Mini-Review: Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones

Above, a quick video detailing my thoughts on the Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth Stereo Headset ($99.95). The Voyager 855 is a neat little headset and fairly versatile with two snazzy features. The first is that it has a slide-out boom microphone which also let you answer and hang up on phone calls. The second is that it comes with a specialized earhook attached to a 2nd headphone - turning it from a regular Bluetooth headset into an A2DP Bluetooth headset.

It's like the Jabra BT8010 (Reviewed here) but without the extra bulk.

It's an in-ear headset, but you can also attach an ear hook if you're paranoid unable to handle the in-ear bit. Sound quality was about average in my tests - nothing to write home about either way. Talk time is rated at 7 hours, standby at 160. So far I've used it for two days - about an hour of talking and an hour-and-a-half of music and I've yet to see the LED give me the warning blink.

There's the requisite bevy of supported standards, acronyms, and proprietary noise cancellations bits in here too: A2DP (for music), AVRCP (for controlling music), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (“Enhanced Data Rate”), AudioIQ for noise reduction, 11 grams, 15 grams with stereo bud, and so on.

Overall I'm going to give this little guy a 4 out of 5. It's only a little above average at both voice calls and at music playback - if you need something that excels at one or the other you may need to look elsewhere. For my needs, though, I appreciate that it's a great all arounder. The Plantronics Voyager 855 ($99.95) is currently my favorite Bluetooth headset.