Plantronics M50

The $49.99 Plantronics M50 Bluetooth headset looks good, feels comfortable, delivers solid voice performance, and boasts incredible battery life. If you're looking for a long-lasting Bluetooth headset to use indoors for hours at a time, look no further. But if you need great music playback or serious noise cancellation, you may want to look elsewhere.

Design, Fit, and Pairing Call Quality, and Noise Suppression
The M50 looks stylish. It's made of matte black plastic, with a shiny blue accent ring that runs along the perimeter. The clear, plastic ear hook is the same shade of blue. There's a power switch on one side, a volume control button on the other, and the headset's body works as the Call button.

The headset is an on-ear design, which means the rubber ear tip rests on your ear rather than in your ear canal. There are no alternative ear tips or hooks in different sizes in the package. The plastic ear hook isn't detachable, but it's rounded and flexible, making the headset comfortable to wear for long periods at a time. The hook can be adjusted to wear the M50 on your left or right ear. The fit isn't tight, but it feels secure. I wore the headset for nearly five hours straight and forgot it was even there for most of the time.

For this review, I paired the M50 with an Apple iPhone 4?for Verizon ($99.99-$199.99, 4 stars) and a Samsung Galaxy S II?for T-Mobile ($229.99, 4.5 stars). The pairing process went smoothly for both phones. The first time you turn it on, the headset is already set to pairing mode. For subsequent pairings, just hold down the Call button for a few seconds, until the light on the outside of the M50 begins to flash red and blue, which indicates that you're in pairing mode. From there, simply enter the Bluetooth menu on your phone, locate the headset, and tap to pair.?

Call Quality, Noise Suppression, A2DP, and Conclusions
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 M50, and to control it on whatever device I was connected to. In the earpiece, sound quality was very good. Voice calls sounded rich, clear, and natural, though maximum volume is just a touch low.

On the other end, calls made from indoors were solid. Voices were clear and easy to understand. But noise cancellation isn't this headset's strong suit. From a call placed outside, I was able to hear passing cars, and even the sound of light rain came through at the same volume as my voice. The call was still audible, but I wouldn't recommend this headset if you plan to use it outdoors or in an especially noisy environment.

The M50 streams A2DP content, which means you can use it to listen to audiobooks, GPS directions, music, podcasts, or other audio on your cell phone. Unfortunately, while everything sounded nice and clear, there was very little bass. It didn't sound tinny, but even voices on podcasts sounded thin, which is odd, since call quality is so rich.

If you have an iPhone, the M50 features a battery life indicator next to the iPhone's battery icon. The device will also announce a number of status alerts, including when your battery is high, medium, low, or needs to be recharged. Battery life was excellent, at a stunning 10 hours and 47 minutes of talk time.

The M50 has some other nice features as well. It pairs with two phones at a time, which is good for users looking to pair with both personal and work devices. If you're already on a call, you'll hear a ringtone notification of the incoming call from your second phone. To disconnect from the first call and answer it, tap the headset's Call button.

The M50 also works with Plantronics' Vocalyst service, which is an automated assistant that works by dialing a special phone number. Basic service, which costs $2.49 per month or $24.99 per year, offers voice email, news, reminders, and weather. It also allows you to record audio clips that can be automatically uploaded to your Facebook account. Vocalyst Pro adds message-to-text transcription along with a handful of other features, and costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year.

The Plantronics M50 is inexpensive and comfortable, with good call quality and great battery life. With better noise cancellation and A2DP streaming quality, this would be a must-buy for many Bluetooth users. But as it stands, the Samsung Modus HM6450?($99, 4 stars) is a better buy, thanks to improved music quality and a longer list of features; while it lists for $99, you can pick one up for close to $50. If you're looking for a Bluetooth headset with excellent noise suppression and A2DP streaming, the Jawbone Era?($129.99, 4.5 stars) is our top pick. And for $30 less than the Era, the Jawbone Icon ($99.99, 4 stars) is a close second.

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