The Marque M155 ($59 direct) is Plantronic’s most stylish Bluetooth headset to date. It’s super tiny, and so comfortable you may forget you’re even wearing it. Earpiece sound quality is solid, there’s A2DP streaming, and a free one-year basic subscription to Vocalyst, a hands-free subscription service that can read your text messages or run voice-activated Internet searches. So why the average rating? Poor noise reduction. The Marque may be stylish and comfortable, but if you’re outside, the person you’re calling may not be able to hear you.
Design, Fit, Call Quality, and Noise SuppressionThe Marque M155 sure is chic. made of shiny black plastic, with a silver band that separates the front from the back, it looks like it should come as a companion accessory to the iPhone 4 ($199.99-$299.99, 4 stars). There’s a power switch on the bottom headset, a volume control button on the top, and a multi-function call button on the outside.
Fitting the Marque was a snap. The headset comes with three different sizes of clear eartips, but the default tip fit me just fine. in fact, the Marque is so light and comfortable that I sometimes forgot I was even wearing it. it stayed put just fine, too; it never felt like it was going to fall out of my ear, or even come a bit loose after walking for a few blocks throughout the city.
For this review, I paired the Marque with a Verizon Apple iPhone 4 and a Motorola Droid Bionic ($299.99, 4.5 stars). The pairing process went smoothly for both phones. in fact, the first time you turn it on, the Marque walks you through a voice-guided pairing process for iPhone and Android devices, which is great for first-time users. But pairing is still simple without the walkthrough; just hold down the Call button for a few seconds, until the light on the inside of the Marque begins to flash red and white, which indicated that you’re in pairing mode.
Once connected, you have limited volume control using the button on top of the headset. I found it easiest to leave the volume turned up on the Marque, and to control it on whatever device I was connected to. in the earpiece, sound quality was quite good. Voice calls sounded clear and natural, with plenty of volume for indoor or outdoor use. Streaming A2DP content sounded great too—rich and full of bass.
On the other end, transmission quality was average for calls made indoors. Voices would sometimes clip and sound a touch robotic, though always understandable. But calls made outside are another story. The Marque has seemingly no background noise suppression, which makes it easy for any background noise to completely drown out the sound of your voice. it was so bad that just the sound of some cars passing while standing outside on a city street rendered my voice nearly inaudible.
If you intend to use the Marque indoors, or in a car with the windows down and the radio off, it’s a solid Bluetooth headset. But if you plan to use it outdoors, in a car with an open window, or anywhere else that has noise in the background, you should keep looking.
Other Features and ConclusionsYou can answer a call on the Marque by saying “Answer,” rather than tapping the headset’s Call button, which is especially helpful if you’re driving. There’s also a companion app currently available in the Apple App Store, with an Android app expected to hit the Android Market within a week.
The app adds a number of useful features, like Sound Check, which you can use to hear how your transmission quality sounds from a particular room, or to record a note that can be sent via email. There’s also a pairing guide to get you started, some audio-based games, and a link to download Vocalyst.
Vocalyst service is available in two tiers. The Marque comes with one free year of Vocalyst Basic, which costs $2.49 per month or $24.99 per year after that. it offers voice e-mail, news, reminders, and weather. it also allows you to record audio clips that can be automatically uploaded to your Facebook account.
Vocalyst Pro costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. it converts your voice messages to text and sends text messages. it also allows you to speak updates it will then transcribe to text and automatically post to your Facebook or Twitter accounts. these are useful features, to be certain, but Google Voice offers voice-to-text conversions for free, and Android already offer voice-activated searches, not to mention Bing and a number of other apps.
If you have an iPhone, the Marque features a battery life indicator next to the iPhone’s battery icon. Battery life was on the short side of average, at 4 hours and 54 minutes.
The Plantronics Marque M155 is tiny, comfortable, stylish, and has some great earpiece sound quality. if it weren’t for the noise suppression issue, this would be a top pick among midrange Bluetooth headsets. As it stands, the Samsung HM6450 ($99, 4 stars) is a better buy, thanks to its improved outdoor transmission quality. And while it lists for $99, you can pick one up for closer to $50, which puts it right in line with the Marque. if you’re looking for a Bluetooth headset that you can truly use anywhere, the Jawbone Era ($129.99, 4.5 stars) can’t be beat for noise suppression, and the Jawbone Icon ($99.99, 4 stars) is a close second, for $30 less than the Era.
Benchmarks Continuous talk time: 4 hours 54 minutes
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