Life Q35

I have tried Soundcore Q35, Sony XM3, Sony XM5 Apple Airpods Pro Max 1, and Sony XM6(my current noise cancelling headphones). I would say the XM6 is the best out of all of them. You can have the headphones on active, passive(but turned on), or pass through. The passthrough has a lot of adjustments so you can find tune how much sound you want to pass through and if you want to prioritize voices. The XM6 has less passive noise cancelling than the XM5, but you can still hear people talk with them on your head in passive mode. I use passive but powered on mode most of the time. XM5 hinge broke on mine after 11 months due to a common defect with that model. Air Pods pro max 1 has the best sound quality out of them. I would say the XM6 is the most comfortable for me. Battery life isn't an issue on any of these.

No ANC headphones block everything. They will only focus on specific frequencies. If a modified extremely loud Harley motorcycle drives by you, or you are using a blender, or a very loud vacuum cleaner, you will still hear them just a little quieter. Fans, car traffic, talking will be mostly blocked out. XM6 has settings that you can adjust in the app whether or not you want to let voices through. Wind noise is another issue that I think Bose does a better job at blocking than Sony or Apple. The frequencies that are blocked vary depending on each of these models. They dont all block the same frequencies at the same amount, each one is tuned differently. I have very sensitive ears and the XM6 is my preferred choice for active noise cancelling. Do note that overuse of ANY noise cancelling(particularly silence) will cause your ears to become more sensitive to sound. I recommend if you have noise cancelling on, that you play at least some low volume music in your ears to mitigate this issue. If you are new to ANC, you will notice that your ears feel like they are pressurized when you turn on ANC. Your ears overtime will adapt and become less impacted by this effect. Some other points I should include is that the XM6's hinge is better and more durable than the XM5. The clamping force is more on the XM6, but loosens with continued wear. The XM6 ear cups are not that big compared to the XM5, so if you have large ears, the XM6 may not be comfortable. Best to try them on in best buy or something. The XM6 has really good microphones in them for calls and they make great general use computer headphones. Their directional sound is not great for gaming. One other note is if you wear glasses, the earpads on the XM3 and XM5 are squeaky, where as for whatever reason, they don't squeak with the XM6 ear pads, neither do they on the Apple Air Pods Max(whatever they are called).