Hardware
Mobile Phone | Bluetooth Headset
Long-term Practical Test: 08.09.2010–31.05.2011
Plantronics Voyager PRO
- Purchasing
- Equipment
- Tech Specs
- Practice
- Battery Performance
- Battery Protocol (extract, exemplary)
- Pros
- Cons
- Conclusion
- Alternatives
- Text auf Deutsch
Photo: Professional Bluetooth Headset Plantronics Voyager PRO in original box
Purchasing
08.09.2010: Plantronics Voyager PRO ordered at computeruniverse.net
09.09.2010: computeruniverse.net reports: ready for shipment.
10.09.2010: DHL Packstation sends me a SMS: Parcel has arrived!
Equipment
- Bluetooth Headset
- Earplugs in three sizes, medium size is installed
- Charger
Tech Specs
Weight: 17.5 grams
Talk time: up to 6 h
Standby: up to 120 h, therefore up to 5 days
Type of power cell: 3.5 volt lithium polymer battery, rechargeable
Charging: at the micro USB port for USB cable or via supplied charger
Charging time: 1.5 h for a full charge
Power requirement: 5 volts, 180 mA
Battery cannot be replaced = total economic loss if battery is defective.
Wearing style: Behind the ear, left or right, microphone boom
Bluetooth technology: Version 2.1 with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
eSCO Data Packet Transfer
Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) 2
Profile: Hands-free v1.5 (HFP), Headset v1.1 (HSP)
Operating range: up to 10 metres
AudioIQ2 technology: 2 noise-cancelling microphones, echo cancellation, suppression of extraneous noise
Storage/operating temperature: 0–40 °C
Temperature during charging: 0–40 °C
Practice
10.09.2010: The unpacking pictorially documented from 20:15 to 20:30. Initial operation (1st battery charge) at 20:31.
11.04.2011: Photo editing for the website postponed again and again (time-consuming work).
Handling
After unpacking, I immediately tried out the easiest and quickest way to put the headset on my ear.
This is important if you want to put the headset on your ear only when the mobile phone rings.
This is not possible with this headset because the connection to the mobile phone takes much too long.
Wearing Comfort
The wearing comfort is good for people who wear glasses, otherwise very good. The headset can be put on the ear quickly and securely.
It is not an in-ear system, and does not rest on the outer ear over a large area.
The silicone sound guide rests loosely and without pressure on the ear canal.
This is the most comfortable wearing style, which should suit everyone.
Sound Quality: Playback on your own Side
Noise-free, very good.
Sound Quality: Playback at the other End
According to a friend (with whom I occasionally spend hours on the phone), the sound quality of the expensive Plantronics Voyager PRO is not that good.
Even the simple Motorola H680 sounds better to the person opposite than the Plantronics Voyager PRO.
This was established by making calls from the Telefónica Germany network to the fixed network and also within the Telefónica Germany network. In the process, I always had very good reception and the landline phone of the person I was talking to is a good model without any technical issues.
And the mobile phones used by the friend are also known for their excellent sound quality:
- Sony Ericsson W890i (I had used its predecessor, the W880i, for a long time myself)
- Motorola Milestone
The assessment of the sound quality was objective, because the person called did not know whether I was calling with a headset, which model or how much it cost.
I only told her this after she had complained about the unpleasant sound!
But even with further calls, she could not know which device I was currently using because I had several mobile phones and several Bluetooth headsets in use.
04.12.2011: To this day, the Voyager PRO is a constant companion – almost all phone calls are made with it.
However, I am now looking for a not so conspicuous headset with better acoustics so that I don't have to put it down all the time and sound better to my conversation partners than with the Voyager PRO.
The Plantronics Voyager PRO is technically high-end, but when my conversation partners say that I sound better with the Motorola H680 and even better with the Logitech Mobile Freedom, that's the benchmark for me!
Unfortunately Motorola H680 and Logitech Mobile Freedom broke, so I am looking for an alternative.
Addendum 29.12.2011: Better BT headset ordered: Plantronics M50.
Battery Performance
Talk time: up to 6 h
Standby: up to 120 h, therefore up to 5 days
Type of power cell: 3.5 volt lithium polymer battery, rechargeable
Charging: at the micro USB port for USB cable or via supplied charger
Charging time: 1.5 h for a full charge
Power requirement: 5 volts, 180 mA
Battery cannot be replaced = total economic loss if battery is defective.
Battery Protocol
10.09.2010: 1st battery charge from 20:31 to 22:01 (start-up).
17.09.2010: 0:54 h on the phone, good sound quality on my end, not so good on the other end.
18.09.2010: 2:05 h on the phone with a friend.
(since this time many also very long phone calls over 4 h)
Pros
- can be used simultaneously with two mobile phones
- 2. microphone and technology AudioIQ2 for particularly clear communication
- special technology to reduce wind noise
- voice announcement for battery level and microphone mute status
- light weight for high wearing comfort
- good battery endurance values
Cons
- sounds only mediocre to bad to the other person
On my side, I used the Motorola Milestone, later the Milestone 2, a Samsung Galaxy S, an HTC Desire, an HTC Desire HD and most recently the Samsung Galaxy Note.
These smartphones offer very good to excellent transmission quality (at least on the board, even if the speaker is mediocre, as with HTC).When using a high-quality Bluetooth headset, the full quality comes into play because the possibly inferior amplifier is not used for the headphone output, but is directly transmitted digitally and unaltered to the Bluetooth adapter. But that is no guarantee of quality. Everything has to be right.
The interlocutors used, among others, a Motorola Milestone, an HTC Desire and the HTC Desire HD, sometimes also the landline.
Conclusion
The sound reproduction on the user's side is very good, but the remote station does not find the sound so pleasant.
The wearing comfort is good, but I like the Motorola H680 better.
It can be put on the ear quickly and securely and my voice sounds pleasant and natural to the other person.
That's why I wouldn't buy the Plantronics Voyager PRO again.
At this price, everything has to be right!
Alternatives
- Plantronics M90
Identical in construction to M70, but a USB combination charging cable is included for connecting two devices to one USB socket
(for example, charge the M90 at the notebook USB socket and connect another USB device to the notebook via the same socket) - Jabra Supreme+
Also works with the current iPhone 11 series models (tested with iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max)
Photo, f. l. t. r.: Jabra Supreme+ (with microphone boom folded out), Plantronics M50, Plantronics M70
Photo, f. l. t. r.: Jabra Supreme+ (with microphone boom folded out), Plantronics M50, Plantronics M70