At first look, the Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth Headset looks downright clunky, bordering on a hearing-aid-esque design. This is no discreet headset, but it values function over form. It takes just a tad extra effort to get it on your ear, especially if you have spectacles to deal with. Once it’s on though, the bulk doesn’t seem to really weigh your ear down or ache even after a couple of hours, so the benefit of the added comfort is undeniable. The three gel-based earbuds (small, medium, and large) let you pick the right size for your ear, and I like the fact that they sit very comfortably in the ear without going too deep in the canal.

Getting the device paired with your phone is an easy enough task, and while the call control button is super intuitive to use, the volume buttons are tricky to access and take some time getting used to. The headset maintained the Bluetooth connection with the phone till about 20ft-25ft, and lasted around six hours of talk time. For those six hours, you will get amazing sound quality.

The increased length boom microphone means better speech pick-up, and to add to that, Plantronics have added their AudioIQ2 noise-cancellation and WindSmart wind reduction systems to good effect here. With both at work, you get impressive voice isolation, even if you’re walking around in a noisy market square. Background noises are muted, without mangling or ‘robot-ising’ your voice as some other headsets with noise cancellation end up doing. What’s impressive is that if the wind ends up blowing too strongly for the wind reduction to work, a tone alerts you to that effect, so that you can change your position.

At Rs 4,199, I’d recommend this strongly for those who need the noise cancellation/wind reduction capabilities or for extended periods of use — if only you can get past its looks!

• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 4,199 (MRP)
• URL: http://www.plantronics.com/india/en_US/tobuy/

Go unplugged

Think about it — all the audio CDs and cassettes you’d have painstakingly bought over the years are being replaced by the byte-sized MP3s all scattered around your hard drive. Many have taken a crack at wireless audio streaming in the home, but few can match the audio credentials or the simplicity of the Bose Soundlink wireless music system.

Put simply, the Soundlink is a speaker system with a USB dongle to connect to your PC, and it’s being touted as a time-saving hassle-free wireless music set-up for the average consumer who couldn’t be bothered about Wi-Fi configurations.

For the PC, the Soundlink is just another audio output, so set-up is just a matter of plugging in the USB wireless adapter, which then hijacks all the sound from your computer/laptop and pushes it to the Soundlink speakers (instead of your PC speakers). Switch on the speaker unit, place it upto 60ft away, and you’re good to go, no software to install or instructions to follow.

If the hassle free set-up doesn’t move you, the sound surely will. Bose’s reputation for room-filling sound from a small set of speakers is well known, and the Soundlink does exactly that with minimum fuss. The small speaker unit produces excellent bass, and lets you keep your PC and playlists out of the way and focus on just the music.

The Soundlink features a rechargeable battery, so you can carry it from room to room without having to plug it in each time, or even out into the garden. There’s an aux port on the back of the unit so you can plug in a phone/MP3 player as well. The only problem I foresee, apart from its price, is that the unit and the remote don’t have a screen, so it is hard to choose what you want to play from a computer if you haven’t already set up playlists.

• Rating: 7/10
• Price: Rs 38,138
• URL: http://www.boseindia.com/

Lemon aid

Yes, I know the Blackberry and Apple names were taken, but Lemon? If you’re willing to look past the fact that you’re buying a lemon (gets me each time, it does!), the phone is not a bad performer. The looks are blackberry-ish, right down to the silver chrome running all around, and the QWERTY keypad isn’t half bad either. Apart from the dual-SIM cards, what really works in this phone’s favour is the multitude of social media features, despite its decidedly budget pricing. The inbuilt Opera Mini is great for surfing the web, but there’s no WiFi. At Rs 4,499, this is one of the few budget phones that are cheap but don’t look it.

• URL: http://www.lemonmobiles.com/index.php?
option=com_catalog&Itemid=21