I love my set of Bose QC35 headphones. I love them even more as I got them free with a phone contract back in 2018, given I’d previously baulk at paying more than £80 for headphones. But the best compliment I can give them is that if they were stolen tomorrow, I’d replace them immediately.
As an equally happy owner of a PS4, I wondered: can the Bose QC35 headphones connect to a Sony PS4 as a gaming chat headset? Yes, but with caveats. Here’s what you need to know.
Will Bose QC35 work with PS4?
Good news and bad news here. The good news is that they can work as a chat headset, the bad news is that they can’t without a bit of extra expenditure on your part – don’t worry, it’s not too much.
The TL;DR version of this is that you need the Bose QuietComfort 25 headphone inline mic/remote cable for Samsung and Android devices. It’s *very* important that you don’t buy the iPhone version, which won’t work.
While it’s possible third-party solutions may work, I recommend you just swallow the extra cost and buy the official one. £21.95 is a bit much for a bit of cabling, but still significantly cheaper than, say, a PlayStation Gold headset.
“But wait,” you’re probably thinking, “why do I need a microphone cable when the QC35s have a mic built in?” As far as I can tell, it’s because the built-in microphone is disabled when a cable is connected – and to link your Bose QC35 to your PS4 pad, you’re going to need a cable. There’s no Bluetooth solution for anything but the official PS4 headsets, unfortunately.
Why does it have to be the Android/Samsung version? According to Bose, it’s down to the “differing pin configurations in the audio connector”. Which is a shame if you’re an iPhone user that wants your Bose QC35s to multitask, but there we are.
The good news is that with the right cable this should work – and this comes straight from the Bose community. It even works with PSVR: happy days.
Are the Bose QC35 good for gaming?
Okay, so you know the Bose QC35 can work with PS4, but should you bother? Are the Bose QC35s good for gaming?
Well, as any owner of the headphones knows, they have an awful lot going for them: good sound quality and the best noise cancellation in the game, which is certainly handy if you can’t get any peace and quiet in your house. Because they only work when wired, you won’t drain any battery either.
But – and it’s a big but – they’re stereo headphones, meaning there won’t be any fancy virtual surround sound. That’s obviously not a big deal for FIFA or Rocket League, but I’ve been playing a lot of Hunt: Showdown lately, and knowing exactly where gun shots are coming from is very much the lifeblood of the “kill or be be killed” genre.
I’ll be sticking with my PlayStation Gold headset, and leaving the Bose QC35 strictly for the commute.
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