Ah the Holidays, and Christmas in particular. It’s that time of the year when you find yourself on the phone far more often than normal, talking to people you may or may not want to. Holding that phone up to your for extended periods of… wait. Wait a minute. You don’t want to do that? No, not talk to Aunt Sally, you have to do that. Holding the phone up to your head, and letting all that juicy radiation hasten the cooking of your medulla oblongata? Well fear not gentle reader and/or viewer, because we have a couple of Bluetooth headsets that just might be for you. The car speakerphone? Well, we’ll get to that in a bit.

First if you want to hear what the two headsets in our review sound like, simply watch the video. We recorded the two parts with the Savor and the Voyager Pro+ and the video was saved with audio at best quality rendering with 128kb sampling so you can get the best example possible. You’re welcome. Now on to the meat and potatoes. Ready for the short version? Because I know you just loves you the videos and reading makes your eyes go funny. Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version and then we’ll get busy:

Plantronics Savor M1100 Bluetooth Headset – Excellent In-Ear , Small, Good Battery Life. Loseable in a New York Minute. Buy One! (But Don’t Lose It ok?)

Plantronics Voyager PRO+ Bluetooth Headset – Awesome, Cool, Comfy, Perfect. Except it doesn’t work with Dragon Dictate. And… ?!??!? Flexible, in Use and actually FLexible.

Plantronics K100 Bluetooth Speakerphone – Meh. Never got it to work where the other person didn’t feel like they were talking to the Mole Man. Pass.

Plantronics Savor M1100 Bluetooth Headset

Ok, now that we’ve typed our fun, we’ll come back to serious for a moment. The Savor M1100 is about what you’d expect from Plantronics; a well made, great sounding, decent battery life Bluetooth headset that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg but also doesn’t skimp on quality. One thing I am alwyas afraid of when I go out and about though is running out of juice, and for the money, they should really include a battery/charger case like they have in the past with headsets like the Discovery 925 for example, which I loved and used for two years. The unit is small but solid, fits nicely in the ear, comes with extra ear cushions, one smaller and one larger than the one that comes on it for varying ear sizes, and has an AC adapter and micro-USB to USB cable as well. There is a service that Plantronics also includes free of charge a 1 year subscription to Vocalyst Voice and Text Services. This allows you to a number of things using only your voice, from sending a tweet to listening to a news feed, getting the weather, and more. Being as overloaded with info and options to get it as I already am, I didn’t have the tie or inclination to test the service, but I signed up so I will do it eventually and report back in a later update.

The Vocalyst Choices With Basic Free 1 Year Service

Overall I found the Savor to be a very capable and great sounding headset when used with my iPhone 4. No one I spoke with had any trouble hearing me in a number of environments, from my office studio where there are way too many (not) computers and fans going, to my car, which although quiet, wasn’t sound proof. I had to initiate the question of “Can you hear me ok?” and “How do I sound? Can you tell I am on a headset?” Everyone replied the same; I sounded fine and they wouldn’t have known I was on a headset unless I told them. Moving toward the “small as a grain of rice” implantable earpiece future, the Savor is one step in that direction. If you prefer your headsets bigger for whatever reason, that may be the only issue you have with this unit. If that’s the case, I recommend trying our next headset in the review, the Voyager Pro+.

Plantronics Savor M1100 Features at a Glance

• Three microphones deliver enhanced sound quality
• Voice commands with dedicated voice button
• Plantronics Vocalyst text and voice services
• A2DP for streaming music, podcasts and more
• Bing411 for news, traffic and driving directions

Plantronics Voyager Pro+ Bluetooth Headset

There is only one thing I wish about this headset, and that is I would like it to be the Voyager PRO UC. The reason? It only does one thing the Pro+ doesn’t, and that is, it works with software like Dragon Ditate for Mac. I was so disappointed when I relaized this was the case, as I was hoping to have a total Mac communications solution in one device. Alas, this was not to be.

However, the Voyager Pro+ is an excellent headset, which can be used with your mobile phone, and your Mac or PC to take calls, make voice recordings, use Skype, and more. The Audio IQ noise cancellation in the headset (which is also a technology from Plantronics found in the Savor) ensures a clean sound and transmission in areas where ambient noise is higher than ideal, and it works very well. The headset itself is an over-the-ear, and pseudo in-ear hybrid, which I actually like very much. It gives you the fidelity of sound that the in-ear headset provides by placing the speaker inside your ear canal, but at the same time, the over ear portion of the headset fits snugly and comfortably, removing the need to jam the earpiece deeper into your ear for fear of it falling out.

Although it has some weight to it, it’s far less than you might think from its size, and even that is somewhat misleading. Though far from the diminutive form factor of the Savor, it’s actually a really nice size overall, and the telescoping and rotating stalk extending from the unit is very convenient and unobtrusive. I’m not sure if my ears are different from “normal” ears or not, but I have always had to readjust in-ear headsets from time to time just to make sure they were snug. With the Voyager Pro+ that is no longer an issue, and there were more than a few occasions during testing that I entirely forgot the headset was even there. Once my wife reminded me to take it off at the dinner table, and I had totally forgotten it was there!

The quality of the sound is excellent with dual mics for enhanced voice quality, battery life is superb at around six hours talk time, and the only issue I could find is the diembodied voice that talks to you when you push buttons kept reporting the talk time totally wrong, and in the time we had for this review, I never was able to figure out why or how to fix it. I have also forgotten to turn it off, and when I went back later to use it, the headset had died and I had to recharge it. Inconvenient, but my bad. The in-ear silicone covered piece is also very comfortable, and some people have complained about the lack of “style” of this unit, but to that I say “Hunh?” I think it looks cool, but if you’re looking to your Bluetooth headset to make a fashion statement, you need to go get a life. I like that people know I have a device in my ear, that way I don’t seem like the crazy person talking to no one. You know, when you can’t see the headset at first and for a moment you wonder what meds the person you’re looking at isn’t taking? Right…. With this headset that is far less likely.

I love this headset, and I think for the money and for a more streamlined product line, they should just have the one unit with the included USB dongle so every Voyage Pro headset works with all devices and software. Although the UC model does do a little more, to not have the Pro+ be usable with software like Dragon Dictate would make me look elsewhere for a total solution. If this isn’t important to you though, there’s nothing else not to like about the Voyage Pro+ for any other use.

Plantronics K100 Bluetooth/FM Speakerphone

Meh. I am simply not going to spend much time on this, as even though I found the incoming call quality of the K100 to be excellent and I like the overall design, no matter what I did I was unable to get past the fact that without fail, in any situation or use, everyone said I sounded like I was underwater, in a tunnel, or worse. Unless Plantronics helps me figure out that I was doing something totally wrong or have a bad unit, I can’t explain why this was so, I will just say for this unit, I would pass and find a different solution. I wanted to like htis, as my car does not have a hands free system like my wife’s Sequoia, but alas, it was not to be. The unit as a whole is solid, well designed, has decent control layouts, etc. but it simply doesn’t allow you to make and recieve calls hands-free well.

Next, nothing to see here folks, move along please. Thank you.

Plantronics has been in the headset field among others for a very long time, and their maturity as a company and their technologies over the years have continued to improve. Though my opinion that you basically can’t go wrong buying anything from Plantronics has changed due to the K100, I still feel they are a company with products worthy of your hard earned coin, and simply look to sites like ours to give you the real bottom line, no holds barred. Whether you’re looking for a smaller headset primarily for your iPhone or other smartphone ot something a little more robust and versatile like the Voyager Pro+, Plantronics is always worth a look. They have some interesting products for the desktop, and SOHO communications needs coming in early 2011 and we hope to bring reviews of those products to you when we can/ Until then, Happy Holidays, and give us a Like on Facebook or tweet this post if you have a moment.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2011!

[Plantronics Voyager PRO+ Bluetooth Headset]

[Plantronics Savor M1100 Bluetooth Headset]

[Plantronics K100 Bluetooth Speakerphone]