Plantronics - Voyager Legend (Poly) - Bluetooth Single-Ear (Monaural) Headset - Connect to your PC, Mac, Tablet and/or Cell Phone - Noise Canceling,Black

This is my second review on this product. My previous review written several years ago is attached after this review.My trouble with headsets is that I keep losing them. This is my third Plantronics Legend, and perhaps my seventh or eighth Bluetooth headset.Plantronics Legend has been around for a while. And quite expensive. After losing my second Plantronics Legend, I went for cheaper units. All of them are latest models and very highly rated by users.But after running through several of them, I went back to Plantronics Legend.Why? Because there is one extremely important feature that is missing on all other Bluetooth headsets:The smart sensor.With headsets that don't have a smart sensor, if you take off the headset but forget to turn it off (which I tend to do), the Bluetooth connection being still there, you don't hear the ring if somebody calls (because the call goes to the headset which you are not wearing), and you would miss the call.Or, sometimes if you happen to see on the screen an incoming call, and you take the call but don't hear anything. In a moment of confusion, you frantically try to figure out what's going on. By the time you have figured out (that the call is going to the headset which you are not wearing), and change it to the phone speaker, it is too late.You get the picture.With Plantronics Legend, its smart a sensor detects if you are wearing it or not, and when you are not wearing it, automatically directs the call to your phone's ring so you won't miss the call.Now, if you use your mobile phone as a phone at all, I can't think of a more critical function in this. It can cause serious troubles in your life or your job by missing calls.So far, Plantronics Legend is the only Bluetooth headset I know to have this smart sensor feature. (Please tell me if you know other units that do the same as well. I would be glad to know. )For this reason alone, I think I'm stuck with Plantronics Legend. I would probably have to use it even if it were a so-so product otherwise, but the fact that this headset performs superbly in other aspects as well is just fortunate.Other strong features worth mentioning:(1) 7 hour battery time compared to 2-4 hours of the units I tried. Now this is because the Legend has a larger battery, and as a result, it is relatively heavy and bulky. I find that to be a worthy trade-off for the longer battery life. It is probably pushing the limit, but I like the balance in strikes.(2) Plantronics has an excellent management system. Versatile charging solutions including a charging station and a very simple USB cable (with magnetic connector of course). The USB cable also offers the USB connection with the PC for settings.(3) Very useful mobile app and also an app on PC that make the management of the headset easy, including settings and firmware updates. It also has a mobile app that provides a comprehensive device management including settings.(4) It has the most accessible and easiest to use on and off switch. It is a straightforward slider easy to access, easy to operate, and instantly effective, rather than many other units that have an ambiguous button that requires long hard press without distinct confirmation until you have finished the prolonged process and heard some audio confirmation.(5) The volume control is also the most accessible and easiest to operate. You don't need to touch and feel to find where is up and where is down. It is just one distinct button that toggles up and down. You can operate it with confidence while wearing the headset without looking at it.There are also some weaknesses of this phone:(1) It is not the most comfortable Bluetooth headset to wear. The earpiece does not fit very well. I tried all three alternative sizes, but none worked very well. It's OK, but many other headsets do better than this.(2) The smart sensor isn't perfect. Although it does the main thing very well which is to forward the call to the phone when you're not wearing the headset, it does this only for phone calls. I wish it would also do the auto directing for audio stream and other playing. But it doesn't. Music playing, video playing, etc., still goes to the headset even if you're not wearing it. But this is much less of a problem because unlike incoming phone calls, there is never a moment of imperative in playing music or videos, as you're alone and not interacting with others.The following is my original review.I am picky on my headsets. I tried two Bluetooth headsets before and returned them because I could always find some unbearable problems with them. This is my third try, and it's perfect. Sound quality, control design and layout, and the comfortableness, are all very likable and hard to pick on. Unless this thing breaks down unexpectedly in the next month, it's a keeper.The body could be smaller, but there is a good reason why it is hard to make these smaller. It's not the electronics that makes this bulky, but almost entirely the battery, which, as a technology, has unfortunately fallen behind the electronics, and as a result every electronic device is suffering.Some users complain about this not being "plug-and-play". If by "plug-and-play" these users mean one should be able to put the headset on an ear and start to hear from a device (phone or PC, etc.) right away without any pairing procedure, let me tell you it is a wrong expectation (not just unrealistic, but wrong).This is not a technical problem, but a human problem. It is actually not difficult to make a Bluetooth headset that could connect to a nearby device automatically and instantly, but the problem is that you would end up with an unusable product, because you Bluetooth headset would automatically connect with any device that is nearby, causing both security issues and confusion.The little bit of inconvenience in requiring a certain procedure of "pairing" is necessary. It is not because the engineers are unable to make Bluetooth devices that can talk to each other more easily, but because of security concerns. It is a universal problem for wireless technology. Every wireless device has this inherent problem. (That's by the way also why Wi-Fi has been such a headache for many people to set up.) In order for a wireless device to work properly, you've got to have, by design, some kind of a barrier for the user to overcome, such that the barrier would work as an inherent proof of legitimacy.So don't complain. Just happy pairing. And this headset has already made it as simple as the current technology allows.

I have been a very happy user of the previous Voyager ProHD headset, but sadly I just lost it. I was buying a new one and found this updated model. I had faith that this would be even better and the specs say yes, longer run time, even better noise cancelling, great!I received the 1st one (foreshadow), packaged in a padded envelope, half crushed. It seemed OK, I paired it with a new iPhone5 and started my day. I tested the streaming audio capability, very rich audio. Physical construction and button placement are great! While I have mixed feelings about the mag-connector, it is very easy to use, but micro-USB is a standard! The optional accessory micro-USB to mag adapter should be included in the box. I did order the new charger case, and must say that it's really nice, looks and feels very high quality.Back to the testing, I placed and received several calls. I really like the hands free answer feature, but it could use a bit of work as it sometimes misses the command, causing a scramble to answer before losing the caller. Audio outgoing is very good according to my co-worker, incoming was mostly good but some occasional "clipping/distortion" literally sounds like a torn speaker cone. This is during calls only, the streaming audio sound is full and rich.Now the bad stuff. I had several random events when talking for several minutes where my voice would just quietly mute. I could hear the party but they could not hear me, a few hung up before I could scramble and change audio source on the phone. Also, I could hear a subtle "clipping" distortion of the incoming audio, somewhat annoying! I went to the Plantronics website and updated the headset to the latest firmware. Problems persisted so I returned the headset for exchange assuming that it was defective.New one arrived in good condition, I updated its firmware and this time I disabled the sensors that detect if you take the headset off and re-direct the audio to the phone to eliminate this as a possible issue. I talked with a customer for about 20 minutes when suddenly all of the audio was gone again.I then paired a Jawbone ERA headset to the iPhone5 and used it the rest of the day without any issues at all so I believe the iPhone5 is OK. I called Plantronics support and they had nothing to add or to try, the rep is researching any reported issues with the iPhone5 and will get back in a day or so.I love this headset and it's 7 hour specs but will sadly be returning it as random muting audio is pretty much a deal breaker if it can't be corrected.Edit 9/29/12, support did not get back to me as of this date regarding my issues. I have now used the headset a lot to stream A2DP podcasts and iHeart radio, which has been flawless for hours at a time. This 2nd headset absolutely FAILS on almost every incoming call within 1-3 minutes. I answer the call, we are talking and then at some random point all audio, in and out mute. I have to open audio source on the phone and select phone or speaker to continue my conversation. Currently this headset is un-useable with this iPhone. The phone works flawlessly with Jawbone ERA and BlueAnt ST3 BT Speakerphone and Plantronics Voyager ProHD.It seems to have a BT Headset Profile conflict with the iPhone5, the A2DP streaming audio profile is OK.Edit 10/16/2012 - After testing now 3 New Legends, I give up. On the Plantronics "Sound Board" forum, there are now many of us with the same issues with iPhone5's only it seems. Plantronics is apparently blaming Apple, though every other BT device we've tested, including the previous Plantronics ProHD work great with the iPhone5. Plantronics support is aware but they have no information on if or when they will have a fix for this issue, too bad!Edit - 11/07/2012 - After returning 3 Legends, I waited 4 weeks until a new firmware (v44) was released to address "some" of these issues (Plantronics hasn't come right out and said that this is "the fix for iPhone5's", but it seems to be as reported by many others as well). I purchased Legend#4 updated the firmware to v44 and it seems to have solved most of the issues that have been reported, specifically the muting issue which was a show stopper for most iPhone5 users. This now is back to being the best BT Headset that I've ever used, the apps, button locations, audio quality, and run time make this my current best headset ever and I've had a bunch! Hats off to Plantronics!