Our run on BT devices comes to an end with the Plantronics Marque M155 Bluetooth. It doesn't mean we are through forever, just the post holiday and new year items that came across our desks. Its a cheaper, simpler unit that is nicely priced.
The design is great, good use of colors and shapes. Its simple, small and understated but the simplicity here is a plus. Its a two button and a switch-controlled device so all of the controls are easy to navigate.
Its a mono headset of course and the speaker is okay, nothing overly flashy on the audio output side, nor on the mic side. Its a good headset, no noise-canceling or things like that, just a straight forward microphone that does a great job. We have used some other that excel here and this one does the job. Some calls the other person on the line couldn't tell I was on a BT, some times, especially in louder environments, the background noise was a dead giveaway.
The one thing that COULD set this headset apart, well any PT BT device apart is the Vocalyst software that you have a free year subscription to. But a long story short, Vocalyst is a software that allows you to do some additional things like speak/hear emails, texts and many other heavily used phone things like Facebook and Twitter. Huge flaw that left a bad taste in my mouth, using Vocalyst is actually a phone call to their service rather than using data. Not sure that makes any sense at all. Data is often free, but minutes are not things that I can easily part with. That limited my interest a ton.
The one thing that COULD set this headset apart, well any PT BT device apart is the Vocalyst software that you have a free year subscription to. But a long story short, Vocalyst is a software that allows you to do some additional things like speak/hear emails, texts and many other heavily used phone things like Facebook and Twitter. Huge flaw that left a bad taste in my mouth, using Vocalyst is actually a phone call to their service rather than using data. Not sure that makes any sense at all. Data is often free, but minutes are not things that I can easily part with. That limited my interest a ton.
Also, there are other apps that dicate and speak texts out their. Namely MyMoto from Motorola. This free subscription doesn't give you the ability to do anything with text messages, rather just emails (which oddly enough is something I wish the MyMoto did).
Vocalyst has fees associated with it. With your purchase the first year of the basic service is free. The 2nd year is listed as $2.49/month, or $24.99/yr.
This means you can:
* Record and listen to a reminder
* Send and receive emails
* Listen to a news, finance, weather or sports feed
* Post to Facebook or Twitter
* Listen to your Twitter timeline
* Post to your Evernote account
* Record and listen to a reminder
* Send and receive emails
* Listen to a news, finance, weather or sports feed
* Post to Facebook or Twitter
* Listen to your Twitter timeline
* Post to your Evernote account
Rather than sending a "text" email, Vocalyst sends an email with the recording of your message as an attachment. That means that for work use, and anyone else that can't open that attachment, this is note ideal, at all. And because I dont have enough of a reason to go further with Volcayst, because of my lack of interest and dislike at this point, I did not try the premium account options. Sending a text email is part of the Pro account... Of course.
The pro plan if you sign up now is $3.50/month or $35.00/yr. Or if you wait $5.00/month or $59.99/year.
This gives you in addition to the above some important extras
* Listen to your calendar and add appointments
* Post to a number of blogs
* Send a text message to a phone contact-you notice that is a premium service???
PROS:
This gives you in addition to the above some important extras
* Listen to your calendar and add appointments
* Post to a number of blogs
* Send a text message to a phone contact-you notice that is a premium service???
PROS:
+ The most comfortable and secure headset we have ever used
+ Quick and simple pairing
+ Nice voice prompts for pairing, turning on, connecting, accepting calls and battery life (which is decent at about 4.5-5 hours)
+ Quick and simple pairing
+ Nice voice prompts for pairing, turning on, connecting, accepting calls and battery life (which is decent at about 4.5-5 hours)
+ Price makes some of the features even better
CONS:
- Vocalyst is a phone call and it burns minutes, and its convoluted WHY!?
- Mic and speaker are middle of the pack, but decent for this price point not sure if that is a positive or negative so I slapped it here
CONS:
- Vocalyst is a phone call and it burns minutes, and its convoluted WHY!?
- Mic and speaker are middle of the pack, but decent for this price point not sure if that is a positive or negative so I slapped it here
MSRP:
$59.99
GRADE:
B+
Its a good headset, the comfort isn't enough to push it up to an A. For the price it is a good set but could have used an audio upgrade.