Poly’s Voyager Surround series Bluetooth headphones are designed to offer the best audio experience for those who use popular video and voice-conference applications in office environments. We got a chance to try out the Poly Voyager Surround 80 UC ANC headset, and here are our thoughts about it.
Design
The Poly Voyager Surround 80 UC headphones feature an over-the-ear design and soft ear cushions to provide a comfortable wearing experience while also having the adaptive noise-canceling capability. The headset has a dimension of 191 mm x 77 mm x 181 mm and the device weighs only 275g. The headband is adjustable to fit the user’s needs and comes with a soft exterior surface.
Additionally, the outer earcup surface also features a soft surface. While the surface material of the ear cushions is made of artificial leather, the wearing comfort and experience are good. We like the part where the left and right designations (L & R) are made as large-sized letters that are easily visible on the inner earcups.
Both the left and right earcups together feature a total of six boom-less mics and four additional ones to support the adaptive ANC technology. The controls and ports are located on the right earcup, where you have the USB-C port, a red button that is used to enable or disable ANC, and a touch-sensitive switch for power and Bluetooth. You also get touch-sensitive controls on the outer surface of the right earcup.
The package contents include the Voyager Surround 80 UC headset, a soft carry case, a USB-C to C charging case, a USB-C to 3.5mm cable, a USB-C based BT700 dongle, a USB-C to A adapter, and a user guide. The soft carry case also has an internal storage compartment to place the USB cables and the dongle.
Features
While most headphone manufacturers focus on offering great ANC headphones for music and entertainment, the Poly Voyager Surround 80 UC is designed to offer optimized audio performance for office-based environments and popular video-conferencing applications. Poly mentions that the headphones are fully compatible with audio platforms such as Microsoft Teams, CISCO, Ribbon, Avaya, AWS, Ring Central, and more. Additionally, the device is officially certified for Microsoft Teams.
Both the earcups feature a 40mm audio driver each for loud and rich audio, and the speaker bandwidth ranges between 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequencies for stellar audio quality. The sensitivity of the driver is 132dBspl/V at 1kHz. As we mentioned before, the headphones pack six boomless mics and four extra mics for adaptive noise-canceling.
We tried the ANC feature of the 80 UC during indoor situations, and it provides a decent noise-canceling capability, but not as good as what the big audio brands offer. That said, we need to remember that the 80 UC is meant for users who work at the office indoors and not for outdoor situations. The boomless microphones feature a bandwidth ranging from 20 Hz to 16 kHz, along with a frequency response that ranges from 100 Hz to 6.8 kHz. The sensitivity of the microphone is rated at -37dBFS/V, 1kHz.
The supplied BT700 dongle is easy to set up with a smartphone or laptop, and the USB-C to A adapter is useful for systems that do not have a USB-C port. Users can simply plug in the BT700 dongle and the headphones automatically connect after pressing the touch-sensitive Bluetooth button. We tried on different laptops and desktops that ran Windows 11 OS and we did not encounter any pairing or driver issues.
You can also change different audio settings and perform firmware updates with the Poly Lens application. When we installed the Poly Lens, the application notified us of firmware updates for both the Voyager Surround 80 UC and the BT700 Bluetooth dongle. The headphone uses Bluetooth version 5.3 and has a supported wireless range of 50m. Users can pair up to two devices with the headphone.
When it comes to battery life, Poly mentions that the headphones are capable of offering up to 21 hours of talk time or about 24 hours of listening time. The device also has a standby time of 21 days and features fast-charge capability, where simply charging the headphone for 15 minutes, gives about 10 hours of talktime. For a full charge, the headphone takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes. We should also mention that the Lithium-Ion battery has a capacity of 1,100 mAh.
Verdict
If you are looking for a good ANC headphone that is optimized for enterprise and office environments, then we recommend the Poly Voyager Surround 80 UC headset. The device features a lightweight construction, along with soft cushions and an adjustable headband for a comfortable wearing experience. The headphone comes with a total of 10 microphones that help in canceling out the noise, and the ANC performance is decent.
The device uses Bluetooth 5.3 and can pair with two devices at a time. The headphones also come with a USB-C Bluetooth dongle for instant connections and a USB-C to A adapter for compatibility. The 1,100 mAh Lithium-Ion battery can offer up to 21 hours of talktime. By simply charging the headphones for 15 minutes, you will be able to get about two and a half hours of talktime, thanks to the fast-charge capability.
