Work from home is still a thing, a wonderful thing for many of us that haven’t yet migrated back to the office full-time. As part of that there’s some equipment users need to make the most of that opportunity. For me, that’s a docking station to enable swapping between machines quickly and easily, a decent headset for calls and nice speakers for tunes…
Following the review of their docking station recently, Cyber Acoustics offered a couple of headsets for review, the 1500BT and the 2000BT. First, we’ll take a look at the 1500BT and get to the 2000BT in a couple of weeks.
With an MSRP of AU$69.99, the 1500BT is hardly the most expensive headset we’ve ever reviewed, but it’s actually pretty impressive when you look at the features included for that budget.
Design, Setup and Comfort
Given the cost of this, I did have a few concerns about functional it was going to be. I quickly realised though, that despite the low cost, it’s actually a really good option for use all day. There was a bit of an odd issue with setup (easily resolved once I read the instructions…) in that it will connect to a PC via USB dongle and to a phone via Bluetooth. To achieve this during the initial setup, you need to disconnect the USB Dongle, connect the phone via Bluetooth and then plug in the USB dongle again.
Something I really enjoyed while testing the 1500BT is just how lightweight the headset is. I forgot a couple of times that I even had the headset on; at least until I received a call on my mobile or on Teams. It’s not the most heavily padded headset I’ve ever worn, but the combination of the lightweight and the adjustability on the ears and headband meant that it’s super comfy. The adjustment means that users are able to hinge the ears in multiple directions, with the band being firm enough to maintain the pressure but not so much pressure as to make it uncomfortable.
In terms of controls, there are a couple of things here I really like. The first is that they’re tactile controls, ie. The buttons are different shapes and can be easily recognised by touch, even if you don’t recall which button is where. These are located on the left ear adjacent to the boom mic mounting, with volume controls and call handling buttons all present. While the buttons do cater to media playback, being honest, I wouldn’t listen to a lot of music on this particular headset because the quality of sound just isn’t there. In reality, that’s fair too given the cost and the headset I use daily for music still costs nearly $400.00
That aside, the audio quality of the 1500BT is perfectly fine for phone or video calls.
The boom mic adds a really useful feature in that it can hinge away from your face easily. When the mic is angled at more than around 60 degrees, there is a hardware mute that’s automatically engaged. I found this so useful as I’m often on calls while in an open office area. This gives me the freedom to move around without needing to be at my computer to mute and unmute myself but still be able to respond to queries.
I had a couple of people mention that my voice sounded a little different to usual. When I queried them about this, their description amounts to the mic clipping a little bit when there was a lot of background noise. Not something to really worry about, or is it a particular fault of this headset, it’s common to noise-cancelling microphones.
I’ve been critical of some manufacturers in the past for their decision — likely cost related — to use Micro USB and not USB-C. Cyber Acoustics have included USB-C charging. Given the vast majority of my personal equipment is USB-C charging this just alleviated the need to carry extra cables.
Battery and Charging
After a couple of weeks of testing, I’m impressed with the battery life. Consistently the 1500BT was giving me three full days of use for work and this is leaving the headset on through the day. As a point of reference, I’ll typically have a steady stream of phone calls or MS Teams calls throughout the day, averaging around 3 hours of use. When I did turn off the headset between calls, I got a full week on a single charge which is an excellent outcome.
On the days I forgot to turn off my headset, I still got at least a day and a half; thankfully, the battery warning is pretty conservative and gives you plenty of warning to charge before going flat. Charging was a bit slow for my liking, taking about 90 minutes to get to full charge, but again, given the cost of the headset, I can forgive a few minor issues with specs.
I’d seriously consider buying this…
There’s no real getting around it, this thing is a real surprise packet for me. Yeah, there’s a couple of little quirks to it in setup and the sound isn’t great for audio playback. But if you’re able to forgive those two issues, then there’s so much to like about the Cyber Acoustics 1500BT.
Let’s start with the price…
At sub $70.00 it’s not a big investment, but it’s got a great feature set to make your working life easier.
There’s excellent audio quality for calls, easy call handling on a phone or PC, great battery life and modern standard charging. As an added bonus for anyone who commutes to work and may wish to use it at home or the office, the 1500BT also comes with a neat little carry bag.
The Cyber Acoustics 1500BT is available via Amazon for $69.99 plus shipping.
Disclosure Statement
Due to shipping costs Cyber Acoustics do not require the return of the device.
One word of caution is that organisations are increasingly blocking USB dongles due to security concerns.
If this headset has easy to replace earpads, that would make this headset absolutely killer value for WFH.
I really dislike headsets, that electronically are still working fine, but which I have to throw out, simply because the earpads have worn out and are not user replaceable.