Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth Headset

So before I begin, let me thoroughly disqualify myself from any notion that I am an expert on bluetooth headsets.  I have owned a Samsung WEP200 for the past three years and have never had any particular desire to upgrade until the beginning of this year when I upgraded my phone to the T-Mobile Shadow.  The phone is great for nearly everything...except talking on the phone.  My WEP200 has been a pain in the butt to pair with the Shadow for some reason so I figured it best to shop around.  I really wanted to buy a headset with an ear hook, but given that I am not a power user it's very difficult to justify the cost of a high quality bluetooth headset given the amount of time that I would use it.

As I shopped around and depression set in over the cost effectiveness conundrum, I had almost resigned myself to the fate of starting with the Jabra BT2010 when I came across the Plantronics 855.  I wasn't familiar with this particular model but I had used my uncle's Plantronics 510 when I helped him in his office for a few months last year; Borg-ness aside, comfortability and call quality was fantastic.  Seeing as the 855 cost even more than the 510 or 520 I again had to face depression until I noticed it's additional feature: it doubles as a stereo headset.  Suddenly cost effectiveness has been turned on its head.

You see, I'm a programmer whose at his best when he's burning the midnight oil...give me a computer and some good music and I'll tear up a project all night long.  Unfortunately my significant other is a light sleeper who goes to work early and I don't like having headphones hard-wired to my PC (call me routine-oriented, I just don't like taking a headset off and putting it back on when I come and go from the room, breaks my rhythm).  So on those nights when my music crosses her sleep time I can expect an unpleasant conversation followed by a cool spot on the couch for the rest of the evening.  While I wasn't exactly keen to spend $80 on this headset, the possibility of upgrading my current headset and being able to keep my music to myself at night without the inconvenience of regular headphones made the cost a more negligible factor.  It was too intruiging to resist so I dropped for it.  And after two weeks, I can honestly say that this headset, while not excellent, was well worth the money.

Design

Aesthetically this is one of the nicer bluetooth headsets I've seen.  It still looks weird to me since I've been wearing the tiny WEP200 for so long, but I'm getting used to it.  It's also extremely light compared to many other bluetooth headsets that I tried on; in fact in terms of weight I barely notice the difference between it and the WEP200(granted the difference in weight distribution due to the ear hook).  Ironically one of my selling points, the ear hooks, are the biggest drawback to this headset, despite the fact that the snap-in ear hook slot on the underside of the headset makes it very quick and easy to switch ears.  There are only two sizes of standalone ear hooks and don't give much if your ear doesn't fit them.  This also prevents the ear bud from fitting snugly in your ear; without the hook I can get a pretty snug fit with the right ear bud.  To make matters worse, the stereo ear hook (with the other ear bud attached) is a slightly different size and fits the best, which in a way makes sense but why not make all of the ear hooks fit at least that comfortably?

The included ear buds are pretty good, as you get three different sizes of translucent rubber ear buds plus a pair of foam buds for when you use it strictly as a stereo headset.  Although the foam buds by far produce the best stereo sound, even in my tests without the foam buds I found that the stereo sound came through quite well.  Could the ear buds have been better?  Probably.  Even though you have plenty of sizing options they don't tend to remain secure over the course of a few hours, but given the fact that they're trying to get one headset to balance a few different possible uses, it's probably a harder problem to correct than it seems.

Overall the button functionality and placement is good but for me I wish the design was a little less discrete.  The call control(on/off) button is basically flush to the headset and it has an unusual edging around it that can mislead you.  In a quick moment of putting the headset on or adjusting it you may think your finger is safely on the edge when in fact you're pressing the button(luckily my boss knows I'm a schmuck who couldn't hang up on him on purpose).   A similar problem occurred for me with the mute/pause/play button and the lower tab used to slide out the extendable boom.  The feel of the two is so similar that in a quick moment you may think you're grabbing the tab to slide out the boom when in fact you're muting your call/pausing your music.  Not as mission critical as the former problem but an annoyance to be sure.

Performance

I made a concerted effort over the last two weeks to test the headset out in three areas of performance: standalone with my phone, standalone with my PC and paired with my phone and PC at the same time.  Testing paired with my phone would also encompass the ability to move between my phone's media player and taking a call.

As for working with my phone, pairing up the headset is easy and taking phone calls is excellent.  I profess to know nothing about the nature of the AudioIQ technology implemented in this phone but the call quality is a vast improvement over my WEP200.  Out of 80 phones calls I made/received over the past two weeks, only two calls experienced any particular breakup which the headset detected (which may or may not have been the fault of the headset).  In both cases the call was restored and not another interruption occurred.  In all cases the people I spoke to could hear me more clearly than before and I could hear them more clearly as well.  The headset has no noise cancelling but in a gentle breeze(< 10 mph) or driving in normal traffic conditions there was no notable interruptions in quality; however when the average wind speed threshold for my area has been met(15+ mph) you sound like you're reporting from inside a hurricane.  So while day-to-day outdoor use for phone calls in my area might not be a good idea the headset can handle milder conditions well enough.

As I stated before, using the regular ear buds to listen to my phone's media player worked quite well despite not being the optimal ones for that purpose.  The bass tends to leak a little before getting to your ears but the rich detail of the music comes through loud and clear.  The volume through the bluetooth headset also has a very good range for adjustment.  Just to test what would happen I intentionally broke range while listening to the media player.  It did indeed just pause the media player and since on my first try I came back into range within 30 seconds I reconnected automatically; one tap of the pause/play button and I'm listening to music again.  On my second try I stayed out of range for a few minutes but the only additional action I needed to take was to press the call control button to reconnect.  That's what I'm looking for in ease of use.

The switch from the media player to a phone call and back was seamless, as the player was paused to notify me of the call and the music picked right back up where it left off no more than a couple of seconds after the call ended.  I also experienced no problems switching a call from my headset to the phone and vice versa.

My experience while using the headset with my PC was even better with the foam buds.  Like the previous reviewer I read reviews that said the stereo sound wasn't good on this headset; I beg to differ.  Given that this is not a proper stereo headset I found the sound quality to be well above average.  While you have to consider the issue with the ear hooks and their interference with proper ear bud placement on the headset as a whole, it is not fair to enter that into any discussion of the headset's sound quality itself.  Being a musician and avid listener I am very picky about sound quality when I listen to music and although I was willing to sacrifice some quality for the sake of this headset I didn't lose nearly as much as I was anticipating.  Again, the weakest part of the music will be the bass, but for a headset of this size that should be expected.  The foam buds do an much better job of trapping the bass and providing a full sound experience.

Just to verify the manufacturer's claims I fully charged the headset every weeknight and listened to music until the headset died.  The average life span run was 6 hours 13 minutes with the shortest life span run being 5 hours 32 minutes.  Even though for my tastes a 6-hour listening time is all too short, in terms of this headset's capabilities it's pretty good.

One interesting feature I didn't see mentioned anywhere is that once the media player has been shut down and turned back on for the headset to capture its output, it captures all sound output from the PC.  This also works very well for me if I navigate to a website with some unexpected sound from a YouTube video or whatever else.

Running the headset between my PC and my phone in "dual-paired" mode also worked fine for me.  It paused the media player on my computer and switched me to my phone and switched me right back when I was done without any problems, although in some cases it seemed that the volume settings reset to the default level when moving back to the PC.  A nuisance at best but worth mentioning.

For playing music on both the phone and the PC, it should also be noted that the play/pause button worked without flaw on both but the last track/next track buttons didn't always work as expected.  I never had any problems with going to another track but if I was already in play mode it may stop play after moving to another track. You have to hit play/pause on the headset to start the song.  Not a major issue but one that can become rather inconvenient in certain situations.

Accessories

The headset comes with the aforementioned hooks and ear buds.  It also comes with a USB wall charger that connects directly to the headset(no docking station, hallelujah!).  Although I could complain that it doesn't come with a car charger as well, both mine and my girlfriend's cell phones takes the same type of USB plug so I can just use the phone car charger for my headset if I need to.  Since this is a very standard type of USB plug they are readily available in most electronics stores anyway.  It also comes with a lanyard equipped with a USB plug to connect to the headset, which you can use either to tuck the headset inside your coat/shirt when it's not in use or you can use it as a safeguard against accidental fallout while it's in use.  A very neat idea.

Conclusion

While it's not a perfectly integrated stereo headset solution the Plantronics 855 serves its purpose very well.  The sound quality in all areas of performance is excellent save the lack of noise cancelling.  The issues with the ear hooks will have to be addressed but fortunately because of the snap-in slot design new ear hooks can be manufactured without having to upgrade the model itself.  I hope the issues I experienced with the buttons are something that the company will look at in future upgrades of this model.  But despite all of that, this headset has given my household a positive change.  My girlfriend can now get a full night's rest every night, I can listen to my music all night and work and still have my regular spot in bed back and the cat can now resume her assault on my allergies, shedding hairs peacefully on the couch in the dark.