Appletell | Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPod | News, Rumors, Reviews, How-Tos

Provides: Bluetooth handsfree calling
Developer: Plantronics
Minimum Requirements: Cell phone with Bluetooth
Price: $129.99
Availability: Now

Welcome to the endless pursuit of the perfect Bluetooth headset, part 27.  Perhaps a mild exaggeration, but it seems there’s always another new bluetooth headset that turns our heads or makes the headset in your ear seem like nothing more than a piece of plastic.  The newest headset making yours feel insufficient is the Plantronics Discovery 975, and for good reason; it’s more than just an elegant design, it’s a great headset too.

Before I get ahead of myself, take a look at this promo video….

Want it yet?  Thought so.

The Plantronics Discovery 975 is the successor to the Discovery 925.  That’s an extra 50 points, but what does an extra 50 points get for you?  I’m glad you asked.  The Discovery 925 was praised as being a very high-quality headset, but the 975 builds on the previous generation.  It’s a minimalist headset in that it only has two buttons.  One for power and call control, and one for volume.  You can also control the volume with your iPhone just like—my all time favorite—the Apple Bluetooth Headset.  Actually, I’d recommend you control audio this way since the solitary audio button is awkwardly placed, at best.  The 975 also has improved audio with what they call AudioIQ^2 and WindSmart technologies.  These two technologies together attempt to reduce background and wind noise so you can be understood even in a noisy environment.

In practice, it mostly works, but it won’t replace the noise canceling technologies employed by headsets like the JawBone.  Parties on the other end of the line will still hear some noise, despite the three layers of WindSmart technology.  There are vents and fabric between your mouth and the microphone on the end of the boom that gets it closer to your mouth.  Then there’s the AudioIQ^2 that processes the two mic signals, and does some noise canceling.  And while it won’t remove all of the background noise, or completely rid your calls of wind noise, I can easily praise the 975 for its otherwise amazing audio quality. I really felt like I was using a super-high-quality headset every moment it was in my ear.  One possible reason for that could be that I was.

Speaking of being in my ear, it fits like no other headset I’ve tried.  The portion of the headset that sits in your ear does not actually enter the ear canal.  It kind of sits on top of your ear canal, but stays put amazingly well.  Purely for testing purposes, I shook my head as violently as I could, and it didn’t budge one bit.  I want to stress that was purely for testing purposes.  I rarely shake my head violently.  The things I do for you…I still have a headache from that.  In any event, you won’t have to worry about this headset moving in your ear, much less falling out.

And that’s a good thing, because the 975 has more battery life than I can make use of.  Of course, I spend more time browsing the internet than I do talking, but still.  The Discovery 975 has about 5 hours of talk time on its own, but the case that comes along with it has a battery of its own.  The case’s battery has enough juice to recharge your headset from dead about twice.  It’s made out of a nice, leathery, black material, and has an integrated LCD with a readout of the battery levels of both the case and headset batteries (provided it’s plugged in).  Either device can be recharged with a micro USB cable or the provided micro USB to AC adapter.  The case itself is a great way to carry around the headset.  It’s protective and has a keychain clip so you can hook it on to your keys or whatever else.  I really like the case; I’m always looking for a good place to put my headset when I’m not using it, so this is a welcomed accessory.

Overall, the Plantronics Discovery 975 is an amazing headset in terms of quality and functionality.  It has a superb feature set that lives up to its luxurious image (and almost its price).  The earpiece has no difficulty staying where it’s put in your ear and provides amazing audio quality.  It falls a bit short in completely removing background noise and wind, but is much better than the vast majority of Bluetooth headsets currently on the market.  If you’re ready to spend about $130, then you’ll be very happy with what the Discovery 975 will do for you.