We’ve seen many different companies entering into ventures they’re not that familiar with. Microsoft was probably not one of those companies that you can think of first. However, they’ve changed a lot in the past few years, in order to appeal to the current trends. One of the biggest surprises they made was when they announced they’ll support open – source software and their move towards it. They also started creating products that are used widely today, like the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. Now, they’ve ventured in a new field – headphones. Meet the Microsoft Surface Headphones – the company’s product that was in development for more than three years. Let’s take a closer look at it!

Design

Starting with the design, we can clearly see the hard work Microsoft did for these headphones. First, they’re weighting 290g, which is pretty good compared to other competitors in this segment. The weight adds in on the comfort when you’re wearing them. The ear pads are plush, while the headband is nicely placed around your head without putting much pressure. The Windows logo is present on both sides of the headband proudly. Unfortunately, the headphones come in one color only – Light Gray. The new matte black color on the Surface Laptop looks pretty good, and that was going to be true for these headphones as well. Nevertheless, they’re still looking great and different from many of the other competitors.

Features

Looking on the outside of the ear pads, you will find dials that let you control some settings. On the right earcup, you can adjust the volume of the music you’re listening. On the left side, you can adjust the amount of noise canceling you want. That’s right – the key feature of the Microsoft Surface Headphones is the adjustable noise cancelation. There are thirteen different levels, so you can adjust it to your needs. Furthermore, both earcups have touch controls on them in the middle. Using them you can pause and play your music or answer and end a call. Tapping twice will skip a track forward, while tapping three times will skip a track backwards. Also, the headphones automatically pause your music when you take them off and will resume when you put them back on again.

Going into the technical details, the headphones come with eight different microphones that enable the excellent noise canceling feature. They also serve for accessing Cortana, Microsoft’s digital voice assistant. They’re in the frequency response of 20 – 20kHz, and they can be used as Bluetooth or through a 3.5mm jack. Sadly, they don’t have Bluetooth 5.0 on board (it’s 4.2 instead), but they can still connect to multiple devices at once. The battery is rated at 15 hours of playback if you’re using them on Bluetooth. That can be extended up to 50 hours if you’re using them with a cable, which is decent. The always on Cortana will eat most of the battery, but you’ll be able to disable it in the future.

Pricing and availability

The Microsoft Surface Headphones will be available for pre-order on the 15^th of November in the US. More markets should follow up around the winter holidays. The headphones are priced at $350.

So, what are your thoughts on the Microsoft Surface Headphones? Share them in the comments below.