I have just joined a working environment that uses online calls nearly all day due to the pandemic. Calls and calendar are managed by Microsoft Teams.

This creates the need a for a ‘business wearable’. This wearable has to have a ‘must have’ requirement for good voice and battery first, listening to music well is a ‘nice to have’.

I have gone through all of my sports bluetooth headsets in my drawer and been disappointed with battery life and comfort. I needed to get the freedom of a good wireless connection for at least a full day with the trust of a wired connection when the battery dies. This means that you should be able to connect the charger to the headset whilst a call is in progress when your battery is saying ‘I’m out’.

I trawled the internet and bought a refurbished Danish designed Jabra Evolve 2 65 online for £85 (A saving of around £55) from list price.

*I updated all the software using the PC software called ‘Jabra Direct‘ and then did a master reset on the device to clear out all of the previous bluetooth connections. This bit was very important as ‘Teams’ was acting up and my mic wasn’t being detected without the master reset.

The benefits of the headset are :

1. Two days of charge using a wireless connection before a recharge is needed.
2. Very comfortable on your head for extended use of more than 4 hours per day.
3. You can move from wireless to wired with no interruption. You can plug in the cable to the headset during a call to charge it.
4. The audio sound from you is good as the dedicated microphone drops down from a stored position (See animation). The microphone stores upright using a magnet on the headset should you want to listen to music so you don’t look weird if you take it outside. Try and avoid what I do by having the mic down when the postman arrives.
5. You can mute and unmute yourself from the headset by pressing the volume down key on it for more than 2 seconds.
6. Bonus feature audio beeps to keep you on time with online meetings. You get an audio beep reminder 15 minutes before your meeting (This rocks) . You also get an audio beep that your meeting has started on Teams if you happen to beside the kettle when it starts (This really rocks if you like your tea dark). You can end the call on the headset by pressing the centre round button. You can get the battery life status by pressing the centre button plus what you’re connected to.
7. Extra bonus features. the Microsoft Teams integration works, just make sure you have the latest software and use the dedicated Jabra USB dongle to get those magic words “PC connected” when the headset connects to your PC. It allows connection to your mobile phone should you want to use that too.
8. Music. Listening to music is fine between business calls or when not working. Keep the mic up to avoid looking like a dork.

I thought the integration with Teams would be a gimmick but if you use it right it can help you manage your time and day between online calls with the audio alerts reminding you of the next meetings starting

So remote working from home now requires a wearable, my wearable of choice is the Jabra Evolve 2 65. If you get a refurb follow my steps * above before considering returning it, it probably just needs a good reboot and software update as the hardware is sound.