Review: Plantronics BackBeat 903 Bluetooth Stereo Headset

The first fourth dimension I saw Plantronics' BackBeat 903 headphones was at CES in Las Vegas in January 2009. Equally the PR Rep showed me the various features and described the functionality I began to violate the 10^th commandment ("Thou shalt not covet…"). To encounter why, keep reading.

Design

Right off the bat, at that place are some major pattern elements of the 903 that are distinctive. I would put the blueprint somewhere betwixt Motorola'due south S9-HD and S305 stereo headsets. The earpieces are designed to fit down inside your ear, sealing in the sound and reducing outside noise. All of the weight is placed behind the ears, making this a fairly comfortable headset to wear. Betwixt each ear is a shielded wire that is flexible plenty to brand wearable comfortable and to allow for use while lying in bed or leaning your head back against a headrest while not existence so flexible that the wire will get tangled during storage.

Features

The BackBeat 903 provides the standard controls that we've come up to await from Bluetooth headphones. The correct earpiece includes all of the music playback controls, while the left gives you your telephone call button. The play/pause and call buttons are placed on the outside of their corresponding ears, causing the earpiece to be pressed against/into your ear when these buttons are used. Volume controls and track forward/back controls utilize a single switch on the bottom of the correct earpiece; a brusque printing for book and a long press to change your track. The microphone, power button and charging port are all located on the left earpiece.

Because of the physical design of this headset information technology is very secure on your ears, to the indicate where getting information technology off of your head can take a few seconds. The designers realized that this could exist an inconvenience if you are listening to music and have someone start talking to you lot. Instead of sacrificing the fit of the headphones, they came up with an innovative technological solution that they cal OpenMic. If yous pause the track while listening to music, the microphone activates and pipes the sound through the headphones. This allows y'all to switch betwixt your music and a conversation with minimal endeavour.

Quality

Sound quality with this device is exceptional. The fact that the audio is funneled into your ears greatly improves bass response and allows you lot to hear the total range of your music. I also noticed that when you take the headphones off while your music is still playing there is almost no sound projected. This tells me that coworkers and spouses won't be bellyaching by your choice in music while they are trying to work or sleep. Every bit a easily-gratuitous device, noise cancellation is accomplished using Plantronics' dual microphone AudioIQ engineering science, which is found in their Voyager Pro headset (which is what I employ on a daily basis).

If you're looking for a headset to use during practise, the BackBeat 903's would exist an fantabulous pick. One complaint that I had about the S305 was the fact that the speakers were covered with cloth that made them comfortable, only absorbed sweat. The 903'south are primarily plastic and rubber, making it fairly like shooting fish in a barrel to simply wipe downward.

Conclusion

Plantronics has another winner with the BackBeat 903. The headset is comfortable and flexible, even capable of being used on a single ear if that is desired. Audio quality is more than adequate and Plantronics is one of the all-time at designing functional, usable headsets. If I had to come up with something to complain well-nigh it would exist the placement of the volume/rails control switch. The switch is placed on the bottom of the correct earpiece and is most easily manipulated with the thumb, just finding the switch and and then getting the desired consequence out of information technology takes some getting used to. Besides, it would be prissy to take a couple of different choices in ear gels in order to more effectively customize the headphones for a specific user.

Caput on over to the WMExperts store to become a prepare for you or someone you know. $89.95 volition get you lot one of the nearly feature-complete Bluetooth Headsets I've come up across.

Information technology'southward hither

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