Almost everyone who has ever used a pair of earphones in his/her lifetime will sympathize with me when I say this – Headphone jacks can ruin your life.
More often than not when our headphones/earphones stop working, it is the headphone jack that is the main culprit. Regular tugging of the earphone wire leads to the demise of your precious buds.
Keeping this in mind, Plantronics released the Backbeat Go 2 bluetooth headset which do away with the need of dangling wires. Bluetooth headsets have never really taken off in India, but can this new model deliver on its promise? We find out!
Box Contents
Inside the box you get the BackBeat GO 2 Earbuds, AC Charger 100-240V, S, M, L Eartips, Fit Stabilizers and the travel case.
Design and Build Quality
The first thing you'll notice about the Backbeat Go 2 is the unusually large size of the buds. This is due to the fact that the buds house 6mm drivers, a battery and all the Bluetooth 2.1 components. The Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 wireless earbuds are just over 25 inches in length and weigh just 14 grams. The earphones have a 2-tone finish with black earbuds and in-line control with a gun metal sweat-proof gray cable.
It has a micro USB connection for charging hidden behind a rubber door on the right earbud and comes with three pairs of rubber tips in different sizes. There is a pair of looped ear stabilizers that hook just behind the ear tips.
There's a status LED on the right earbud. It's convenient for indicating charging status, but not as convenient for figuring out if the headphones are being turned on or off.
Connectivity
Since they both use Bluetooth 2.1 wireless technology, pairing is accomplished solely through your iPad, iPhone, or iPod's Bluetooth settings menu, and you can pair both headsets to multiple devices without issues.
Power is activated on both models by holding down the remote's center multifunction button; volume, play/pause, and track changes can also be made using taps and holds on the controls. These buttons are more than just stop and the volume adjustment as they also handle answer, decline, pause and play functions. The volume up that doubles as track forward by holding it down and you guessed it, holding down the volume down key reverses the track.
Charging Case
One of the biggest downfalls of Bluetooth headsets are their battery lives, and Plantronics has tackled that issue marvelously with the Backbeat Go 2. The earphones come with a case that doubles up as a portable charger.
The earphones' battery lasts for 4.5 hours of listening, and a bit longer for phone calls. The charging case adds an additional 10 hours of listening. Approximately 20 minutes of charging in the case gives the headphones an additional hour of listening.
The case itself matches the design of the earphones, with a rugged build. There is a micro-USB port at the bottom that is used for charging.
Sound Quality and Comfort
No matter how many features a earphone offers, the only thing that'll determine it being a hit or a miss is the audio quality. The Backbeat Go 2 are very well balanced with a lot of detail and clarity. The bass is amazing, the highs are crisp, and the mid-range is rich.
It should be noted that there is a Digital Signal Processor being used for the active noise and full duplex echo cancellation. Our use of the microphone found that it worked well in areas of low to moderate background noise, but that it isn't ideal for very noisy areas.
If you are a big time audiophile, you will likely have some gripes, but the average person should find the audio quality more than acceptable.
The fit and comfort of the Backbeat Go 2 might not suit everyone, especially those with smaller ears. Due to the large size of the buds, they tend to become slightly uncomfortable over prolonged usage and while changing the tips might help, they still might not please everyone. They are slightly heavier than your average earbuds too due to all the hardware stuffed inside the earphones.
Conclusion
The Plantronics BackBeat Go 2 wireless earbuds were found to be an excellent Bluetooth device and consumers will love the mobility they give you.
It has good internal battery life with the smart option of the recharging case, and delivered sound quality that is highly likely to please most users, both for music playback and phone calling purposes. The only drawback will be the comfort of the earphones over prolonged usage, as mentioned above.
At a price of Rs 4,500, the Backbeat Go 2 offer a viable option for those looking to free themselves from the burden of dangling cables and troublesome headphone jacks. Also, they come with a one-year warranty.
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