CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» TV: Phones
LAPTOPS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» TV: Laptops
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» TV: Cameras
» infoSync TV » Review Center
» Digital Frontier » Expert guides
» RSS & Alerts » Ask The Editors
Home / Review Center / /
Review: Plantronics M3500By Anthony Newman, Friday 5 November 2004
GALLERY
Enlarge
 
 
Does the Plantronics M3500 take a big step forward from its ancestor, the M3000? Anthony Newman takes a look at Plantronics' latest entry into the Bluetooth market.

Review summary of the :
Gallery »
Pros:
Cons:
%
POOR
Mediocre
Good
Very good
Excellent
Full review of the :
Upon first picking up the M3500, those familiar with the previous Plantronics Bluetooth headset would be forgiven for thinking nothing's changed. The company has opted to keep the same physical shape: a stubby, tapered block. Indeed, this design does feel somewhat archaic when compared to svelter designs such as the delectable HS820 from Motorola. At 27 g, and with quite a bulky shape, the M3500 feels large and heavy on the ear.

Despite excellent audio and transmission, the M3500 struggles due to poor ergonomics
This must in part be due to its balance. The ear clip is mounted at one end of the device, meaning it tugs forward rather uncomfortably. Jabra's offerings, and even Motorola's, have better distribution. And the comfort isn't helped by the ear loops here, either, although on the M3500 they appear of better design than those bundled with the M3000. Two sizes of loops are provided, neither of which proved a good fit for our - perfectly normal, we've been told - ears.

The loops seem somewhat fragile in their rigidity, clipping into place inflexibly on the body of the unit. Because they don't hinge or have much give, it's difficult to slip the headset into place, especially over glasses, and the clip doesn't mould well to the user's head. We found that within minutes we were in some discomfort, and movement only made this worse.

However, the use of the older body design does have the benefit of retaining the M3000's usability. A large 'talk' button receives and ends calls, and with compatible handsets serves to redial the last call or activate voice dialling. Volume buttons allow adjustment of noise levels within the call. Finally, a small button governs power, muting, and allows the DSP to be switched off - more on that later.

Pairing is somewhat unusually - yet easily - accomplished through pressing of the up and talk buttons at the same time, which deviates from the de facto 'hold the power button until a light flashes' method. While on the subject of pairing, the M3500 can pair with multiple devices using both the headset and handsfree profiles, as one would expect from any modern Bluetooth headset. Furthermore, to help the user while pairing, charging and using the headset, LEDs are provided that can flash both green and red.

In use, the headset showed fast boot times and only slight lag in connecting to the phone to make or answer a call. Not the best we've used, but fast enough. Alarmingly, on our rock-solid reliable Nokia 3650, the M3500 managed to cut off the first call we made with it: about a minute in it made a garbled noise and turned itself off, all while fully charged and within a metre of the phone. It happened again, fairly frequently, sometimes in the first seconds of opening a Bluetooth connection, sometimes after a few minutes of conversation. We cannot be sure whether this is endemic to the model or just a problem with our unit.

When it wasn't dying on us, call quality from the M3500 was good. This can probably be attributed to what Plantronics calls 'Audio IQ', a noise-cancelling, signal enhancing, all-singing, all-dancing Digital Signal Processor. There's a noticeable difference when it's switched off, but not noticeable enough to justify the DSP's other impact - battery life. Compared to its rather enduring predecessor, the M3500 dishes out a measly 3 hours of talk-time. However, for those 3 hours, users can enjoy decent voice quality at a good range: there was virtually no static right up to around 7 metres, whether in direct line of sight or obscured by the head, and with the interference of a wireless network to boot. Furthermore, in a design choice both rare and good for a Bluetooth headset, the battery is user-replaceable.

Plantronics have provided a very complete package with the M3500. As well as a normal wall charger, an in-car charger is provided in the box - although USB charging is not possible. The headset comes with its own leather slip-case for attaching it to a belt, which is rather swanky, although not something we'd really use. Various ear-loops and other plastic gubbins are also included, of course.

Availability

The Plantronics M3500 is available now in markets worldwide for a recommended price of $169.95 USD.

Conclusion

Although its sound quality is practically unrivalled, there's no substitute for comfort or portability when it comes to Bluetooth headsets. In these areas, we found the M3500 sadly lacking: it's both large and uncomfortable, and when backed up by worse battery life than its predecessor we're not sure the trade-off for sound quality was a good one. What's more, the unreliable connection worries us, whether specific to our unit or to the production run. All in all, there are better Bluetooth headsets out there.

  • What's positive: Sound quality; array of buttons
  • What's negative: Uncomfortable; poor battery life
Overall:


Price and availability

The will start selling for TBA () in December 1969.

Best Phones
Name Score Price Carrier
C
Nokia N95 8GB NAM 85% $650Unlocked
Apple iPhone 3G 82% $200AT&T
Nokia N95 80% $530Unlocked
AT&T Tilt 77% $400AT&T
Nokia N78 76% $500Unlocked
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Sprint) 74% $280Sprint
HTC Mogul 73% $400Sprint
RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130 (Verizon Wireless) 73% $170Verizon Wireless
Nokia E71 73% $500Unlocked
Helio Ocean 72% $200Helio
Click here to see full and advanced chart »
 
 
 
RECOMMENDED
Digital Frontier: Gadgets scrutinized
 
iPhone 3G vs. Omnia vs. Touch Diamond
 
Bold vs. Xperia X1 vs. Touch Pro vs. E71
TOP STORIES
Top 15 smartphones
 
Top 15 cell phones
 
15 best-rated phones
Best 4-16GB multimedia phones
 
Best 1-2GB multimedia phones
 
10 best unlocked phones
CELL PHONE RESOURCE CENTER
Best phones
 
Expert guides
 
Ask the Editors
» Top 15
QWERTY phones
 
All-touch phones
 
Touchscreen phones
Business phones
 
Multimedia phones
 
Concept phones
3+ inch screen phones
 
Wi-Fi phones
 
More...
» Search (New!)
Search by cell phone features
» Manual comparison (New!)
Select up to 4 cell phones side-by-side
» By release
May 2008, June 2008, Q3 2008
» Top 15 by carrier
Unlocked, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Helio, Alltel
» Top 15 by user type
Average Joe, Business users, Calling addicts, Fashion conscious users, Globetrotters, High-res addicts, Internet addicts, Multimedia enthusiasts, Music aficionados, Outdoor enthusiasts, TV addicts, Video lovers, More...
» Top 15 by brand
Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson Other
» Top 15 by platform
Palm OS, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile
» Top 15 by cell phone type
Business smartphones, Multimedia smartphones
Consumer QWERTY phones, Multimedia phones
Concept phones
NOW IN PHONES
Nokia 6650 smartphone for AT&T Wireless unveiled
 
Nokia N96 to be released with U.S. 3G support
 
Nokia N79 smartphone targets style conscious users
 
Nokia N85 is a thinner Nokia N95
 
Motorola Adventure V750 review
Motorola Adventure V750 video review
G'zOne Boulder review (Verizon Wireless)
G'zOne Boulder video review (Verizon Wireless)
Next 25 stories
MUST READ
CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
LAPTOPS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
MP3 players
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
INTERNET TABLETS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
GPS NAVIGATORS
HDTVs
CAMCORDERS
About us | Site map | How to advertise | Feedback | RSS Feeds | | Archive
Copyright 1999-2008 © infoSync World