Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless

Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless

My wife gets annoyed with a little habit I have. If I am on the phone, I can’t sit still. I will be walking around the room or the house, talking away. As I work mostly form home and the telephone is one of my main tools, you can imagine the rest.

When I was taking VOIP calls on the computer, though, I was stuck. I have used a bluetooth headset, but not only it made my ear ache, people also couldn’t hear me well. So I was down to a nice pair of Sennheiser PC350, typically used for gaming, but which I love to use both for VOIP calls and even with my iPhone. I had to buy a small adapter that allows both jacks (headphones and microphone) to be used with a combo audio socket, like the one on my Lenovo ThinkPad W510, but it worked fine.

Sennheiser PC350

But now things have changed! I got a Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless headset, and it works like a treat. I can now roam the house as I attend conference calls over the Internet! My wife isn’t too happy.

The ClearChat headset comes with a USB transceiver that is immediately recognized by Windows 7. You then turn on the headset and you are ready to go. Just like that. No drivers, no software utilities, nothing. And because the range is about 10 meters there’s plenty of room to move about. I tried it by wearing it as I walked down the stairs two floors and only in the ground floor it lost signal.

In the headset itself you have the on/off button, volume + and –, and a mute button, all conveniently located. You can also mute the microphone by rotating it up and out of the way. When it is muted there is a red light glowing on the tip of the microphone, which lets you know the mike is off. Obviously, if you muted it by rotating it up this is pretty useless.

The ear pads are quite small, and that is a minus. Besides, they feel too fragile and I am afraid they will break rather early in the lifetime of the headset. There is also a micro USB slot on the headset, used to recharge it.
The quality of the sound is quite good, and according to the manufacturer they provide laser-tuned audio. Technicalities aside, the sound is very good, both with voice and with music, and now I just have to run a few tests to assess the quality of the microphone.

So, here are the pros and cons of this headset:

Pros

• Wireless – gives you free movement
• Range – 10 meters (33 ft)
• Light – you barely feel them on your head
• Good quality sound for the type
• Easy to setup (requires no setup!)
• Handy controls in the headset

Cons

• Ear pads too small
• Headphones too fragile, won’t survive rough treatment
• A bit expensive for the quality of the materials used
• One more USB port required on your computer

Logitech, if you read this, correct those few points above and see if you can make it work with the Unifying Receiver to save another USB port.