Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 is an interesting product from Plantronics: an in-ear Bluetooth earphones without the extra bulk. It weighs just 14 grams, and there is no hidden unit for Bluetooth connectivity or battery. This product looks just like an ordinary in-ear headphones and Plantronics manages to fit everything in such small build.
My decision to get this earphones started by a promo email from an online store offering BlueAnt Pump HD Sportbuds Bluetooth Headphones at discounted price. I am happy with my Sony MDR-10RBT Bluetooth headphones, but I do realize I can’t simply bring it for everyday listening outdoor without some preparation. I got so interested in the idea of having a super portable Bluetooth earphones that I can just grab and carry in my pocket. So I do some research and end up with this nice product from Plantronics as a better alternative.
Design
The main reason why I choose Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 is the nice-looking and super compact design. Basically, Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 is just two in-ear units connected through cable, 56 cm long. It’s about the perfect length because I can hang my earphones around my neck when I need to unplug them for a short time while outdoor (very useful when crossing the street, etc).
These wireless earbuds have 2 color options: black and white. For better stability, Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 comes with 3 sizes of earbuds (S, M, L). Making sure to use the right size for our ears will ensure better experience, from comfort to audio quality (especially bass). There is a removable “stabilizer” made of transparent silicone to ensure these earphones will stay in our ears when we wear it for exercise. Which is also the reason why Plantronics designed this product to have P2i coating for sweat and water resistance. I use these earphones for everyday commuting in public transport, not for sport, so I quickly remove the additional stabilizer silicone. Most of other reviews will come from people using it for working out.
Battery and Charging Case
Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 is powered by built-in rechargeable battery. We can charge it using a standard micro-USB cable. The charging port is located hidden in the right-side unit, protected by a removable rubber cover to keep it water resistant. One full charge of the built-in battery can power the unit for 4.5 hours of music listening (according to Plantronics website). In real usage test, I got around 3 hours and 40 minutes in continuous usage (music listening with few times switching devices and pairing to new devices). Perhaps I could get a little bit more active time if I just continuously listen to music from 1 device (without switching and pairing).
We can choose to buy this product with optional charging case designed to provide additional juice when we’re on the go. Simply store the earphones inside the carrying case and plug the build-in charging cable inside. When combined with portable battery in the charging case, we have total listening time of 14.5 hours. However, I think that such claim is technically incorrect because we can’t continuously listening to music for 14.5 hours since we need to “store” the earphones inside the case for re-charging. Since the price difference between the unit with and without charging case is only $10, I recommend tho get the one with charging case, even if you don’t plan to use the case regularly.
As a nice bonus, battery level is displayed in my iPhone, so I can quickly see the remaining battery level right from my home screen. sadly, I don’t get this battery indicator when I tried connecting the earphones to Android devices running KitKat and Lollipop.
Control
Controlling Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 is generally simple. There are only 3 buttons with tactile shape: plus, minus and square. This helps me a lot in finding the right button to press because we can’t see those buttons when wearing the earphones. The plus and minus buttons are used to adjust the volume and to go to the next/previous song. The square button is used as play/pause, power on, Bluetooth pairing and power off.
I love that these earphones give voice feedback about itself. For example, to turn it on, we press the square button until we hear “power on”. If we continue pressing the square button, the earphones will enter Bluetooth pairing mode and we will hear voice feedback saying “pairing”. So far, I could hear voice feedback when the earphones turns on/off; when it enters pairing mode; when headset is connected to music source; when connection is switched to another device; when the battery is high, medium and low. Believe me, it’s much better than how most other brands would only provide LED colors or blinking as feedback.
These earphones will remember up to 8 last devices it connects to, pretty convenient to pair it with multiple phones, tablets and desktop computers.
Audio
According to the official website, Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 uses 3rd generation 6mm speaker drivers plus enhanced bass. Generally, I find the audio quality is good enough for everyday commuting. The sound is rich and enjoyable. Treble is good, vocal is clear. The bass is surprisingly decent. I’ve heard a lot of review saying that there’s not enough bass punch coming from these earphones. I found that was not the case. The key is to make sure we use the right size of earbuds. I usually wear medium size in every other earphones. But for Plantronics BackBeat GO 2, S-size earbuds gives me the best comfort level as well as best bass punch.
Admittedly, I don’t get super clarity to the level I usually enjoy from my high-end Sony or Bose headphones, but that’s to be expected from a device using Bluetooth connection designed for outdoor use. Speaking about Bluetooth, wireless audio streaming works quite good here. I never experienced any glitch with my phone in my pocket. A quick test indoor shows that music will still play smoothly up to around 7 m distance.
Some audiophiles or serious bass lovers would probably have issues with Plantronics BackBeat GO 2’s sound quality when they have unrealistic expectation. Well, of course we can’t compare this to products with $100+ price range. At $50-ish price level, I would say these earphones could easily compete against cabled and wireless earphones on $75-$99 price level, but it’s probably unfair to compare it against something above that.
Some reviews mention about these earphones being not loud enough. I’m not quite sure how they could get such impression because this thing gets loud enough for me, outdoor, just by around 60% volume. Setting it around 80% already gave me too loud volume beyond comfort. Later on, I finally understand what they probably mean. When I paired these earphones with iPhone or iPad, adjusting volume in earphones will also adjust the volume in iPhone/iPad. So, setting volume to 60% quickly got me good level of volume. However, when I tested these earphones with Android device, adjusting the volume using earphones buttons does not change the volume in Android, and vice versa. Both devices maintain separate volume. So I need to turn up the volume in my Android device AND in my earphones to end up with good outcome.
The microphone is good enough to have decent phone calls indoor. However, few tests to use it outdoor showed poor results. According to people who called me, they can hear my voice, but the background noise sounded louder than my voice.
Overall Experience
I quite enjoy casual outdoor music listening using these headphones. The noise isolation is good enough that I can enjoy my music peacefully, but I can still hear some sound around me, which is critically important to avoid accidents outdoor. A worth investment, especially that I got this on discounted price.
edit 19 Dec 2014: while the mic is good enough for indoor phone calls, using it outdoor is a total disaster
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