When it comes to Bluetooth headphones and headphones in general, consumer versions get the biggest spot light. You don’t think much about headphones or the use of them other than making phone calls in the corporate setting, but we tend to spend much of our lives in these settings. Plantronics has long been a brand known in the corporate realm, but when I think of the brand I think of mainly over the ear boom mic headphones. Plantronics headset collections is designed for the office, mobile, and virtual worker that blends the need of making/receiving calls with the wish to entertain as well. Case in point the Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC. I took these for a spin for the last month and used them as my daily driver while at my other job. We don’t use physical phones, so all communication is done on the laptop via Skype for Business making this an ideal testing ground!
Simple Business Design With Some Flair
At first glance the Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC (ya know, that is a long odd name. Think they need a short code name to call this by) has a simple subtle design to it. We have the Black color and these are for work use, so going with something too flashy may not be the right way to go with this. It also comes in a Sand color which stands out a little more, but these are business ready headphones so I wasn’t expecting a ton of color options here. This isn’t a bad thing though, I appreciate being able to get work done without drawing too much attention to your neck line. And there is some subtle flair with the orange cables connecting the earbuds to the unit, the orange accent for the mute button, and some splash of orange in the neck-band grille.
The 6200 UCs is a neck-band Bluetooth headset which are popular now, and upon putting them on they are light weight and very comfortable! Keyword being comfortable as I tend to leave them around my neck all day and I do my various tasks at work. I appreciate the thinness of the unit which helps my neck not sweat as I move around and get very active sometimes during the day. Overall the Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC has the business ready look, but just enough flair to be interesting.
Sound Quality & Performance IS Crucial
For this review, I jumped right into the deep end. For the last month this was my only headphones I used for 8 hours everyday. I left my other pair at home and went all or nothing to see how I would feel about these. So if they sucked, I would’ve had to make do and suffer with them. I’m happy to say though, the 6200 UCs didn’t let me down. Call quality has been excellent. Whenever I had to make a call, whether to call in for parts or troubleshooting speaking to someone was never an issue. I could hear them loud and clear and my voice on the other end was crispy. Sometimes a little too good and they would mention being able to hear everything around me. This is when I had to turn on the ANC (Active Noise Canceling) and this resolved the issue allow us to hear only each other during the call.
I was especially impressed with the range away from the Bluetooth dongle I could go and still hear clearly the call. This was especially a pleasant experience when I was on team conference calls. Whenever there happens to be a long conference call, the urge to get up and walk a bit happens. I was able to stand up, move far away and still hear well. During one test while listing to a call, I want to get a can of soda and walk away (free guessing it) about a 100+ feet or so. Now while at the end of that range I could hear the static picking up a bit, for how far away I was this was indeed impressive.
Equally impressive was the listening to music side of thing. Call quality and distance away from the computer is all good, but there is period where listening to music comes into play. Equally impressive was the quality of the music coming from the 6200 UCs. Highs were good, Mids decent, and Lows satisfied. When it came to bass I was definite happy with the response. Overall the Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC is all business up front and a party in the back, but this isn’t a hideous looking mullet but a good-looking pair of headphones you can take from conference room to the evening commute home and not skip a performance beat!
Great Pair of Headphones, But Not Without Some Flaws
The last month using the Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC is a mouth full to say when someone asks you what are those, but this last month has been great. In fact my official review time is done, but I find I’m still using them as my daily driver. Battery life on the 6200 UCs is again impressive. At full charge I can get 10+ hours of talk time and in normal use I find I charge them up maybe once ever week and an half before needing to do so again. This is excellent for having them ready to use when I need them during the work week.
There are a few design choices I would change on with the 6200 UCs. For one the cable connecting the earbuds to the neckband feel way to thin for my concern. During the month nothing happened, but more than once I mentally made sure to be careful putting them on and taking them off. I also made sure to be extra vigilant to make sure nothing snagged them. They feel as if one good snag happens, that cables is going to pop right off. This has me nervous most days. Especially when you consider the cost of these are $299.95 retail. Another note is the accessory Bluetooth dongle that comes with it. This isn’t limited to just the Voyager 6200 UC, I’ve seen this with a few of their devices that come with the dongle. It sticks too far out from the laptop. I’ve had it happen in the past and it probably will happen again in the future. Once good bad bump against anything and that dongle is a done for. Plantronics I urge you guys to slim down the dongles. In the picture to the left is the Plantronics dongle and one for my Logitech mouse. I love the Logitech one as it is slim to the laptop which decreases the chance it will be bumped, bent, or pulled by anything external. I think Plantronics needs to take a page from this.
Other than these few negatives, the Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC is a phenomenal pair of headphones. I can see myself wearing this as my main pair at work for the foreseeable future. But at $299.95 getting your finance department to approve them will be an uphill battle unless your title has SVP and above in it!
