Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE: 7/24/18 The ERA is long gone and Plantronics has landed at the top of the Bluetooth earpiece heap. For those that read this review for the first time, there is no reason to read the original review unless you just want a little perspective. Today, I thought it might be a good idea to update where I'm currently sitting with my Bluetooth earpiece choice. Just as a reminder, I'm on conference calls a lot...at home and on the road. Through attrition, it was time to order another earpiece and during the recent Prime Days sale Amazon had the Plantronics Voyager 5200 (refurbished) on sale for $49...I had to bite. The 5200 is VERY light, has outstanding clarity and background noise filters and is my most comfortable earpiece...it just works. Over the last couple of years I've also been using the Plantronics Legend and it has also been a good workhorse, but no better or worse than the Edge...just different. Normally I would use the Legend at my desk and take the Edge on the road (I felt I looked a little less "geeky" with the Edge). So long story short...so far the 5200 is my clear favorite and the one I will reach for most often. I also bought the refurbished charging case to keep in my computer bag for the road (apparently I've matured into being comfortable with "geeky"). Time will tell if it has the ability to replace my Edge or Legend, but so far the 5200 would be my recommendation as the best of the bunch. You can jump over to the 5200 page and read all the specs, but there's no question that it's a pretty significant technology jump from the Legend and Edge. Absolutely worth the current $59 (refurbished) price for admission. UPDATE: 6/23/16 You can go through the comments to this post and see more information. There are some good discussion points there. I just want to update readers that my original EDGE purchased about two years ago finally stopped working properly. People on the other line said that I sounded great one moment and like I was in a hole or distant the next. I tried resetting the headset (un-pair, power off phone/headset, power on, re-pair), but it didn't help. I had ordered another EDGE as a backup at the beginning of the year and it has worked flawlessly just like the first one. It was nice to keep one in my car and one in my office, so I will be ordering another one today, so that I will continue to have two...they have come down in price considerably since I purchased the first one in 2014. I also tried the sexy ERA again at the first of the year to see if any of the firmware updates changed my initial thoughts...they did not. I sent it back within days of purchasing. Needless to say I am still firmly in the EDGE camp...even if I can only expect a two year lifespan. The bluetooth headset world has changed a bit over these two years, and I think the ERA has been shown to be inferior to the EDGE for most people. The new Voyager 5200 looks interesting, but there are countless Voyager Legend users out there to point you in the right direction on that one...The small footprint of the EDGE or the Voyager 5200 (the next generation of the legendary LEGEND)?? That would be a nice review to read. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I'm on conference calls quite a bit throughout the day and have used a wired headset at my desk (cheap, great sound quality, but ties you down) and the old LG HBS-700 most other times. The LG had done a fine job, it just becomes cumbersome sometimes and I wanted something smaller. I did my research and knew that the Plantronics EDGE and the Jawbone ERA were the two new kids on the block, so I bought both and did a side-by-side. I would try one for a couple of days and then the other, or sometimes I would try both with the same caller and ask for feedback. I like all the ERA was intended to be...small, great fun features, interaction with Siri, and tremendous sound quality. In practice however, it just did not work out that way. Between the two the ERA has the better sound coming to my ear, but it would be sketchy to the person I was talking to; sometimes perfect other times not. I really need a headset that I can have confidence in and the ERA, at this point, can not do that for me. The EDGE, on the other hand, works every time. It's not as flashy or as small as the ERA, but it works. The sound coming to my ear is not quite as pleasing as the ERA (the ERA has a very good HD sound), but I can hear people extremely well, and I know when I'm on a call, people will hear me very well, every time I use it. In fact, I've been told that the sound coming to the person I'm talking to is almost as good as my wired headset with a boom mic...and that thing is as good as it gets! I also like the fact that the EDGE automatically interacts with the contacts in my phone and announces the name of EVERY caller in my contacts, The ERA can only do 10 and you have to manually load them. Also, I did not think the pick up and answer feature of the EDGE would be that beneficial, but it is. The short battery life of the ERA did not really bother me much because I spend a lot of time in my car and it's easy to charge it, but the LONG battery life of the EDGE is just one less thing to worry about. Also, I kind of stumbled on to this, but the EDGE will interact with Siri just like the ERA, just hold the call button for a few seconds and Siri is ready for your every command. No question the ERA is flashier, I love the size, and I wanted to like it, but in the end, the EDGE is the better headset, and so far, is a consistent workhorse for me. The ERA is on it's way back to Amazon and the EDGE is sitting in my ear as we speak.