Customer Reviews

Plantronics M2500 Bluetooth Headset

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Let me start by saying this is a great headset. Comfortable, lightweight, and easy to hear and operate.

The layout of the controls is spot-on; they're easy to use and locate. The button on the end of the mic boom is awesome for answering and ending calls. If your phone has voice-dialing, holding down that button will launch your phone's voice dialing feature. The volume rocker was easy to use; however, pushing it in to mute the mic produced the same tone as swiveling the rocker to change the volume, so you never really knew if you had muted your call or just adjusted the volume. They really should have had different tones associated with those functions, especially since it's two distinct functions in one control. Range and battery life were all outstanding. Charging is quick, and the status light is handy. Pairing was a snap; worked first time. It's comfortable enough to wear for long periods, and it's very unobtrusive. Not so much that you'd forget it's there, but enough to leave on and not bug you.

This headset has only two downfalls. One: no noise reduction circuitry. The microphone on the headset works very well; unfortunately, too well if there's *any* sort of noise in the area -- another conversation, a TV twenty feet away, a barking dog in the next room -- were all as clearly heard by my caller as my own voice, prompting her to ask me to move to another room where it wasn't quite so loud. And trying to use it in the car, forget it. I was told that I was barely distinguishible from the noise of the car.

Two: The manual. This is one of those manuals where they give you one small illustration and 327 different languages (actually, it's only 7, but it feels like 327) on each page, so the pairing instructions took up about 5 pages, but about half a napkin's worth of content. That's a thoroughly annoying feature; so annoying to me that I skipped the manual altogether and went straight to the website to get the instructions all in one language. That's significant enough to me to be a downfall.

All in all, this is a great entry-level Bluetooth headset, priced right for the "value-conscious" consumer. But for anyone who expects superior quality conversations, rivaling those offered by your "actual phone," I would pay more for a better quality headset with some noise-cancelling circuitry. I suggest looking at the Jabra FreeSpeak BT250. It's got the same general wrap-around-the-ear design, but it's a little more than the Plantronics (about twice the price at the time of this writing). However, it's still under $100, and with built-in noise reduction, it's well worth it, IMHO.

I bought this for use with a Treo 650.

It took a couple of tries to get the two devices to play nicely together.

The instruction manual is particularly hard to follow. Each page has a cryptic drawing followed by a single sentence in about ten languages, followed by another cryptic drawing, etc. The buttons are very small and can be difficult to operate precisely even for someone with small hands.

The battery does not hold a charge for anywhere near the hours it is supposed to on standby.

I have fairly small ears close to my head, and the headset always feels like it is about to fall off. Sometimes it actually has fallen off.

The rubber gizmo that is supposed to rest inside the ear comes detached *very* easily. The unit ships with two spare gizmos, which may not last me a month.

Sound quality is okay but all in all this is a long run for a short slide. Plantronics usually makes better products than this.

While I found the range to be quite decent (>20ft on a Nokia 6230) and sound quality to be a bit staticy but still fairly good, the thing just didn't fit very tightly. The headset is large and moves around easily, particularly if you use the buttons a lot or wear glasses.

So, because of the "It's great!" vs. "IT SUCKS" reviews, I ordered a few of these for people at my office. We have voip phones, and staff in New York, Portland, and... I wanted one myself because they seem neat.

Everyone hates them, and we're all using different hardware. It works "Fine" with my Motorola a630, until is disconnects randomly or if I need to use while moving *At all*, then it becomes excessively staticy. I also want to use it with my laptop at times, for the softphone, and... what a huge pain. I still can't figure out how to make this stable.

Other people are using it strictly with a PC or a Mac (both, in this case) for voip soft phones... and they either stop working randomly, are staticy, and in one case the mic just sounds HORRIBLE on the other end.

suck. Will return them all, I guess, in exchange for something "better". sigh.

I had a previous generation Plantronics with a Sony T68i phone, and had the same kinds of problems that people are reporting for this model. In all honesty, I think it may be a matter of how well Bluetooth is implemented on the phone.

On the Motorola RAZR V3, I have NEVER had any problem. I have clear calls, and people can hear me clearly. I can leave the phone on my desk at home and walk around the house (about 45 feet of distance), with no problems. Voice dialing works (a function triggered by the M2500, but available based on if your phone supports it.) I can hang up calls, and transfer calls from the headset to the phone, and phone to the headset with no problems.

However, I will recommend that you keep the headset charged. I have not run into any battery issues on this headset, but on my previous generation Plantronics, I had all sorts of issues related to a dieing battery. (Callers could not hear me, or I would sound staticy and distorted).

I generally conserve battery life by not leaving the headset in standby. (Turn off when not using). If I am waiting for a call, I will leave the headset on, but if I take the headset off and put it in my pocket, I'll shut it off. If someone calls, I'll answer my phone, then transfer the call to my headset if I think that I will be talking for more than a few minutes.

Update on June/2006: I still have this headset and I am now using it with a Motorola SLVR L7. It still works flawlessly. One thing I will mention, I am on my second M2500 headset because the first one broke in my pocket. (The plastic from the ear piece to the microphone is some what delicate). This was entirely my fault, and not necessarily a defect of the product, I simple suggest caution while having this in a pocket.

In any case, I believe this headset is worth a try. I'd probably shy away from using this as a Bluetooth headset on a computer. (I've yet to find a stable bluetooth implementation on a Windows machine), but if you are considering this for your phone, I'd give it at try.

-Brian

After owning a Motorola model headset that was hands down, the easiest to operate (flip open the boom and it's on and connected, slip the thin earpiece over your ear and start talking...), it also had sound quality issues (few people could hear my end of the conversation), I had high hopes for the Plantronics M2500. I have owned Plantronics wired headsets and figured only good things could come of a next-generation product like this. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Firstly, the large portion of the headset where the battery and electronics are is bulky and difficult to put on with one hand particularly if you're a glasses wearer like myself. Since I typically don't wear the headset full-time when in the car, I often found myself struggling to get it situated while driving. If I was going to take the trouble to pull over to put it on when I got an incoming call, I might as well just use the handset at that point. Though it was easily adapted to the left or right ear, it wasn't comfortable enough to wear full time.

The on/off/volume switch is a multi-position/rocker switch. Rock it forward or back to control the volume and press it STRAIGHT down to turn the headset on or off. Now, when I say STRAIGHT down, I mean STRAIGHT down. Rock the switch one way or another to cycle the power and the power switch just doesn't work. This too becomes a difficult, two-handed operation. Also, the multi-colored LED that let's you know the unit's coming on or turning off winds up under your fingers. If you're still set on attempting this operation with one hand, you don't know whether or not you've succeeded in turning it on or off.

Once the unit's turned on and situated on your ear, you then have to depress a switch on the boom to connect it to your phone. Unfortunately, the plastic button that's on the boom catches on the housing (effectively sticking) and you have to wiggle it to get it positioned so you can actually depress it to make contact with the switch. There's so much wrong with the mechanics of this device it makes you wonder if anyone at Plantronics actually gave it a try. FORTUNATELY, what it lacks in physical usability, it makes up for in sound quality and connectivity. While I had no issues with either of the latter points, everything else made this headset a chore to use.

PROS:
Fits wonderfully. You can wear it for hours comfortably, and it won't fall off.
Plenty loud enough, with easily controlled volume
Sound quality is excellent for you, but....

CONS:
Everyone I called said they had trouble understanding me.
Battery life seemed low. Lasted only about a day on standby.
Hard to turn on/off.

As a result of the cons, I've returned this item.

I was really excited getting a bluetooth headset. But it turned out to be a bad experience with this one. You can hear other people clearly, but when you talk they can barely hear you, the people on the other end said, that they felt like i was talking on a speakerphone probably 50 feet away.
I used it with the Nokia 7610.
Pros - Price
Cons - Bad sound quality, the headset can be broken easily if stretched too much while putting it on.

I have yet to evaluate other units - but I can say that this unit no where near approaches the 5 hr battery life. I am a lawyer and am trying to use this unit with my blackberry. I got about 1.5 hrs of talk time out of the box and then slence. It also appears that stand by time is limited when the device is "connected" via bluetooth to the blackberry device. The best I can discern is that there are frankly not that many bluetooth devices but once more blackberrys and cellphones support headsets like this, I would hope and expect performance to significantly improve. Right now this device is absolutlely not ready for prime time. If you are a gadget freak and your girlfriend doesn't mind you wearing an imbeded headset - go for it. Otherwise, practical minded businesspersons should avoid this headset.

On my treo 650, and my gf's sony ericson phone with bluetooth, there were crackling and windy sound was noticed and annoyed by the person I'm calling or talking to. It sometimes will connect clear and others not when I listen, but it always was crackling and had a that windy sound according to the person I'm talking to.

I have to say that the fit is great, and it is very light. Talk time is probably 3.5 to 4 hrs. Too bad you can't replace the battery on this, it it will be disposed when the battery loses charge.