Digital Trends

Plantronics Pulsar 260

April 11th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup & Use

Setting up the Plantronics Pulsar 260 is very straightforward and, much to my pleasure, very easy. It takes no more than 20 seconds to retrieve all the Pulsar 260's parts and prepare the headset pendant for charging.

With the pendant plugged into the wall with the included mini-USB wall plug, I spent a few moments inspecting the rest of the package contents. Plantronics quickly proves to be a generous and caring company — they've included everything one could possibly need to use the Pulsar 260 with a Bluetooth mobile phone. In addition to the Pulsar 260 pendant, you'll find the stereo corded headset, three (3!) sizes of comfy gel-type, sound-isolating eartips, an audio-out cable (use covered later), a lightweight but sturdy and stylish lanyard, and the AC-to-mini-USB wall charger.

It's important to note that Plantronics avoided the painful and insulting mistake of using a proprietary charging jack for the Pulsar 260. By setting it up with the standard-sized, 4-pin, mini-USB plug for charging, Plantronics has allowed consumers to pare down their cable collection a little bit more. The same USB cable that I use to download photos from my digital camera, charge my cell phone, and transfer files to a portable hard drive can now be used to charge the newly beloved Plantronics Pulsar 260 Bluetooth headset.

Pairing the Pulsar 260 with a cell phone is pretty simple. First, make sure the Pulsar 260 is turned on. Hold the power button and the play/pause/mute button until the indicator lights flash blue and red. From your cell phone's Bluetooth setup options, select "Find Device" (or whatever your phone suggests). The Pulsar 260 quickly shows up. Select it and enter in the 4-digit pass code. Your phone and the Pulsar 260 should pair instantly.

Audio Quality

When in standby mode, the Pulsar 260 is dead silent, as it should be. When placing and receiving calls, the Pulsar 260 is crystal clear at low and medium volume levels. As one increases volume levels past the middle range, the headset emits a very slight electronic audio signature, sort of like a quiet hiss. This is common to nearly every Bluetooth headset in production, though it may only be evident to those with very sensitive hearing.

Audio quality for MP3 playback is really good. The sound-isolating nature of the earbuds really helps block external noises and focuses the undiluted audio straight into your ear canal. Bass, mids, and treble all sounded high quality with the MP3 files I used. Of course, final audio quality will hinge on the original recording and bit rate used when converting the music to MP3.

Connecting the Pulsar 260 to an external set of speakers was simple. Plantronics supplies a special 2.5mm-to-3.5mm audio cable that connects the Pulsar 260 directly to any powered audio source with 3.5mm (1/8") audio input (think iPod HiFi, AudioEngine A5, etc.). With a 1/8" female-female adapter ($2 at electronics stores), the Pulsar 260 can be connected to any number of computer speakers without dedicated input jacks.

Battery Life

The Pulsar 260 has a very respectable battery life, giving 7 hours of listening time (voice or music), 9 hours of talk time, and upwards of 200 hours standby time. The user manual suggests that it takes 3 hours to properly charge the Pulsar 260, but real-world tests showed that the charging time is much shorter (by nearly half).

Bluetooth Range

The standard range for Bluetooth 2.0 headsets is about 10 meters (32 feet). I was able to walk over 36 feet from my phone and the audio quality never dipped.

Skype

While I was able to quickly pair the Pulsar 260 with my MacBook Pro, I found that it did not work well with Skype. Placing calls resulted in repetitive Bluetooth connection errors. Plantronics' website only acknowledges Skype compatibility for one Bluetooth headset: the .Audio 910.

The Pulsar 260 in-line remote