to be able to walk around the house when taking meetings. (4) Listening to music -- these have really good audio reproduction. For fear of getting executed by the headphone mob, the quality approaches my dt770 pros, when the Bose QCs were a clear and straight downgrade. (5) Gaming -- it's highly unfortunate, but like most bluetooth headphones out there these headphones may support AptX, but they do *not* support AptX Low Latency. That makes these only a fair choice for gaming. You can use the included cable which has no latency instead but it kinda voids the point of being wireless of course, and the cable is quite short -- I often catch it on my arm and get a huge *BANG* in my left ear as I accidentally unplug it. (6) Recording, monitoring and streaming -- I've used a mic setup with a loopback for years with a good quality mic. It's something I couldn't really go without. The delay on these headphones in AptX mode is I'd say a good quarter of a second. It's essentially impossible to use them to hear yourself talk from some external device. As mentioned previously this can be helped with the included cable, but it's highly inconvenient to say the least. (7) (open) Office work -- these will block everything out and that's a double edged sword. Not being able to even hear yourself breathe tends to feel a bit claustraphobic, even with ambient audio on. This is great for those times you want to take yourself out of a space and focus on something, but I start to feel uncomfortable after a while from the silence and / or the metallic sounding filtering the ambient audio goes through. Possibly could be fixed by tweaking the noise cancelling as you can do in the mobile app. Bugs and Issues (1) I went through quite a bit of frustration where the mic would cut out completely until I disconnected and reconnected to the call I was taking. This seems to be an issue with the way the headphones's software handles bluetooth connections. If you have multiple bluetooth pairings, walking into range of another can temporarily disable mic connection Suggestions (1) add AptX Low Latency support. Since you can get zero latency with the included cable, this is entirely a software thing. That would let me use these for everything I do, travelling gaming and all (2) I'd really like to be able to rename my headphones to make them less confusing to pair sometimes (3) Let me use the app to prioritize devices. It can be really annoying to get these headphones to connect to the right thing when I turn them on, since they just connect to the strongest signal that gets to them first, which unless I manually disable bluetooth will always be my desktop or laptop. If I want to connect my phone as I leave home, I either have to walk out of range or mash the connection button on my phone to ensure they connect first as the headphones turn on (4) add some tactile feedback to the swipe actions on the side of the headphones. The swipe actions have very strict feeling directionality, I find myself using the edge of the headphones to help ensure I swipe properly. some kind of little recess would help me gesture much more easily (5) to pair these headphones, you have to hold the power button for a whopping seven seconds, and it gets very confusing because during those seven seconds it still performs the power button action. Would be great if I could press both buttons for half the time (6) Improve the UX around having an AUX cable connected. presently, the cable can be connected with the headphones on or off, but turning them off requires connecting the cable first. If I'm using them at my desk for a long time, I sometimes want to be able to power them off to go out for the night or something and I'll often find they're still on, but totally out of battery (7) the headphones are able to detect some types of calls and enable a loopback mode that makes speaking much clearer. It would be great to be able to toggle this on when I'm using my desktop computer

I've just upgraded from a set of Bose QC35 (the mark 1s not the mark 2s) having seen so many amazing reviews about these headphones from Sony. In a nutshell, and for me, they're better than the Bose in virtually every way. Here's how I would compare them: COMFORT Bose wins: If anything the ear cups are very very slightly softer than the Sony's, but the difference is almost negligible. I can wear both for an hour without really noticing too much. SOUND QUALITY Sony wins: It's hard to describe why I find the sound quality better with the Sony. The biggest difference is the richness and strength of the bass with the Sony – it's incredible! The very deepest rumble is faithfully reproduced, more so than with any other headphones I've tried. It doesn't sound muddy or just bassy for bass' sake if that makes sense! Also the sound 'stage' (if that's the word) seems more expansive and impressive with the Sony – a recording of a classical music concert just has that little bit more surround sound sparkle to it, and actually makes listening to the music more engaging. BLUETOOTH Bose wins: So far the reliability and quality of the Bluetooth link is the same between the two headphones. However, for me the Bose's ability to connect to two devices and then pipe the sound through to the headphones from whichever device is outputting audio is very useful and something I miss with the Sony. With the Bose I'd leave it connected to my Macbook and my iPhone and regardless of which I wanted to listen to sound from, I'd just start the audio playing with the Bose selected as the audio output and the headphones would start playing the audio from the respective device. With the Sony, if I want to swap from the Macbook to the iPhone I have to manually click 'Disconnect' on the Macbook and click 'Connect' on the iPhone in the Bluetooth preferences. It's not a big issue and it's not like I'm doing it every 5 minutes, but I don't see why the Sonys can't have the same functionality. NOISE CANCELLING Sony wins: I have yet to take the Sonys on a plane, but so far they do seem exceptionally good at blocking out background noise, particularly people talking – something which the Bose can't do quite as well. Also I love the ability to switch to pass-through mode so I can engage in conversations with people without having to remove the headphones, or listen to music whilst still being able to hear things around me. AUDIO CONTROLS Sony wins: I love the touch-sensitive pad on the right ear cup of the headphones – stroke it up / down to change the volume, left / right to skip tracks, and double tap it to play / pause. I'm still learning to be a little careful when doing this as it's quite easy to skip a track when trying to adjust the volume, but the idea is great. You can also put the palm of your hand on the whole ear cup to temporarily enable audio pass-through ... although I've felt a bit silly doing this if I'm honest! Fortunately there's also a temporary push-switch on the underside of the left ear cup which allows you to cycle through noise-cancelling, pass-through and everything (noise-cancelling and pass-through) off. POWER SWITCH / INDICATOR Bose wins: It's a minor annoyance, but I prefer the sliding power switch on the Bose – left for off, right for on, push further to the right against the spring to enable Bluetooth pairing. Also when the Bose are on there's a little green LED on the bottom of one of the cups which stays permanently lit. With the Sony, there's a single push button which you press and hold to turn the headphones on or off ... but when they're on there's nothing to indicate that they're on! If music is playing then there's a blue LED which blinks once every 4 seconds, but otherwise nothing! So it's really hard to tell whether you've remembered to turn them off or not after you've finished using them! Whilst the headphones do have auto power-off, it's only after a certain length of time after the Bluetooth connection is lost. So if you've just stopped listening to music but are still near the Bluetooth device, they'll stay on until they go flat presumably! APP Sony wins: The Sony app seems more comprehensive than the Bose app, and allows you to customise more settings. The EQ is particularly effective and allows you to customise the tone of the music to your own taste – something which no doubt contributes to the fact that I prefer the sound of the Sonys to the Bose. I haven't used the headphones whilst walking, running or in public transport, but I'm intrigued with way the app says it can detect what type of activity you're performing and adjust the sound quality to suit. Similarly I'm curious as to the difference that the 'Atmospheric Pressure Optimizing' can make when flying in an aircraft ... Overall I'm utterly thrilled with these headphones, despite the little annoyances outlined above I still much prefer them over the Bose, mainly because of the improved sound quality and awesome bass response – it's addictive!

I got these and the Bose QC35 II, ended up keeping these. The good: 1. Good sound. Not amazing, but good. I'm used to the Sony sound as I love my Sony earphones. When I first tried the Bose ones, they sounded different but also poorer quality in higher registers. These ones have the typical Sony sound, and no quality issues like the Boses had. I'd say these are not as good as the earphones, which are wired, but very nearly as good. 2. Noise cancellation. I don't know if it's any better than the Bose ones, but it's definitely good. These days my neighbour has been tearing up his extension's foundations. With the door to my room closed, and these headphones on, I can feel the jackhammer's vibration in my desk without hearing any sound. 3. Zoom calls. It's fine for that. From reading reviews it sounded like people had issues with this headset, but all I can say is that it works fine for me. I don't use them out and about, but from my home office it's perfectly fine. I would say the sound of my voice isn't crystal clear; I've heard playbacks from recorded calls, and there is always a very slight distortion on the voice, but it's slight and others think my sound is very clear. The average: 1. Comfort. They're ok but not as comfortable as the Bose headphones. I do find myself moving them around on my head from time to time as they start to annoy my head after a while. Bear in mind (a) I am bald, so that undoubtedly contributes; and (b) I wear them for about 10 hours straight most days. They're definitely not uncomfortable headphones, just that they could be better. 2. TV watching. Prior to these headphones I used a much cheaper BT headset which had Bluetooth 5.0. I never noticed any sync delays with those. With these ones I do. However it isn't consistent - sometimes I notice no delay at all, other times there seems to be a slight delay. It doesn't bother me much, especially as I mostly watch subbed anime. But if TV watching is your primary purpose for these, then I'd choose another set that has BT 5.0 or higher. 3. The swipe functionality for volume and previous/next is kinda cool, but for some reason my swiping motion to put the volume up often enough does a "next" instead. Obviously the direction I'm moving my finger is the wrong angle, but I wouldn't have this issue with proper buttons, so it can be a bit annoying. The bad: 1. These headphones will connect automatically to my PC if bluetooth is enabled when they are switched on. That's the only scenario where that happens. If BT is enabled after they are switched on, they won't auto connect. If I move away from the PC and the connection drops, and I'm away for more than about 5 seconds, they won't auto connect. On my TV, in no scenario will they ever auto connect. Both the Bose and my old cheaper headphones auto connected in all those scenarios. 2. Quality. I'm on my second pair of these. The first very quickly developed this strange issue where after about 30-60 minutes of being turned on, one of the ears would start making this sound I can only describe as a gentle blowing in my ear. Not consistent, sort of as if you were listening to waves on the shore or something. Turning off and back on wouldn't get rid of it, however leaving off for a prolonged period e.g. overnight would, though it would be back not long after it was turned on again the next day. This is only an issue when noise cancelling is enabled. From reading online it appears this is an issue more than a few have experienced with this model, and there doesn't appear to be a known fix. I returned it and got another one in its place. I have actually experienced the same thing briefly a couple of times with this new headset, but that's it - the rest of the time it's been perfectly fine. So I decided to keep it, especially as my company is paying for it, but there does appear to be some underlying problem with the noise cancelling functionality of this model. So why these over the Bose QCs? 1. Sound is much better on the Sonys. Both for music and TV. 2. Zoom calls on the PC with the QCs were bizarre - as soon as the mic was enabled (i.e. any time it goes into recording mode, e.g. as soon as you join a Zoom call), it would actually play in my ears any sounds the mic picked up, instead of only transmitting them as "outgoing" audio. So on any call I'd constantly be getting an amped up "room environment" sound in my ears, any typing I did would be super loud, etc. Not a zoom issue as I could recreate it by putting them in recording mode outside of zoom. I tried to find a solution, tried various things I found online to address this, but none of it worked. Also, I never had this issue with any other headset I used on this PC, just the QCs. For those reasons I went with the Sonys.

I first tried out the cheaper WH-CH700N because I was very reluctant on getting headphones with touch controls but after getting disappointed by the sound quality I decided to take the plunge with these anyway. First impressions, active noise cancellation is on a *whole* different level. As soon as I put them on it was like I was whisked away to another world and thought, "Wow, where'd all the noise go!" That "HD Noise Cancelling" isn't just sales talk. With the CH700N I could still hear the clicking of the mouse and the fans of my PC when I was actively gaming but as soon as I put these on, I couldn't hear anything apart from the muffled clicks of my mechanical keyboard. So you can as other reviews have mentioned, leave these on with nothing playing to use as ear plugs (very expensive ones!). Noise cancelling can be controlled via a physical button which also cycles between letting outside noise in or not. It can be quite annoying cycling through the three modes - noise cancelling, ambience and disable noise cancelling. Ambience mode uses the mics capture surrounding sound but obviously it's not going to sound very natural - try sniffing while you have it on. Then you can also completely disable noise cancelling too of course but the headphones don't remember your preference on the next boot up and reverts back to ANC mode. Audio quality sounds cleaner with some bass too, perhaps a bit on the heavy side so that even the vocals sound like they're booming when they shouldn't be. You'll probably want to do some tweaking with the EQ. Downside with this is of course you'll have to do with it every audio player you use these headphones with unless there's some pass thru app that let's you do it. You'll mostly be using the same music player app anyway I guess. On the other hand, the bass sounds just right for orchestral pieces without any EQ adjustments. Another point to note is with noise cancelling disabled the audio quality sounds notably degraded and rough so, it's best to keep NC on. With the CH700N, sound quality didn't change only the volume did. Bluetooth notifications are also louder than the CH700N so even with the volume down on your music it sounds like you have the volume up when hearing them. Touch controls aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. The promotional images make it look as if you need to swipe from specific areas but you don't. You simply swipe in certain directions and it will register. Cupping your whole hand over the side temporarily activates the ambience sound mics. It works but still can't beat taking off your headphones completely of course. It's a gimmicky feature since you can take your headphones off as fast you can activate this feature (and show your full attention). You can swipe up/down multiple times to control the volume or hold your finger down at the end of the swipe to let it continuously adjust. Unfortunately the latter changes the volume too quickly to make it of any use so swiping multiple times is the way to go for now unless there's a firmware update to improve that. Another problem is it's quite easy to bump up the volume by accident when you take the headphones off. Touch controls usually don't work well in cold weather when finger tips are cold and can also lose sensitivity over time but I guess I'll see. Fit wise, they actually feel tighter than the CH700N because I can feel the sides of my head a bit sore after an hour of listening whereas the other headphones took longer to feel the strain. The "n" arc is a fair bit narrower due to the shorter head band and it's probably so they can fit inside the fabric hard case it comes in. While the case itself looks nice, the compact size also means if you ever extend the headphones, you have to slide them back into place before they can fit back into the case every time. This might not be so good for durability on the headphones in the long term as you keep extending and shrinking the bands. The case also houses a 3.5mm cable and a flight plug converter. The USB 3.0 to USB-C cable is ridiculously short at just over 10cm long (excluding the connector ends)... They must expect you to have a laptop to charge from or have your own extender cable. Build quality feels solid and no worries about the headphones being a fingerprint magnet thanks to the matte finish instead of a glossy one. Battery life is impressive. I didn't have to recharge even once just out-the-box after watching a few movies whereas with my old Turtle Beach PX5 wireless, they barely lasted 1 movie on 2x AA batteries. On a full charge I managed to get the full 30 hours with ANC on, the same was what it claims on paper. You can get more if you don't use ANC apparently. Not many manufacturers manage to honour what they claim Song has in this case. So bottom line, extremely impressive noise cancelling headphones that really just leaves you with your music. On the other hand sound quality could be better balanced out of the box. It just needs less emphasis on the bass for enjoying vocal music. And as with all high end, wireless headphones remember to check if your device's bluetooth supports high end audio codecs (such as aptX or LDAC in this case) for the best audio experience. GREAT - Very impressive active noise cancelling - like being whisked to another world! - Noise cancelling is on even without music playing, could use as ear plug. - 30 hours of battery life with ANC on just at it claims on paper. - Can be used wired. - Light weight. NOT SO GREAT - Sound is quite bass heavy for vocal music. Will probably need an EQ to tweak it. - Cycling through the modes when you want noise cancelling off. - Headband arc is quite short so clamp can feel uncomfortable after a short while. - Ambience sound pass thru is more of a gimmick. - Ridiculously short USB to USB-C cable. - Odd auto power off right after connecting to bluetooth.

I had to write this review as I spent so much time deliberating and testing these against the Jabra offering. I had already ruled out the Bose QC' as they are older technology and other then NC they lacked features of the newer Sony's and Jabra. I had to return the first pair of these as the BT kept dropping out (tired on several devices) second set are spot on. I am a big music fan and like sound to be as good as it can babe within my budget. Lets face it, these are not cheap and I can't justify the spend by saying I am a frequent air traveller because I am not. My aim was to get the best ANC headphones combined with the best sound quality, these are to be used in the (noisy) office, train, out and about and at home when the kids are watching one of their movies. Noise Cancelling - Wow, as soon as they are switched on, the ANC kicks in and pretty much puts you in a world of your own, its freaky but comfortable, no weird feelings of pressure change, they just work. Great Sound Quality - Superb, there are a few shared playlists on most streaming services there people have shared their 'Headphones Testing Playlists' definitely worth a listen when testing new headphones and these playlists usually contain some tracks designed for headphones and to hear them on a good set is quite amazing. These do not disappoint. Comfort - Lightweight, no stress on my head (and I wear glasses) and for me, the most comfortable headphones I have ever used (and I have gone through many, many sets over the years) Niggles - Yes, of course. You can only connect to one active device at a time, (the Jabra's allowed two connections) meaning if I want to change from my phone to my MacBook, I have to disconnect from one then connect to the other, this may not sound like much hassle but once you have used a set that can connect to 2 devices simultaneously, you will notice the different (especially if you move from devices a lot). Second niggle, the auto power off is based on BT connectivity, not actual use. Meaning, if I take the headphones off to stop using them, but the device they are connected to is still in range (and it always is within the house or office) they won't power off (other headphones I have turn off after a period of inactivity), this caught me out a few times so now I have to make the conscious decision to power them down each time I finish using them. Third and final niggle is that the Sony App isn't fully compatible with iOS13/13.1/13.2 some features simply don't work. No sign of a firmware update as yet. Features - Excellent, although these are not a newly released headphone, they are jam packed with features. The touch controls are very good, just the right sensitivity and each to get used to. The ANC levels are also superb as you can vary via the app. The codes supported covers the entire range of possibilities. Finally, despite the problems with iOS13, the app is very good. You get a very good equaliser, ANC control and access to other settings. Compared to the Jabra? - Difficult, the Jabra sound better to me and they do have some positives that best the Sony's but the ANC isn't as good (lets face it nothing from any brand is at this moment in time). I done a big comparison between the two and the Jabra faired very favourably but in the end I opted for these and I am glad I did. Hope this helps someone looking to buy these - Cheap they are not but quality they most certainly are. If you found this useful, please tick the little thumbs up - Thank you.

Simply incredible. The sound quality on these is exceptional - I tested it out on some of my favourite songs and it was so good I had the hairs on my neck stand up! I mainly bought these for long haul flights. I've done 12hrs to Mauritius with these (13hr battery life so figured it was a great test) and a 9hr Chicago - both 'sleeper service' night flights on the way home. I almost bought the Bose option but didn't like the design of the newer model and felt the QCs seemed a bit dated compared to this. I tried them out in a shop before ordering on Amazon and these were the solid winners at that time. Set Up The packaging is great and the quality of the headphones are the best I've seen and hands down are built better than the Bose ones. A little frustrating to set up to begin with - you have to download 2 apps that will work with the headphones and then set them up using this. Took about 10mins or so but it had a lot of options for level of noise cancellation etc etc. Quality The headphones are crisp, clear - great on the bass and all round gives exceptional sound for movies and music Comfort Great padding around the ears, little sore after a few hours of wearing them around the top of my head where the headband bit goes. Perhaps I need to loosen the headband one more notch on each side but it was the same on both long haul sets of flights - after a few hrs it was nice to take them off a bit. Noise Cancelling Exceptional. Sat on a Boeing 777-200ER running GE90 engines and sat in the centre of the aircraft at the window looking at the engines is noisy. For the second flight I was in a Boeing 787-9 Dtreamliner (known to be a lot quieter than older aircraft so figured it was a great comparison). After takeoff I put my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones on and left them on for at least 3-4hrs or so. When I took them off I didn't realise how loud the aircraft actually was! It was so quiet and nicely insulated from the noise wearing the headphones that when I took them off it sounded and felt like I was hanging out the window! I had the same experience on the 787 too. The noise cancelling is exceptionally good and easily class-beating. Quirks One thing that I still don't get is every now and again when using the headphones for at least an hour I get a ding noise from the headphones - and it'll randomly turn passive hearing on or off itself. Bit random and when it happens - a little frustrating. Features It has sensors in the sides allowing you to brush the sides up, down, sideways etc to change things like volume, song, passive mode etc. Passive mode is particularly good - it activates microphones on the headphones that allow you to have a conversation with people - for example, the cabin crew - whilst leaving the headphones on. I tried it and it works really really well but the one thing I kept thinking was "I know this has passive chat but this cabin crew girl doesn't" so took them off out of fear for coming across as rude! Battery Says it'll last for about 13hrs and it sure does! Amazing battery life