Plantronics has a great reputation for office products. I never really messed with headphones with the horseshoe neckband. But now that Plantronics introduced the Voyager 6200 UC headphones for the work space, I was intrigued. How could these headphones be better than other regular bluetooth headphones when it comes to work? As usual, I used the Voyager 6200 UC earbuds for a few weeks to tell you all about them.
Design
The Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC earbuds look like your regular earbuds with the horeshoe shape neckband. When wearing the headphones, the right part of the neckband has the volume buttons, play/pause button toward the front, the power / bluetooth pairing button towards the back. On the left side of the neckband you have the active noise-cancelling (anc) toggle button. The earbuds themselves hang from the neckband via thin red cables. They don’t retract unfortunately.
Experience and Features
Comfort
It took me a bit of getting used to having the Voyager 6200 UC around my neck. I usually take the headphones off after a period of time, but wore these as much as possible for the review. The neckband is light and flexible, so after a while you don’t even feel it sitting around my neck. What’s great about the 6200 UC earbuds is that you can wear them from the office and outside of the office, for transportation.
Sound and Connectivity
Connectivity: The earbuds pair with up to 8 devices and can connect to two devices at once. That’s great since I usually have a laptop and a phone (or two) around. These earbuds also come with the USB dongle for those devices that don’t have bluetooth pairing capabilities. What is crazy is the distance you can walk around before the earbuds disconnect from the device (props go to the Class 1 Bluetooth range). There is no sure way of counting the exact distance, as there are obstacles in the way.
Sound: As for music, these also get the job done. While there is distortion at 100% volume, at 70% the 6200 UC sound balanced. I had to use the smallest ear tips to get the the best fit and proper noise isolation.
Active Noise Cancelling: I really didn’t hear the active noise cancelling when turned on. It felt like it blocked out just as much noise as the noise isolation when sealing with the ear tips.
Calls and Conversation
I used the 6200 UC for several skype, facetime, Facebook messenger calls. When indoors, the other party barely heard or didn’t hear an echo in my voice. My voice is usually low and the other party still heard it over the background noise.
When outside, the wind sometimes was louder than me, but other noise stayed in the background.
Battery Life
The 6200 UC come with a charging cradle to put on your desktop, but you can also plug the charger directly into the headphones. They last from 10 hours to 16 hours depending if you’re using the ANC or not. When using them all day, five days a week, I only had to (fully) charge the earbuds once a week. I’m not surprised with the battery life, as Plantronics headphones have great battery life and standby time.
Pricing and Availability
The Voyager 6200 UC are available in two colors; black or sand. They are originally priced at $300 on Plantronics.com. You can also find the earbuds on Amazon.com
Verdict
At the price point of $300, I could only suggest this for people who really need it. Those are for who work remotely often and connect via apps such as Skype or other video-conferencing systems. You can find them on Amazon for nearly 2/3rds of the price, and that makes them a great office tool. These are great for everyday use, and now that the weather has been warmer, I haven’t stopped using them.
