akuhn's Full Review: Plantronics (PLNAWH55) Wireless Headset
I spend a lot of time on the phone working on a Helpdesk. My job consists of answering and placing phone calls all day long while typing at a computer.
My employer purchased our helpdesk staff the Plantronics CS-50 headsets around November of 2003. I have been using this headset on a daily basis for approximately 15 months now.
Quality
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To summarize it simply - the Plantronics CS50 sounds fantastic. Audio quality on the headset is superb on both the earpiece and the microphone. I have never received a single complaint from any callers about the volume of my voice or asking me to speak up. Incoming callers are very clear in the earpiece. If I have any complaints about the sound quality, it would be the incoming earpiece volume. Sometimes I wish I could turn up the volume slightly higher when there are a lot of people talking near me.
Update: 2/4
It took a coworker who got a headset for the first time to ask me "what's this switch on the back of the headset?" - Low and behold, there's a 1-2-3-4 selector for earpiece volume. My headset was set on 3. I turned it up to 2 and I no longer have any problems hearing anyone.
Microphone quality is so good that most people can not even tell I am on a headset. I often enjoy surprising people in the office by walking over to there desks and sneaking up behind them as they are still talking to me on the phone.
Comfort
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The most important factor in any headset is comfort. You can have the best sounding headset in the world but it might hurt your ears to wear it.
Plantronics offers you two solutions for wearing the headset out of the box. You may choose the traditional over-the head style of headset or a clip-on ear method for attaching the headset piece. Plantronics includes three sizes of the clip-on ear pieces.
I personally cannot stand attaching the headset to clip onto my ear. I find it extremely uncomfortable to wear, and none of the included sizes fit onto my ear well. I prefer the over-the-head style. Both varieties of headsets work by snapping the headset/microphone onto a small round plastic circle.
This plastic circle mounting system is a fundamental flaw in the design of the headset. We have approximately six of these headsets in our office and every single person I know has broken their clip-on ear clips. In every single case the point of failure has been the small plastic circle breaking.
I dropped my over-the-head headset four feet onto carpet one day and it broke the same way as the clip-on ear pieces.
I logged onto the Internet and discovered that Plantronics actually makes a third type of mounting system for the earpiece - a behind the head style. This style works similar to any "street-style" headphone designs you have seen. Imagine takning the over-the-head style, and rotating it 90' so the top is at the back of your head instead. The headset then loops over both ears.
The behind the head style is extremely comfortable, and as an added bonus doesn't mess up your hair. Everyone was extremely jealous when I purchased this at my office - I'm still the only one who has this style headband. Unfortunately, this style headband costs you $30 from most online vendors. I am frustrated that Plantronics does not include this in the box. It is far superior to the included designs.
I recently RMA'd someones Plantronics Headset and received a replacement CS50 containing a modified Over-the-Head Style. The new design utilizes a pleather-foam earpad that rests on your ear. So far I haven't had the chance to test this out to see if it's more comfortable or not.
Distance
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So far the CS50 has gone almost everywhere I've wanted to go. I've roamed up and down hallways in my building, out into cubicles, and the headset has never cut out on me. The only problem I ever had was when I went into our server room - I lost all communication with the CS50's base unit. When we first got our headsets, we even managed to walk outside into the parking lot and they still worked for a hundred feet or so!
Battery Life
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In my opinion, the CS50 could do a bit better on battery life. I work in a light to moderate Helpdesk environment. I'm basically on and off the phone occasionally throughout the day from 9 to 6 PM. I've occasionally had the headset die on me around 4:00 or so some days. Heavier users of the headset might run into problems around 2:00 I imagine.
Reliability
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I'm starting to get worried about the reliability of my CS50. The first problem is - I can't ever depend on it actually being charged when I get in each morning.
The CS50 suffers from a design flaw when used with the behind-the-head style headband I use. The weight of the headband slightly pivets the CS50 out of it's charging cradle when you go to charge it. Sometimes I'll drop my headset into the charging cradle on the base unit but it won't quite slide right onto the charging contacts. I usually have to just nudge the unit downwards until I see the orange charging light blinking. I've come into work on numerous occasions to a dead headset because of this problem.
I've had issues lately with the headset unexpectedly loosing communcation with the base unit. This requires me to press and hold the volume and talk button for 5 seconds to perform a reset/sync with the base. Occasionally I have to do this
multiple times. Most of the time this issue occurs after the battery has gone dead on me because it did not charge right. The headset seems to spring back to life after each reset, so I really can't complain. If it continues to get worse I might change my mind but I can live with it for now.
Conclusion
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Overall I'm pretty happy with the CS50. I'm annoyed at the reliability of the headbands, but I've had no problems with my behind-the-head style breaking on me. I've dropped it on numerous occasions and it just seems to be built a slight bit better then the included headbands.
The charging issue with my headband can be annoying sometimes and requires me to constantly check that the charging light is actually blinking.
Sound quality has always been exceptional with no static or crosstalk at all.
If Plantronics can take this design and fix the minor design flaws, then they have a winner.
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