Review on Logitech H820e Wireless Mono Business Headset - Black: Perfect for Professionals by Will Porter

Reference information. I work as an IT manager and spend 6-12 hours a day with my headset. I used to have three Bluetooth headsets. Jabra Evolve 75, Plantronics Focus UC B825 and generic Betronics for $25. This headset is much better. Jabra and Plantronics were excellent headsets, their features were very good but they lacked a few things, most notably the limitations of Bluetooth. First mute the sound. The Jabra mic on - mic off feature was not working 100% in Skype. There was a very embarrassing incident where I was yelling at my dogs and speaking privately to my wife and the sound would not turn off. Until someone told me what was going on, I had no idea. Neither Plantronics nor Plantronics had a visual mute indicator on the headset, you had to rely on what state you were in based on the last button press or mic position on the boom (but that feature seemed unreliable to me). The H820e has a highly visible LED on the microphone arm that lets you know if mute is on or off, great feature! I can be far away from my laptop and know at a glance if I'm alive or not. Second, range: All Bluetooth headsets start to break down at 10 feet from the laptop and completely shut down at 20 feet. I walked across the room, in sight, 15 feet to the coffee pot, and when I tried to speak, no one could understand what I was saying. Basically, I was tethered to my laptop with an invisible 10-foot cable. The H820e has an AMAZING range, I can go anywhere in my house and the sound is perfect. I even got out in my driveway and it worked until I was too far from home. My house was built in 1935 and has stone walls two feet thick, quite an achievement. If you have a more regular home, you can get coverage outside as well. Basically, I'm no longer on my laptop when I'm on the phone. This is a big problem when something is seriously broken and you end up calling for over 12 hours. This feature has changed my life for the better. H820e does NOT support Bluetooth, I am assuming it is a proprietary wireless system, you must have a base station for it to work, you cannot connect it to a mobile phone. I can see Bluetooth not being a feature but a limitation as it offers such an amazing range. Conclusion: good sound quality for phone calls, but mono. If you want to listen to music, you can also buy a cheap Bluetooth stereo headset. The H820e is by no means suitable for music. The base station is big and bulky and no key, making this setup not very comfortable for the street fighter. I have a home office so it's perfect, I will be using my plantronics bluetooth to travel and live with limitations. This thing is by far the best headset I've found for remote work due to its range and apparent mute capability. Don't consider anything else unless the limitations listed bother you. EDIT: I called for 12 hours this week and the battery died at 11am and there is no way to plug it in and wear it on my head at the same time so I had to switch to a spare headset. My other headsets might run closer to 2pm before dying, so that's definitely something to consider. I love this headset so much I don't mind having a spare to change out, but for others it could be a deal breaker.