Plantronics Pulsar 260 Bluetooth Headset
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- Compatibility: Mobile / Cellular
- Design: Ear Buds
- Connectivity: Wireless
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Initial Reviews (updated and revised)
Pros
Ease of dongle use, comfortable ear buds, USB charger, connect to external speakers
Cons
Varying sound/call quality, Awkward ear bud wires
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
You need a dongle that has wires. So, if you don't mind a few more wires then consider these, otherwise look for over the ear style headsets.
These are my first stereo Bluetooth headphones. Prior, I used to use the Samsung mono WEP 200. I didn't know what to expect with Stereo Headphones. Here are some updated remarks. I will update this after 6 months of usage to comment on battery life and quality.
Out of the Box
--------------
Nicely packed and easy to open to box you will find:
1. Sound-Isolating Headphones (2.5mm) with phone button (making/accepting calls)
2. Dongle (were you connect headphones too) - can clip to shirt of belt
3. Two extra pairs of earbud coverings for different sized ears (silicon)
4. Lanyard-to wear dongle around neck
5. 2.5mm to 3.5mm cord to connect bluetooth dongle to other output systems.
6. Manual
7. USB-type charger
Ease of Pairing - Good
--------------
I have the Apache/Audiovox/Sprint 6700 phone. Pairing was not too difficult. You hold the power button along with the play/mute button on dongle simultaneously until the LED flashes red and blue. You then use your bluetooth device to search for device and it'll pick it up. Along with wireless stereo profiles it also supports hands-free too.
I also paired it with my laptop's generic bt dongle. It found it easily and recognized available profiles using BlueSoleil's BT software.
Dongle/AVRCP - Good
--------------
The dongle is about as tall as a lipstick "thing" and a little wider than one. It has a volume rocker, mute/unmute/pause/play/stop button, and review/forward button. The volume rocker works fine. Once you reach the limits of the volume you hear a distinct tone. Fast forwarding and moving in between tracks was also very fast and effective.
On the back is a clip that can be used to clip onto a shirt or belt. On the clip is a tiny hole to intertwine with the lanyard if you want to hang it from your neck.
On the bottom is a small rubber flap covering the charging area. The good thing is it uses a usb charger (not proprietor) so you can even charge it from computer if you have such a cable.
There's also another clip on the wiring that you can clip to your shirt. I found this to be large and cumbersome cuasing it to weigh down on the earbuds and eventually pull them out. It's easily exchangeable for another clip found on other pair of headphones you own or you can just take it off completely.
Sound-isolating Ear buds and Microphone/call button - Satisfactory
--------------
I had to choose the largest size ear bud fittings to get these to stay in my ear. Even then I find them shifting in place if I move my neck around. They are rather comfortable, however, and I do not feel my ears aching, or needing air after prolonged use.
These ear buds are awkward. You have to wrap around the right ear bud cord around your neck because of the extra slack. The phone microphone button is placed nicely and can be used to accept or make calls if your handset supports it. I have Microsoft Voice Command 1.6 and it recognizes who I want to call or what I want to do very nicely. You can also use the phone button to ignore incoming calls.
Finally, these ear buds are long enough to allow you to clip your dongle to your belt if that's what you prefer. Prepare to have to have to play around with that to find just the right spot or the lack of slack will pull on the ear buds. I'm 6'0'' and so they should be able to clip to your belt if you're that height or shorter, otherwise you'll have to clip to shirt or carry around your neck with lanyard.
Sound quality - varies with BT stack
--------------
The Sprint 6700 does not have native A2DP (BT stereo) support. I had to hack it to get it. So if my review reflects something negative, then it's because maybe my handset is not designed to work well with these.
Basically, sound quality sounds mediocre. It's like I'm listening to a 30's era radio even with my highest bitrate music files.
Mediocre music quality also means low volumed even on the highest volume setting.
I did use it with my laptop's Bluetooth and quality was a little better. I watched a movie and it didn't mess up the whole way through. I still feel that there's something missing from the music richness. Perhaps tweaking the equalizer or setting a DSP should fix the problem. For now I'm stuck with mediocre sounding music.
I discovered that these headphones do not work well with the Microsoft or Bluesoliel BT stack. You will get horrible audio quality using either of those stacks.
If you want good results try using the Widcomm stack. I seriously cannot tell the difference using Widcomm stack versus a wired headphone. Quality is stellar for wireless connection. The only other grip I have about sound quality is the apparent lack of bass. Customizing equalizers and using DSP, however, can improve that.
Call Quality - varies with BT stack
--------------
Can't say I'm much happier with call quality. I could person on other end and they could hear me well, but they sounded faint. Again this could be related to my BT stack on my phone and could vary depending on phone. I could only imagine I would not be able to hear other person if I was on a bus, for example. I'll report later if I can find another phone to test it on.
*I tested is using Widcomm stack and it appears that sound quality is much better.
Battery Life
--------------
Battery life is stellar on this. It only takes 3 hours tops to charge and you get pretty much 7 hours of music use. Call use can depreciate that, but overall you'll get hours on this before having to recharge. I watched a whole 2 hour movie, listened to 2 hours of music and it was on standby the whole night and still didn't need to recharge in the morning.
The Extra Easter Egg
--------------
I have not used this feature yet so I cannot comment, but this headset, unlike other headsets includes a 2.5mm to 2.5mm cord to attach to another source so you can now broadcast your music your sound system!
Reset Button
--------------
Haven't had to use this, but if a problem should occur, there's a small reset button behind the clip on the back you can depress with a fine point. We shall see if I need to employ the use of this button in the future.
The Bottom Line
--------------
Ear-bud BT headphones don't really reflect the proper use and purpose of BT, which is supposed to be wireless. You still have wires and I sometimes feel I'm carrying an extra mp3 player. I decided to go with ear bud style, however, because they're easier when I'm working out/running and less conspicuous. Just keep in mind the wireless aspect. Over-the-ear BT headphones may suit you better.
Here are other more "professional" reviews:
http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones-headsets/plantronics-pulsar-260-headset/4505-6468_7-32328865.html?tag=prod.txt.1
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/7903.html
http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review4441.html
This review observes the lack of the 260's ability to work well with certain BT stacks:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1161097
Out of the Box
--------------
Nicely packed and easy to open to box you will find:
1. Sound-Isolating Headphones (2.5mm) with phone button (making/accepting calls)
2. Dongle (were you connect headphones too) - can clip to shirt of belt
3. Two extra pairs of earbud coverings for different sized ears (silicon)
4. Lanyard-to wear dongle around neck
5. 2.5mm to 3.5mm cord to connect bluetooth dongle to other output systems.
6. Manual
7. USB-type charger
Ease of Pairing - Good
--------------
I have the Apache/Audiovox/Sprint 6700 phone. Pairing was not too difficult. You hold the power button along with the play/mute button on dongle simultaneously until the LED flashes red and blue. You then use your bluetooth device to search for device and it'll pick it up. Along with wireless stereo profiles it also supports hands-free too.
I also paired it with my laptop's generic bt dongle. It found it easily and recognized available profiles using BlueSoleil's BT software.
Dongle/AVRCP - Good
--------------
The dongle is about as tall as a lipstick "thing" and a little wider than one. It has a volume rocker, mute/unmute/pause/play/stop button, and review/forward button. The volume rocker works fine. Once you reach the limits of the volume you hear a distinct tone. Fast forwarding and moving in between tracks was also very fast and effective.
On the back is a clip that can be used to clip onto a shirt or belt. On the clip is a tiny hole to intertwine with the lanyard if you want to hang it from your neck.
On the bottom is a small rubber flap covering the charging area. The good thing is it uses a usb charger (not proprietor) so you can even charge it from computer if you have such a cable.
There's also another clip on the wiring that you can clip to your shirt. I found this to be large and cumbersome cuasing it to weigh down on the earbuds and eventually pull them out. It's easily exchangeable for another clip found on other pair of headphones you own or you can just take it off completely.
Sound-isolating Ear buds and Microphone/call button - Satisfactory
--------------
I had to choose the largest size ear bud fittings to get these to stay in my ear. Even then I find them shifting in place if I move my neck around. They are rather comfortable, however, and I do not feel my ears aching, or needing air after prolonged use.
These ear buds are awkward. You have to wrap around the right ear bud cord around your neck because of the extra slack. The phone microphone button is placed nicely and can be used to accept or make calls if your handset supports it. I have Microsoft Voice Command 1.6 and it recognizes who I want to call or what I want to do very nicely. You can also use the phone button to ignore incoming calls.
Finally, these ear buds are long enough to allow you to clip your dongle to your belt if that's what you prefer. Prepare to have to have to play around with that to find just the right spot or the lack of slack will pull on the ear buds. I'm 6'0'' and so they should be able to clip to your belt if you're that height or shorter, otherwise you'll have to clip to shirt or carry around your neck with lanyard.
Sound quality - varies with BT stack
--------------
The Sprint 6700 does not have native A2DP (BT stereo) support. I had to hack it to get it. So if my review reflects something negative, then it's because maybe my handset is not designed to work well with these.
Basically, sound quality sounds mediocre. It's like I'm listening to a 30's era radio even with my highest bitrate music files.
Mediocre music quality also means low volumed even on the highest volume setting.
I did use it with my laptop's Bluetooth and quality was a little better. I watched a movie and it didn't mess up the whole way through. I still feel that there's something missing from the music richness. Perhaps tweaking the equalizer or setting a DSP should fix the problem. For now I'm stuck with mediocre sounding music.
I discovered that these headphones do not work well with the Microsoft or Bluesoliel BT stack. You will get horrible audio quality using either of those stacks.
If you want good results try using the Widcomm stack. I seriously cannot tell the difference using Widcomm stack versus a wired headphone. Quality is stellar for wireless connection. The only other grip I have about sound quality is the apparent lack of bass. Customizing equalizers and using DSP, however, can improve that.
Call Quality - varies with BT stack
--------------
Can't say I'm much happier with call quality. I could person on other end and they could hear me well, but they sounded faint. Again this could be related to my BT stack on my phone and could vary depending on phone. I could only imagine I would not be able to hear other person if I was on a bus, for example. I'll report later if I can find another phone to test it on.
*I tested is using Widcomm stack and it appears that sound quality is much better.
Battery Life
--------------
Battery life is stellar on this. It only takes 3 hours tops to charge and you get pretty much 7 hours of music use. Call use can depreciate that, but overall you'll get hours on this before having to recharge. I watched a whole 2 hour movie, listened to 2 hours of music and it was on standby the whole night and still didn't need to recharge in the morning.
The Extra Easter Egg
--------------
I have not used this feature yet so I cannot comment, but this headset, unlike other headsets includes a 2.5mm to 2.5mm cord to attach to another source so you can now broadcast your music your sound system!
Reset Button
--------------
Haven't had to use this, but if a problem should occur, there's a small reset button behind the clip on the back you can depress with a fine point. We shall see if I need to employ the use of this button in the future.
The Bottom Line
--------------
Ear-bud BT headphones don't really reflect the proper use and purpose of BT, which is supposed to be wireless. You still have wires and I sometimes feel I'm carrying an extra mp3 player. I decided to go with ear bud style, however, because they're easier when I'm working out/running and less conspicuous. Just keep in mind the wireless aspect. Over-the-ear BT headphones may suit you better.
Here are other more "professional" reviews:
http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones-headsets/plantronics-pulsar-260-headset/4505-6468_7-32328865.html?tag=prod.txt.1
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/7903.html
http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review4441.html
This review observes the lack of the 260's ability to work well with certain BT stacks:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1161097
