Pros & Cons
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- Comfortable.
- Good sound and voice quality.
- Physical volume buttons.
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- Range and call quality, while good, aren't outstanding.
Plantronics has long been my go-to Bluetooth headset brand for call quality, although its designs range from dull to aggressively corporate. The company's mid-priced Explorer 500 headset ($59.99) fits in with that heritage: It sounds good, works well, and has a lot of fit options, but few would call it pretty. It can't match our Editors' Choice, the Plantronics Voyager 5200, in terms of range or call quality, but if you're looking for a solid, no-frills headset, it definitely hits the mark.
Design and Battery Life
The Explorer 500 is a two-inch long black stub with an eargel and a micro USB charging port on the back end. Half of the outer face is ridged and becomes a Call button, and there's a physical power switch and volume buttons on the top and bottom. It's nowhere near as pretty as the Jabra Eclipse, but it's far more functional, as the tactile buttons are very easy to use.
The headset comes with one gel eartip, an optional earhook, and a strap that plugs into the USB port and lets you clip the headset to your bag. I found the fit to be more secure than the Jabra Steel ($65.83 at Amazon) , although not quite as comfortable as the Jabra Eclipse.
Battery life is good, although unlike the Eclipse and the Voyager 5200, there's no recharging case to pop it into when you run out of juice. We got 5 hours, 32 minutes of talk time in our tests, after which you need to recharge it using any micro USB charger; the headset comes with a cable, but no AC adapter.
Performance and Conclusions
Voice commands are basic; when you hold down the Call button, it launches your phone's voice command system. Incoming calls alert you of the number, but not of the name of the caller. A smartphone app, Plantronics Hub, allows you to set your headset to beep if you lose it, and monitor its battery life from your phone.
Call quality is good, especially when you take noise cancellation into account. It's louder than the Jabra Steel, and although the tone isn't as rich as the Jabra Eclipse, the headset suffers from less garble when you're carrying your phone in a pocket, and outbound noise cancellation is much better. Passing cars are audible, but muted, and wind noise is dampened properly. In testing, I was able to get about 40 feet of range from the headset before too much garble kicked in.
The Plantronics Explorer 500 isn't brimming with cutting-edge features, but it delivers reliable calling at a reasonable price. The Voyager 5200 offers better voice quality and range, but it's significantly larger and twice the price of the Explorer. If your needs are simple, the Explorer 500 is a solid bet.