I reviewed the Plantronics Discovery 925 over a year ago, and our good friends at Plantronics were kind enough to send over a Discovery 975 to test out. The Discovery 975 is an update to the Discovery 925, with a newly redesigned form factor and more useful leatherbound charging/carrying case. I’ve tested the headset with a few different devices, and found that while they’ve improved some areas, a few of my complaints are still present. Read on to find out if this stylish headset will work for you.
Design
The Plantronics Discovery 975 looks much more streamlined than its predecessor. The overall headset is smaller, with the same diamond-and-boom design which works great. At 63.5mm (2.5in) long and only weighing in at only 8g (.3oz), you hardly even notice the Discovery 975 is on your ear. The headset comes with a wall charger, leatherbound carrying/charging case, and a selection of 3 different size eargels, for a comfortable fit.
The Discovery 975 uses clear ear gels to fit into your ear, with a small nub that fits behind your tragus to provide a secure fit. There is also a collapsible loop on the eargel that fits in your outer ear to further secure the headset. There is no option for an over-the-ear loop on the Discovery 975, which may put some folks off. I personally dislike over-the-ear solutions, and prefer this slightly in-ear option, so it worked awesome for me.
Battery
Plantronics says that the Discovery 975 can last for up to 5 hours of talk time, though I was able to push just past this to around 5 hours and 15 minutes in my tests, impressively. The leatherbound carrying/charging case is able to fully charge the Discovery 975 three times before needing to be recharged itself, so you can effectively get over 20 hours of talk time before you need to seek out a charger, which is downright impressive.
When you place the Discovery 975 into its carrying/charging case, the Bluetooth connection is automatically disabled and the case’s small LCD screen is activated, showing the current battery status for both the headset and the charging case with easy to read icons. Both the case and the headset feature a standard microUSB charging port, so you can easily top either one up from the included wall adapter or from your computer, if you needed.
Audio Quality
The Plantronics Discovery 975 features AudioIQ and WindSmart technologies to filter out background noise and block wind, for a superior call quality and audio experience.
The AudioIQ technology uses three methods to provide a superior audio experience. First, an adaptive 20-band equalizer is constantly adjusting to provide the best audio settings, while the dual-microphone setup is able to detect and cancel out 80dB of background noise. The headset also automatically adjusts volume levels to provide a normal listening experience. It won’t filter out yelling or that sort of thing, but it does work to normalize abnormal rises and drops in volume.
The WindSmart technology is really rather cool, and in most of my tests, nearly eliminated wind noise completely, which is impressive. WindSmart uses acoustic fabric to cover the microphone in the headset’s boom, as well as electronic filters to detect gusts of wind and eliminate them. It’s quite similar, apparently, to the technology that modern microphones for live newscasters and weathercasters use when out in the field.
The Plantronics Discovery 975 only has two buttons – a single volume button and a multifunction button. The volume button can be pressed repeatedly to cycle through the various volume settings, while the multifunction button, obviously, performs an array of functions. Unfortunately, I was not able to use the Plantronics Discovery 975 to activate the speaker-independent voice-dial on my Nokia N97, which I found frustrating. The user manual did not detail any specific steps to do so, either.
Issues
I have two main complaints about the Plantronics Discovery 975, unfortunately, the latter of which is a recurring issue with Plantronics headsets and Nokia phones. First, the status light on the Discovery 975 is built into the multifunction button, so that when using your thumb to press the button, it’s often difficult to see the light. If you have little fingers, or just press the edge of the button, this isn’t a major issue, but it’s still slightly frustrating.
The other complaint is a special combination of Plantronics headsets and Nokia’s Bluetooth implementation. Because the phone sends *all* audio through Bluetooth, it repeatedly opens and closes the audio channel, to conserve power. The Plantronics headsets (all of the ones that I have tested, including the Discovery 975) emit a double-beep when the audio channel is opened. Unfortunately, I have confirmed that there is no way to turn this double-beep off. The result is that the headset is almost constantly double-beeping in your ear, specifically when you are not in a phone call.
Mrs. Guru Chimes In
I also gave the Plantronics Discovery 975 to Mrs. Guru to test for a week, to get a woman’s viewpoint. She instantly loved the design, and really liked the idea of the leatherbound carrying/charging case, as she could simply keep that in her purse to recharge the headset. Without reading the user manual or getting a tutorial from me, she was able to easily begin using the headset, and reported that both the speaker volume on her end and the microphone volume on the other end (as reported by her callers) was great.
Conclusion
Overall, the Plantronics Discovery 975 is an extremely stylish headset that also happens to offer a really nice audio experience, both for you and your callers. If fashion is a high concern for you, it definitely looks great, and the AudioIQ and WindSmart technologies pair nicely, as well.
If you’d like to win a FREE Plantronics Discovery 975, be sure to follow @SymbianGuru and @Plantronics on Twitter. We’ll post the announcement shortly. If you’re new to Twitter, check out The Guru’s Ultimate Guide To Twitter On Symbian Phones.
