Plantronics Savi W710-M DECT Headset for Microsoft Lync/Office Communicator

I really wanted to love this product. I own a Plantronics C65 for many years, this was a DECT headset that was durable and worked very well for 8-9 years. It looks like a great design but it fails on so many levels. It is over-engineered and expensive.The problems with the Savi W710 start with the over complicated way that it connects to your phone line. It connects to the cord of your telephone receiver - the cord being the thing that connects your receiver to the telephone. It does not connect directly to your phone line.Ideally (for Plantronics) you would purchase the automatic headset lifter. Whether or not you purchase this you need to lift the receiver of your phone when using the Savi with telephone mode. This causes tremendous feedback and line noise which makes the whole system unusable. You have to keep your phone's receiver off whilst using the Savi. If you put down your receiver the Savi gets cut off. The line noise and feedback makes the system unusable. All voice calls now sound like someone else is listening to the call on another phone (just like in the 80s). There seems to be no feedback filter built in, but really this is just a terrible design.I really do not understand why Plantronics have built a system that connects to the cord of your receiver and not directly to your telephone line. If the Savi were to connect direct to your phone line then you could replace the receiver and this would not disconnect your call.Another problem is that although system and product specifications have DECT written all over it, you cannot use it to connect to any other DECT system (like the C65 could). This does feel very misleading as DECT was designed for interoperability. I have an existing DECT base station with answer machine, etc. This cannot work with it.Next, when using the Savi connected to a PC the compression it uses is so high that it distorts your voice - increases it a few octaves. I wanted to use this to record content, however, a wired microphone is much more reliable and 100x cheaper.I can say that the Bluetooh function works well. But hey for £250 something should.I'm not sure what the difference is between this model and the one without the Microsoft software, I think actually that they are exactly the same as the software that you download and use is the same. But please correct me if I am wrong.A final design problem is that the 3 main buttons (Bluetooth, PC, Telephone) on the unit are too close together so it is easy to miss-press and end your connection.

This headset is great for linking one headset to a phone, PC and mobile. One headset and a click of a button means I can answer any of the phones be it office, mobile or skype.Works well and I'd recommend.

A bit more expensive, but being DECT rather than Bluetooth it has far better range. I can walk 30 yards up the corridor to the coffee machine and still have good audio quality on Lync calls.

fantastic product, i can take calls on my desk phone, mobile phone and listen to audio on my PC all through one headset. havent tried using it for recording on PC yet.