Urbanears cuts the cord
by Volker Weber
With a dozen headphones at vowe's magic flying circus, there is always choice. For traveling I like to use the Plantronics BackBeat Pro. They sound great, they cancel out the ambient noise, and they are comfortable. But they are quite huge. Then there are the Urbanears Kransen, that live in my go bag. But the most used headphones ever since I got them, have been the Plattan ADV (right). They are very light and comfortabe and I recommend them to anyone. Until today.
Now Urbanears cuts the cord. You don't only get the usual 3.5mm cable. You get another one: a USB cable to charge the internal battery of the Plattan ADV Cordless (left). Cordless = two cables. Exactly the same outfit as on the Plantronics gear. Cordless of course means Bluetooth. Playback is spec'ed for 14 hours between charges, but I have not used them long enough to verify. When you run out of power you go back to the cable. Either one, or both. Again, same as always.
I had no difficulties pairing the new headset with iPhone. Charge it, then hit and hold the ON button until the LED flashes blue. Everything happens on the right earpiece. Not only the LED and the switch, but also a microphone for answering the occasional phone call. (If you need a headset for frequent calls, look elsewhere.) The earpiece is also a touchpad. Tap to start/stop or answer calls. Swipe forward and backwards to switch tracks. Swipe up or down to adjust the volume. The headband is washable. And you can use the 3.5 mm plug on the left earpiece to either connect the headset to your player (Bluetooth off) or connect a second headset (Bluetooth on) to share your music.
What a great design.
