Plantronics - Backbeat FIT 6100 Over-the-Ear Wireless Sport Headphones - Black

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great sound, strong connection, so-so for workouts

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I have a few over-ear headsets and I'm always on the lookout for something unique in this space. The plantronics backbeat fit line is known for its sweat resistant, comfortable, and durable wireless earbuds. The backbeat fit 6100s are the first over-hear headphones in this line and the short story is, they're great. Fantastic sound, very comfortable, some pretty innovative features, with only a few drawbacks. Fit - these headphones fit very well, the headband is a very soft and flexible material that adjusts easily. There is a secondary adjustment system that consists of a a plastic hook on a piece of cord ... I don't really understand how this is supposed to work. Securing it on either of the two connection points doesn't really change the tension of the clamping force on your ears. And this is where there's a problem, these headphones fit securely and comfortably, but if you're engaging in some rigorous exercise I'm not convinced these will stay put. Walking the dog, mowing the lawn, and just walking around town I haven't had a problem with these. The IPX5 sweat/water resistance is a very nice feature that ensures you're headset won't be destroyed by normal wear and tear on a hot or rainy day - though I would strongly recommend hanging them up somewhere to dry while keeping the earcups from touching. If they touch the water will just stay pressed between the cups which makes for a very unpleasant experience when you put them back on and they're still wet. Overall the build quality is great. The headband is connected to the cups with an alarmingly thin metal wire, but it feels much stronger than it looks. The earcups are made out of a soft water-resistant material that conforms nicely to your ears and don't grow irritating even while wet. the outer earcups have this matte look and a kind of rubbery feel. I don't know how else to describe it but it feels high quality. Performance - Out of the box these had a high charge, pairing is quick and easy. These headphones sound fantastic, great range across highs, mids and lows. They feel a little bass heavy, but there's no distortion I've detected (I don't listen at extremely high volume) and it's pretty normal for headsets in this price range. The right earcup has a touch panel built in which is very convenient. Turning volume up and down, skipping forward and back in tracks is very easy. There is a command to activate/deactivate "awareness mode" but I've not been able to get it to work. The illustration in the instructions is just too enigmatic for me I guess. My only complaint here is that if you're on a call and touch the right earcup at all, you're almost guaranteed to end the call. Again not the end of the world, but it is very frustrating. After hanging up on a friend 3 times in a row I just kept my hands off the right earcup and used my phone to adjust volume. Call quality is fine. Nothing out of the ordinary here. People on the phone could hear me clearly even with a good bit of background/traffic noise so they should do well for any calls you may need to take. To really unlock the full potential of these headphones you have to download the backbeat app. Doing so immediately notifies you that there is a firmware update for your headphones. Beware, the update process takes a very long time. You'll definitely want to update too, because out of the box these headphones have "awareness mode" turned on. I was never able to figure out the touch command to turn it off. When enabled built-in mics transmit ambient sound to you which ideally helps keep you aware of your surroundings. This is a very neat feature and something that I quite like when I'm out on long walks with the dog. It's helpful to be able to tell when there's a car coming or someone walking up behind us, very cool. Once you update your firmware the app will offer you the ability to enable/disable awareness mode. This is a key feature that I can't believe requires an app to turn on and off. The app is fairly light on features. There's no EQ which is the most basic feature and pretty much standard on every bluetooth headset I've ever used. Alas it's not here. You can turn awareness mode on or off and strangely choose whether you want music to pause or play with it turned on. What good is it without any media playing? At that point you're basically just wearing headphones to hear your surroundings, which you can do by taking the headphones off. It's weird. I guess if you're trying to hear someone surreptitiously it's a thing, but that's a genuinely creepy feature to include. Most annoyingly you don't have a volume slider to control the amount of outside "awareness" you want. There's only one level to your awareness mode, and it's very loud. Your own voice will surprise with how loud it is, footsteps and wind and traffic sounds are alarmingly loud. I don't want to trash the app too hard because it's definitely a work in progress, but the absence of some very basic functionality does make these headphones slightly less desirable in my book. Oh but before I forget, they do have a cool feature that allows you to find your headphones, using it causes the headphones to admit a tone so you can locate them if you set them down and forgot where you left them or the dog moved them or whatever. Not bad. Battery life promises 24 hours on a full charge. I haven't tested this yet, but I've been using them for a few hours a day for 5 days or so and haven't had to charge them yet. Sadly these headphones charge via micro usb. I really wish manufacturers would get on the USB-C train, it's the one cable I need to charge all of my other electronics (phone, tablet, video game controllers), having to bust out a different cable whenever I need to top up the battery is inconvenient. The included usb cable is also laughably short, like maybe two inches long. You'd better have a cable lying around that's long enough to be useful because this one is just way too short. You'll also need to use your own charger because there is no power brick included in the box. This is pretty standard stuff for headphones, but I feel like for nearly 200 bucks they could at the very least make sure you have everything you need to use the headset. I don't mind the absence of a power brick so much since I have an endless supply of them from past mobile phones but that cable feels insulting. Plantronics, and other manufacturers, please stop cheaping out, give me a cable that's a least six inches long. Bluetooth connection is quite strong, I've never lost signal or had a spotty signal while using these. Very happy with the range so far. They're a strong performer in this area for sure. Overall I think these headphones are great. Whether or not they'll be well suited to your own workout routine is something you'll have to decide for yourself. For walking, yardwork, and regular use they're fantastic. Performance is on par with some of the best headsets I've used, very good performance at this price range. I'd easily recommend these, but I have to add the caveat that some features are still half-baked due to the limitations of the app. Hopefully over time the touch controls and awareness mode will mature with app and firmware updates, but out of the box those features are just okay. Still that doesn't change the fact that these are a great performing and durable set of headphones that should suit you well in just about any use-case scenario ... within reason.

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  Posted 6 years ago by NoFaceLIves

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great Sound ...Decent Controls

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  These are some pretty good headphones for the price. I was a little concerned when I first got them. I tried them out by pairing them to my phone and started listening to music. Easy set-up and pairing. I started using the touch controls on the headset and got frustrated pretty fast. Tapping the center, volume up, volume down, skip ahead, skip back all by moving your finger on the headset. Sounds great, but there is one catch, you can’t tell where you are touching. It would be a better design if they had raised dots to help distinguish an area to touch. I don’t know how many times I would start, stop or change a song before I could listen to a playlist. The Saving Grace. So, after all my complaining (to myself) I went to their website and found where you can download the Back Beat app. The app really turned it around for me. I don’t remember seeing about the app in the quick start guide, but I might have missed it. In the app you can control all aspects of the headphones. The two most important controls I have found in the settings are My Tap and EQ. My Tap assigns what tapping on the center of the earpiece does. The 1 tap I have turned off, I found that I would hit it by accident and stop, start or change the song. The EQ setting is for the frequencies, I boost the low frequencies to get better Bass. Under settings you can also turn on or off the Awareness Mode. The sound quality is really good especially with the EQ set to Bass, the headphones have a strap that can tighten the headphones for a more secure fit. I found this helpful as I am riding around on my bike. The Sound awareness is also beneficial when you are out in public and need to hear some noises, like a truck or a dog, when you are walking, running or doing other outside activities.

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  Posted 6 years ago by UnkinB

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  These Headphones keep going and going and going!!

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  To start off these were quoted on the box to play up to 24 hours so that was the first thing I tested. I gave them a full charge and paired them up to my music and let them play.. and play.. I went to sleep.. woke up.. they were still playing.. went to work came back.. they were still playing haha. They lasted over 24 hours for me That was pretty amazing for a wireless headset in my opinion. Another high point I enjoyed about these were that they had touch sensitive controls on the outer ear on one side. I hate looking for the lil volume slider on a black set of headphones trying to find which one does what so this made playback, forwarding and replaying songs and all a breeze. the only downside to this is sometimes when you're adjusting them on your head you can touch the buttons. They were comfortable and are flexible as shown in the picture. Extremely lightweight! Sound quality was nice All that being said, besides the two speaker muffs and the small foam padding for the top of your head these are entirely held together by two small metal wires that look like coat hangers.. to mea it made them look a little cheap because of that. And at this price point I would think they'd have enclosed some type of bag to carry these in. The only thing you get is a charging cord.

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  Posted 6 years ago by GameOverSuckas