Comments
The latest Bluetooth headset to come out of award-winning company Plantronics' portfolio is the M100. Here is our take after a long-term review of the device.
At just 9 grams, it's not hard to figure out this headset's USP is its weightlessness. Ergonomically, Plantronics has won us over again with its design philosophy. The dramatic curves of the popular Voyager Pro headset give way to a clean rectangular shape that tapers down a bit towards the bottom in the M100. The sleek grey body has two parallel blue lines that run down the centre, and fork out at the top, to embrace a carefully concealed Call button. The two sides hold a power slider button and a volume/mute button, and the blue back panel matches the streaks on the front. Trendier coordinated colour options include blue, green, pink and red.
Pairing the headset to the phone was pleasingly simple, and there's also an option to activate Multipoint, where you can pair the M100 with two phones. A single tap to the Call button allows you to receive or end a call, and if you're feeling too lazy to fish out your phone to dial a number, long-pressing the Call button will bring up your phone's voice dialling menu. The accuracy of this of course depends on the handset you're using and its voice recognition software
Design and performance don't always come together in equal measure. To test its call quality, we used the headset under a variety of conditions. In a quiet room, our callers had no problem hearing us, although we felt that even at maximum volume there were times when the audio was low at our end. The moment we used the headset in noisier environments, like a moving vehicle and a rock gig, we could barely hear the conversation in the M100.
The patented gel-eartips, which we had a not-so pleasant experience with when we reviewed the Discovery 975, continued to trouble us with the M100. Although they are touted to be designed to give you a perfect fit, they just weren't comfortable enough for prolonged use.
Battery wise, the headset gives you about 6 hours of talktime, which is decent. Voice commands prompt you when the battery is low, and also alert you if you go beyond the 30 foot range, which is convenient.
The M100 is aesthetically a win, but for the price you pay, we'd expect better performance.
Love: Ergonomic design, good battery life
Hate: Uncomfortable to wear for long periods
Rs 4,199
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.