Bose QuietComfort 35 II Gaming Headset Aims For A Different Crowd

Bose's QuietComfort 35 II, or simply QC35 II, has more or less been the standard of many Bluetooth ANC headphones, making the top of many charts of many sites and reviews. It has been nearly three years, however, since the QC35 II first launched, and many new ANC headphones, both wireless and wired, have popped up over the years, including Bose's own first QuietComfort earbuds. Now the company is trying to bring back the magic of the QC35 II but with a single new feature that tries to appeal to gamers more than audiophiles.

You might think that gamers aren't particular to audio and are more obsessed with things like frame rates and input latency. In the world of competitive e-sports, however, missing audio cues can steal victory away from your grasp. Video games have also become so sophisticated that a poor audio experience can ruin the entire game as well.

That makes Bose's much-touted Acoustic Noise Cancelling technology more useful to gamers today than it has ever been before. This new Bose QC35 II Gaming Headset, as its name implies, takes after the 2017 original and offers the same features like Volume-Optimized Active EQ, three levels of active noise cancellation, and support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Actually, the one and only thing that makes this gaming variant different is the removable gaming module that adds a boom mic that many gamers need to communicate over TeamSpeak or Discord. There's also an optional PC desktop controller that lets you literally dial the volume down or up in a flash.

Given its close similarity to the QC35 II, it probably isn't a surprise that the Bose QuietComfort 35 II Gaming Headset is launching for $330, available for pre-order in the US and Canada. Of course, the QC35 II has since then dropped down from its $350 price tag and does make the gaming edition look less attractive by today's standards.