Plantronics Might Have Just Made the Ultimate Headset for the Mobile Worker

Plantronics headsets have long been call center mainstays, but with the 21st century increasingly pushing workers out of the office and onto city streets and cafes, the company has had to adapt alongside the rest of us. They’ve been making some great Bluetooth headsets, and last year, they expanded their Voyager line with the 8200 and 3200 models — a pair of boom-less headphones and single-ear Bluetooth headset that we reviewed and liked.

This year, they’ve got something in between those two, and it might be right in the Goldilocks zone for a lot of mobile workers. Over-ear headphones like the 8200 can be cumbersome and uncomfortable on the street, while single-ear headsets like the 3200 have no shot of blocking out all that city background noise. Enter the Voyager 6200 model — a neck-worn headset with earbuds and, according to Plantronics, nine hours of talk time.

Plantronics is promising everything with the 6200 — a wireless headset that can block out background noise and ensure clear communication on both ends without a boom mic. They pull that off using technology they introduced in the 8200 headphones. The 6200 will have active noise cancellation using two mics, which pick up background noise so the headset can actively produce sound waves to cancel it out. Plantronics confirmed it’s the same technology they used in the 8200, which is good news and bad news — when we reviewed the 8200 UC, the noise cancellation worked well outside but often failed to block other voices and music indoors.

The voice technology will also be the same, and that’s definitely good news. Instead of using a boom mic, Plantronics uses four mics on the neckband that have been programmed to focus only on your mouth — we had other people tell us that audio on our end was clear even when using the 8200 outside, so we expect the 6200 will be just as good! Plantronics has confirmed that the 6200 is Skype for Business certified.

UPDATE 01/26/18: A previous version of this article stated that the Voyager 6200 UC will have retractable earbuds — this is not the case. The post has been amended, and we regret the error.