Plantronics, based in California,
has a long history of making headsets. They introduced the first
lightweight communications headset back in 1962. Their latest
Bluetooth wireless headset combines some of their existing high
quality voice technologies with Bluetooth, extending the company
tradition in making quality headsets for this new mobile world.
The third generation M3500 Bluetooth headset, leverages
Plantronics’ Audio IQ technology and an integrated Digital
Signal Processor (DSP) to enhance the audio clarity in noisy
environments. Audio IQ is Plantronics’ proprietary technology
that analyzes the incoming call and raises the softer portions
of the signal without causing distortion. The M3500 also incorporates
active noise and echo cancellation technology, which help reduce
noise when transmitting your voice. What do all these technologies
mean to you? Better voice quality! In our tests, the M3500 has
the best voice quality on both incoming and outgoing voices to
and from land lines among all the headsets we’ve tested.
On mobile lines, the voice quality is less impressive but still
on top of the list among all the headsets we’ve reviewed.
The noise canceling technology indeed works well.
The Plantronics M3500 is “middle of the road” in
size compared to other headsets, bigger than the Bluespoon
Chameleon and smaller than Logitech
Bluetooth Headset. The M3500 weighs in at .95 oz (27 grams),
which is light enough for you to wear it for long period of time
without feeling the weight. The M3500 comes with two size ear-loops,
so you should try both and see which one is more comfortable
for your ear. The ear-loops can fit either right or left ear
and are easy to take off and snap on. The M3500 sports a clean
design with the Talk button on the front face of the headset.
The button is large enough for you to push quickly when making
or receiving a call. There is a LED embedded in the Talk button
to show headset’s power status and Bluetooth status. There
is a power On/Off button on the right side of the headset, which
also acts as Mute button when in a call. Below the power button
is the Volume Up and Down rocker. There is a power jack on the
left of the headset for you to charge the unit. The M3500 supports
some common headset features such as switching voice between
the handset and the headset, mute, call reject and last number
redial functions.
The Plantronics M3500 supports both Headset and
Hands-free profiles. Pairing the M3500 with Bluetooth enabled
cell phones and PDAs is very easy. The headset behaved quite
well when we paired it with Sony
Ericsson P800, Nokia
3650 as well as the Dell
Axim X30. To pair the headset, push down the Talk button
along with the Volume Up button until you see the LED flashing
red and green alternately. After you hear the confirmation tone,
you are ready to use the headset to make and receive calls on
the cell phones. On PDAs that support audio profiles such
as iPAQ
5555, Dell Axim X30 and ASUS
A716, you can use the M3500 to listen to system sound, MP3,
video and gaming sound once the headset is bonded with your PDA.
In our test, only the ASUS A716 didn’t behave well with
the M3500. The range of the Bluetooth came close to 30 feet in
our test except with the XDA II,
which needed to be within 15 to 20 feet of the headset (the XDA
II has shorter Bluetooth headset range compared to some other
phones).
The M3500 comes with a 170mAh, 2.4v battery that’s
rechargeable and user replaceable. The user manual suggests that
you replace the battery once a year. When fully drained, the
battery takes a few hours to charge. The battery life seems to
be very close to Plantronics’ claimed talk and standby
time in our tests. It’s also very nice to have both wall
charger and in-vehicle lighter adapter in the package. |
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