Category: Gadgets

Since the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic started, the working world saw the need for some crucial changes, which required to be made at a very fast pace. As such, right from the start of the pandemic, a lot of companies only saw one solution - to incorporate remote working into their long-term business plans. Since then, remote working as been on the rise. However, while many employees were asked by their companies to keep up with their jobs by working remotely from home, some people still found a few distractions in their new "workplace". Things like having your significant other and/or kids spending more time at home - which you'd now call your "office" or "workplace" - due to the pandemic's complication can still be somewhat distracting. Now, while these minor issues can end up making the world of remote working a fairly convoluted space, having a UC Headset for remote working like the Poly Blackwire 8225 can help you go a long way. The Poly Blackwire 8225 are a Premium Corded UC Headset that are great for home-office work, work calls and listening to music, featuring ANC as well as compatibility with most popular voice platforms. WHAT ARE UC HEADSETS? Now, you might be asking yourself - "What exactly are UC Headsets?" Allow me to address that question first. With so many people being asked by their companies to continue their jobs by working from home, many remote workers have started looking for a pair of high-quality USB headsets that can be used between both a work laptop and a home PC. First of all, it's important to note that headsets that are designed for remote working can come in one of two different variations. Those are MS Headsets, which are "optimized for MS Skype for Business", and UC Headsets (meaning “Universal Communication” Headsets), which are headsets that are designed for pretty much everything else (meaning every other working purpose other than Skype Business Calls specifically). As such, UC (or “Universal Communication”) Headsets are optimized for use with softphones, and so, this type of headsets offer remote workers a simple and easy-to-use plug-and-play setup. Thanks to that convenient design, you can start using them straight out of the box. Many models also include advanced features like ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) or easy-to-use Inline Controls. Now, back to the Poly Blackwire 8225. Designed to keep your workflow going in order to ensure productivity, the Poly Blackwire 8225 UC Headset can be used to work anywhere, as they're powered by an Advanced Hybrid ANC Technology, which ultimately allows you to block out any surrounding noises and stay concentrated and perfectly focused on your work. Not only that, but this newly released pair of UC-Certified Wireless Headphones can bring you an optimized audio performance, featuring an outstanding sound quality overall and great call quality for your work calls. While the headset's audio quality is exceptional for both calls and music-listening with their enhanced bass response, these also feature an On-Call LED Light Indicator that comes integrated within their Inline Control unit, mainly to lets other members in your family know whenever you’re busy on a work call to ultimately prevent any interruptions. Now, let's have a more detailed look at this high-end UC Headset and check everything that the Poly Blackwire 8225 has to offer you. DESIGN & BASIC SPECS Starting with the headset's design, the Blackwire 8225 feature a very lightweight, yet fairly durable construction, weighing just a measly 0.41 lbs. (186 g). Thanks to that same lightweight design, you're ensured to have a very comfortable all-day wear experience that will never have you feel like the headset weighs you down, especially around your head and neck areas. Moving on to the headset's earcups, its soft leatherette ear cushions come reasonably well padded with enough memory foam for you to feel comfortable at all times, even after multiple hours of use. Diving further deep into the "Comfort" side-of-things, this UC Headset also features a unique and fully-adjustable design, as it combines its set of two (x2) 180-Degree Pivoting Speakers with its super-comfortable and well-padded Adjustable Headband, which can both be fully adjusted to your own needs to ultimately get you the best levels of comfort possible. After thoroughly observing the headset, you'll also notice several tick marks on its headband, which are there to give you a better way of adjusting the headset's headband and easily keep it evenly distributed for consistency. Overall, this is definitely a nice touch that the company was careful enough to account for, especially because it's something that you don't always see on every single pair of headsets / headphones. Thanks to that same fully-adjustable design, whenever you're looking to take a break from work and want to set the headset aside, you can conveniently flip the headset's earcups sideways to have your Poly Blackwire 8225 sitting perfectly flat on your desk-space. Lastly, this UC Headset features a reasonably long cable, with its cable length measuring exactly 7.2 ft. (2.2 m), which you can keep neatly arranged thanks to the cable's integrated high-quality and reasonably durable Velcro Strap. AUDIO QUALITY & AUDIO SPECS I'll once again highlight that this UC Headset is designed for both comfort and home-office work purposes, featuring a unique design that helps to isolate any surrounding noises in order to give you a great audio quality during your work as well as during any work/business calls. Overall, the headset’s audio quality is fairly decent, and I had absolutely no problems when trying these on. That goes for both music-listening as well as for business voice calls. Speakers & Audio Specs For its audio source, the Poly Blackwire 8225 comes equipped with a set of two (x2) built-in 32 mm Dynamic Speakers that feature a Speaker Sensitivity of 84 dBSPL (1 mW/1 cm with a sound-level variation of +/- 3 dB) and a Sound Impedance of 32 Ohm. Additionally, the headset's speakers also feature a special Acoustic-Limiting functionality that ensures its users' hearing protection against any sounds above 118 dBA, and its speakers also feature a G616 anti-startle protection that will limit your configured noise level to a maximum of 102 dBSPL. Microphone and Microphone/Voice Specs Moreover, the Blackwire 8225 also come equipped with a standard swivel / rotating Boom Microphone that boasts Noise Canceling features thanks to its Acoustic Fence technology that works based on its internal dual-microphone setup, which combines a noise cancelling microphone together with an omni-directional microphone. To put it simply, this technology helps to ensure that the headset's user's voice is the only thing heard without having any background noise at all. CONNECTIVITY & COMPATIBILITY Speaking both in terms of compatibility and connectivity, since the Poly Blackwire 8225 is designed as a UC Headset, you can use either with a PC or laptop (can be used with both Windows and Mac OS devices), or alternatively, with a Desk Phone FINAL THOUGHTS The Poly Blackwire 8225 are a Premium Corded UC Headset that are great for home-office work, work calls and listening to music, featuring ANC as well as compatibility with most popular voice platforms. Overall, these are a joy to have around for anyone working remotely from their home-office. While the headset's design is focused on promoting both comfort and zero distractions (thanks to its 3 levels of ANC), the headset's integrated Call Controls allow you to have a very easy way of utilizing this UC Headset.