Let me start out by saying I'm very picky about my headsets. And that is probably an understatement. I have so many headsets, it's embarrassing. Bose, Plantronics, Beats, Jabra, Ultimate Ears, Shure, you name it, I may have had it.
There's a few things I look for in a headset. Sound quality, voice quality, comfort, style and battery life if wireless.
I have a Note 4 and stumbled onto the Level Over via Samsung's website. I was not really in the market for a headset, but when visiting my local Best Buy, a sales rep in the Samsung section, told me they were 1/2 off bringing the price below $200. This was a bargain, so I decided to give them a go.
Sound Quality (5 stars): Top notch in my book. The noise calculation is spot on. It is strong, but not too much to where you hear the annoying "hissing" sound. The sound quality is really good, but jumps to outstanding when you use the Samsung Level app with your phone. You have total control of the sound. If you want base, you got it. If you are into rock, country or EDM, these should work well. Wind - there is a gap between the cup and the brace that goes over the head. Wind gets trapped in there OR wind gets picked up from the active mics. Either way, if it’s windy outside, it will impact the sound quality.
Voice quality (2 stars): I am picky when it comes to voice. I am on the phone a lot for work and I hate nothing more than a bad call experience. Choppy, tin can, echo, breaking up, alien... drives me crazy. The feedback I have on voice falls into two buckets. First, if I used the wire or bluetooth, I was told I sounded "hollow". People could understand me, but they could tell I was on a headset. This is usually okay for most people. If you're outside and there's wind... it's not going to work for you. I was unable to test if the mic picked up a lot of background noise. The other bucket has to do with the noise cancellation feature. Talking on the phone with these things in noise calculation mode is painful. Your voice is NOT picked up by the mic and routed back into your earphones, so you can't hear yourself talk (if that makes any sense). Put your hands of your ears and talk. That is what it sounds like, but times it by 5. It is okay for short calls, but I wouldn't be comfortable taking long calls on it. The good news, is you can disable noise cancellation mode and the headset and mic still work. It is still not great, but it is improved.
Comfort (5 stars): It doesn't get too much better than this. They really are comfortable which is something I usually struggle with because my head is on the BIG side. People with big heads usually experience a "pressing" feeling over longer periods of time which is uncomfortable at 60 minutes. These do not press up against the head AND the nice leather cushion headrest is perfect. When adjusted to your head, the headset truly rests on your head and not your ears.
Style (3 stars): There are part of them that I like. I really like the leather band. I like the no buttons look. The colors are good, especially the white ones (although I purchased black). That said, they are giant. When wearing them to the check the mail, I felt like I was headed to the gun range or on the flightdeck of an aircraft carrier. They are BIG, but also note, they are lightweight for how big they are. I was okay wearing them in my home office, but would not be okay with wearing them in the office or at the airport. Also note, they don’t fold or collapse. So if you’re mobile and need to pack them, they’re going to take up a little room in your bag. They do however, come with a nice case for storage. Volume and track control is done through a touch slider. I liked it, although the pause feature did not work on my phone or I could not get it to work with Spotify or Soundcloud.
Battery Life (5 stars): They charge fast and lasted a long time. I don’t know the exact times, but I was content.
As noted in the title, I ended up returning them. Even though I got them for half off retail, they were just not for me. For the Level Over and I to live happily ever after, this is what I would like to see in a future version. Work on the size. Needs a smaller footprint. Specifically on how far they stick out off the ear. Need to solve the problem with wind and how it affects the sound quality. When on a call, somehow route my voice into the ear piece so I can hear myself and we’re gold (similar to what Turtle Beach has done with their gaming headsets). I travel often and it would be helpful if they collapsed or folded down.