Wireless in-ear headphones have been around for quite some time. When Apple removed standard 3.5 mm headphone jack from iPhone 7, suddenly everyone loves to talk and discuss about Bluetooth headphones. Apple did not invent wireless headphones. Their widely-talked AirPods are not even the first truly wire-free Bluetooth earphones. We had Bragi’s Dash for a while, and a number of other crowd-funding projects exist. However, I have to give it to Apple that their influence is strong enough to get mainstream people to talk and discuss about existing technology.

I purchased Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 back in 2014 and it becomes one of my main headphones for everyday commute until today. I read about Plantronics BackBeat GO 3 few months ago and did not think I need an upgrade because my old GO 2 serves me well so far. That no-upgrade spirit survived until I saw a very good price for a brand new product in a damaged box. Yes, I know, I’m weak against good bargain on headphones.

For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 and 3 as GO 2 and GO 3 in this article. This will save me from repeating the long names over and over again with only single digit number as differentiator.

First, commenting on the look and feel, GO 3 is a total redesign. Instead of simple straight in-ear buds, GO 3 puts the smaller part of the units into our ear canals and the bigger part stays on our ears’ outer part, locked by ear stabilisers that generally do good job in keeping the earphones on our ears. It is not as comfortable as Bose’s unique earbuds, but I like this better than GO 2’s straight in-ear design. At least, I can spend more time listening to music before it starts to feel uncomfortable.

Charging port uses micro-USB and is located on the right piece under the cleverly designed cap. One full charge is promised to deliver up to 6.5 hours of non-stop music playing. Remote is located closer to the right piece, with 3 buttons: volume up, volume down and power/play/pause button. Long press on the power button turns on the headphones, another long press turns them off. Short press does play and pause. Long press on the volume up skips to next track and long press on volume down brings us back to the previous track (or beginning of current track, depending on how far a song has been played). Pressing on a button triggers some audio feedback we can hear from the headphones. When the headphones is turned on, it gives us audio feedback that the unit is on and how many hours play time can be done with the remaining battery power.

The optional charging pouch is bigger than GO 2’s, plus this one has some nice looking button with new battery indicator. I could not find the mAh capacity on the battery, but it’s rated for 13 hours play time on top of 6.5 hours in the earphones. Battery indicator is easier to read and it shows different indicators for the case and the headphones (if currently being charged). One thing I quickly noticed is that this indicator display quickly collect smudges from my finger. Now I need to clean my headphones case too on top of my smartphone screen and sunglasses.

GO 2 weighs 15 gr while GO 3 weighs 16 gr, a very negligible difference. GO 2 case weighs 37 gr and GO 3 case weighs 47 gr, something I would quickly feel, especially with the fact that GO 3 case is also larger (13 cm x 9.5 cm). I tried to fit my GO 3 inside GO 2 case and they fit. I am now tempted to use my new GO 3 with my old GO 2 case.

Thanks to its stabilisers, GO 3 stays better on my ears and since ear-bud is smaller, I personally find it more comfortable than GO 2. So far I have tested non-stop music listening for 2.5 hours and felt no discomfort.

Sound quality is a tricky one. Within the first few days of testing these headphones, I got vastly different experiences. Sometimes I felt that the sound quality is superb, other times I was quite confused with mediocre quality and virtually non-existent bass. After a number of experiments, I found that the key is how I position it on my ears. There’s a particular placement that would bring the best of its performance, but this best placement is not always easy to find. There are times I had to reattach them several times before getting it right. Not entirely sure how to describe such position, but generally after I properly attach the in-ear units, I twist the front cable a little bit upfront for both sides. When positioned correctly, GO 3 sounds great. The sound detail is there, the bass is solid and the vocal sounds amazing.

Overall, I quite like these headphones. Would probably use it as my main wireless headphones for everyday commuting, replacing my old BackBeat GO 2.