About the Company
Born out of a merger between Polycom and Plantronics, Poly brings the best of the world’s two leading audio peripherals and technology companies. Its rich legacy goes back to the 1960s when its headset was part of the moon landing mission worn by Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Today, Poly continues to create groundbreaking enterprise products at every segment of price point. Its Voyager Series is popularly known as the company’s flagship line-up of products for contact centre pro-users, originally launched as the Plantronics Voyager 5200 UC.
While part of the upper-tier headset family, Voyager 5200 is relatively competitively priced and offers great value to pro-users, particularly in the remote working world. Let us explore its features in more detail.
Inside Poly Voyager 5200
The Poly Voyager 5200 is a mono-ear Bluetooth headset, meant for mobile or on-the-go users. It is tightly integrated with UC platforms through the requisite certifications and was called “the best Bluetooth headset” by the New York Times Wirecutter column.
Wireless connectivity
The Voyager 5200 originally connected with desktop and mobile devices via Bluetooth 4.1 which has been upgraded to Bluetooth 5.0 in the last few years. You can connect with up to 2 phones at the same time, and take calls from anyone. The Voyager 5200 gives you the freedom to move away from the parent device to up to 30 metres, which is the typical range for the Voyager series.
Form factor and industrial design
Here’s where the Voyager 5200 truly shines. It weighs a breezy 20 grams only, which Poly suggests should be comfortable enough to wear beyond 9-to-5 hours. It also comes with a sweatproof nano-coating (thanks to Poly’s partnership with P2i), to protect from moisture. For an additional fee, you also get a charging case, and the device automatically charges when it is docked.
WindSmart technology
The Voyager 5200 uses both aerodynamic design and proprietary algorithms to protect against wind noise. We imagine this would be an important use case in large contact centres with multiple air conditioners, tropical regions with overhead fans, or even WFH workers taking calls from the outdoors. Poly promises six layers of protection, from ambient noise caused by the wind.
Battery life and charging
The headset offers an acceptable 7 hours of battery life on a single charge, and the additional charging case can bump this up by another 14 hours. It takes 90 minutes to reach full charge, which is expected from most Voyager headsets.
Why Poly Voyager 5200 Makes a Difference
Voyager 5200’s biggest USP is its 4-mic noise-cancelling setup and a proprietary DSP cancellation for disruptive background noise. It also integrates with UC apps from Microsoft, Avaya, Zoom, Cisco, Google, and more, letting you accept or reject calls using your voice.
What We Think
At a price point of £90-£110 (depending on when and where you buy), we believe that Poly Voyager 5200 offers an excellent value proposition, assuming you are okay with charging the device once across an average 8-hour workday.
