Poly Voyager Focus UC with Charge Stand (Teams Version)

***Update after 3 days use: It turns out the bluetooth connectivity to the internal bluetooth on the Dell laptop wasn't reliable. I had to turn off the bluetooth mouse to gain bandwidth for the headset (this was intermittent and didn't show up at first). Using the included proprietary bluetooth fob with the Dell fixed this. It also adds fidelity (greater bandwidth) to audio and enables all headset functions on the PC (mute button, battery monitor). It does make the windows 10 Dell think the headset is on even when it's not as long as the bluetooth fob is connected. Maybe they can fix this at some point. I never use the PCs internal mic or speakers so this isn't an issue for me. Plantronics doesn't make this clear in their manual; updated documentation would help. *** I have gone through 2 other headphone to find something wireless for work. These were JBl and Sony. Not cheap either. 3rd time's the charm. -There's only a quick start guide included in the box. I highly recommend downloading the full 16 page manual from Plantronics/Poly's website. In addition there is a companion PC/Mac "hub" app that provides extra features and customization. -The device seems jewel-like compared to other headsets I've used. Switches and buttons are tactile and intuitive. I'm not taking off the headset to figure out what I'm switching. -ANC is less than other headsets. More ambient noise filters through -microphone is good. There is a HD mic option in the hub software which will increase the microphone's bandwidth at the cost of using more power. Without this turned on, the Hub app reports 13 hours talk time on full charge. I haven't tried this feature as I don't think I need it. I experimented with recording my voice (Webex recording) and found the playback highly audible but flat. It's not has high fidelity as a cheap set of USB wired headphones with a boom mic, but then again I'm not using the HD feature. Noise cancelling for the microphone is excellent. I work in an area with many servers and the noise is constant high volume "white noise". None of this is obvious to the listener. -Bluetooth is excellent. I'm using a Dell laptop with internal bluetooth. Walking around the office up to 40 feet this provided a clear signal at the headset and Dell. At 40 feet (behind steel framed walls with lots of computer equipment) the signal was starting to degrade but was still perfectly understandable (again using webex recording feature to test at the laptop. It comes with a bluetooth fob that might provide more functions (mute using the mic button instead of the app), but I'd rather use the laptop's bluetooth, so I haven't tried this. -PC operations are excellent. I did not have to make any configuration changes to use it. It paired quickly with the PC (Windows 10) and was the default audio and mic for all pc apps. I did not use the included bluetooth fob. Sound fidelity on the headphones is good. Not as good as Sony or JBL, but better than the cheap logitech wired headphones I had been using. Additional integration of functions using the include bluetooth fob might be possible (mute doesn't work on the headset without it) but I don't need this. If clicking the mute button on the PC app wasn't practical then I'd try the included bluetooth fob. -phone (android motoG7) operations are excellent. First time I hit the "call" button the phone asked me if I wanted to use google (assistant) always. I chose this. Google/android responded and easily called my contacts (I also chose to share contact information on the android. Even more cool, incoming calls are announced using the name in my contact book and the headset's "voice". Sound quality is very good (amazon music app on android) and headset buttons work well to control the phone app. -interoperability is excellent. I have it paired via bluetooth with both my laptop and android phone (moto G7). I haven't played with it a lot, but for example when I call cell phone from my laptop, the headsets signal an incoming call on my cell phone and announce the caller without interrupting the call from the laptop. According to the manual, tap the call button on the headset to end the first call (if desired), and then tap again to answer the 2nd incoming call (if desired). When listening to music on the phone, if a PC alert occurs, it pauses playback on the android phone. Sensors are excellent. It knows when you put it on and announces its status. When you take it off it mutes the call (this may require using the bluetooth fob on PCs). It knows which direction the mic is swivelled and switches left/right earpieces accordingly, so you can wear the thing with the mic on either side. Pretty cool. The stand connected to my laptops dock. When the headphones are docked, the hub software recognizes it and allowed me to update the headphones firmware as well as change settings for a dozen or more features (I left the defaults, but I might play with the HD mic setting sometime). The hub software does not see the headphones when connected via just bluetooth to the PC. This may require use of the bluetooth dongle (which I don't). I updated the headset's firmware (took 5 minutes) and topped off the charge. The stand is heavy enough not to easily tip over. Very cool. Comfort is excellent. I've been wearing them for 3 hours with no discomfort. The ANC reduces background noises but doesn't eliminate them. The JBL and Sony I had to take off when not using them (too hot). Being able to mute PC apps via the headset mic mute button is going to be important for some. Sorry, I didn't try the included bluetooth fob with the hub software to see if this enabled it, but I suspect it does.

I am a loyal Pantronic's user for decades as my livelihood is directly dependent on these things. With the business replacing phones with PC based conferencing solutions I needed something new to replace my old Plantronic's phone product. I'm hard of hearing so I needed a dual speaker that was comfortable to wear for 10 hours a day. So far, this product's battery seems to last all day while my other Plantronic's units required recharging at some point. The sound is crystal clear, much better than the older Plantronics phone units. So if your livelihood depends on this product, then this is a good choice. The other reviews seem to talk about a beep when this headset is on mute. On the most current firmware, there is only an announcement when the phone is muted or unmuted. No intermittent beep while muted that other reviews talked about to distract you. The desktop software seems limited as mute and unmute functions does not seem to show up properly for me under Windows-7 under the Plantronics software. But the mute functions under Skype work and are integrated accurately. Plantronics support for Webex is not as good as Skype however. The other feature I love about this unit is that the earpieces are covered in some kind of pleather and it is very comfortable. Some of those old Plantronics have those foam earpiece covers which deteriorate and fall apart over time and must be replaced and are a bit pricey. Since I don't share this with other people, I don't care that there is no disposable ear cover. I think these pleather covers should last but I cannot be sure. Edit after a couple of months of ownership: Still really like this product but I have discovered that while Skype integration is excellent, I cannot find a way of making this work at all for Webex conferencing.

Amazing quality, comfort, functionality and battery life is all day plus more. I like that I have a base to charge it on, but I can travel with it and use a standard USB cable to charge it. What your boss wants to hear: I can wear these all day without issue and the active noise canceling works really well in noisy environments. Customers can hear me and not my obnoxious coworkers and I can filter out most of their inane babble with active noise canceling that is ALWAYS on unless I turn it off. I like that I can have my phone connected and the PC via the USB dongle at the SAME time. I'll be listening to training or a meeting on the PC and the phone rings with voice caller ID and I can answer without the cumbersome switching I might need to do with a normal bluetooth device. Newer office phones with USB are known to work with this too. What users will want to know: I had a movie playing on my phone on a slow day and connected to my work PC for incoming email and message notifications. I look busy at work with the headphones on and responded to messages "amazingly fast". The audio on either device will be interrupted briefly to play it's sound so you'll know something came through. Overall: Range of 100ft seems to be accurate for the USB dongle part, I can be on a call and walk away to grab coffee with no one being the wiser aside from a little static if I walk too far away. Also, the mute on the mic is easily located and will tell you "MUTE ON" if you try to talk with the mute on. That feature actually scared me on day one when I thought I was already muted (I was) and I sneezed. The Headphones say MUTE ON when you enable mute AND when you try to talk with mute on. The USB dongle shows colors of status if that helps too: blue=connected, purple=audio detected, red=mute. PC app is nice too, adds visual notifications to the screen including mute on/off and battery levels.

I wanted a pair of wireless headphones and several of my coworkers owned/recommended this pair. Pros: They have a lot of features, like noise cancelling but you will need to install the desktop apps to be able to customize them. I love that I can connect to up to two devices with them so I can be connected to both my work computer or personal computer and/or my phone at the same time. The charge time is great on them and the only time I'v had them get closet to dying on me was when I forgot to put them back on the charger. Using them for phone calls , I haven't ever heard a complaint of not being able to be heard. The range on them is also great and I can move back and forth between the rooms of my apartment without experiencing any lag or breakage. This also comes in handy during meetings when I need to move around or stretch my legs. Cons: The main con I will address is that if you have it connected to both your computer and a phone, the phone always wins in the hierarchy. What I mean by this if it is paired with your phone, even if you "disconnect" it , the connection will sync again, which leads to instances where you might be in a meeting and get a phone call, which will silence you from being able to talk in the meeting until you decline the call. The only way I'v been able to remedy this is to unpair it when I am not using the phone, and having to pair it again when I am ready to use it for phone calls. Again I love it for phone calls and it is very easy to pair with the setup they have on the headphones but it is a tedious extra step to have to do. Overall recommend them as a good pair of work from home headpphones and I use them for everything from work, to listening to music, podcasts and as mentioned above, phone calls. Good Clarity and sound in both meetings and listening to music.

I work from a virtual office - my home. My staff is located around the world. My headquarters is in another state. My customers are everywhere from Japan to Seattle, Canada to Chile. Needless to say I spend a LOT of time on either the phone or VoIP via Skype or conference calls through the laptop. Probably close to 30 hours a week. I've used this for about a month now. This Plantronics Voyager is worth every penny I paid for it and I wish I had it years ago. You get what you pay for! LISTENING audio quality - the tonal range is awesome, you hear them very clearly. It has active noise cancellation (ANC) for listening which really helps. I listen to music on it in the evening and it's a respectable headset for that although not a $400 audiophile unit. SPEAKING audio quality stands out as well. People I talk with tell me they can hear me much clearer. I have not had a single sound quality complaint and I used to get them daily. The speaking audio also has ANC so my keyboard sound is much less. The controls are very easy to use. The mute button is on the boom mic and easy to use. Auto answer when you put it on your head. I was worried it would be hard to switch between the phone and laptop but after getting used to it for about a week it becomes second nature. There is a USB dongle that connects it to the laptop loaded an app that allows control of all the options and features, shows battery life, connections, handles software upgrades and more. A cool thing is if it's muted the app will tell you on screen if you start talking, either on the phone or laptop. Skype integration is great. If you need skype get the version that has the drivers, I think it's the B version. The dongle is red if muted, blue if live. Battery life is great too. I've gone about 12 hours of use on one charge. It's comfortable for all day use. The only downside is distance. Its spec'd at 150 feet and I can't get that on the phone (bluetooth) or the laptop. With them in my home office the best I can get thru one plaster wall is about 35 feet. I have gone through 4 other headsets in less than two years. 3 wired headsets that got ripped off my head when the wire got caught. I had to switch the plug from the phone to the laptop. The voice quality was poor but they were cheap at $15 each. I then spent what I thought was a lot on a Logitech H800 at about $80. It was supposed to with my laptop and cell phone. It was ok with the laptop but while it paired with the phone I could never get it to work right between the two devices. Sound quality and physical quality (cheap plastic feel) was poor. Controls were poor.

Let me explain what I mean by the review headline. I own a set of Bose ANC headphones that I can also use as a mic; and now I own this Voyager Focus microphone that I can use as a headphone. The Bose headphone has wonderful sound quality, not to anyone's surprise of Bose, but I must make sure I'm in a quiet sound environment in order to talk into the microphone because it picks up every noise. If your concerned about the quality of tones for music listening and not worried about the microphone, the Bose is a good microphone but much better headphone. The Voyager Focus has a wonderful microphone that cancels out most noise. People tell me it sounds really good on their end. The speakers of the headphones are marginal; yet work just fine. If your not concerned about quality of tones for music, the Focus is s a good headset and a better microphone. As far as noise canceling, they both hold up very well to each other. The Bose seems like it has a better ANC because it covers the whole ear while the Focus allows sound leakage from around the ear pads that only sit on top of the ear. Here it comes down to purpose of device again. When using the Bose in an environment with wind noise, like a car with the windows down, the Bose will blow your ear drums out with loud pops in trying to alleviate the wind noise. In fact, with the Bose, you can not even "crack" your window more than a couple inches before it starts to produce loud pops in your ear. The Focus, on the other hand, alleviates the engine noise of the vehicle while compensating nicely for the wind noise of a window that is rolled all the way down. I drive truck for a living and absolutely despise the lack of quality of the Blue Parrots; which are popular among the trucking industry. I can always tell when I'm talking to someone on a Blue Parrot because they are hard to understand because everything is so muffled. I use to talk with a Plantronics Voyager Legend while having the Bose headphone on one ear to cancel out the engine noise in that one ear; yet my window had to be rolled up. Now I run the Focus which gives me the quality of sound in the mic and the quality of ANC in the speakers while allowing me to talk with the window down. As another note: The fourteen hour talk time is a wonderful bonus to the Voyager Focus.

Loooove it! Exactly what I needed! A little expensive but sooo worth it. It does a lot and is quality. Wouldn’t expect anything less from plantronics! It does more than other ones In the same price range. My requirements and responses for the b825m headset: Has two earmuffs that are soft and not bulky. It’s leather like (not sure of the material) soft and small enough to sit on the entire ear not cover it like a big headset. Works easily/automatically with windows pc conferencing softwares. IT DOES! I bought the “M” and it works very well/easy/smooth with Skype and zoom. It can be muted with the headset or the pc software buttons. They work nicely together. Can hook up to a windows pc and a smart phone. IT DOES! Very plug and play. You insert the USB and follow instructions for the pc. Then you pair the headset with the phone using Bluetooth. Easy peasy. Obviously you can only use one source at a time (pc or smart phone) but it is easy to switch the source. When music is playing and a call comes in the music stops. If you don’t answer the call the music continues. Can see an indicator that the headset is muted. IT DOES! The USB has a light that indicats the status red-muted and blue-unmuted as well as it tells you. So freakin’ cool! But wait there is more: 😁 When you take of the headset and put it around your neck it mutes automatically. Put the headset back on your head and unmutes. Again so freakin’ cool! There is a noice cancelling on off button. When it’s on you hear your own voice. When it’s off you can hear your surroundings. The headset is sooo easy/smooth to put in and take out of the cradle. It can be done one handed! TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT!! Looove it! Exactly what I needed! A little expensive but sooo worth it. It does a lot and is quality. Wouldn’t expect anything less from plantronics! It does more than other ones In the same price range. My requirements and responses for the b825m headset: Has two earmuffs that are soft and not bulky. It’s leather like soft (not sure of the material) and small enough to sit on the entire ear not cover it like a big headset. Works easily/automatically with windows pc conferencing softwares. IT DOES! I bought the “M” and it works very well/easy/smooth with Skype and zoom. It can be muted with the headset or the pc software buttons. They work nicely together. Can hook up to a windows pc and a smart phone. IT DOES! Very plug and play. You insert the USB and follow instructions for the pc. Then you pair the headset with the phone using Bluetooth. Easy peasy. Obviously you can only use one source at a time (pc or smart phone) but it is easy to switch the source. When music is playing and a call comes in the music stops. If you don’t answer the call the music continues. Can see an indicator that the headset is muted. IT DOES! The USB has a light that indicats the status red-muted and blue-unmuted as well as it tells you. So freakin’ cool! But wait there is more: 😁 When you take of the headset and put it around your neck it mutes automatically. Put the headset back on your head and unmutes. Again so freakin’ cool! There is a noice cancelling on off button. When it’s on you hear your own voice. When it’s off you can hear your surroundings. The headset is sooo easy/smooth to put in and take out of the cradle. It can be done one handed! TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT!!

The first device I received stopped working after about 6 months. I was able to get a replacement fairly easily under warranty from Plantronics (not a bad experience). The second device continued having some of the issues I had with the first one. I often have to re-pair it with my computer. Sometimes when using Teams, Slack, etc... it will continually repeat "mute on" for unknown reasons. This could be a problem with the application though, so I am not ready to blame it on the headset. Noise cancellation is very mediocre. I sometimes find myself turning it on/off repeatedly trying to figure out which one is actually on. Battery life is less than advertised. You can easily drain it in the course of a work day with heavy use. The promised 14 hours of use is questionable. Not a big deal if you keep it on the charging stand when not in use, but definitely a problem if you're using it in a remote environment. The replacement device I received has worked until now. At the moment, the headset displays one blue led and one red led and does not work at all. I bought this device because I did not want to mess around with cheaper, low quality headsets. Plantronics has been a reliable name in the past. Those days may be gone. Given the high price of this device, I'd expect it to be reliable for many years. It isn't. UPDATE: Bumping to 3 stars as the 2nd pair of headphones started working after I clicked on some of the headset buttons :) I enjoy them when they work properly, but still not worth the money. Fri 10 May 11:05:45 CDT 2024 - Back down the 3 stars as replacement phones connect very unreliabley, and now they are beeping ever few seconds and the instructions to reset them don't work. Wed Jul 24 14:59:46 2024 - Continued problems with this thing. Bottom line, when it works, it works well, but it only works maybe 60% of the time. I've got a $10 headband headset that never fails to connect. The technology exists Mr. Plantronic. No more Plantronics for me.