Review: Poly Voyager Focus 2 UC

The use of a good headset ensures that you are comfortable during meetings, that you can be well understood by your colleagues and customers (without any noise) but also that you can hear what is said by others and you are not disturbed by environmental sounds.

There are broadly 3 types of headsets:

• in-ear
• on-ear
• over-the-ear

The choice of a headset is very personal. Personally, I like to use “in-ear” during sports. But “on-ear” will be my choice during work, and then mainly talking about meetings.

If I want to watch a movie on the couch or in bed at night, my preference would go to an “over-the-ear” headset for full focus.

The headset I received from Poly, the Voyager Focus 2 UC, is an “on-ear” headset.

I am not being paid to write a review about this headset. I will therefore share my honest experience with you here.

Whats in the box

So let’s unpack the box:

• Headset Voyager Focus 2 UC (with Teams logo on the side)
• BT700 Bluetooth dongle
• Voyager Office base with USB-A Connection
• USB-A charging cable
• Carry Case

Setup and use

Having used headsets with dongles before, I know the importance of updating. But also the importance of functioning correctly using the dongle. Poly has 2 options for this, this can be through Poly Lens Cloud Service or through the Poly Lens desktop app.

I have chosen the Poly Lens desktop app here. After plugging in the USB dongle, a message appears in the Poly Lens app that newer firmware is available. Make sure this is up to date.

By default, headset from Poly is already linked to the dongle. The dongle belongs with the headset, so don’t go changing it during a large roll out ;-)

After turning on the headset, it will also appear in the Poly Lens App. Again, check the firmware and make sure it is the latest version.

When you also want to pair the headset with your cell phone, for example, turn the headset on. And keep the power button pressed upwards. The ring on the headset will flash Red/Blue. This means that the headset is in pairing mode. Now on your cell phone, go to your bluetooth settings and select the “Poly VFOCUS2 Series”.

The headset can handle 2 simultaneous sessions. So it is possible to use both your laptop and your mobile phone.

Battery

Battery life time got even more important with the whole COVID-19 pandemic. Working from home has increased our calls and meetings significantly. the Voyager Focus 2 has the following battery specs:

• Talk time: Up to 25 hours (with ANC off), Up to 20 hours (with ANC On)
• Listening time: Up to 40 hours (with ANC Off), Up to 24 hours (with ANC On)
• Charge time: Full charge 2 hours.
• Standby time: Up to 30 days.

Compatibility

Poly: “All Poly USB headsets and personal speakerphones are compatible with the most popular voice platforms.”

A list of certified platforms:

• Microsoft Teams
• Skype for Business
• Zoom
• Cisco
• Google Cloud
• Mitel
• Ribbon
• Avaya
• Alcatel-Lucent
• AWS

Active Noise Canceling (ANC):

ANC has 3 options, 0 (Off), which i would be recommending for only when listening to music, podcast or something similar. When making calls the ANC switch can be set to 1 (Mid) for general office use or 2 (High) for noisy /loud environments to reduce the background noise.

Only use option 2 when needed, it will drain the battery a bit faster.

Smart Sensors

The smart sensors built are pretty easy to use, answer calls by simply putting on the headset, mute by taking the headset off and pause/resume music.

My Experience

I normally use an audio puck when I work from home, but to properly test this headset, I conducted all meetings all week with this headset. I must honestly admit that it worked out very well for me. No extreme pressure on my ears during prolonged use (4 hours of meetings). The sound quality (HiFi) is perfect, the low tones are not too pronounced which makes it pleasant to listen to others. Also, the use of the smart sensors is ideal within Microsoft Teams meetings. Putting yourself on mute, accepting or ending calls.

There is one thing I do not like as much about the smart sensors, I am quite used to sometimes putting my headset half on one ear so I can hear what is being said around me. The sensors react to this and the mute function kicks in immediately or people hear me less well in the meeting. I think there could be some improvement here.

As for the ANC, I am really super satisfied. A crying baby has no one heard in the meeting ;-)

Compared to the first Voyager Focus, the headset has gone through a nice transformation and is really an ideal headset for everyday use.

I would change one thing hardware-wise and that is the micro USB connection, I find that no longer of this time. Nowadays USB-C is the standard, even for the dongle it would be ideal to standard as USB-C to deliver including a converter to USB-A. If you now buy a new laptop you have mainly USB-C ports, so you are forced to buy a new dongle.

Would you also like to have your equipment tested by means of a review (blog), please contact me.