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Hands-on review: Jabra Engage 55 wireless headset
Wed, 13th Jul 2022
FYI, this story is more than a year old

We are all attending a lot more video meetings.

Using your Airpods or similar in the office just doesn't cut it.

An awesome answer is the Danish-engineered Jabra GN Engage 55 wireless headset.

It has both left and right ear pads that rest on your ears. They're soft and comfortable.

You can adjust the length of the headband to fit any head size.

The right-hand side has a thin (but still solid feeling) microphone boom that you can tilt down. On the end of the boom is a neat mute button.

When you're on a call or video, then two red lights show others not to interrupt you. One under the right ear and one on the end of the microphone boom.

On the same side as the boom are volume up and down buttons, as well as a button to accept or reject calls.

The headset comes with a good-looking charging stand. The clever people at Jabra have put some strategically placed weights inside the charging stand, so it sits solidly on your desk and won't tip over when you are placing the headset back on charge.

You can charge the headset with the charging station or with just the USB-A cable included.

The headset connects over a wireless technology called DECT to a small USB-A dongle. DECT offers longer distances and much higher security levels compared with other wireless technologies. You can stroll up to 150 metres away from the dongle while on a call. Which is good for those that like to wander while talking!

Also, if you want to leave the charging station behind, you can easily put the headset and the USB dongle into the included carry case for travelling.

The Engage 55 includes built-in Microsoft Teams support, with the call accept or reject button able to open the Microsoft Teams app on your computer quickly.

The only disadvantage I can find with this headset is the dongle and charging station both use USB-A connectors, while it would be more convenient for my setup if they were USB-C.

Overall this is a superb, high-quality headset and simply ideal for the modern knowledge worker.