Microsoft spent much of last year working with makers of high-end audio products to get its Cortana voice assistant integrated into smart speakers similar to the Amazon Echo or Google Home.
The first product that resulted from that effort was the Harman Kardon Invoke, which turned out to be a poor competitor for voice assistants from Amazon and Google. Perhaps as a result, Microsoft's latest audio product, the Surface Headphones, has little to do with Cortana, but it could turn out to be far more promising.
Unveiled this week, the $349 wireless Surface Headphones certainly are pricey, but their robust noise-cancellation abilities and proprietary pairing process with Windows devices could make them worth the expense.
For starters, the headphones can connect to any Bluetooth-enabled device, whether that's an Android phone, a Mac, or an Xbox. Although setting up a Bluetooth connection is often a painful process, pairing the Headphones with a Surface PC should be relatively painless thanks to support for Swift Pair, the new automatic peripheral pairing process built into the latest version of Windows 10.
The large around-ear earcups are very satisfying to wear, and even with the Headphones powered down they did a pretty good job of sealing out the hubbub from the crowded, high-ceilinged warehouse in which I got a brief demo of the Headphones.
But the real magic begins once you turn the Headphones on using a button located on the right earcup. No less than four noise-cancellation microphones immediately awaken, providing 13 levels of noise cancellation that you can adjust using a nifty dial built into the left earcup. I turned the dial forward to decrease noise cancellation, and the ambient noise immediately increased. I could even hear my own voice being picked up by the microphones and piped through the speakers at the lowest noise-cancellation level.
Audio quality appears excellent, although I didn't have a chance to listen carefully during the brief minute I wore the Headphones. We'll have to reserve our final judgment until we get a pair into PC Labs for more extensive testing. I did appreciate that the Headphones automatically detect when you take them off and pause whatever you're listening to.
There is hands-free support for Cortana, so you can ask Microsoft's assistant to check your calendar or perform other tasks while you're wearing the headphones. You can also check basic status information in the Cortana Android app, such as volume, noise-cancellation, and battery level.
The headphones are only available in a Platinum gray color that matches the color scheme of the rest of the current-generation Surface lineup. There's no black option like you'll find on the new Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Pro 6. They weigh 0.64 pounds, but thanks to the luxurious leather earcups and the comfortable headband, they essentially felt weightless on my head.
A full charge will take two hours, which should give you up to 15 hours of music playback over a Bluetooth connection. If you'd rather use a wired connection, there's a USB-C port into which you can plug an included cable, which should give you far more than 15 hours of noiseless bliss.
At $350, however, the Headphones are competing with the top end of the wireless noise-cancellation market, which is dominated by firms like Bose and Bang & Olufsen. They're comfortable and full featured, to be sure, but perhaps not enough to make up for that high price. Check back soon for our full review.