The Pit

Plantronics Savor M1100

BY Burnpavement

Add a touch of class to your phone with this suave Bluetooth headset.

Forget about holding your phone to your ear with the Plantronics Savor M1100 Bluetooth headset. It has all of the features you would expect in a headset: Digital sound processing, automatic volume adjustment, wind noise reduction, multipoint, and A2DP streaming. But wait, there's more!

The unique A-shaped body allows Plantronics to incorporate three microphones. The call button is located at the top, and the voice recognition button is in the middle. Even though these buttons are flush with the overall design, they are fairly easy to press, and are far enough apart that you won't mistake one for the other. This headset is slightly thick, but it is light enough not to be noticed. A small selection of ear gels and a clear plastic ear-loop provides a comfortable fit for most ears.

For a truly hands-free experience, you can answer or reject calls without touching it. Just say "answer" or "ignore" as a call comes in. Other commands require the press of a command button, which reduces the possibility of unintentional operation.

Those we called were surprised at our voice's clarity - including the sounds of chatty people nearby. The three-microphone headset, together with Plantronics' AudioIQ3 technology, did a good job of cancelling out environment noises. That said however, the headset has a rather limited earpiece volume.

Unlike most headsets that only give visual indications, the Savor gives plenty of audio feedback, telling you that it's powered on and linked to a phone but also announcing how much talk time is left in its battery. According to Plantronics, the Savor M1100 offers up to four hours of yak time, or up to seven days of standby.

The Savor M1100 supports A2DP out of the box. While voice clarity is very good, you can extend the headset's usefulness further with applications that you can download to your iPhone, Android or BlackBerry smartphones. The iPhone version will display the headset battery meter next to the phone's own battery icon, while the Android and Blackberry versions are capable of reading incoming text messages to you.

Overall, the Savor M1100 is a very capable headset intended for people who expect more. Not only does it do the job perfectly, the other useful features that come with this headset brings humanity closer to a truly hands-free experience.