Cutting the office phone cord

The holidays are over and we have to get back to work. But we still like cool stuff to help us get our work done. It's our first column of the new year and we've already found a cool product.

Plantronics headsets have been around for a while, giving users the ability to talk on the phone without using their hands, or the dreaded head to shoulder scrunch. The headsets provide the look and feel of "Judy, the Time/Life Operator," but for people who are on the phone constantly and need to use both hands, it was worth the stylistic sacrifice.

The problem with these headsets was that they were connected to the phone via wires. If you needed to move around the office (or go to the bathroom), you needed to take off the headset.

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The holidays are over and we have to get back to work. But we still like cool stuff to help us get our work done. It's our first column of the new year and we've already found a cool product.

Plantronics headsets have been around for a while, giving users the ability to talk on the phone without using their hands, or the dreaded head to shoulder scrunch. The headsets provide the look and feel of "Judy, the Time/Life Operator," but for people who are on the phone constantly and need to use both hands, it was worth the stylistic sacrifice.

The problem with these headsets was that they were connected to the phone via wires. If you needed to move around the office (or go to the bathroom), you needed to take off the headset.

Because everything else now is wireless, why not create a wireless headset that gives hands-free and mobile access to the user? That's what Plantronics has done with its new CS50 Wireless Office Headset System. The $300 device includes a base station that connects to your phone and a headset that looks like the company's Bluetooth hands-free headsets for a mobile phone (an over-the-head attachment is included if you prefer the classic "Judy" look). The base station also acts as a charger for the headset.

Setup was relatively easy, as long as you are patient connecting the handset phone cord to the tiny and cramped phone jack on the base station.

After charging the headset (the documentation recommended three hours), we could then configure the system to work with the phone.

We also received the optional handset lifter (the $80 HL-10), which connects to the side of the phone and lifts up the handset automatically when you tap the headset's answer call button. This was one of the coolest features of the phone, and was a great party trick we could show to co-workers (stand away from the phone, press our headset and watch the handset magically lift).

The headset transmits over the 900-MHz frequency, the same as some older cordless phone systems (range is up to 300 feet). I could walk from my office to the employee break room (and bathroom), but couldn't walk the entire length of our building.

A cool feature is that when you start to walk out of range, the headset will give you some warning beeps.

Plantronics says a fully charged headset offers up to eight hours of talk time, so you should be able to get through a workday without recharging. Of course, take the headset off occasionally if it gets too uncomfortable, and recharge it while you wait for the next call.

Voice quality over the headset was very good - we could talk and hear the other person quite clearly, as if we were using a regular mobile phone headset. It wasn't as good as the sound on a regular phone, but we're willing to sacrifice a bit of that for the hands-free and extra mobility.

When we were talking to other co-workers and a call came in, the headset would beep and we would be able to answer the phone. It's a good way to eliminate playing voice mail phone tag, as we usually get phone calls whenever we're away from our desk.