Hi all. Here's my personal opinion and review of the Plantronics M50
from Amazon. First off, at the time of this writing you can get it for
$29.99 which includes free shipping from Amazon directly. Second, the
link follows. After that, I'll give my personal take on it.
http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-M50-Bluetooth-Headset-Packaging/dp/B005IMB5NG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363140771&sr=8-1&keywords=plantronics+m50
First off, this headset is black. I think there might be a white one
available, but I have the black one. It's rectangular shaped and has the
ear hook attached. The ear hook can be rotated in just about any
direction so that you can wear it comfortably on either left or right
ear. As far as I know, you cannot remove the ear hook from the unit.
Newer Plantronics models like the M155 and M165 have a removable ear
hook, and are slightly smaller. However that's a discussion for another
day. The M50 has 3 buttons. One is the power on/off slider. It's a
physical switch. So, you definitely know when the thing is on or off.
Opposite the power switch is the volume button. if you are wearing the
headphone on your left ear, the power switch is on the top toward the
back, and the volume button is on the bottom toward the back. If wearing
it on the right ear, then the power switch is on the bottom toward the
back, and the volume is on the top toward the back. The third button is
the back third part of the headset. It doesn't feel like a button, but
can easily be pressed in. When wearing it, if you try to adjust the
headset by pressing it closer to your ear, you will easily press this
third button. So, don't make adjustments while on a phone call.
Otherwise you risk hanging up on the person you are talking to. The
previous sentence basically means that this third button is the hang up
and answer button. When you get an incoming call, just tap this button
and your call will be answered, tap it again to hang up. I believe that
you can also use it to answer an incoming call, but I haven't tested
this as yet. Even though the headset is A2DP compliant, meaning that it
can play music, GPS directions, allow Voice Over to speak both during a
call and not on a call, it's all in one ear, meaning it's not really
stereo. Also, unlike other headsets whose answer/hang up button also
acts as a play/pause button, this one's button does nothing for music or
audio playback on the phone. This is probably one of two things which
bothers me about it. However other Plantronics headsets are similar with
this design, so maybe Plantronics doesn't feel that one would be
listening to music or audio books or podcasts with it since it's just in
one ear. Powering the headset on and off is very quick, and it
immediately tells you if it's connected with your phone. It also tells
you the battery status by saying high, medium, or low. newer models tell
you how many hours left of talk time, but this is ok. This unit boasts
11 hours of talk time, but I have yet to test it fully. Wearing this
headset is very comfortable for me. I used it all day today on an
outing, and there were a couple of times that I had to check it to make
sure it was still securely fitted in my ear. It was very comfortable,
and it didn't tire my ear or make it sore. The part which goes into your
ear is shaped like an oval with one end flattened. The rounded end of
the oval is what goes toward the back of your ear canal. The side with
the straight edge is what goes into the ridge of the front of your ear
canal. I'm probably not describing this exactly right, but it's the best
I can think of at the moment. Unlike newer models, this headset doesn't
come with differently sized rubber ends. It doesn't appear that this one
can be taken out. So, you are stuck with what you get. However others
whom I've talked to about this exact model have said that the headset
fits them just right. It doesn't shove itself into your ear canal, and
so it's probably why it doesn't matter that you can't change it's size.
I haven't read the fine manual as yet to see about how to best clean it
though, but I imagine that if it doesn't go all the way in your ear
canal, it won't get as gunky. Pairing the headset couldn't be any
easier. Before I powered it on, I went into the Bluetooth settings on my
iPhone. Then I powered it on. It immediately went into pairing mode and
I was able to find it in the list of headsets in my phone's Bluetooth
section. I did a double-tap on the Plantronics M50 entry and voile, it
was paired. No pin code was necessary and VoiceOver immediately started
speaking through it. Speaking of VoiceOver and this headset. The
response time is wonderful. As I flick around or as I type on the
virtual keyboard, VO keeps up very well with only a minimal delay. I've
used other Bluetooth headsets where the delay was much more noticeable
and that was annoying. However I didn't get too upset over it since I
know that there is a lot of data traveling back and forth on a Bluetooth
A2DP channel. This one manages that connection rather well, and you will
find that VO keeps up nicely when using it. The very back of the headset
is the Micro USB female port and you simply connect the AC adapter which
came with it to charge it. You can also charge it from your PC by
connecting a USB to Micro USB cable to it. Android users will already
have such cables, but as a user of the portable New Trent batteries, I
also have a few of these cables around. This way I don't really need to
use the AC charger which came with it. Now onto the other thing I don't
like about this headset. That's the call quality. I know it's just me,
and maybe when it comes to Bluetooth headsets, I'm going to get similar
results. I've tried over 10 of them and they are all about the same to
me. Sometimes I sound tinny, other times I sound like I'm in a jingly
room. many times, the caller can hear the background noises more than
they can hear me. I don't remember if the description says that it has
noise canceling, but so far, this one doesn't seem to, or if it does,
then it quite frankly sucks at it. If I'm in a relatively quiet
environment, then the call quality is ok, but I wouldn't recommend using
this while on a noisy bus or at the mall like I tried today. I can
easily see why this headset is the number 1 on Amazon in the Bluetooth
headset section. Over all I give this a 4.8 out of 5 stars, but since on
Amazon I have to do whole stars, it easily gets 5 stars. I'm going to
copy much of what I'm writing here and use that as my review.
Hope this helps someone out there.
--
Raul A. Gallegos
Tip to lose weight: First turn your head to the left, then to the right.
Repeat this exercise every time you are offered something to eat. -
Sheldon Cooper
Twitter and Facebook user ID: rau47
On 3/3/2013 9:59 PM, Anthony Vece wrote:
Hi Everyone;
Could someone please describe the form factor of the Plantronics M50?
How is it shaped?
What buttons are on it?
Can you charge it with any micro-usb charger?
And, how sturdy is the ear loop!
Thanks in advance.
Anthony
Sent from my Verizon iPhone 5!
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