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Plantronics DECT Headset.

Plantronics are a company that has produced high quality PC headsets for years – and they still do – however now they produce both Bluetooth and DECT offerings as well. Here I am trying a DECT headset that enables you to walk around while talking on your DECT phone and have both hands free.

A DECT phone is great because you can roam around without the constraint of wires. In most cases this means you can move from room to room and this is marvellous when you are looking for that piece of information the other person requires.

There is of course the small problem that you still need a hand to hold the phone. This can be solved by using a DECT headset such as the one from Plantronics. Providing your DECT phone has an option for another station then just plug the DECT station into it – at least 45cm from the base station – and just unhook the DECT headset when you require it. This station is also the charge point for the headset, from total discharge it needs 3 hours to be fully charged.

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The unit features a behind the head fitting with only the mouthpiece being forward of the ear. For anyone with long hair the behind the head part will be totally invisible.

I could not find this unit on the www.Plantronics.co.uk site but www.dabs.co.uk do have this CS60 model I used for £201.99, I think you would need to be a really heavy phone user to make this purchase economic.

Belkin Bluetooth Hands-Free Headset

Back with the computer again, Belkin are well known for all sorts of equipment and cables designed for computer use and now they have produced a number of Bluetooth headsets.

Like most Bluetooth objects it will work in the locality to the base station in good conditions this will be up to 10 metres away but think about what is nearby a lot of dense walls and other items such as filing cabinets etc will tend to reduce the effective working area.

Unlike the DECT headset this is designed to work on any computer related task that requires speech. Internet telephony is a prime contender, it could be chat rooms or even one of the many products such as Skype that carry phone calls across the Internet.

However it will also work with speech recognition packages and should you be so inclined Internet or Multimedia gaming.

The Headset is very light at around 20grams and small at 5.5x2.5x2.5 with a hook over ear fitting. The charger unit – 5 hours talk time and up to 120 hours standby – is not much bigger at 6x4x4cm. It is also stated to work with a range of mobile phones.

www.dabs.com have this model F8TO61uk for £55.98.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=174399