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My new job involves WFH and constant calls on MS Teams.
I am looking for a trial and tested headset for around £150 that is wireless, has good battery life, works with MS Teams (mic has to be good) and has noise cancelling build in.
Bonus would be that it is portal enough to take on travel and use for playing songs as well.
Any recommendations please?
I have some sony xb910's that fit that description. I tried the M5's but they were 2x as expensive and not 2x as good.
How is the microphone in noisier conditions and how is the noise cancellation for plane/train journeys?
work gave me some Jabra65s and they are great, they don't fold but go flat in the soft bag
My go-tos are the Plantronics Voyager Focus UC at home, there's a newer Focus UC 2 out but it's barely changed and the older model can be had well within budget including the handy charging stand. I have the dongle in my work laptop for calling then bluetooth pair to my personal laptop or phone for music/youtube/whatever. Nice easy mute button on the mic boom too.
For really cutting out the noise then Voyager 8200 UC, they're a proper over the ear style, very effective noise cancelling on planes etc, even better bass but not as all-day comfy for me with glasses and there mic is in the ear cups (no boom) so not so good at filtering out the background in noisy places.
Might be able to pick up some discounted Bose QC35's for around that price. Excellent all round.
Yeah, I have had two pairs of Bose and can't fault them really. The current pair is my personal set (I had to give the last set of QC35s back) and they work really well for the video calls I have to do. Comfortable, long battery, good ANC, good microphone.
A friend swears by the Sony equivalent, but I have not tried them.
Some of the Jabra are Passive NC others are Active NC, make sure you know which ones you are getting.
I have some passive ones that are work issued and they are ok (about 15-20 dB noise reduction at "voice" frequencies) so you can still hear stuff going on around you. (about £180)
My personal ones (a different model of jabra) is active NC and i think that's around 40dB at the voice frequencies and 20+dB across the range... much quieter (smaller battery and about £150). The Bose my ex has are basically like some sort of sensory deprivation device. But they were well over 300 quid.
Second what Simon says. Big advantage with the Plantronics is the noise cancelling that they do on the mic. My previous employer turned a nice quiet office into a large contact centre, with a handful of hot desks stuck in a corner, and I could have a decent call without anyone noticing the huge amount of background noise
Jabra Evolve 75 is my daily driver for Teams calls. Comes with a carry case, excellent noise cancelling but has the option to feed some of your voice back through the headphones which makes it feel less like your head is wrapped in cotton wool.
For sound quality when listening to music, Sony all the way - but the Jabra is the tool to use for Teams.
I use Sony wh1000xm3 for home based office use especially for teams and general music and podcasts.
Noise canceling is excellent and folds down into a case for travelling.
Should be able to get them for slightly more than your budget, but they are hard to get hold of due to the newer versions that have been released.
My wife has picked up some sony wh1000xm4, a bit over your budget but the good thing is they can connect to 2 devices at once, so computer and phone which means you don't have to swap between them
Teams - whatever Jabra fits the bill, I'm very happy with the Evolve 65's I bought used. Wireless is essential so you are not tied to the desk (hopefully you don't need to be on video all day!) I'd really question the need for NC for home working.
Pleasure/Travel - Sony WH-1000XM4. Better than the equivalent Bose that my wife has. There is a newer/better XM5 model, but not a fan of the form-factor - they don't fold down for travel. Though, if I'm entirely honest I use the Sony's a lot less since I got some AirPod Pro's - the convenience factor of having something that slips in my pocket outweighs the better performance of the Sony's (similar to lugging a DSLR vs. a smart phone - the best camera is the one you have on you!).
How is the microphone in noisier conditions and how is the noise cancellation for plane/train journeys?
works for me, not had any complaints from people I've been talking to.
first set of noise cancelling headphones so not got much to compare with but seems pretty good to me.
they do dual BT like the higher end ones too.
worth trying a few on, I didnt find the bose or beats ones that comfortable. larger earcups on the sony.
I think I asked this about a year ago, and got a pair of the Bose NCs - NC 700s
The bonus was they had been included with a fancy Samsung (I think) phone and the eBay was awash with flogged BNIB items.
Can't fault them, my ears didn't cope too well with my previous attempt, a pair of Sennheisers - great 'phones, but they hurt my ears - as in ear shell - after a while. The Bose are much more comfortable (for me).
You could give a whirl on likes of AirPod Pros - noise cancelling on those is pretty good, as tested on several public transport journeys.
You could give a whirl on likes of AirPod Pros
I'm also interested in an earbud, rather than headphone (I know the OP specified headphones) - are these, or any other earbuds actually good for teams calls with noise cancelling, or are headphones really the best answer?
I can't say I've tried them out in that scenario (yet) - was simply saying them to absorb music & talk, and block out the rest ion the travellers - which they did successfully - and comfortably.
At the risk of repeating other recommendations, I am a big fan of my Plantronics Voyager Focus.
Full teams integration. Noise cancelling is OK for headset but absolutely brilliant on the mic. I was on a call earlier and there was a vacumn cleaner running a few feet away. No-one on the call could hear it! Add the useful sensors and it's a great headset. Music sounds good too.
I’ve got the Sony XM4s described above, and had the XM2 before. Both are brilliant for listening to audio and music, but the mics are utter pants. Endless complaints about how I sounded when on Teams calls with them.
Switched for Jabra Evolve2 75 which are awesome, but a fair bit beyond your budget.
But when working from home, I much prefer using a Jabra 510 speakerphone. Able to move around and not get hot ears.
https://www.jabra.co.uk/business/speakerphones/jabra-speak-series/jabra-speak-510
Jabra evolve2 65 here and they are great for Teams calls. There's no active noise cancelling, but I don't feel like I really need it, they block sufficient noise and the mic does a great job of only picking up my voice. Even in a busy office there no background noise or voices added to the call.
I use sony XM4 for listening to music though so I'm aware of the benefits of having full NC. These just don't offer LDAC music when multi device pairing and using a generic BT stack instead of a UC dongle on windows basically sucks (although it does seem better with windows 11).
What sucks on most work laptops is bluetooth drivers that haven't been touched since that model first came out. Throw things like bluetooth mice into the mix and it can get horrible. Keeping it on a separate path via the dongle (so windows just sees a USB device) makes things much better.
On the mic noise cancelling thing, Teams has its own software noise suppression these days too and the default setting does a pretty good job even where a mic would pick up plenty of noise.