INTRODUCTION
If you drive your car a lot and you need to answer calls then you have two "legal" choices as we speak so you can either use a car speakerphone or a hands-free earset/headset. Car speakerphones however are not all equal so on one hand you have the cost-effective portable models which you can move around with you and offer good bidirectional audio and the more advanced and expensive speakerphone kits which require to be hardwired to your cars stereo system. Both are valid solutions but aside the fact that both have different target groups they have but one common drawback, you can't use them at all times. This is where hands-free earsets/headsets take the lead since you can use them at all times and are much easier/faster to configure and use than their larger counterparts. Now it's been a while since i last came across a hands-free Bluetooth wireless earset worth of my time but Plantronics never lets me down so roughly two years after they released the excellent Voyager Legend model we have with us the brand new Voyager Edge Bluetooth Headset.
From the day two airline pilots working in a garage set out to invent a new kind of aviation headset until today, we have considered breakthroughs in audio technology as our daily business. We pioneered the lightweight headset, the mobile headset, noise-canceling technology and the personal speakerphone, always driven by a single obsession: remove the barriers to simply smarter communications. The result? Our products are used by everyone from pilots, astronauts, and 911 emergency workers to 100% of the Fortune 100. From friends conversing across the globe, to mobile professionals doing business on the road, to contact centers and executive offices, Plantronics is the choice for everyone united by digital technology and the human need to communicate. Plantronics is a publicly held company (NYSE: PLT) headquartered in Santa Cruz, California with offices in 20 countries, including major facilities in China, England, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Our products are sold and supported through a worldwide network of Plantronics partners, including resellers, systems integrators, retailers and mobile carriers. And a half a century later, we are striving every day to deliver simply smarter communications with innovative design and technology.
The Voyager Edge is the latest addition in the Voyager line of Bluetooth headsets by Plantronics and that along says a lot not only because this line is considered as the top in the market by consumers but also because people such as me have only the best things to say after using each model of this line. Specs-wise the Voyager Edge is certainly a step forward compared to its predecessor the Voyager Legend (not really a predecessor since the Voyager Edge is the successor of the award winning Discovery 975SE ) since it supports Bluetooth v4.0 (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), Wideband Hands-free (HFP) Profile 1.6 and Headset (HSP), Profile 1.2, and Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)), NFC (Near Field Communication), features Plantronics latest P2i nano-coating (moisture repellant), it weighs half what the Legend does, is available in 3 different colors (tiny detail but to some people it could matter) and is bundled with a charging case (the basic version of the Legend didn't). As for other features well both the Legend and the Edge feature triple microphones with DSP, multipoint technology (connect with up to 2 devices simultaneously), dual capacitive sensors, voice commands and alerts, automatic volume adjusting and wideband audio (if the connected device supports it). The lithium-ion polymer rechargeable battery of the Voyager Edge has a talk time of up to 6 hours which skyrockets to 16 hours with the help of the bundled case. So is the Voyager Edge the next best Bluetooth headset by Plantronics? Let's find out.