-------------------- Update Nov 2016 --------------------I recently discovered that the headphones will automatically power-off if they are not connected to something via a cord or through a bluetooth connection. On my last flight, I turned my phone off to save battery power and just wanted to have the noise-cancelling feature of the headphones turned on while I slept. After 3 minutes, the headset automatically turned itself off being used this way. It was then that I discovered that you MUST keep them connected via cord or bluetooth to your phone/iPad or something if you want to use the noise cancelling feature for the entire flight. This is terrible, because use of the bluetooth also reduces battery life on both your headphones AND your electronic device, so why use it when you don't need it? This is simply infuriating, but there is a workaround. You can plug in the included adapter, tricking the headset, and it will switch to the wired connection and disable the Bluetooth. If you don't want to risk bending the adapter while it's plugged into your headset, you might want to consider getting a 3.5 metal dummy plug that will serve the same purpose but reduce the profile and prevent you from accidently breaking your headset, something like this Ikey Quick and Smart Button Dustproof Plug for Android Smartphone 3.5mm Jack&tablet Pc 3.5mm Headphone Headset Dust Plug (Silver). You can get a pair of Bose and they will not turn themselves off when used this way. Also, when connected via Bluetooth, there is a flashing blue light that is extremely bright that never shuts off. This light drove my wife crazy while she was seated to the left of me on a night flight. I suppose it's easy enough to put some electrical tape over the light and block it out, but you really shouldn't have to.The feature that I really enjoyed where you can put your hand on the earpiece and it'll let you hear what's being said around you, well, it's not so great when you're interacting with a stewardess since you almost always use two hands when reaching over to receive your beverage, and in that exchange there is often a verbal interaction, like, "do you want a cup of ice", "sugar or cream", "peanuts", etc.... Keeping one hand on your headset is just not practical for these interactions so I've been taking them off of one ear.Second, the sound quality has not yet improved noticeably, but again, I will continue to update this review in the future to see if the sound improves with more use, as is often the case with speaker systems.Lastly, the rechargeable aspect of these headphones is truly a downer. I'm finding myself having to find a spot in the terminal where I can plug them in and get them charged up for the flight, whereas my wife just pops in a new battery in her Bose when they get low. For her it couldn't be easier, for me I have to plan and ensure that the night before I'm charging all my devices for the flight. However, I will say again that I know this is a preference thing, but boy, do I find it ever annoying.------------------- Original Review -----------------------As a frequent world traveler, I have extensive experience with noise cancelling headphones. I own a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Noise Canceling Headphones that have been wonderful traveling companions over the years and one of the highest rated noise canceling headphones around, and so I jumped at the chance to see these new Noise Canceling headphones by Sony to see if they'd be better than my Bose. I've also owned two pair of Sennheiser PXC 250 II Collapsible Noise-Canceling Headphones, so I have about 13 years worth of experience with noise cancelling headphones. However, for the sake of this review I'll not reference those since they are of a different style (on-the-ear vs over-the-ear). However, I will say that if you're reluctant to spend a lot on noise cancelling headphones, the Sennheisers are a good buy for the money. That being said, let's get to it and take a look at these Sony headphones!Touch pad:Wow! I'm not easily impressed, but the feature set on these Sony’s are simply incredible! Let's start with the wild touch pad they've created… You can immediately lower the sound of the music, without stopping the music, when you place your palm over the right earphone. This is a truly unique and handy feature that you can use when someone comes up to you to speak, like a stewardess asking for your drink order! This also cuts off the noise cancelling so you can hear better. The best part of course is that you do not have to take off your headphones. Once you remove your hand, then the music gets louder and the noise cancelling kicks back in. Brilliant, and the best part is that it actually works perfectly every time. However, keep in mind that YOU WILL LOOK LIKE A JERK to others because they can't see that you've disabled your headset and it looks like you're continuing to rock out while they speak to you with your headset on, thus implying that they're going to have to talk louder to you because you can't be bothered to remove your headset. Another feature is the touch-sensitive control of the right earphone. From the outside it looks featureless, but it’s actually a touch pad. You touch it in the center and then drag your finger up or down to increase or lower the sound, or drag your finger forward or back to skip tracks. You can also double tap in the center to pause tracks or answer a phone call. Getting use to the touch pad takes some time, and at first you will think that it doesn’t work very well, that it’s not responsive and it’s not doing what you want, but you really have to read the directions here. Once you understand how it works and play with it for a short time, then you’ll see the features work really well once you do the right movements, but again, the movements are not intuitive. On the inside of the case there is an insert that reminds you how to work the touch pad, so that’s nice and very helpful, even if it does look a little tacky. Lastly, when you want to adjust the headphones or take them off, the touch pad then can be a real pain because you just kind of naturally forget and start sending a bunch of commands to the headset.Bluetooth:Works as-expected with both my iMac and iPhone, no problems at all.Wired:You can opt for using the headphones wired instead of with Bluetooth and that works as-expected. The cord is rather short though, perhaps about 4.5ft long, which for use at a desktop computer isn’t really long enough, but it’s long enough if you’re using it with a laptop on the plane. The cord is made out of a rubber that is a little friendlier when it comes to flexibility and wrapping, and one end has a straight-thru plug while the other end is a 90 degree plug. I like this because it means you should be set for whatever you need. There is no storage pocket inside the case for the cord, and that is frustrating.USB Charging Cord: It’s only about 1.5 ft long and when you plug it into the headset, it turns the headset off, so you can't charge and listen at the same time. For this reason I would rather have the headset use traditional batteries.Noise cancelling (Sony Wins):Sony say's there’s a "noise canceling optimizer”, and the demo you can activate sounds cool, but you can’t tell how much it actually works. It’s supposed to adjust based on if you are wearing earrings, glasses, etc.... I can say this though, the noise cancelling does work great, slightly better than the Bose and that was quite the surprise. Noise cancelling headphones monitor the outside sound and adjust based on what they pick up, because of this, if you are sitting below an air vent on a plane or are in front of a fan with air blowing on you, it can really mess up how they are supposed to work. I know that with my Bose, having air blow on me causes a small problem in the sound. I tried this with the Sony’s and though you could tell they were affected by it, they were not nearly as negatively affected as the Bose were, so it’s nice to see that progress has been made in this area!Microphone:I was able to be heard clearly without any noticeable issues, both Bluetooth and Wired.Battery:It’s internal and takes 4 hours to charge to provide 20 hours of listening with Bluetooth. You can stretch that by turning off the Bluetooth and going wired, but it doesn’t say how much time you gain. Personally, for traveling headphones, I prefer to have them take regular batteries since you can carry extra and aren’t forced to waste time recharging them. If I were to use these only at my desk at work, then the internal, non-replaceable battery would be perfect.Ear Cup Size/Comfort/Quality (Bose Wins):There’s no question about it, even though my Bose are a few years old, they are far and away more comfortable than the Sony’s. The pads are much softer and the top pad is softer too. If you have big ears, the Sony’s should work better for you as the ear cup is noticeably larger. Even though the Bose are much more comfortable, the ear cup is smaller. If you look at the pics I uploaded, you can also see that the Sony’s are better for a rounder head, whereas the Bose shape is a bit more pointy. I know that for me, the Bose are more comfortable all around, even though I have to wiggle the ear cups a little to get my ears in. I did wear the Sony’s for hours, and I didn’t get any hot spots, but I found the top pad to get a little uncomfortable.Sound Quality (Bose Wins):I ran these up against my Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Noise Cancelling Headphones and there was simply no comparison, the Bose were superior in audio quality. On a song like Baba O'Riley by The Who (played at a reasonable levels, though yes, I know this song rocks when it is LOUD), the Sony sounded muddy and shallow and could not handle the bass, often adding unwanted effects which could also be noticed on the high end range. I tested them on a variety of music from classical to pop, and wasn’t overly impressed with any genre. I’m hoping that once these burn-in that the sound will smooth out. Right out of the box they are okay, but not great. I will update this section in a few months to see where they’re at and will try my best to burn them in well.Carrying Case/Folding Design (Bose):The Sony headphones do fold to fit in a travel case, and the case is really good in that it is symmetrical, unlike my Bose case. There is a carrying strap that is too small so you have to carry it with your fingers rather than being able to loop in around your wrist. When you’re carrying a bunch of stuff onto a plane, a wrist strap would be welcomed. I took a picture of the inside of the case. Notice the paper insert that tells you how to operate the touch pad. That’s nice, but it’s kind of a cheap way to keep a reminder there. They also show you how to fold the headphones, which is good since it’s not intuitive. There is a place to put the special airline adapter plug, and though the headphones comes with a cord to plug in if you don’t want to use Bluetooth, there is no place to store it!!! This is actually very annoying. They could have put a zippered mesh pocket on the inside of the case where you could put the cord, adapter, and what I like to carry, an audio splitter so my wife and I can watch the same movie in audio sync. With this case everything pretty much just sits inside and gets jostled around; it’s a really bad design and is simply unacceptable for the price you are paying. There is a mesh pocket on the outside of the case, but it’s open and stuff could fall out, so yeah, I won’t be using that ever. Why they just didn’t put that on the inside, I’ll never understand. Even though I'm not a fan of my non-symetrical Bose case, it has a zippered pocket which holds cords/adapters/batteries and everything securely, which is what you need when traveling.Overall Opinion:These are really good noise cancelling headphones, but that being said, the sound quality is just not there yet (I’m very discriminating!) I hope to update this in the future saying that it has improved, but we will see! The touch pad on the side is pretty brilliant, and I’m a fan of it most of the time. The Sony's are not nearly as comfortable as the Bose, though, they’re not terrible and should work okay for most everyone, so that’s good; I would not want them on an extended plane trip (over 5 hours). The carrying case needs an internal zippered pocket; it doesn’t need to be fancy, but there needs to be a better way to store the cord and airline audio adapter. Noise-canceling works GREAT, better than the Bose, and is not as affected by an air vent blowing on you as much as the Bose are, so that’s a huge Sony win. I'd like to see these take regular batteries instead of an internal one, but I realize that may be a minority view; if I only used these at my computer desk, then I think the internal battery would be great. All-in-all, these are some good headphones, but I'll be sticking to the Bose for the audio quality and comfort. The Sony's do have better noise cancelling, but it's not so much better that I'm going to suffer in the comfort area for it. For extended traveling, I need to be able to wear these for about 8-10 hours straight, and for myself, the Bose get that job done much better.If you have any questions about the headphones, just ask in the comments and I'll do my best to respond promptly.