Review of Poly Voyager Free 60+: The Enterprise Earbuds

Review of Poly Voyager Free 60+: The Enterprise Earbuds It’s robust for even high-end earbuds to face out today, so corporations have begun diving deeper into area of interest earbuds. The Poly Voyager Free 60+ might appear to be customary earbuds, however, these have some distinctive options meant to make your lengthy workday on calls and video chats extra nice.

Poly is the title of HP’s workplace model, previously generally known as Plantronics. This could clarify the extra business-forward focus of the Voyager Free 60+ earbuds, specifically the touchscreen on the charging case and the Bluetooth dongle to attach the earbuds to your PC simply.

It’s clear from utilizing the Poly Voyager Free 60+ that they’re nice across the workplace, however, will they be just right for you at dwelling?

This is What We Like

• Sound is nice for voice and stable for music
• The Touchscreen case is a superb characteristic
• Wi-fi streaming from 3.5mm is helpful
• Nice battery life and quick charging
• Poly Lens app is accessible practically in every single place

And What We Do not

• Costly for what’s right here
• ANC has some glitches
• The dongle is Bluetooth solely

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Smooth Design and a Tremendous-Charged Case

• Dimensions (earbuds): 0.63 x 1.03 x 1.49in (16 x 26 x 37mm)
• Dimensions (touchscreen charging case): 2.15 x 2.83 x 1.30in (54 x 71 x 33mm)
• Weight (per earbud): 0.01lbs (4.53g)
• Weight (touchscreen charging case): 0.18lbs (81.64g)

The look of the Poly Voyager Free 60 earbuds is acquainted, just like Apple’s AirPods Pro, but slightly slimmed down. We’re looking at the Poly Voyager Free 60+ package in black (it’s also available in white), which bundles the headphones with a Bluetooth dongle and the wireless charging case.

This charging case is thicker than regular, largely because of the touchscreen. In fact, as we’ll take a look at in a while, the addition of the touchscreen means you’re extra prone to hold the case in your desk than in your pocket, so the additional heft shouldn’t matter an excessive amount.

You may also purchase the Poly Voyager Free 60 earbuds with a typical charging case, which lowers the worth and likewise delivers a lot slimmer package deal.

Poly Voyager Free 60 UC True Wireless Earbuds

Strong Match and All-Day Consolation

As business-focused earbuds, the expectation is that you simply sometimes going to be sporting these for hours a day. If that’s the case, consolation is vital, however, HP sticks with the usual earbud match equipment: small, medium, and huge silicone ear suggestions. I sometimes use medium suggestions, they usually match me simply positively with the Voyager Free 60 earbuds.

The look of the earbuds has the precise earbud protruding from the stem greater than traditional. This appears to prefer it may not be comfy, however in my case, it was the alternative. I wouldn’t say these are unusually comfy, however, they by no means felt uncomfortable throughout my testing.

I’ll level out that the design of the earbuds had me questioning how properly they might keep put, however I by no means had an earbud fall out.

Distinctive Controls and the Poly Lens App

• Connection sort: Bluetooth, 3.5mm to USB
• Bluetooth model: 5.3
• Bluetooth profiles: A2DP; AVRCP; HSP; HFP

The Poly Voyager Free 60+ earbuds have characteristic customary Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. Codec assist is pretty deep, with aptX and LC3 included alongside the standard SBC and AAC codecs you’d typically expect to find. That said, LC3 is only possible when using the included dongle for plugging into your PC.

This makes connecting the earbuds to a PC simpler than the standard Bluetooth setup, however sadly, the connectivity to the dongle continues to be by way of Bluetooth. Whereas different earbuds just like the Logitech G Suits use a 2.4GHz sign, that possibility isn’t current right here, which means the audio has important latency. That is positive in the workplace, but it surely makes the Voyager Free 60s a no-go for gaming.

An extra distinctive characteristic is the flexibility to stream wired audio from 3.5mm audio jacks to your earbuds. All you want is the included USB-C to three.5mm cable, which plugs into the case, after which streams the audio to your earbuds over Bluetooth. There’s some latency, however, the audio high quality is nice, and it is a helpful means to make use of Wi-Fi headphones with wired-only units (like an airplane’s seatback leisure system).

Each earbud features a button that you can press at the base of the stem to answer and end calls or hold to trigger your phone’s voice assistant. Each earbud also features swipe controls, which you can customize using the Poly Lens app, available for iPhone and iPad, Android, Windows, and macOS. A beta version of Chrome OS can be accessible.

Many controls that will normally both require several faucets or utilize the Poly Lens app can be found properly on the case. You may view battery standing, management playback, mute yourself on calls, and change between ANC and Clear modes all from the touchscreen.

Sound High quality: Voice First, Music Second

• Driver: 10mm dynamic driver
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz
• Frequency response (speech mode): 200Hz to six.8kHz

The Poly Voyager Free 60+ earbuds are pushed by a 10mm dynamic driver inside every earbud. These supply the standard 20Hz to 20kHz frequency vary, although when in Speech mode, the headphones change to a narrower, extra voice-focused 200Hz to six.8kHz vary.

Basically, these headphones are aimed toward calls and video chats. Different voice-first mediums like podcasts and audiobooks additionally work properly on the Voyager Free 60, however, these maintain up pretty properly in the case of music as properly.

Listening to “Emotion Sickness” by Queens of the Stone Age, the earbuds spotlight the metallic-sounding reverb on the guitars. There’s loads of energy within the low finish, although this was partly as a result of I used to listen on the default Bass preset. This doesn’t appear to add bass when it isn’t already there however as an alternative delivers on the current bass frequencies.

Turning to Hazard Mouse’s “Belize (feat. MF DOOM),” the music sounded a lot easier, largely because of the type of manufacturing. The kick drum has loads of thump, whereas the bass line rumbles well. Surprisingly, the sound didn’t change a lot in any respect after I switched the EQ to the Flat setting.

In total, the sound is nice for music, however not near different music-focused earbuds in the identical worth vary.

ANC and Calls: A Principally Indoor Affair

• ANC: Hybrid Energetic noise cancellation with Transparency mode
• Microphone: Three-microphone steerable array

The Voyager Free 60+ earbuds have characteristic active noise cancellation (ANC) in two modes: adaptive and standard. Adaptive mode is meant for when you’re moving around, adapting to changing conditions, while standard mode works best when you’re on your couch or at the desk, where the environment is relatively unchanging.

The ANC is comparatively efficient and options sidetone, controllable by the Poly Lens app, to allow you to hear your personal voice to forestall speaking too loudly. That stated, I saw some glitchy-sounding points every time I attempted to make use of Siri whereas testing the earbuds.

As is the case with many higher-end earbuds, the Voyager Free 60+ additionally encompasses a decent-sounding Passthrough mode, also called Transparency mode. This additionally has two completely different modes: a Speech mode, tailor-made towards listening to the voices of those around you, and a Surroundings mode meant to allow you to hear your environment, like site visitors on a busy road.

The earbuds use a three-mic array to precisely seize your voice while decreasing background noise. Indoors, this works properly, and after I knew them as a buddy, he couldn’t hear another person speaking to me standing around six toes away. Voice high quality is unquestionably higher than the standard of your laptop computer’s built-in microphone.

That stated these don’t do an excellent job of canceling wind noise. Granted, it was a very windy day after I recorded the under samples, however in the event you’re searching for earbuds for out of doors calls, these might not do the trick.

Battery Life for a Full Workday

• Battery capability (earbud): 70mAh
• Battery capability (case): 580mAh
• Wi-fi charging: Qi appropriate

Poly claims as much as eight hours of playback with ANC enabled and one other two prices within the case. Because of this, together with the case, you possibly can go 24 hours without a cost, and much more in the event you disable noise cancellation.

Typically corporations are a bit overly optimistic about their battery life, however in this case, it appears that evidently, if something, Poly is being cautious with its estimates for the Voyage Free 60+. I acquired greater than eight hours out of the earbuds with ANC enabled, although a part of this time did embody utilizing them with ANC however no music taking part.

The touchscreen case options Qi wireless charging, making it easy to keep the case charged. Running out of battery in the middle of a busy day could spell disaster, but just five minutes in the case gets you more than an hour of talk time.

Ought to You Purchase the Poly Voyager Free 60+?

There are some features on the Poly Voyager Free 60+ I’d love to see on all higher-end earbuds. The touchscreen may feel a little gimmicky but give manufacturers some time, and I could see this becoming a key feature in the future. The ability to stream wireless audio to the earbuds from any 3.5mm output is another fantastic feature.

That stated, whereas the audio high quality is nice, it’s less than what I’d sometimes anticipate of earbuds on this worth vary. Add within the unusual audio glitches when utilizing Siri, and it makes the Voyager Free 60+ really feel like a much less premium product than they might in any other case.

It’s clear that these are meant for the enterprise market as a result as cool as the touchscreen case is, these merely aren’t one thing many individuals ought to spend $329.95 on for themselves. That stated, in the event you can discuss your organization supplying you with a pair, they’ll do a stable job.

• 1 – Doesn’t work
• 2 – Barely purposeful
• 3 – Severely missing in most areas
• 4 – Features, however, has quite a few points
• 5 – Tremendous but leaves rather a lot to be desired
• 6 – Adequate to purchase on sale
• 7 – Nice and value buying
• 8 – Incredible, approaching best-in-class
• 9 – Greatest-in-class
• 10 – Borderline perfection

Worth: $330

Right here’s What We Like

• Sound is nice for voice and stable for music
• The Touchscreen case is a superb characteristic
• Wi-fi streaming from 3.5mm is helpful
• Nice battery life and quick charging
• Poly Lens app is accessible practically in every single place

And What We Do not

• Costly for what’s right here
• ANC has some glitches
• The dongle is Bluetooth solely