Plantronics Backbeat 903+ stereo Bluetooth headset follow up review

My love affair with Plantronics’ Backbeat 903+ stereo Bluetooth headset has come to an early demise and I’m already sadly missing my stereo phone conversations. Having a conversation in just one ear now seems so stupidly lopsided.

Let me digress. Bluetooth annoys the hell out of me sometimes. I’m yet to have any phone/Bluetooth devise combo that meshed up reliably. I’ve had phones that would not connect merely by proximity, but instead needed to be manually re-connected every time I got back into the car.  And I’m quickly filling a box with Bluetooth devices that I wasn’t quite satisfied with. Plantronics Backbeat 903+ was as close as I’d come to feeling I’d found the right device.

My annoyances were few. The cable that connects the two earpieces sometimes would not sit right with my collar. Deciding which was right ear and which left ear while the phone was ringing was sometimes a challenge, sometimes the call had gone to voicemail before I got it all sorted.

But in many other ways it was great. Music was clear and strong. Conversations were much clearer. The text-to-speech in my phone’s GPS was only ever tolerably understandable through the Backbeat 903+.

Battery life was good and you always knew how much time you had left. On start-up a clear voice would say something along the lines of, “You have 4 hour talk time remaining.” When connected it would say, “Connected”. When disconnected it would say, “Disconnected.” Charging was swift. A quick top-up gave me enough extra hours to make it through the day.

But like all Bluetooth devices, in my experience, it had its off days. Being someone who deals in technology I find it frustrating to deal with the vagaries of tech in my business life. What I mean by that is, I hate it when my own stuff plays up. Something as simple as making a phone call can be a major challenge with phone drop outs, unresponsive phones, poor signal strength and Bluetooth problems. If you’re time poor, and I’m extremely time poor, then the tiny little window of opportunity for a single phone call can close before the phone call has been completely.

This is what happened to me, and I have as a  result some clear advice about ownership of Plantronics’ Backbeat 903+. They’re not very rugged. They’re not to be thrown across the car in disgust. They will break. And then they’ll be sorely missed.

If you’re the careful and kind with your electronica and you want a Plantronics’ Backbeat 903+ then you can purchase here.