Plantronics held a media launch in Sydney last night for the newest member of their popular BackBeat family of headphones. The premium quality wireless, noise-cancelling BackBeat Pro (as modelled by that chap, above) will be coming to Australia next month, priced at $349.
Described by Plantronics’ Australian National Sales Manager Peter Petrides as a “marriage between a DSLR camera and a set of headphones”, the imposing-looking BackBeat Pro headphones feature dial controls, play/pause buttons, physical switches for power and active noise cancelling and NFC tap-to-pair functionality.
You can connect the headphones to your device with Bluetooth or a 3.5mm headphone cable, and the noise cancelling features will operate regardless of your connection type. If your device supports it, you’ll get a Class 1 Bluetooth connection, meaning you can hear your music up to 100m away from your device.
The headphones also sport Plantronics’ OpenMic feature, which allows you to choose how much noise from the outside world you allow into your world with the headphones on. This is important for some users like runners, who need to be more aware of their surroundings. There’s also “smart” features built in – the headphones can tell when you take them off and can automatically pause your music – and voice prompts can tell you about the Bluetooth connection, battery level, and incoming calls in the language of your choice.
The BackBeat Pro will last 24 hours with Bluetooth and noise cancelling, while noise cancelling alone (via the 3.5mm cable) will run for about 60 hours. The headphones recharge via a standard Micro USB port in under 2 hours, and if you happen to leave your headphones unattended, they’ll hold their charge for up to 6 months.
There’s expected to be a limited supply of the headphones in October at Officeworks, Telstra and Tech2Go stores, but they’ll get out to all of Plantronics’ retailers soon after.
Find out more at the Plantronics BackBeat Pro site.
Are you in the market for some new headphones? Does the BackBeat Pro look take your fancy? Tell us in the comments!
Been looking at the Logitech UE 9000. Similar product but the Backbeat has much greater battery life though it is non replaceable supposedly (im sure someone will sell a ‘Kit’ to replace it). A bit of a downer as you wouldnt want to throw away headphones like this after a few years because the battery went flat. (Also how easy is it to get new Pads or other spare parts?) Im interested to see what people say about the sound quality. Can pick up the Logitech for under $300 if you look around though so this one is a bit… Read more »