Plantronics Discovery 665 Review

Introduction:

Plantronics announced its 665 headset as a sibling to the 655 and both models are very, very similar but still have minor differences. In order to distinguish itself from the 655, the new model uses the same design but with inverted colors. Once more, the box content is not as good as the one of the 640/645, and the option for recharging through a miniUSB is also missing, replaced by a car charger with a call indicator. The option to be charged from a small tube with AAA battery in it, which was present in the 655 and 645’s box-content, is missing here as well.

The box content is:

• Plantronics 665 Headset
• Charging pocket with indicator light
• USB Charger
• 12V Car Charger

Design:

665 is absolutely identical to the 655 when it comes to design – the same black-grey colors are used, but the difference is that they are now inverted – the keys and the sides are now in gray and the face is in black, while it was vice verse with the 655.



The 665 keeps the same weight as the 655 and the 645, which is 9grams (1/3oz) and makes it a part of the light-weight headsets currently offered on the market. It has simple design attaching to the ear by the soft rubber earpiece, and can also be used with an optional ear hook that provides additional security. A simple rotation will allow for wearing it on the other ear, too.

Comfort:

The 665 can be attached directly to the ear only by its rubber earpiece and coming with the accessory are three sizes for more accurate adjusting, and a great improvement. It is very easy to attach it to the ear in this case, but if you add the optional earloop it will be a little harder, as it is not very flexible and you’ll have to use a finger to move it behind your ear. The latter will help you achieve an even more secured feeling while you are wearing the device – it won’t fall if you don’t want it to, and it won’t make you worry in any way about loosing it!

When it comes to continuous use of the headset, the 665 performs excellent! We felt it was more comfortable on our ear than any other headset and unlike most others, it didn’t disturb us and continuously wearing it for more than 5-6 hours is not a problem!

The high-end device the Plantronis 665 is, it doesn’t suffer from poor design – definitely. It is a small and stylish accessory that looks good on your ear, attached on its own or with the small black metallic earloop.

Functionality:

It’s easy to pair the 655 with your phone: holding the call key down for about 8 seconds will put it into pairing mode, indicated by a red-blue flashing of the LED. When you find it with your phone, just enter the standard 0000 key sequence to go into the accessory’s list of known devices.
When the headset is out of range, it will notify you with a beeping sound. Unfortunately, it doesn't automatically disconnect and shut off in a few minutes, as some of its rivals, and thus keeps draining the battery.

The call key is a multifunctional key: holding it for a couple of seconds in standby mode will activate the phone’s voice dialing regime, while double pressing it will redial the last number. When an incoming call is received, a single press of this key will answer it, but if you want to reject it, the same key should be held for 8 seconds, which is too much, and even dumb, since you can’t reject a call immediately.

Pressing both volume keys at the same time will put the headset in power saving mode – it turns the digital signal processing system off until you power it on in the same way; unfortunately it is indicated by a simple beep, which is the same as the one when powering it on – so you can’t understand if it is on or off. The same key combination during a call will mute the microphone.

Performance:

We are happy, that the sound quality during a call has improved, compared to the 655! We expected the two headsets to be exactly the same in this aspect, but it is not so and every improvement is welcomed of course. The only weak side of the 655’s sound – it was muffled and the voices sounded not exactly as they should, has been replaced in the 665 by a clear and strong sound, which makes it one of the best sounding headsets together with Nokia BH-900.

Just like the 645 and 655, the 665 has DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system for better quality of the outgoing sound when you are at noisy environment. The DSP system is a filter, which should decrease the volume of the surround sounds and transmit only your voice to the other party. Although Plantronics use the new name “AudioIQ® technology” the system is the same and not the best possible. It is not the best in average to strong wind but handles well with surrounding noise like passing vehicles or music with up-to-average level.

Unfortunately, the battery of the 665 is similar to that of 645 and 655 and has similar performance, which is weak compared to the rival models. It has only 3 hours of talk time, which is a short battery time even for a DSP-enabled headset.

Conclusion:

Plantronics 665 is almost perfect Bluetooth headset! Almost, because we don’t like the limited box-content (compared to the previous models of the brand) and the battery performance. If the box content was similar to the one of the 655 and the battery time was improved, we would be completely satisfied with our choice. 665 is small, well looking and very comfortable to wear headset with excellent sound. If you are looking for this type of accessory – the search is over, get the 665.