I have been using all sorts headphones for my phone calls while driving since before it became against the law to make "hand-held" calls behind the wheel. My driving life has become so much better instantly. (I can't imagine why so many drivers still hold their phones to their ears ðŸ'„ ). I generally like being hands-free whether at home, in the car, or in the street.

This headset is the best I've ever had for android:
- Battery life is excellent - 5-6 hours per charge; warns when the battery is low with enough time to complete a call or switch to other options;

- Charges fast, within 30 min;

- Noise cancellation on my end is superb! I could walk down a very busy noisy Manhattan (NYC) avenue or vacuum my apartment, to the person on the other end it will sound like I'm in a quiet room. Every time. Tested with numerous callers.

- Comfortable and secure fit around the ear, though might feel bulky at first. At this point I often forget I have it on, until I hear my ringtones in my ear; has a size selection of gel covers - the tip that goes inside the ear, to ensure max comfort; spares are available for purchase, which I did once;

- Announces amount of talking time left when placed on the ear and turned on;

- Very convenient button at the back of the mic stick to start or end a phone call, or pause something being listened to; also says "Call from...(tries to read a caller's name) and asks you if you want to answer or ignore a call, and you can say 'answer" to pick up;

- I've had this one for 2 years, and there are no signs of any capacities being diminished, operates like new;
I might not even know all of its features, but this is plenty for me;

I like it so much I bought another one, so i always have back up. Yeah, some of my phone calls last several hours - with certain quality people. Happens occasionally )) I can seamlessly switch from one headset to the other in seconds. It technically could be perfectly used for music or videos if you don't mind a single headphone as opposed to two. Which often happens with me for YouTube and Duolingo.

I have not tried this item with apple products, so cannot speak to that.

I am pretty sure it will last me a long time, and I'm grateful to it's creators. Hope this helps!

RE: Plantronics Voyager 5200...February 17, 2018

Superior device, very, very comfortable and when fully charged it has 7 hours and 15 minutes of available time (plug into the Plantronics Hub Application to see this). When fully charged and placed in your ear it will indicate "high" level of time remaining. After the first hour is used, it then will indicate time remaining just like the original Legend does. I tested this time against real time and found it to be accurate. I listened to music nearly 8 hours. I turned it off for several minutes at a time so that I could compare the sound quality to my original Legend. My conclusion: By far the new 5200 has a fuller, richer sound over the original Legend, with a very comfortable dynamic frequency range (without enabling HD voice in the Plantronics Hub).

The volume level available is as high as the original Legend, so I don't know why others complain about the shorter battery life, lower volume level and inept music sound quality. However, to be honest, while driving my very quiet big rig down the highway I have found that the inherent droning of road noise and engine noise of my rig is like white noise in that it tends to 'wash out' or 'cover over' my streamed music I am listening to, hence, I must increase the volume more. So, although the sound quality of the original Voyager Legend is not as 'rich' (to include phone calls) as this 5200, I prefer to use the original Legend while in my rig because of its' less rich sound and its' ability to overcome road noise etc., i.e. the frequency equalization in the original Legend emphasizes more of the mid to high frequencies and has more separation across the entire frequency range.

NOTE TO PLANTRONICS: Perhaps incorporate into your Plantronics Hub Application several different predefined equalized settings to download to the 5200 or, better still, allow for user defined equalization frequency curves to be downloaded onto the 5200.

On the other hand, if you are in a nice, quiet car or perhaps work in and office and want a very pleasing 'Bose' like sound then this 5200 would probably be a better choice. As I mentioned, I have both units - this 5200 and the original Legend - and have found that overall I am most happy keeping the 5200 at home in my office or in my shop and also use it outside doing yard work etc. As you can see,I am primarily commenting on the music quality and voice quality I hear at my end in this review - not what is or is not transmitted over the phone. Many other users have spoken highly of this 5200 units ability to eliminate noise so the person you are talking to can hear only you speaking and not background noises. In this regard I will only say that they are spot on - I can hardly add anything new to the many positive comments on this issue except to say that the transmitted voice quality is slightly better than the original Legend. With four microphones in the 5200 compared to the three in the Legend it does make a slight difference and improvement. But realize, the original Legend is already a superior voice transmitting device and does an excellent job of eliminating and not transmitting noises. It has and continues to be a 'Flagship' device for Plantronics and current customer reviews will support this statement.

Most would argue that there is a slight improvement in the 5200 overall but the price difference for the 5200 being nearly two times the cost of the Legend (here on Amazon) prohibits purchasing the 5200. My argument for the 5200 stems from my desire for richer music sounds so I am willing to pay the extra cost.

Which would I buy again? Acutally, the answer is both. It would depend on where I am using it - in my rig or at home around the house.

Headsets are not created equal, and I have four requirements that make a headset good:

Comfort - while this one looks uncomfortable, it is actually quite pleasant to wear - with, or without, glasses. I wear this headset daily for at least five or six hours and I forget that I'm wearing it a half hour in. The rubber earpiece sits on your ear, not in your ear.

Connectivity and range - This one has typical BT range when paired with a phone, but I get a good 50 to 60 feet (even through walls) when connected via the dongle. Pro tip - If you one of these and one of the Poly Voyager Focus headsets, then you can pair both with the same dongle and use the two headsets interchangeably by just turning power off on the one you're not using. Useful if you use the Focus at your desk and the 5200 when walking around.

Sound quality - This isn't suited for listening to music for the noise reduction is outstanding and the sound on the "other end" is just like talking directly into the phone. Because it only fits on one ear, it doesn't reduce external noise for you (hence the Poly Focus), but the microphone does a great job in reducing outside noise. I have a habit of walking around the house when talking on the phone and sometimes walk over to the sink or microwave. The folks on the other side hear none of those distractions. For comparison, I also have a Jabra Talk 45 (also a decent set) but every distracting noise is heard on the other side.

Charging and battery life - Battery life is realistically about 5 hours of talk time. This is actual talking/listening time, not "powered on" time, so unless you spend a lot of time on the phone, this should last all day. I generally charge mine every two days or so. Charging is a bit tricky. The battery base, as a concept, is great, but putting the headset into the cradle and making sure that it is in properly is a bit fiddly at times and the blue charging lights aren't very visible. Opening the case and placing the headset inside works far more reliably.

As a gadget junkie, I have far more peripherals than I need, and this is one of the few that I'm not planning on upgrading.

These are really suitable for those who work in loud environments. I'm a truck driver and I used to have a a different erpods but they're not clear at all specially for the other ones who yo talk to they barely could hear you. Since I use these sometimes I get out of my truck at a truck stop and come in my truck and keep driving while talking on the phone and the other person doesn't even notice it because they're super quiet.
The only downside to these I would say is the pods don't fit in your ear hole, I wish they were like apple tips.

I have been working with a lightning adaptor into a Sony headset for some time when working in the office at my computer. I'm in IT support so being hands free is essential. The annoyances were:

1) the headset was inline in the cable so didn't always face the right way.
2) The lightning adapter and the headset cable were a bit weak so broke one lightning cable already and I suspect I now had a loose connection in the headset cable
3) Walking around was a nightmare, the cable would snap on the height adjuster on my desk when I stood up, I'd get up forgetting it was on and drag my phone off the desk etc.

I did a bit of research and this headset tended to get very good reviews so I bit the bullet.

A) Its comfortable - It often feels a little loose and out of position but actually it never falls off and I can always hear clearly - I just need to get used to the fit and the fact it doesn't insert in the ear canal which is good as they tend to irritate after a while.
B) The audio quality so far is perfect - It does have a slightly different sound to the phone itself but its sharp and clear and I never had problems hearing and people say I sound clear.
C) The software on my iphone is great- I can check for firmware updates, change the language (for voice prompts etc) and select whether I want music to play through the earpiece or not so it has some good controls.
D) The siri button is good - I can stop/start audio with a push, answer and disconnect or hold it to dial via Siri.

I have only used it for half a day so far but its been great. I just put it on my ear and turn it on and I can walk around and carry on with my day and not have to rush and find my phone and then my headset and plug it all in. I'd constantly say to people "Just a second while I plug in my headset" and hear them continuing to jabber on. Its light, comfortable and doesn't irritate my ears at all and normal earbuds drive me crazy in a very short time.

So really the only caveat is I haven't had it long enough to see how good the battery life is but its filling exactly the need I purchased it for. Time will tell as far as reliability goes.

I've given 5 stars on everything as it reports 5 hours of talk time and so far I've spoken for about 24 minutes on the charge it shipped with and the remaining time is reported as I would expect. Even on my worst days I think I'd struggle to talk for more than 2 hours total.

Ok - Been using it for quite a few days now so to update:

1 - Its VERY fast to connect. Power it on and its connected to my Iphone 12 Mini in a second and ready to use with no delay for Audio. My car stereo takes about 5 seconds to boot and connect and then once connected its another few seconds before the audio starts.

2 - I needed to play with the settings a little - Sometimes I'm with someone and a call comes in, normally I just hit the volume down button on my phone so it carries on ringing rather than actively rejecting the call - When I did this the other day the headset carried on talking in my ear and I ended up answering the call anyway - I realised it says "Answer or Ignore" and if I hit the headset button it answers or I can say answer - If I say ignore it rejects the call. You can turn that feature off in the app on the phone that controls the headset so I have to hit the button to answer so it won't interpret me carrying on talking as a request to answer. This is another good feature of this headset - The app gives good control of options and firmware updates. Some headsets are a nightmare or even impossible to update the firmware, this one is a breeze.