Plantronics BackBeat Sense
by Volker Weber
When I talk about Plantronics headsets, I usually mean a headset that has a great microphone and is perfect for dictation or voice calls. But more recently I have also looked at travel or music consumption. This is where Plantronics provides noise cancellation for listening. My first headset in this category was the BackBeat Pro. As you may recall it is a huge over-the-ear headset. The came my favorite ever, the Voyager Focus. It is an on-ear design, much nimbler, and it also has the signature Voyager microphone boom.
This BackBeat Sense is essentially a Voyager Focus without that microphone boom. Same construction, same controls, you can even take a phone call. I loses the boom, but it gains to features: you can connect it via 3.5mm cable and there is a button for OpenMic, which lets you hear a flight attendant or a co-worker without removing the headset.
This is a lightweight comfy headset you can wear all day long. Non-stop music for up to 18 hours, Bluetooth Class 1 for up to 100m, connected to two devices at the same time. It has automatic pause/play when it senses it is off or on your ears. You get whispered status alerts about battery status and connection. There is even a locate function via Plantronics Hub which sends a tone to your nearby headset. If you are further away, BackTrack will show you on a map, where you left the headset behind.
BackBeat Pro or BackBeat Sense? There isn't much price difference anymore. The size however is. And they are different designs: over-the ear and on-ear. I like both.
Comments
I've had both the Backbeat Pros and Voyager Edge headsets (it's an expensive decision to read your blog, Volker!) and if the Sense are anything like as comfortable as the Edge, then you're definitely onto a winner.
The Pros sounded great, but were never quite comfortable for me - a little too heavy and overly tight for my head size, plus it was only possible to pair with two devices at once (and be connected to one).
The Edge is lighter and more comfortable and flexible in every way. For my use case of 70% conference calls / 30% listening to music, they're a perfect solution. If you don't need the boom mic then I imagine the Sense will be great. Love the tan/white combo too.
Mmh, does it have Active Noise Cancellation? I can'T find anything about that on the product website.
They don't.
