📅 2021-Nov-14 ⬩ ✍️ Ashwin Nanjappa ⬩ 🏷️ headphones ⬩ 📚 Archive
Logitech Zone Wireless is a wireless on-ear headset made by Logitech, primarily designed for work. I got the Microsoft Teams variant of the headset, which has features that integrate it closer with the Teams app.
This is a wireless headset - which can be mighty useful when working from home and attending meetings. For example, you can walk around and think or talk, grab water or coffee from the kitchen, use the bathroom or open the door to someone, all while being in a call.
The headset comes with its own USB Type-A receiver dongle. This eliminates the bother of Bluetooth pairing. I just turn on the headset and it instantly is connected to my computer. Neither do I need to worry that my computer might not have a Bluetooth receiver with the latest profile - everything just works.
However, if you prefer Bluetooth since it avoids having to use a separate dongle, that is supported too. Put the headset into pairing mode by first turning it on (steady white light) and hold-press again (blinking white light). It should appear as Zone Wireless in the Bluetooth device list.
The headset has a boom mic, which can be flipped down to my mouth or flipped back to rest on the headset. In Microsoft Teams, this flipping automatically unmutes or mutes the mic. I find this super convenient in work meetings.
With a kid and a baby in our home, having a boom mic was important for me. The boom mic mostly eliminates all the background noise when I am speaking so my audience only hears a clear voice. When combined with the noise suppression in Microsoft Teams, this works to eliminate most of the noise. The boom is short, I think a longer boom (like in my simple Logitech H390 USB headset) would have further reduced the background noise and isolated my voice.
The audio quality in the speakers is fine for work calls and passable for music. If you want to enjoy your music, this is definitely not enough.
This headset is on-ear, so the cups rest on the ears. This was super uncomfortable for me, after being spoilt by the luxurious comfort of my Bose Soundlink AE2 headphones. Also, not sure what materials they use for the cups because it made my ears super hot. The solution that partly fixed these problems was to wear the headset a little loose/lower - so my ears got to breathe and also the headset was no longer snug.
The headset barely sits on my ears - any heavy shaking of my head and unseat them. I cannot use them to do any sort of exercise (pushups or squats) while participating in a meeting.
The buttons on this headset are the worst I have ever used. The biggest culprit is the power button - it can barely be found with my fingers (while I am wearing the headset) and has the worst action I have ever seen in a button! It takes like 2-3 presses for me to finally power on or power off this headset.
The build quality is passable, strictly made for work and not comfort. The metal parts feel harshly hard (why use metal?) and the softer parts feel cheap.
It came with a long USB Type-A to Type-C cable. When the headset’s battery is low and I still need to attend meetings, I find it useful to continue to charge the headset with this cable while I am taking calls. Sadly, the headset still needs to be turned on and connected in the wireless mode to use like this - it does not appear as a wired headset over USB.
By installing the LogiTune application, I am able to see the battery level of the headset, configure the voice prompts and configure what the center button does (on press, double press and long press). The voice prompts provide audio prompts in your chosen language when you try to pair, rotate mic to on or off (“mute on” or “mute off”). I keep this feature OFF since I prefer the different kinds of beeps it uses instead. Even with voice prompts OFF, it uses voice prompts for “power on” and “power off” which I actually found to be a well-thought idea. The app has a noise supression option, which I do not turn on because it adds a very audible low background hiss which sounds terrible (and it is on even when the mic is off).
After using this for many months, I believe that a wireless headset with boom mic and its own receiver dongle is super useful for working from home. This headset in particular is pretty average and you could go for something more comfortable and with better buttons.