Hands on with Plantronics BackBeat 903+ Headset and BackBeat Go Headset

I am a huge fan of the Plantronics BackBeat 903+ Headset (currently $44.54 on Amazon) for use on the go with my iPhone. I listened to them with a variety of music, everything from rock to classsical to folk and found the sound balanced, transparent, and extremely easy on the ears. These aren't the headsets for you if you're looking for heavy bass; the sound is slightly bright, but not irritating. Because they sit outside your ear canals, funneling the sound to you via an inverse horn made of silicone, they don't isolate you from the world around you. This is a huge benefit if you wear them walking around the city; you're less likely to get run over when you can't hear the sound of a truck barreling down on you. Same holds true for mid-office embarrassment when you didn't hear the boss talking to you because your buds create a wall between you and reality. I'll grant you though, depending on your use situation, you may find they let in more sound than you find desirable. They are not, for instance, a replacement for noise cancelling headphones.<br /><br />

Another big plus is the versatility and completeness of the control buttons on board. You can use them to answer, hang-up, change the volume and even skip backwards and forwards through your play list.<br /><br />

The primary downside to the 903+ is that most of the women in my life refuse to be seen with me when I where them. They look like old fashioned hearing aids, the big bulky ones that sat behind the ears. They are the opposite of fashion, even geek fashion. Notwithstanding, they are my favorite sets for on-the-go listening. They are utterly non-fatiguing, delivering a pleasing if not overpowering sound.<br /><br />

A secondary issue, related to all wireless phones is that they are easy to lose. If they had come with a teather I could clip to my collar (like those mittens we had when we were kids) I probably would have a better chance of not losing them when I took them off. Of course that would probably increase the likelihood that they would go into the wash. They do come with a small case, but who wants to carry that around? I'm not sure there is a really workable solution.<br /><br />

An inconvenience of both models is that they can only pair up to one device at a time. You'll have to turn off Bluetooth, thereby breaking the connection, to switch from your iphone to your ipad. <br /><br />

The Plantronics BackBeat Go Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Headset ($99) is this year's big music news from Plantronics. These are in-ear wireless buds, however they are still significantly larger than wired earbuds. They are connected by a large, flat wire that keeps them from falling to the ground every time you take them from your ears. The wire also has the inline switch and microphone. Having the mike on the cord is a plus because you can pull it closer to your mouth if you find yourself in a setting that requires you to speak softer or compete wint loud environmental noise.<br /><br />

In most regards I found them inferior (for my needs, anyway) to the less expensive, 903's. The switch is less sophisticated than the control buttons you'll find on the 903s. You can answer a call or make the volume go up and down, but you can't skip through your playlists if you need to kick up the beat in the middle of a workout. Also, some users, particularly active users will have trouble keeping them on without using the supplied, but option earloops that clip them in place. They detract from the overall clean lines of the product.
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Both headsets operate with rechargeable batteries that yielded for me over four hours of active use. That means if you forget to recharge them (separately from your phone) you won't have a headset that works. For some of us less organized types that is a deal breaker. Also you can have them in any color as long as it is white. Finally, if you don't have a bluetooth enabled device you won't hear anything.<br /><br />

I am highly doubtful of the ability of a critic to judge what headsets will be best for you. I can give you my impressions, but not my ears. Chances are that most of us can use 80 percent of the keyboards out there, 80 percent of the mice, because there isn't that much of a discrepancy in our hand sizes. But ears are different. Some of us can't tolerate anything covering our out ears, others object to an over the head band. We might have different size ear canals which make wearing buds difficult or even painful. Then there are the lifestyle issues: active vs. sedentary, noise cancelling or not.

So this isn't so much a review, as it is a comparison of two wireless, bluetooth headsets that work with the iPhone from Plantronics. In the captions that accompany the slideshow above I'll give you my impressions, my preferences, but I acknowledge at the outset that what makes one markedly better for me might produce exactly the opposite impression for you.

Each thumbnail above takes you to a different page of the review.

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