 Who makes the best premium wireless active noise canceling headphones for your premium dollar? Bose or Sennheiser? Let's find out, shall we? Intel's Skull Canyon Nook features a sixth generation Core i7 processor and Thunderbolt 3. You can learn more at the link in the video description. Okay, so there's a lot to cover here. We're gonna jump right into this. Both headphones fold into an included carrying case, but Bose wins quite decisively here. The QC35's case is both smaller and more durable feeling than Sennheiser's offering. On to the contents. Being headphones and ones designed to fit on the heads of humans, the QC35 and PXC 550 are pretty darn similar in many respects. Headband, ear cups, laser guided artillery launcher, etc. So I'll try and dial in mostly then on the differences here. Bose's Alcantara covered headband features noticeably better padding, devoid of internal bumps that can dig into your head eventually. But their sizing adjustment mechanism fits perfectly on my medium motorcycle helmet sized head at its smallest size and feels more plasticky compared to Sennheiser's. Both of them offer about three and a half centimeters of total adjustment though, so if your head is on the smaller side, I expect you'll get a better fit out of the PXC 550. The ear cups themselves, aside from both being closed back designs with faux leather covered memory foam for optimal noise isolation, are about as different as they could be. Bose has gone with a more traditional oval shape for the cups and angled drivers inside to direct sound into your ear canals, while Sennheiser has done a couple of more unusual things here. So the transducer has this grill over the top of it that looks kind of like an apple slicer. Perhaps there's a noise isolation or other acoustic reason for this, and they've gone with a more ear-like shape that fits well, but in my opinion, along with the boring black color choice, makes the PXC 550 look considerably less stylish. Though some will find sex appeal in the user interface, I suppose. Both headphones thankfully have the ability to operate with a wire if you're out of battery, or even with active noise cancellation enabled with a wire, if you just don't want to use the wireless to make it last longer, but inexplicably they both rely on a two and a half mil to three and a half millimeter cable. So order an extra or two now in case you lose the included ones, since you probably don't have a ton of those lying around. With that said, wireless is sort of the point here, isn't it? So let's move on to that. Both of them will pair with an Android phone using NFC, but while Bose has stuck with a traditional button-based interface, power on, pairing mode here with volume adjustments and a multifunction button that handles media playback and phone calls over here, Sennheiser is using a fancy touchpad on the right ear cup that allows play and pause, track skipping, and volume adjustments with gestures. Fancy. Though it does still have some hardware buttons. One to toggle the Bluetooth radio for battery savings during wired operation, with noise canceling enabled, one for toggling movie and speech optimized EQ profiles, and a three position slider that lets you pick zero active noise cancellation, fully enabled active noise cancellation with the four included microphones, or an adaptive mode that adjusts the level of noise cancellation depending on ambient noise levels. Conspicuously absent though is a power switch, with Sennheiser opting to build it into the hinge, a design choice that I personally do not prefer. Let's get back to noise cancellation though. The QC35 specs are less impressive looking than the PXC 550s, and I really like Sennheiser's easy access to mix and match combinations of Bluetooth, noise cancellation, and wired or wireless interfaces. But Bose's ANC is noticeably better in the real world. This is particularly true of unpredictable sound like nearby conversation. Both of our competitors will cover consistent background noise like the low rumble of an engine almost completely at even a quite moderate listening volume, like two to three bars on an iPhone. And both of them managed to avoid that traditional problem with ANC products of a painful pressure sensation on the eardrums. So thumbs up there. Though with that said, a pair of construction ear protectors with a white noise generator inside would probably do the trick if all you wanted was to ignore the crying kid in the seat behind you. How do they sound? Well, there's no doubt in my mind on this one. If you're an audiophile, the PXC 550 is the better choice. Bose's sound signature is much less veiled running off of a cable with the active noise cancellation disabled. But while both products are operating as intended, wirelessly with ANC, and it should be noted with Bose you cannot turn the ANC off if it's powered and running wirelessly, the QC35s have a very one-dimensional sound to their bass reproduction and such strongly veiled mids that I found it hard to enjoy my favorite vocalists. To be clear, the PXC 550s aren't exactly on par with Sennheiser's open-backed audiophile products, but they're well balanced with tight punchy bass, fun vocals, and the good old Sennheiser veil on the high end that made them less fatiguing to listen to for long periods. At least that would be entirely true if the PXC 550s were as comfortable as the QC35s. I have got to give Bose, though this is a narrow victory to be very clear here, the nod when it comes to long-term comfort. Both of them are lightweight and stay in place very well, but putting on Bose's offering, it feels like your head is getting a hug from a friend. While Sennheiser needs another few millimeters of padding on the headband to draw even here. Which isn't to say, then, that the back-and-forth trading of wins here is over. Bluetooth time! Sennheiser only manages to identify your devices by numbers like phone1 connected, while Bose manages to inform me that it's connected to Linus's iPhone when I turn it on. With that said, I can probably accept remembering which of my devices is phone1 connected for the sake of superior range. While I was working on writing this, I had to run downstairs to hit the bathroom and I left my phone on my desk. And it wasn't until I'd been in there for, well, actually, okay, never mind how long I was in there, but the point is the PXC 550s never missed a beat. While my attempt to repeat my test with the QC35 resulted in stuttering the moment I closed the door. On to battery life, then. I'm gonna call this one a win for Bose, though it is a very narrow victory. Partly because Bose advertises about 20 hours of battery life and delivered 24, and Sennheiser puts 30 hours on their website, though that's based on a more ideal operating scenario and running more apples to apples against Bose, it actually ended up being very similar. But both of them can handle a full day of music playback without recharging the battery, which is damn impressive. So who is the winner, then? This is not an easy question to answer today. Sennheiser is charging more and offering up more consistent Bluetooth connectivity and superior sound quality, while Bose boasts better noise cancellation, a better carrying case, and a more comfortable design at a lower price. So I know this is a bit of a cop-out, but frankly, the conclusion is this. You'd have a very hard time going wrong with either of these, so go ahead and flip a coin. I am sure that you will be happy with your new wireless headphones. And you know what else you'd have a hard time going wrong with? TunnelBear! TunnelBear is the simple VPN app that makes it easy to browse privately and enjoy a more open internet. You download TunnelBear, you start it up with 500 megs of data for free, with no credit card required, you press the switch and that's it. 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