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Plantronics M25 Bluetooth Headset review

Good design, controls and ergonomics, A2DP and multipoint support… How much could it be? Plantronics believes this one belongs to the low-end segment.

In the box:

Headset
USB cable
User manual

Design

It is nice to see that Plantronics have left their old shapes behind and begun using new methods. First, the device is really tiny and thin; it does not strike your eyes that much. Second, I like the colors: the grey plastic fringe on the sides, the dark-grey plastic insert on the front section, and the black lacquered surface of the front panel. The speaker is covered with a metallic insert; the microUSB jack is on the rear side. All those features, jointly, allow me to say that the M25 will certainly stand out against the rest of low-cost products, which is very good.

Wearing and comfort of usage

The headset can be worn with or without the ear hook. The manufacturer has finally eliminated the stuck nozzle, and now it is a regular one. It is removable, it has a protuberance, and it fits well into the ear. Under a hat or long hair, the M25 is almost invisible. The ergonomics is really good and you can wear the headset without discomfort of any sort.

Controls

On the front panel, there is a multifunctional button that allows you to receive calls, activate the coupling mode, and switch between the lines. The power button is on the one edge, which is quite comfortable as it allows you to quickly switch your M25 to the standby mode and to save the battery power. On the other edge, you will find the volume control. The volume gets changed in cycles, and it is quite easy to get used to it. So there are no problems with the controls: everything is logical and clear, and easy to learn what is where.

The indicator on the front panel is not very much annoying. To be more precise, there are two indicators, and one of them may be red, for example, when the coupling mode is activated. I always stand up for moving these "side running lights" to the rear end or to the edges though.

Battery

The manufacturer claims up to eleven hours of talktime and eleven days on standby. If you turn the headset off and leave it, fully charged, it can preserve the charge for about five months. The numbers are not bad, but normally users do not pay much attention to the battery life when buying devices of this kind. In practice, design and sound quality are far more important. And the M25 performs pretty well there. So the long battery life in the sleeping mode is just an extra advantage.

Phone connection, sound quality

I have tested this headset with an iPhone 4S. I have found no problems with coupling; everything worked properly and pretty fast. The operation distance range is about six meters – the test was made inside an office building. The ones you talk with can hear you well, even when the surroundings are relatively noisy. The volume is high and the device renders voices really well, preserving their specific tones. So I liked the voice rendering quality provided by the M25 very much, especially keeping in mind that we are talking about a low-cost device here.

The headset uses the Bluetooth 3.0 profile.

Complementary features

The headset supports multipoint connection: I have tested it with two iPhones 4S, and everything worked well. When connected to an iPhone, there is a battery indicator on the handset screen. The manual says the same feature may be available for Android OS devices. A2DP is also supported, so you can easily listen to your favorite music with one ear, with the sound quality being pretty high. I have also tested it with an iPhone. There are voice hints about the maximum volume and the coupling mode activated. So that is the kind of a low-cost product that we get here. Even more expensive headsets do not always provide such an extensive set of features.

Conclusions

The Plantronics M25 is expected to hit the shelves this fall. It will cost about a thousand rubles, or maybe a bit more. This is exactly the product from our times: when I was writing my conclusions about the accessories for the year 2011, I mentioned some features and said that they would move to the middle- and low-end segments. And that is exactly what happened. Moreover, Plantronics have changed the design and improved the ergonomics. So I could find no considerable drawbacks in the M25, as the headset is only full of advantages:

Good design
Comfortable controls
Good ergonomics
Long battery life
A2DP support
Multipoint support
Battery indicator on iPhone screen
Good voice rendering quality

A thousand rubles? Great! I am waiting for it to hit the shelves and I will certainly recommend it to everybody as an example of one of the best mobile accessories according to the price/quality ratio.

Do you want to talk about this? Please, go to our Forum and let your opinion be known to the author and everybody else.

Sergei Kuzmin ([email protected])
Twitter Livejournal
Translated by Serge Gomelsky ([email protected])