Customer Reviews

Plantronics M1500 Bluetooth Headset With Adapter For Non-Bluetooth 2.5mm Phones

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I realized that I needed a headset for my cellphone (Motor.v60) and my home cordless phone. ...I was so excited about the Plantronics M1500 for non-bluetooth phones, since I was not about to pay a large amt. for that type of phone. ...

After opening the pkg. i took out the headset, adaptor and instructions etc. I followed the directions and plugged the adapter to the phone and powered the headset with the battery. The ease of set up was superb! At this point I was so excited. I placed the headset on my head/ear and turned it on by pushing the on/off button on the headset. I turned on the adapter and dialed a friends number to test it out.

"Hello?" said my friend. "Hello?". "I'm hear"......BzzzBzzz/poppop....

No only could my friend not hear me but we both heard loud buzzing sounds and popping. I tried to switch phones and see if it helped and I tried the suggested positioning by the manufactures instrucions. Nothing helped at all.

Sadly to say, I returned the headset and had to purchase another brand which I must say works as it says but 1/2 the cost.

Bluetooth might be a lot better but this product simply does not work as it says it does. P.S. I even tried another one ...and had the same problems...

I find this is much better than choking myself at 65mph on a wired headsets cord when turning my head to see who is next to me before changing lanes. With this unit I have total freedom of movement while talking on my cell phone. Tried a friends unit for 3 days, loved it, cant wait to get my own.
As for the other reviewer named "Daniel" I think you had your adapter part to close to the antenna of your cell phone. and if your using this on a home phone, you may get interference if its a 2.4ghz phone, as the bluetooth technology also uses the 2.4ghz radio frequencies. Again, if the adapter part is close to the antenna of your 2.4 ghz home cordless phone, expect the interference. This headset seems mainly for use on mobile, not cordless phones.

I was excited when I received this product in the mail. Kudos to Plantronics for cutting edge Industrial Design and small form factor. It looks a lot bigger in pictures, but was pleased to see that it is actually nice and small and fits well on my ear. I am bluetooth novice, but was able to set up the unit quite well. It worked well with my wife's Sony Ericsson T68i but didn't work with the Nokia 3650. The 3650 seems to have a lot of compatibility issues with bluetooth and now the only one that works (as of Aug-03) is the Jabra unit, which has been revised to work with the 3650. The Nokia is able to "discover" the headset, but cannot connect to it. The only way to use it is to get the M1500-N1 model and plug the sleek adapter into the phone. This defeats the purpose of going wireless. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because it is hard to tell when the unit is on or off. A few tries of on/off/on/off will tell you. The reason is that the unit lights up for 3 seconds when it first goes on, but then the light goes off. When you switch off the unit it beeps, but again, if you miss the light or the beep, you will keep guessing. Great step in the right direction, good job Plantronics!

I got this for a Siemens SX56, and it does work with it. That sums up the best things I can say about it.

Cons:
-The earpiece is way clunky. I feel like it's always about to fall off. It should somehow grip your ear better, and in fact it should be possible to provide an upgrade path that does, since the part that goes over your ear is so modular.
-The comment from one of the other reviews about volume is spot on...it's just not loud enough. I understand they don't want to be pummeled with lawsuits for ear damage, but on the flip side I'd also like to hear my phone calls. Most situations where it's perfectly quiet for a phone call are places where there's a land line available anyway. If I have to cup my hand around the earpiece to hear it better, then it's not exactly a hands-free device, is it?
-It's too easy to accidentally activate the earpiece and let your battery drain away, and the light indicating that it's activated is useless because *it's on your ear!* (Duh!)
-Power up/power down is clunky in general. Make it a switch, please!

The device has two major drawbacks, the first is that the earpiece hangs off a thin bit of plastic that quickly breaks off. They clearly realise this is an issue as they give you a spare, but that is no good when they only last about a week each.

The other big problem is that they both have multi-function on/off buttons instead of a switch. This means that getting the thing turned on is about 30-45 seconds since you have to push and-hold-the-stupid-thing-down for a very-very long time. The sender is worst of all, that has three modes, off, standby and in use. In practice the standby mode is completely pointless, you might as well turn the thing off completely since it will take ten seconds at least for the thing to make a connection to the earpiece - often much longer.

There have to be better designs out there that this turkey. Once the gadget feature is worn off you will be back to using the phone alone.

True to their reputation, Plantronics has engineered a great wireless solution for non-Bluetooth phones. They got all of the basics right:

- Setup was very easy, and my only question was promptly answered by a support rep on their free and toll-free help line.

- The headset is comfortable to wear and sound quality on the microphone and the speaker are excellent.

- The on/off, mute and volume controls are very ergonomically placed and intuitive to use.

- Both the adapter and the headset are rechargeable with a single adapter.

- The price (street price, that is, not list price) is very reasonable.

- I have found that the headset works quite reliably in most settings, including office buildings, city streets, commuter trains, etc.

On the downside, this is a first-generation product, and some of the kinks remain to be worked out:

- Establishing a connection between the headset and the adapter sometimes requires two or three tries, especially when the battery starts to run low.

- The belt pouch needs work. In particular, the elastic loop that holds the headset is not as secure as it should be. I would prefer something that clicks solidly into place and releases with a button or lever.

- Battery life is decent, but you can wear them down with a single day of heavy usage (2-3 hours of talk time, spread out over several calls.)

- At least once, the headset simply started misbehaving and would not establish a connection. Resetting the headset by powering it off and then back on solved the problem.

- The volume maxes out at a level that to my ear is "medium" volume. There's just no way to make it truly loud, and sometimes you need loud volume to compete with ambient noise, or to converse with a soft-spoken person on the other end.

All in all, I think this is a fantastic solution. Futuristic technology that really works, at a decent price. I'm very happy with it.

The product works fine but the earpiece is way too uncomfortable...
Definitely can't be used as is...
I'll have to either find a workaround or return it......

The product works fine but the earpiece is way too uncomfortable...
Definitely can't be used as is...
I'll have to either find a workaround or return it......