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Review: Plantronics BackBeat FIT Headphones
Mon, 3rd Nov 2014
FYI, this story is more than a year old

The BackBeat FIT headphones by Plantronics are designed for sporty people. As an anything but sporty person, are they any use for me?

As a long term user of Plantronics kit and an owner of a set of BackBeat Go headphones, I wondered if the FITs would solve my woes. Yes they did, almost.

The FIT is a set of bluetooth headphones joined by a small band around the back. With a hook over design, they won’t fall off, however much exertion you throw at them. The buds are channels, so no trying to find the right earpiece and trying to make them stay in, the sound is ducted into your ears.

This is successful with not much apparent loss of quality of bass. I actually had to turn it down as the sound could be quite strong.

Plantronics have also built in voice feedback and touch sensitive controls for the music and your phone. This works brilliantly, advising you of battery life, connection status and making using it simple and easy.

There were a couple of issues. I found it wouldn’t automatically turn off to save battery life. This meant that on a few occasions, if I had taken them off then got a call, I’d try to answer it and realise sound was going to the headphones. Even after an hour or so. This obviously impacts the battery life and can be a minor annoyance.

The other issue is the length of the band. I found that it would interfere with my collar. I would have liked a clip on it as just a slight tip back of the head meant it would knock against my collar. By having a clip on it, I could clip it into my collar, meaning it is even more secure.

This would have been a great hand yesterday, I was mowing the grass and the parents turned up, so I press stop and take them out of my ears, resting them around my neck. Couple of minutes later I start mowing again and grrhhnkkccrrr, a FIT no more! The FIT is so light, you hardly notice it, so if it falls off, you might not even know!

**Summary**:Plantronics is based in my old home town of Swindon, UK so hopefully they’ll forgive me returning a ‘slightly used’ FIT, but in my defence, it is on my list of must have headphones and I’d suggest it should be on yours.