Pros
• Excellent mids and highs with an expansive soundstage
• Resistant to tangles
• Well-designed and good looking charging case and earpieces
• Great for workouts
Cons
• Bass is strangely subdued
• Lack of comply foam eartips
When astronaut Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon more than four decades ago and uttered those now immortal words, his voice was transmitted around the world through a Plantronics headset.
That’s quite the heritage to live up to, and while the new BackBeat GO 3 isn’t built for the moon, I dare say it’s yet another small but encouraging step from Plantronics.
I was a big fan of its predecessor, the BackBeat GO 2 but got a tad annoyed at how it constantly popped out of the ears if you indulged in any physical activity. Plantronics has addressed this issue by introducing loops that keep it snug in your ears no matter what you do. It certainly stayed in throughout my long runs and grunting efforts at the weights room.
Plantronics has also improved the battery life – one charge now lasts you around six hours with the optional charge case adding another eight hours – and I appreciated the female voice that told me how much more juice the BackBeat GO 3 had each time I switched it on.
The sound output is richly detailed, especially the mids, although bassheads should look elsewhere; sadly the BackBeat GO 3 has a very limited bass response. Also the earpiece lacks noise isolation features so you can still hear what’s happening around you, albeit muffled. If you just want to hear your music and nothing else, you’ll need to spring for comply foam eartips, which aren’t available in the BackBeat GO 3 pack.
At $169 for the BackBeat GO 3 ($219 with the charge case), it’s fairly priced. If design ranks highly on your list when looking for wireless earphones, I would recommend the BackBeat GO 3. Find out where to buy a pair here.