Plantronics Voyager Pro HD - Bluetooth Headset - Frustration Free Packaging - Black..
Buy Plantronics Voyager Pro HD - Bluetooth Headset - Frustration Free Packaging - Black By Plantronics
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250 of 266 people found the following review helpful.
By Jerry Saperstein
In our era, the collection of matchbook covers from a thousand restaurants and bars has been superseded by the gaggle of abandoned and unloved Bluetooth headsets. My Plantronics Voyager 510, though, has seen a lot of Bluetooth headsets come and go in its time. For some reason, the 510 has remained my most often used BT headset, despite its very weird power adapter connector.
But the Plantronics Voyager Pro HD may be the new kid on the block and quickly become my go-to Bluetooth headset.
The Pro HD is a beautiful piece of design. It weighs practically nothing and the housing is perfectly designed to slip over and balance on your upper ear. I've worn it for several days now and, with one exception, have almost forgotten it was there. The exception is when I put on or take off my glasses - that requires some maneuvering simply because there isn't that much room between my skull and my ear. So I have to make sure everything is arranged just right.
Plantronics has winnowed down buttons and functions to arrive at an efficient and minimalist three buttons. The Power Button has three functions: 1) power on or off, 2) battery voice level alerts and 3) pairing activation. This last, after so many headsets that force me to remember arcane combinations of two buttons, is a blessing. Hold the power button down until the LED flashes red/blue and you're good to go.
The Volume/Mute Buttons also have three functions: 1) adjust volume level, 2) mute the mic (with a 1 second press of volume + and buttons) and 3) pause/play streaming audio. These buttons are generously sized and rise just a bit above the surface of the case for quick and sure operation.
Finally the Call Button allows you take or end a call, redial, initiate voice dial (if your phone supports it) and reconnect lost connections between the headset and device.
Set-up is dirt simple: hold the power button down for a couple of seconds until the LED flashes red/blue and pair I with your device. I paired it with my Lenovo laptop and Motorola Photon 4G phone in just a few seconds without hassle. The headset will support two device connection profiles.
The Voyager Pro HD is capable of A2DP so you can steam music, podcasts, GPS announcements and the like from a suitably equipped phone or other device. Remember, though, that not all phones and computers support A2DP. Mine do and the unit performed well with Pandora and other streaming audio. Volume could be higher but, frankly, if my hearing were better I probably wouldn't complaining. The headset, by the way, ships with a medium eartip installed and small and large ones in the box. I'm going to try the small eartip to see if I can get a better seal to block extraneous noise.
The microphone is supposed to be noise-cancelling and my tests to date indicate that it does a pretty good job. I tested it with a few online recording services, dictating to Audacity sound editing software and in chatting with people. The humans reported they could hear me clearly and I was, frankly, surprised by the clarity of my voice on the recordings. At some point, I will test it with Dragon Naturally Speaking to see how it works with voice recognition software.
The Voyager Pro HD has sensors and can recognize when the headset is being worn. This is pretty neat stuff. You don't have to keep the headset on your ear all the time. Leave it off and when you put it on to take a call, the headset turns on. Very neat! Likewise, if you leave the headset off and there is an incoming call, the headset will route the call to the phone.
As with many headsets, an incoming call stops audio streaming.
Battery life is excellent, in excess of four hours talk time and I don't know how long it will actually last in standby. Charging is via a standard microUSB port. Plantronics includes an AC adapter and a separate USB cable. Nice of them.
A one-year basic subscription to Dial2Do is included, under the Plantronics Vocalyst branding. Dial2Do is an interesting service allowing you to leave reminders, send and listen to emails and texts - if you pay for an upgraded subscription, post to Twitter and Facebook, connect to EverNote and a little more. It is a pricey service, so check it out thoroughly before you become too enamored of it.
Overall, this is a beautiful Bluetooth headset, not only in terms of the sleek and smooth design, but in the feature set as well. From the simple three-button operation to the excellent noise-cancelling microphone and the pretty good audio output. My favorite feature, though, is the weight and fit of the unit. I can put it on and wear it for hours without any discomfort. That, to me, is very, very cool.
Jerry
290 of 323 people found the following review helpful.
By M. Kobb
I purchased this headset from a local store, not from Amazon, because I needed it immediately. But, I read the reviews here and I had high hopes that it would be a great headset for me.
Unfortunately, while the headset has several innovative features and is comfortable and well made, two issues have caused me to return it.
I should start by saying that I used the headset with the iPhone 4S.
First, the good. The headset is comfortable and easy to put on and take off, although the large piece that goes behind the ear is difficult to put on while wearing my Oakley M-frame sunglasses (I have to move the temple on the glasses, put on the headset, then put the glasses back in place). People I called reported that the audio quality was very good. I like that the unit has real volume buttons and a real "answer" button. I like that it shows battery level on the iPhone's screen. I like that when you turn the headset on, if it's on your ear, you hear it report the expected talk time remaining via speech. Bluetooth reception was adequate.
The proximity sensor is a great idea, and some aspects worked well. I *really* liked being able to answer a call or switch to the headset just by putting it on my ear. I will miss this feature a lot! On other headsets, I've had problems where I have been speaking on the handset, and I happen to walk through a room where my Bluetooth headset is sitting. When the headset comes into range, the call switches to the headset, and mayhem ensues. This headset won't do that, because it "knows" that it's not on your ear.
Now, the issues.
First, the audio is, in my opinion, trying too hard to be "HD". It sounds to me as if there is a substantial treble boost applied, so when listening to speech (either on the phone or via A2DP on a podcast), sibilant sounds like "S" are over emphasized and actually a bit painful to have blasted right into the ear. I think the audio would also benefit from some applied dynamic range compression, particularly on phone calls. When driving, if I turn the headset up loud enough to reliably hear the other party, those sibilant sounds are excruciating. And, when the other party happens to shift their own telephone so that their voice gets a bit louder, you really get blasted. Reducing the dynamic range would be entirely appropriate for telephone audio.
Second, despite the great aspects of the proximity sensing feature, it is a bit unreliable, and also not well implemented for A2DP. I had several occasions where putting the headset down on a table caused the proximity sensors to believe that it was on my ear, and this caused paused audio from the iPhone to resume playing -- through the headset I'm not wearing. Result: lost place in my podcast. More bothersome, it continues to accept A2DP audio even when it knows that it's not on your ear. On the iPhone, this means that all iPhone audio signals like text alerts, key clicks, sound effects, etc, are sent to the headset sitting on the desktop, instead of coming out the iPhone's speakers as they should. This really completely defeats the purpose of the proximity sensor, and makes the only viable option turning the headset off completely when it's not in use (so you lose the proximity-based answering feature as well).
I hope Plantronics may address these shortcomings in the future, or perhaps another manufacturer may implement a sensing feature. I will truly miss the parts of this headset that worked well, but I can't risk damaging my hearing with the blasting treble, and I'm tired of missing text alerts on my phone because the audio is not routed properly.
209 of 244 people found the following review helpful.
By T. Tom
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1A5C5QC88F0SX Please watch my video review of this Bluetooth headset.
It really helps for me but actually this time I am looking for Plantronics W8210 Savi 3in1 Mono UC Headset thanks for sharing with us.
BalasHapusYour info is very helpful for us regarding headset but actually this time I am looking for Sennheiser Corded Headsets.
BalasHapus