Review: Plantronics BackBeat 903+ (Bluetooth Stereo)

Chances are, if you are an iPhone or iPod touting urban warrior, you have a set of stereo headphones or earbuds that you traverse the city with.  They are handy, low-maintenance and easy to carry.  There is one thing that drives me nuts is the cords; they simply get in the way and a simple body or arm gesture can yank one or both of your ear buds right out of your ears not to mention how they tangle up each time.

This is where a nice set of bluetooth stereo headset such as the new Plantronics BackBeat 903+ comes in to play.  Design wise, the BackBeat 903+ isn't anything crazy, it reminds me of two Plantronics Voyager Pro+ strung together as a stereo headset.  Control wise, the headset offers all the essential buttons that can be found in a bluetooth ear piece: Power/Pair button, Volume+ and Volume- and a button on the right ear bud for music Play/Pause while the left ear bud has the Talk/End button.

The headset is pretty light weight despite its looks, although it looks bulky, it is pretty comfortable to wear over time.  The music quality is decent but doesn't offer enough BASS for my taste, much like the Plantronics BackBeat 216 I reviewed.  The voice talk function is nice although the position of the mic is actually part of the right ear-bud so you must talk fairly loud to ensure your recipient to hear you clearly.  The noise level in a phone call is comparable to any other premium headset I've tested, what is surprising is having both ear buds in doesn't muffle my own voice to the point where I feel like I need to shout inorder to here myself.

The nicest thing about having a stereo bluetooth headset is no more cords to deal with.  The freedom of turning your head and moving your arms around is great.  Since both ear buds clamps on your ear lobe, you might even be able to wear this headset for some light exercise although I wouldn't recommended if you sweat a lot.  Note that using while bluetooth headsets are very cool, it does drain your device's battery considerably faster; BackBeat 903+ itself can last about 7 hours of playback so what I prefer to do is sync'ing up with my iPad which also has decent battery life to watch videos or stream internet radio.

The BackBeat 903+ goes for $99 MSRP and is available at Plantronics website.