Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset
Posted by Notcot on Mar 27, 2010 in In-Car Technology |
- The Discovery 975 Bluetooth earpiece is perfect for hands-free calls on your mobile. Thanks to AudioIQ² and WindSmart technologies, it cancels out ambient noise and the wind for crystal clear voice capture, whatever the circumstances!With an intuitive start-up and 5 hours of battery life in talk-time, you’ll be able to chat away to your heart’s content!
I was lucky enough to actually get both the 975 and the Voyager Pro headset to compare – the 975, even though the cheaper of the two, is far and away the nice unit – with one or two niggles.
The package consists of the very small headset – it is tiny – along with a cable for plugging into the PC (if you wish to charge it that way) and a mains adapater.
It also comes with a quite impressive case, which is the star of the show in my view. It’s leather (ish – I’m not entirely convinced it is) and has a battery of it’s own built into it – so when you put the headset in the case, it charges the headset – a brilliant idea which really works and without adding additional weight or inconvenience. The Voager Pro doesn’t come with any kind of case – a real oversight considering how small and fragile these headsets are.
So how is the headset to use? It had two buttons – one on the top for the volume and a main button for pairing with the phone, answering calls etc – the buttons are not great and are TINY – especially the one on the top of the phone for volume. The volume also appears to only have three settings – low, medium, and slightly higher than medium – with my Blackberry I can further control the volume on the phone though, so this isn’t the end of the world.
I haven’t used the wall charger, instead using the Micro-USB cable plugged into my computer – the PC doesn’t see it as a device, it just charges the case/headset.
Call quality is good, with no issues on quality for either side – it is weird to initially use though being so small – and you need to move the plastic ear holder so that the headset is angled down – rather than straight ahead. This is mentioned in the manual though.
So overall, a really great bit of kit – especially with the charging case, something brilliantly different in a market where most of these headsets all do the same thing. Battery life is good on its own and unbelieveable when you throw in the three charges you get from the case.
Highly recommended, though the size of the buttons may be troublesome. If you’re looking for a USB headset and considering Plantronics, I’d definitely recommend this unit ahead of the Voyager Pro version.
Rating: 4 / 5
Very very good indeed. After having quiet a few blue tooth headsets for me phone finally someone has built and produced a really very very good headset indeed. The quality of the package I received got my hopes up immediately … not the usual flimsy plastic blow-formed rubbish but a well presented box with a viewing window. Inside the kit was excellent withh all sorts of attachments and clip on pieces for hanging it in the car…where I guess most of us will use it. The headset itself feels like one of the best qualityy headsets I’ve had to date and I was extremely impressed with the comfort and of course the look. With a very thin mike boom running down the face you don’t look an idiot like some of the headsets do … this was very professional and functional looking. However one of the things I was *really impressed with was the wind cancelling system. Now in a car you get noise cancelling… and that was very good. 10/10 However I have a soft top and decided to try it with the top down and *amazingly* this damn thing worked … did exactly what it said on the tin !!!!* That’s got to bbe a first for a blue tooth headset. I’ve no idea how much this will resell for but I would think it’s at the top end of the market … if not .. snap this up immediately. I rarely give 5 stars (check the hundreds of reviews I’ve done) but this deserves it.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have an inbuilt Blue Tooth system in my car which connects to my phone and where the sound comes out of the car speakers. It also allows me to dial people with voice commands. All very cool when it works, however I have always had a problem where the person I am calling gets REALLY bad interference. So bad that the person I was calling couldn’t hear me. I have just had to put up with it until I tried the Plantronics Discovery 975.
The Headset is so small and discreet that you can hardly tell you are wearing it. It fits easily into your ear, you get 3 sizes of small, medium & large ear pieces so everyone can have a comfty fit. I put the small ear piece on, and this was the most difficuly part slipping over the Headset speaker.
Once that was done I put it on charge for 1 1/2 hours and that was it. Very simple to pair to my iPhone 3G. Switched the Plantronics Discovery into search mode, did the same with my iPhone and that was it I was ready to use it. The sound quality was amazing, very loud and clear, and the person on the other end could easily hear me. Even outside with wind was ok, as the Plantronics Discovery has an inbuilt wind protecter. The call and answer button is perfectly located, which makes it easy to answer and hang up on calls. There is a volume button too where if you press it during a call it will increase volume each time you press it until it cycles through to the beginning.
What I found to be ultra cool is a small leather charging case which comes with the Plantronics Discovery. If you charge the case up you can then take it with you in say your car and the case will charge your headset 3 times before the case needs charging again. Very handy, and the headset just slots into the case for charging. A very good and useful feature.
This is by far the best Bluetooth Headset I have used, and has been very well designed with the user put first. I will not be going to my in car Bluetooth system after using this. Good work Plantronics.
Rating: 5 / 5
Probably the most stylish bluetooth headset out there.
Its very comfortable in use and the quality of sound is superb.
Recharge time is excellent(about 1.5 hours) and you get (at least theoretically) a decent talk time (5 hours) and standby time (1 week) although in practice you are unlikely to get quite so good performance. The case doubles as a charger for the headset & a single charge of the case will give you 3 charges of the headset which is very handy if your on the move alot.
The buttons (there are only 2 of them) are rather fiddly (the volume button is tiny & a bit difficult to find until you have used it a few times) – but thats what you have to expect with a dinky little headset like this.
It seems to pair very easily with other bluetooth products.
Overall a quality product that is easy to use and set up.
Rating: 5 / 5
Having tried many other bluetooth headsets this is by far the best. The majority of my calls are from the car and I am paired to a Nokia phone.
It is very easy to use, fits comfortable in ear and more importantly it works. The quality of sound to and from callers is superb, the handy charging case is very useful and you even get audible messages letting you know charge is low.
If you are looking for a stylish, comfortable, user friendly device that works then look no further I highly recommend this product.
Rating: 5 / 5