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First Looks: Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth Headset

By Sutlej Soin - 25 May 2008

First Looks: Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth Headset

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Music

While Bluetooth headsets have been quite popular with the trendy, it has also seen its fair share of hype and disappointment amongst the same group of people. Still, a few manufacturers are bringing more to the table nowadays, and one of them is Plantronics with its latest Bluetooth headset that also doubles as a stereo headset, the Voyager 855.

The Long Arm of the 855

Keeping up with the trends, the Plantronics Voyager 855 comes with a sleek black coat and a fine silver trimming with minimalistic trappings. The sliding boom is as stylish as it is useful, positioning the headset closer to your mouth to ensure you can be heard clearly. The control buttons on the side of the headset allows you to control your music and handle your calls with ease. One gripe was that the ear loops do not offer the flexibility of instantly switching from left ear to right, requiring one to manually remove the loop to change its direction.

The 855 comes with an earphone attachment, which allows it to be used as a stereo Bluetooth headset for music, alongside its primary function as a standard Bluetooth headset for calls. Like the Samsung WEP 420, there was a lack of an USB charging cable, which is nearly criminal. However, the connector uses a standard microUSB instead, like those found on some Nokia models.

The Musical Conversation

Connecting the 855 to the Nokia N95 to test its performance, we were happy with its crisp sound quality. Under various field tests, we were impressed on how the 855 could handle audio calls in different environments that include moving vehicles, through tunnels and on the road scenarios.

Traveling in a car, we managed to get crisp and clear audio clarity for both parties, with some slight static experienced for bus rides. Within tunnels, we could hear the other party but they couldn't quite hear us. Otherwise, audio during the conversation was consistently good. In addition, music playback quality, while obviously not top rate, should suffice for the average music listener.

Final Thoughts

Priced at S$259, some would say it's a tad too expensive for a Bluetooth headset but the fact that it doubles up as a wireless headset for music listening some what offsets the cost, as it removes the need to carry a separate music device.
 

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