[tkorri]

The physical buttons was the exact reason why I bought a pair of QC 35 II's even though Sony WH-1000XM3's were available and Bose QC700 had just been introduced.

I own a pair of Monster iSport Freedom 2's which have a touch control for volume and skipping, and oh boy is touch control a bad idea on headphones. For example when wearing the headphones under a hood, while outside in the rain, it sometimes registers rain as a touch action, so your volume or song changes suddenly. Also the touch control accurancy isn't very stellar indoor either.

So based on my experience, I gladly take physical buttons over touch controls, since for me touch controls are more like a gimmick than good usability.

[jiofih]

Did you actually try the Sony’s? That (rain activating touch) doesn’t happen. You can’t take your experience with a completely different product as universal truth.

[tkorri]

Yes, I've used the Sony's for a couple of hours, but I've never owned a pair. Couple of my colleagues have them and they seem to be happy with them.

My biggest issue with touch control is the user experience. That is, when it works flawlessly it's as good as physical buttons, but I rarely experience the same level of reliability with touch as with buttons.

If you have the Sony's and you're happy with them, then good for you. They're good headphones, just not the best ones for me.

[originalvichy]

As a person who lives in a cold country I got annoyed by the 1000XM3 touch controls pretty quickly. I am however happy to report that a year after the release you can update the firmware and disable touch controls.

[tkorri]

Actually, before buying my Bose headphones I seriously looked at the Sony's. I even googled for a way to disable the touch control on them. But the only thing I found was a video on YouTube for the previous model, which showed how to disassemble the headphones and disconnect a wire to achieve this.

But good for Sony for giving that choice to the user via a firmware update.