Dell has added another peripheral to its collection: a soft, cushioned headset. It can be driven by Bluetooth or a 3mm audio cable, has a built-in mic, and has a soap dish-like charging dock. It has adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC), a mic on/off button, a power button, and more.
When you press the power button, it announces that the power is on and reports on the battery level. Hold the power button to connect the headset until it announces that Bluetooth has started. Then, using the source device, typically your PC, navigate to the Bluetooth settings and select the headset to connect. The headset uses Bluetooth 5.3 (with a range of up to 30m/100 feet). With Bluetooth multipoint, it is well suited for Teams and up to eight devices (two simultaneously).
The volume control is an invisible slider on the hard surface of the left earphone. Similarly, there is a balance slider on the right earphone. It sounds great; the 40mm speakers offer a full 20 Hz—20 kHz audio range (116 dB at 1mW at 1 kHz sensitivity). The sound quality is terrific: great bass (but not overdriven or boomy), clear, brilliant highs, makes speech very clear and discernable. Music sounds wonderful, and game explosives get your attention.
The tiny user manual that comes with the headset contains no words, only drawings, and symbols, making it cleverly international but also confusing if you can’t figure out what the symbology means. If you have problems (like I did with the Teams symbol), there is a pretty good help page online.
Pressing the ANC button on the left earphone produces a voice that informs you if the feature is on or off. Dual-directional AI-based noise cancellation mics in the headset control the ANC. A third mic (with AI beam forming) with -38 dBV/Pa sensitivity, 100 Hz–8 kHz, picks up your voice for phone calls, Teams, or gameplay.
The headset also has an integrated wear-detection feature that pauses the music and mutes the microphone during a call if you take it off. Users can temporarily pause music by lifting one ear cup from their head. A sensor in the headband detects when it’s flexed and mutes or unmutes, pauses, and resumes when either ear cup is lifted, which saves time and is really quite convenient. Playback resumes automatically when you return the ear cup to your ear.
The headset has big (2.9 inches wide, 3.7 inches long, 0.88 inches high) memory foam ear cushions, which are remarkably comfortable and block ambient sound. And, if worn or torn, they can be easily replaced.
The soap dish recharger dock is a direct connection and offers a fast recharge (15 minutes on the charging dock gives you 12 hours of listening time and less than 3 hours to full charge). Once the 750mAh battery is recharged, Dell claims the headphones will run 80 hours at a charge of listening—up to 26 hours of talking with ANC on. There’s also a USB-C connector that can be used to recharge the batteries.
Also, the wireless ANC headset includes the Dell Peripheral Manager software for audio and device settings. It allows for customization such as Audio Mode, Active Noise Cancellation Mode, Wear Detection Mode, Sidetone, Audio Output Preset, Busy Light, Battery Indicator, and more. More about Dell Peripheral Manager can be found here.
You can download an app and access the wireless headset control from your smartphone.
The headset is available now from Dell and major retailers like Amazon for $360.
The headset is available now from Dell and major retailers like Amazon for $360.