Poly headsets: A buyer’s guide

A headset company by any other name would smell just as sweet

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Poly headsets, previously known as ‘Plantronics headsets’ have enjoyed a position of considerable popularity within the corporate office area of peripherals. Offering products designed for professional usage in working environments. Poly headsets cover the spectrum of both pricing and feature sets, meaning that Poly is an excellent resource regardless of budget or working environment specificity. While we tend to stick to gaming headsets and other such peripherals here at WePC, it’s worth a look at the work side of things here and there, so let’s take a closer look at some of the vast range of poly headsets and give you our pick for each of their product categories.

Poly Headsets – Bluetooth

One of the easier ways of maximizing device compatibility is to utilize an open comms standard, and it doesn’t get any more open than the ol’ faithful, Bluetooth. Poly has a lot of experience here, owing to their days as Plantronics, so they’ve taken steps to offer a wide range of Bluetooth headsets. This makes for out-of-the-box compatibility with phones, audio players, and laptops. Poly also includes a USB Bluetooth dongle so if the work PCs lack Bluetooth, it’s no longer a problem.

Poly Voyager Focus 2

First up is what we consider to be the flagship Poly headsets, the Voyager Focus 2. It’s not the most pricy of their lineup, but it’s the most all-in-one offering and has some impressively advanced technology resulting in one of the best working headsets out there right now.

As the name suggests, this headset is all about zoning in on the work at hand, without having to worry about distraction from overly chatty coworkers in the office or unreasonably loud videogames next door, courtesy of inconsiderate roommates. This is accomplished by Poly’s unique and effective 3-layer hybrid noise cancelation, which allows you to fully concentrate on the critical conversation in question.

The noise cancelation tech extends to the mic as well, with what Poly calls ‘multiple microphone acoustic fence’ which purportedly creates a noise-free bubble around the user’s mouth, so no external noises can break through. This is one of the few mics that officially meets the Microsoft Teams Open Office premium microphone requirements.

Poly headsets – Wireless

Of course, Bluetooth headsets are wireless, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t include some other variation of wireless tech. specifically, DECT or Digital Enhanced Cordless Communication. This is the same wireless communication standard used in consumer-grade wireless landline phones. You may be puzzled as to why DECT is still in usage when Bluetooth is far more ubiquitous these days. There are a few very nerdy reasons, but it boils down to three main ones: range, battery life, and sound quality. All three are superior in DECT headsets over Bluetooth.

Sound quality and battery life are the bigs ones here. For example, a headset suddenly dying during a consumer use-case, such as gaming is merely an inconvenience, whereas in a work environment it could be critical. The same goes with sound quality, missing important details in a business meeting could spell disaster. Luckily, Poly headsets have you covered in this regard with the Savi 8200 Series.

Savi 8200 Series

This is one of the more personalizable options from Poly, as it comes in mono, stereo, and convertible styles, allowing the user or company to pick whichever option suits that specific use case the most. Additionally, it has three modes of connection, allowing for linking to a PC, desk phone, and mobile phone. This allows for conferencing on up to two devices simultaneously. This can be a game-changer for those of you who like to have a roam around the office while on a call.

We also like the hot-swappable battery system, each battery lasting around 13 hours. This means you’ll be covered for the entire day on one charge, and if you’re working late, you can enjoy functionally limitless battery life by simply swapping the battery out between calls. There are also a few additional handy features, such as the mute warning and wireless range limit notification.

Poly headsets – Wired

Fancy pure simplicity, reliability, and unlimited runtime? Poly’s wired USB headsets may well be the products you need. In addition to the previously mentioned benefits, wired headsets tend to be far cheaper than their wireless counterparts. If ease-of-use and simplicity are your bags, we’d recommend the Blackwire 8225.

Blackwire 8225

The Blackwire 8225 continues Poly’s simplistic design philosophy with a professional aesthetic that manages to avoid looking boring by way of small implementations of red here and there. It features the same acoustic fence/noise cancelation technology as the Voyager, in addition to LEDs that show the current status of the user, helping to ward off incoming interruptions. The controls are housed in a sleek inline-block, easily reachable at all times.

Additionally, there are two versions available, USB Type-A and USB Type-C, helping to avoid the use of adaptors and another such faff. They’ve even gone to the lengths of including a dedicated teams button. This may seem silly, but given the amount of working from home that continues to occur worldwide, it could quickly become essential for many people.

Poly headsets – final verdict

Given the importance of communication, especially during the ongoing pandemic, the utility of a reliable headset for work cannot be understated. Luckily for you, dear reader, Poly headsets are here for you, providing myriad headsets fit for many different applications. They are also open to bulk business-to-business orders, so it’s worth a try for outfitting your next office.