A friend of mine asked me to buy for him the Plantronics BaclBeat Pro. I just received them and decided to compare them against my own Samsung Level Over. Although their price is not really comparable, their use is, so here it is...
Price: At 147$ the Plantronic is about 1/2 of the price of the Samsung so in that field, they win easily...
Comfort: The Samsung are really sitting around your ears and therefore, they exert less pressure on them. The Plantronics are slightly smaller so if you have fairly small ears, the difference will not be that big. However, with standard ear size, the Samsung is more comfortable. As for the pads and overall weight, they are fairly identical. When carrying them around your neck, the Plantronics do swivel to come flat. The Samsung do not.
I would therefore give a slight edge to the Samsung.
Build quality: Both are great looking and have a very nice padding over the head.
Case: The Samsung have a hard carry case and a smaller pocket to fit in the cables. The Plantronics have a very nice carry bag with extremely soft interior. The cables are loose in them. So one may be more solid but the other one will be less bulky. I cannot decide if there is a winner here since it is up to each one to decide what he/she prefers.
Autonomy: Samsung claims about 15 hours, Plantronics claim 24 hours. Because I have had the Samsung for a very long time, I can guarantee that they keep their charge for months when not in use.
Now that I am done with the less important parts, let's look at the truly important factors, the sound quality, ease of use and sound cancellation.
Let start with the controls:
- I was able to pair both of them with my Iphone without any difficulty. Basically, you turn the headset on, it becomes detectable, search in your bluetooth settings of your phone and voila, they are paired.
- Both can also be controlled with a cable with a remote.
- The Samsung controls are less intuitive but pretty fancy: it is controlled by the movement of your finger on the right pad. Double tap it and you start/stop your music, drag your finger towards the front and it selects the next song, drag it towards the back and it select the previous one. Drag it up to increase the volume and down to decrease it.
The Plantronics, on the other hand has more standard controls with knobs that you turn or press on the earpads. Press the left one and it start/stops the music. Rotate the left "dial" and you can change the selection to next or previous song. On the right pad, rotate the "dial" to increase/decrease the volume. Press the earpad to answer calls.
Once again, I cannot really decide which one is better. I would call the Plantronics more accurate because your gestures are controlled but with a good practice, the Samsung is as easy to control.
Both have a switch to turn on/off the noise cancellation.
And talking about the noise cancellation, both give a feeling of being in a weird environment when the noise cancellation is off. It almost amplifies the background noises. Once turned on, most noises disappear. A big disclaimer for the novices: Noise Cancellation does not cancel voices!!! It cancels ambient noises like ventilation, engine noises, vacuum maybe but a crying baby will not be cut off. If you want to cut this out, use noise isolation headphones (in-ears) which will be much more effective.
During my test, I was able to hear people chatting in a room about 60' away from where I am sitting. It was a bit more prevalent with the Plantronics. Interestingly, the Plantronics in the same time gave a slightly better impression of noise cancellation. Also, although they both cancelled outside sounds very well, both emits some type of white noise in the earcups. So it is not completely silent. Once again, for more effective results, noise isolation (in-ear) does work better to simply cut off external sounds.
Once I turn some music on at a low level, the white noise is much less prevalent indeed. In this case, the contrast is much more important in sound quality for the Samsung. The Samsung gives a better sound with noise cancellation on than without it. In contrast, the Plantronics give a fairly identical sound quality with and without noise cancellation but it is truer when one increases the volume.
So, as a matter of noise cancellation, I would say that they are performing both quite well. I may give a slight advantage to the Plantronics but it is by a hair. On another test and in a different environment, my preference may change so slight the difference is.
Sound Quality:
Both have an impressive range and quality to start with. Both have very strong but not overwhelming bass. Both mids and highs are also well represented. It seems that the Samsung has the mids a little bit more forward and the Plantronic has a bass that is less present but a bit more punchy, putting a bit more pressure on the eardrums. The Plantronics seems to be deliver a higher volume than the Samsung.
In any case, both deliver a sound quality that is much higher than the price value of the Plantronics.
In the end, I may give a preference to the Plantronics for the gain in volume.
Interestingly also, the Plantronics do affect the volume on the phone itself, the Samsung does not. I am not sure how to interpret that, does it mean that the Samsung always assume a certain volume from the phone or a max volume right away.
A plus for the Plantronics, it gives audio feedback when you never know your volume level with the Samsung.
In conclusion:
The double price of the Samsung is not justified when compared with the Plantronics so If I take the price in consideration, the Plantronics win hands down.
If I ignore their price, they both are a great choice and you may prefer one based on the wow factor (the Samsung controls are quite bluffing) or your preference in sound or carry case.
But going back to the Plantronics: I think my friend is going to be very pleased with his purchase because they are very good. Personally, I still prefer In-Ears for both comfort and sound isolation (I have no problem with things in my ear canal...)
So I you like Noise Cancellation headphones, the Plantronics is a very good choice.
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Reviews with images
Amazing ANC, balanced sound; some select few pairs appear to be faulty, if your's have STATIC issues READ my experience
I'm not an audiophile, so I will leave comments about the sound to some of the more trained ears here. You'll find plenty of them. To my ears, these were nicely balanced without over powering bass. ANC on or off did not seem to impact the sound quality noticeably. I tried them across a wide range of music genres and enjoyed using them for all. The mic quality is very solid too, no complaints from anyone I talked to over the phone using these (in fact, I asked some if they noticed a difference and they didn't even know I was using a headphone mic)Here's what I can add: First things first, BEWARE OF DEFECTIVE PAIRS. The first set I got was defective--it had significant static/buzzing in the left ear when connected over bluetooth and ANC was activated. Think an old GSM phone held up to a speaker. I hopped onto the message boards and found this was a common enough complaint, so I returned for a new pair, and discovered that it was totally a faulty pair. My new pair works flawlessly, with no static at all. If you are experiencing similar symptoms, definitely return yours and experience these working correctly. To their credit, Plantronics was very quick to respond, and they have a robust support and forum community as well.The ANC on this is simply amazing. I recently used these on a regional flight with a smaller jet, not known for their sound isolation. I was sitting directly behind the wings/engines, and with ANC on I'd say at least 95% of engine noise was gone! I was blown away. I originally got these because I live on a street where there is quite a bit of construction going on, and I work from home during the day. They do a good job with that noise too, though I imagine no ANC yet invented could conquer the sound cement chunks being dropped into a dumpster...As far as comfort, I find them easy to wear for long periods with only minor amounts of discomfort to my ears and warmth. Compared to other headsets, these are definitely on the comfortable end! They are, however, a bit bulky and heavy... Not so much as to take away from their comfort (the padding is great) but I would really only wear these in stationary contexts, working in an office (or at home), commuting, or on a plane or train. I have other headphones I use when walking around. They are heavy enough that with a lot of movement, they will slip down or off.So why not five stars? Well, besides being slightly bulky, there are a few minor detractors. First, unlike a few others on here, I really think that a pair of headphones this expensive should come with a hard case. I ended up purchasing a hardcase for these myself for travel. I went with a Geekria model, which fits it actually quite well and is very nice and compact (any smaller and it wouldn't fit). See the picture attached showing the fit, and my review of that case. It's definitely better than the soft case they include, which is thick material but won't offer much protection from real impacts or drops common to travel.I'm also not a huge fan of the styling. They are a bit 'geeky' or 'techy' for my tastes, I'd prefer something sleeker or more retro styled. It's pretty clear that Plantronics didn't put a huge amount of energy into the aesthetics of these. They give off a Microsoft vibe much more than an Apple one, if you know what I mean.Finally, I'm conflicted on the controls. Overall they are well thought out. The buttons and dials are sturdy and function very well. The switches to activate the power, the ANC and the mic all work great and are well placed. What gets a bit annoying is the fact that these controls are distributed evenly across both ear pieces, meaning that to control volume you twist the dial on the right earpiece for instance, and to control tracks you twist the one on the left. I think I prefer the layout of the Jlab Omni's, which, while they don't compare in build quality, sound or features to these (I'm not recommending them over these!), have a consolidated control scheme so that all controls are on the right ear. This means you can control everything with one hand, the same hand, all the time. With the plantronics, sometimes you're reaching with the right hand, sometimes the left, and sometimes it just gets a bit confusing.Overall, these are definitely well built, with excellent sound quality and easily worth the price. They are easily comparable to much higher priced models like the Zik's and Beats. There are a few minor detractions, but despite not being an audiophile and thinking there was no way I was going to keep a $$$ headphones, I find myself very happy with this purchase.Pros:Amazing ANC, tunes out airplane noise like a champ, great for everyday noise tooVery solid, balanced sound qualityDurable build quality and attention to detail, nothing feels cheap plasticky or lightComfortable and well paddedLots of external controlsCons:Not the best looking set you can findLots of external controls (can be confusing)Make sure your model isn't faulty!No hard case provided (this can be fixed for cheap, but they should really include a hard case at this price point)
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