Plantronics M2500 Bluetooth headset review

Introduction

Plantronics M2500 is of the two bluetooth headsets that are currently sold by company that is one of the largest headset manufacturers in the world. The M2500 is the lower end version, which very much resembles Nokia HS-4W. The M3500 is a higher end headset with built-in DSP (digital signal processing) which provides automatic volume control and active voice cancellation which reduces back-ground noise so your voice is transmitted clearly to the other caller, even in noisy environments. The M2500 does not provide any of the above described features, but is an excellent relatively discreet model which weights about 23 grams.

About 2/3 of the device are made of hard plastic, while hard rubber is used to connect the battery part to the speaker/mic. There are no moving parts, which makes the device harder to break. The charging port is located on the lower end of the battery compartment. I found that the only visual difference between the Nokia HS-4W and the M2500 is actually the angle of ending surface.
The control of the M2500 is accomplished by two buttons – a rocker button (Multi-Function Dial) right next to the status indicating LED and a button (Call Control Button) located on the BOOM microphone. The rocket dial is used the headset on/off, and during to call to MUTE or increase/decrease the volume. The Call Control button picks up if there is incoming call, or if holder for more then 2 seconds, invokes voice dial (if the phone support it). Both buttons have nipple like parts which makes is easy to find them.
The headset could be worn on both your left or right ear – you have to only rotate the rubber earpiece to adjust it.

The pairing procedure is a breeze - just push and hold the Call Control Button for 2 seconds, then slide the dial upwards. The LED with start blinking in red/green which meant the headset is in pairing mode. On your mobile phone, do a bluetooth device search and after finding MS2500, enter 0000 as passcode.
In order to use voice dialing, you phone has to support it also. I tested the M2500 with Nokia 7610, Nokia 8800 and Motorola i605 and voice dial worked fine with all of those. The mute function comes very handy so you do not have to grab the microphone and squeeze to mute the sound – just press the rocket button for 2 seconds.

Even though the M2500 does not sport DSP, I found the sound quality to be excellent when you are in a quiet environment. The voices reproduced by the headset's earpiece are clear with their full tonal range, and just need to be a little louder. When listening to someone using the M2500, again the voice sounds loud and clear. As with other wireless headsets without DSP, the boom mic picks up some of the surrounding noises. If the headset had DSP, then usually the ambient sounds are muffled.

Almost all of the today's Bluetooth headsets are rated for operation of up to 30 feet (10 meters). In my subjective testing, the M2500 performed as expected – excellent sound to about 20 feet (line of sign – no obstacles). There were some crackling sounds noticed between 20 and 30 feet, which increased substantially after 30 feet. But please keep in mind that the ideology behind bluetooth is to provide connectivity only in very short proximity.
In our outdoor/wind simulation, the M2500 failed awfully (as excepted). Since it does not utilize DSP or any other special mechanism to cancel the wind interference, I could not hear myself when I put our test fan about 9 inches (25sm) away from my face. Other headsets like Logitech Freedom or Scale 500 use special foam-like encapsulation of the microphone which absorbs the wind interference.

The M2500 is rated for up to 5 hours of continuous talk time, but in our tests we able to get only about 250 minutes, which is about 4h and 10 minutes. The headset's stand-by time is rated to 120 hours.
 

Comfort

Judging how comfortable a headset is very subjective. I for instance like to wear the headset for very prolonged period of time. Some people just put the headset on for the duration of the call. Nevertheless, some headsets clearly create discomfort after very short periods of time. Fortunately, the M2500 is not one of those. The headset fits very comfortably and feels very secure ones put on. No matter how vigorously I shook my head, the headset never even budged. The earpiece ends with a rubber ring which has two openings so the sound can pass thru, so nothing unlike some other headsets, nothing goes into your ear canal (hence less irritation). Once put on, I could easily go about 2.5 – 3h without noticing I had a headset. Passing the 4h mark creates very slight discomfort.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the Plantronics M2500. It is very well built, with easy controls and durable design. Even though the device does not sport DPS, the audio quality is very good if you do not pass the 6-7 meters (18- 21 feet) mark and you are in a quiet environment. The headset can be easily put on with one hand and even though its weight is more on the heady side (23 grams) it be worn for prolonged periods of time without creating discomfort.