The Backbeat GO 810 from Plantronics are over-ear headphones featuring Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) with dual mode and up to 22 hours of battery life per charge, available in Graphite Black, Bone White and an attractive Navy Blue. Self-titled as “escapeware” the dual mode ANC lets you choose how much background noise you allow to penetrate the headset depending on how noisy the environment is, whether you are on the daily commute or simply trying to drown out the family around you. Both modes work well, the highest setting allows you fully immersive sound although with much of an impact to the sound quality, as for the rest of the sound quality it was generally good; the bass was impressive thanks to the 40mm Plantronics’s signature audio drivers the mid and high tones are clean but it is the bass heads who will enjoy this the most. The design of the headphones looks a little boring, to look at them you couldn’t tell if you paid £139 or £25, they are a bit chunky and dated-looking however there is plenty of memory foam and leatherette padding around the ear cups and headband meaning they are wonderfully comfortable.
You can download an app and play about with the settings and EQ presets to customise your audio experience if that bass is a little too much for you. You get up to 22 hours’ continuous play time with the ANC switched on and up to 26 hours with it switched off, the ear cups will fold down flat for a more compact shape when travelling, it does come with a soft travel bag but the quality isn’t great and it doesn’t offer to much in the way of protection. The headphones can be controlled via the buttons on each ear cup, skipping tracks, pausing/playing and turning up the volume for example, but it will take a little time to learn which button is where as the symbols are difficult to differentiate with your fingers. You can take calls hands free with the Go 810 however the person receiving the call complained of a lot of background noise. The sound quality and comfort are easily the best things about these headphones, the buttons aren’t intuitive, the design is unoriginal, the mic quality isn’t great and I think for the price tag you would naturally expect more. RRP £139.99
3 out of 5
Pros
Comfortable
Good battery life
Impressive sound quality
Dual mode ANC
Cons
Controls hard to differentiate with fingertips
Unoriginal, ungainly design
Cheap travel bag
Mic picks up a lot of background noise
Limited features
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