Review : Plantronics BackBeat Go

Audio streaming via A2DP used to require those big over-the-head or those over-the-ear headphones. These were kind of bulky not fit for mobility. Then came the earbuds which rectified those mobility issues, but they couldn’t provide that performance mark which wired earbuds had set, but reaching up to that level isn’t easy. Plantronics gave shape to this distant reality with the launch of their Bluetooth earbuds with A2DP support.
Plantronics BackBeat GO wireless earbuds are incredibly small and light weight which run on Bluetooth A2DP and are perfect for music, chats or games with excellent sound quality. Check out our review below for more details.

Packaging:

Plantronics never fails to amaze us when it comes to packaging. The BackBeatGo came in a plastic casing with earbuds safely placed and wire properly adjusted. The packaging itself looked very premium, and the way how it is done gives a temptation feeling for the product. The retail package is a black box which contained the plastic casing along with user manuals, the USB cable, alternative earbuds and power adapter.

Design:

BackBeatGo has been designed considering the mobility needs of the present generation who want everything to be compact and easy to carry with best possible output. The BackBeatGo is just a wire with earbuds and a controller.

The wire is rubberized and flattened instead of following the regular circular trend which in turn decreases the chances of any damage here.

These earbuds are designed keeping in mind only the right hand side users because the controller is near the right hand side module.
The controller has the volume up and down buttons along with the action and the power key. The controller also houses a microphone which is required for the telephonic calls.

The earbuds are a little bigger and heavy than the usual in-ear’s seen in the wild. This is due to the battery and bluetooth module which are placed in these modules. The left module has the battery whereas the right one has all the circuitry and the Bluetooth module. There is a notification LED on the right module which blinks red while charging and blue when completely charged. The pairing notification blinks red and blue. It also blinks blue when the headphones are switched on and red while switched off.

Both the earbuds have a rubber covering on the top and along the sides which adds some bonus points to it’s visual appearance. The rubber covering on the right module peels off for the micro USB port which is used for charging.

Performance:

BackBeatGo is very comfortable to wear and move around. The earbud has a rubber tip which fits in the ear. The in-ear rubber tip seals the ear canal in such a way that it provides an awesome noise suppression. The audio quality is not the best we have heard but is surely appreciable. It stores one Bluetooth address in buffer so in the case of connection on multiple Bluetooth devices if we had to return back on a device which was already paired, we had to pair it again. It runs on a lithium-ion battery which provides A2DP playback of 4 hours and calling of 4.5 hours as posted by the manufacturer. We did a battery test ourselves and got a playback time of 3.5 hours on 70% volume which is fairly near of what Plantronics have claimed.

Conclusion:

At the time when the Bluetooth headsets were being launched many might have fantasized of something like Bluetooth earbuds atleast I did. Plantronics have made this fantasy a reality with the launch of their BackBeatGo some time ago. The BackBeatGo has been very strategically designed to meet the mobility needs of the present generation. These Bluetooth ear buds provide ultimate noise reduction with appreciable audio quality. With 3.5 hours A2DP playback we find these to be worth buying if you are looking for a Bluetooth. The BackBeatGo are available from the Plantronics online store for $99.99 but you may find them on Amazon for about $76. With the continuous technological developments lets see what we get in the coming future.

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Image courtesy : Pictures clicked by the Samsung Galaxy Camera