Voice over IP (VoIP) has become the preferred method for businesses to communicate vocally, both internally and externally. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or for an entire team, it’s important to have a headset that facilitates communication. The best way to do this is to focus on a few key factors that can make or break a VoIP headset’s overall performance.
To this end, we’ve scoured the Internet for the best VoIP headsets, focusing on stable connectivity, comfort, price, and of course good audio quality. Each of these headphones brings something to the table, so be sure to read through the whole review to find the best fit for your needs.
If you work in a noisy or open-office environment, for example, check out the Jabra Evolve 75 with exceptional noise cancellation for concentration. If you’re on a budget, the Logitech H600 offers great value for money. And if outstanding audio and microphone quality is a deciding factor, Sennheiser’s MB 660 UC MS has you covered, with 30-hour battery life to boot.
We chose the Jabra Evolve 75 for a few reasons, not least because it’s quite comfortable. The materials are of a high quality, and the design, while utilitarian, is smooth, streamlined, and feels agreeable in the hands and on the ears.
But the Jabra Evolve 75 has more to offer than just comfort. While the audio output isn’t the best in the industry (higher ranges come through a bit tinny), the noise cancellation itself is impressive. If you’re looking for a distraction-free experience in the middle of a busy, open workspace, the Evolve 75 won’t disappoint.
The microphone is found on the right side, on a flexible boom arm that can be affixed to the band (with a magnet) when not in use. The Evolve 75’s mic demonstrated excellent performance in capturing and transmitting audio—a must for any VoIP headset worth its salt. There are a few missing features—no play/pause/skip music control, for example—but the Evolve 75 still ticks a lot of boxes, and is a solid choice in terms of comfort and noise cancellation.
The Poly Blackwire 720’s design takes a departure from your standard bulky-headset-with-boom style, instead opting for a sleek and very lightweight form factor that makes it quite comfortable to wear for extended periods, even all day long.
The ability to turn on and off active noise cancellation also makes it easier to keep your headphones on, as you can simply turn off noise cancellation rather than removing the headphones as needed. It’s also a good set of headphones for listening to music, with full media controls: mute, play, pause, forward, and back.
Despite being integrated into the body of the earpiece, the audio capture is quite good. The Poly Blackwire 7225 features four omni-directional microphones that do a good job differentiating between ambient and directed noise, so your voice comes through clearly on calls. If you keep your headphones on all day for music and calls, this is a good choice for you.
3. Sennheiser MB 660 UC MS
Best for exceptional audio quality
30-hour battery and 80-foot range
SpeakFocus™ ambient audio cancellation
Comfortable for long periods
Expensive
Some users experience connectivity issues
Sennheiser is known for outstanding audio quality, and the MB 660 doesn’t disappoint. It stands out as a truly excellent set of headphones for music, VoIP calls, and everything in-between. Built-in noise cancelling and multiple microphones make for crystal-clear VoIP calls in both directions. You can also choose between sound modes (Movie, Director, Club, and Speech) for the best sound for your environment.
The foldable design makes it easy to carry in a bag or suitcase, and it’s built from premium-quality materials for maximum comfort. You can easily spend all day on calls without significant discomfort. The battery will have no trouble keeping up, either: it can last a full 30 hours between charges. Those batteries are also covered by the device’s two-year warranty, by the way.
While the Sennheiser MB 660 UC MS isn’t the cheapest VoIP headset on the market (you can expect to pay up to $350), it is one of the best, especially if sound quality is a deciding factor for you.
4. Logitech H600
Best value for money
Low price tag
Decent sound quality
Convenient fold-up design
Nano receiver easy to lose in transport
Missing some key features
The Logitech H600 has a simple design, is made from humble materials, and is cheap enough to fit just about any budget. That doesn’t mean the H600 has made any big concessions in sound quality or functionality, though. The battery lasts for a full 6 hours, which should be enough to get most people through the workday, and the fold-up design makes it easy to take between work and home.
The H600 is fully wireless, syncing through a USB dongle (nano receiver)—it’s small, so be careful not to lose it: the headphones can’t work without it. The sound, while not exceptional, is sufficient for meetings and calls, and the headphone’s drivers have been laser-tuned to minimize distortion.
The Logitech H600 has fewer bells and whistles than some of the other headsets on this list, and the range isn’t superb, but the price can’t be beaten, and the sound quality is still respectable.
5. Microsoft LifeChat LX-6000
Best mid-range corded VoIP headset
Good microphone noise cancellation
Reasonably priced
Highly adjustable boom
Awkward inline remote
Not suitable for all-day use
Not everybody needs—or wants—a wireless, Bluetooth headset. If that’s the case, you may want to check out the LifeChat LX-6000. The cable comes with mute and volume controls, and reaches about 7 feet (2.15m), so you can still get up and pace the room. The stereo audio quality is more than good enough for VoIP calls, and with active noise cancellation, calls come through crystal-clear.
The design is simple, although the headband and ear pads may cause some discomfort after long periods of use—these are good headphones for occasional calls, but if you spend all day on the phone or want to use them to listen to music, the Poly Blackwire 7225 on this list may be a better fit (literally).
Nonetheless, this is a great plug-and-play budget option. It’s comfortable enough if you’re not wearing it all day, and it’s got good sound quality to boot.
AMD has unveiled an updated roadmap for its fourth-generation EPYC server chips, which the company says will enter production and become available next year.
Codenamed Genoa, the next generation of EPYC CPUs will be based on AMD’s new Zen 4 architecture, the first to utilize TSMC’s 5nm process technology.
According to Dr. Lisa Su, AMD CEO, 5nm EPYC chips will offer twice the density, twice the power efficiency and 1.25 times the performance achieved by the 7nm process on which the company’s third-gen EPYC chips are built.
The top-tier Genoa SKUs will have up to 96 Zen 4 cores, and support next generation DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 memory and I/O technologies.
“When introduced, we expect Genoa will be the world’s highest performance processor for general purpose computing,” said Su. “It’s designed to excel across a broad range of workloads, from enterprise to HPC and the cloud.”
AMD Bergamo
In addition to fresh details about its fourth-generation EYPC chips, AMD also announced an offshoot of its Zen 4 architecture that’s optimized for specific cloud use cases, called Zen 4c.
“Cloud native workloads are a fast-growing class of application that are developed, deployed and updated rapidly,” Su explained. “These applications typically are very throughput-oriented and can take advantage of a high number of threads.”
“We’ve created a new version of Zen 4 specifically for cloud-native computing, with specific enhancements including a new density-optimized cache hierarchy to enable additional higher core-count configurations for cloud-native workloads that benefit from maximum thread density.”
Su went on to claim that Zen 4c architecture will boast improved power efficiency and superior performance per socket.
The new architecture will be first deployed in a new line of processors designed for cloud native applications, called Bergamo. The Bergamo series will offer up to a whopping 128 Zen 4c cores and deliver “breakthrough performance and efficiency for cloud-native workloads”, as well as benefiting from all the same features as Genoa (DDR5, PCIe 5.0 etc.).
As per the new roadmap, AMD’s Bergamo chips are set to launch in the first half of 2023.