Plantronics BackBeat FIT 3200 - review

Ok, technically speaking the successors of the set I tested 3100 last year are two. I'm already explaining what's going on.

As a reminder, you don't have to read the whole old review again. In March last year I tested Plantronics BackBeat Fit 3100 - fully wireless headphones, the distinguishing feature of which was ... allowed the user's ears a lot of sounds from the environment, which increased safety during training. They had quite a pleasant sound (although the bass could be a little juicier), lay well in the ears, had a sensible (though dirty) charging case and - so as not to drag - I really liked them. To the extent that I have used them for most of the last months, even though, unfortunately, they had to be recharged quite often - with my usage profile, they lasted usually about 4 hours.

At the end of last year Plantronics showed two new models in this series - 3150 and 3200. In many respects they were twin, with the difference that the 3150 retained sound transmission , while the 3200 already offers mechanical isolation from the environment. In addition, the working time on a single charge has been improved, fast charging has been optimized and the musical properties have been refined. The 3200 also has a programmatic mode of transmitting sounds to the user's ears.

And so I've been running, exercising and walking with BackBeat Fit 3200 for several good months. What has changed and are all the changes for the better?

From the outside - differences must be sought with a magnifying glass

At the time of writing, I have both generations of headphones in front of me - 3100 and 3200. And if it wasn't for the fact that they are offered in different color versions, I could confuse them with myself. This has its good and bad sides.

Let's start with the bad ones, because there are relatively few of them. First of all, the design of the charging case has not changed, which means two things. First of all - it is quite big, although it must be admitted that it is solid. You can easily give your headphones checked-in baggage in a larger bag and they'll be fine.

Secondly - the case finished with rubber material, unfortunately, collects all fingerprints, all pollen and a lot of other, not very nice looking starch.

Thirdly - unfortunately the microUSB connector for charging has been preserved. This is not a problem, but during my last 3-4 trips, 3200 were the only device that required this type of cable to charge. It's so good that the headphones do not require too frequent charging, so I usually don't take this cable for short and even longer trips. On the plus side, you can also include Plantronics that the set comes with a short cable, which, moreover, cleverly hides in the case. But still - USB-C in the next generation, please. Because.

The design of the headphones has not changed. And that's a huge plus.

Ok, the tip itself has changed (3 sizes to choose from), which is now responsible for muffling the surroundings. Everything else has remained the same, for which I am extremely grateful.

Why? Because 3100 were one of the more comfortable sports headphones that I had to deal with. For this fantastic hold in the ears during running training or in the gym.

And this is also true for 3200. Although they are - according to the specifications - slightly heavier than the predecessor, but I am not able to detect this difference during use. They do not disturb in the same way during longer runs, they lie in the ears confidently, and I like to reach for them before every sportive exit.

However, the only drawback regarding the usable side of these headphones has not changed. Due to their design, which allows them to remain stable in our ears, they are quite large. It is difficult to compare them to AirPods or even BackBeat Pro 5100 . So going for a run - I reach for 3200. When going shopping - I tend to be more like 5100, unless I assume I'm going on a tram.

And how is all the mute?

Okay, maybe even very good. With the right choice of tips, we can largely cut off from outside noise. It is not a level of comfort and programmatic liquidation of background noise, but effortlessly handles eg. Home treadmill noise (if talking about music - for podcasts or videos is a little worse), a public gym or simply running the city.

It is worth mentioning one key difference from 3100. In the older model we had only one tip and it was quite universal. In 3200, we need to spend some time on selection, so that the selected tip fits our ear perfectly. And this is not just about muting the background - it is rather about the fact that the mismatched tip during intense running can move, which slightly reduces the comfort of training and listening to music. Fortunately, after 2-3 test runs I managed to choose one that I could not have any reservations about.

And since the FIT 3200 mute the background really well, a special mode of operation has been added.

It's called Awareness Mode and it can work in two modes - stopping the music or playing it quieter and with changed settings.

How is this solution done? I mainly used the latter option, activating it manually with a single touch of the touch field on the left handset and I have no reason to complain. In fact, enough background sounds were reaching my ears at the time, or rather - much less masked music that could still be heard somewhere in the background. I don't know if I would use this function in the same way as the producer advertises it (conversations with another person during exercises, with music on at the same time), but where I did not want to be completely cut off from the world, one click solved the whole problem. And after running into the park, for example, I could only enjoy music again.

I have only two problems with this function. First of all - it has a very overclocked, robotic reverb, which can sometimes strongly conquer normally acceptable sounds. I was very surprised when the sound of the slightly creaking door handle turned out to be really difficult to digest. Just in case, I turn this feature off before entering the house. Lubricating the door handle may be a solution, but what will I do.

The second disadvantage is that at maximum volume this mode does not quite work as one would imagine. Ie. we are able to drown out almost everything that reaches us, and the ambient noise is distorted and it is difficult to determine where it comes from, which can be quite dangerous, e.g. when running along the edge of the road.

Unfortunately, switching between modes generates one problem.

We support the 3200 model just like its predecessor. So we turn on by long pressing the button on the right earphone, clicks on this button to handle song switching, pause, incoming calls and voice assistants, while the left earphone has a touch field that ...

That's right - by default it is used for volume. One touch - louder. Touch and hold - quieter. However, if we want to have Awareness Mode at hand, we must use the My Tap function (configuration from the application on the smartphone), which allows you to assign one of several available actions (including Awareness Mode) to single and double tap on the field on the handset. So ... yes, we lose the ability to smoothly change the volume without removing the phone.

I mention this, but I cannot at the same time consider it as a great disadvantage. Usually, if I already lower the volume, it's just to hear the surroundings. Here I have it by activating the Awareness Mode, which is the same, except that there are a lot less of these clicks.

However, if someone would like to have access to the volume control and Awareness Mode from the headphones, then they should remember that.

To this I would add two other minor flaws. First of all - the touch surface after a few hours of running in a cap can react to touches of the touch field and in an incredibly irritating way. Secondly, it is a pity that the option of pausing music after removing the headphones from the ear was not added. Only putting them in the docking station causes their complete deactivation.

Luckily, these 3200 small deficiencies make up for the sound quality.

Although this is a purely subjective opinion, I have already written about it many times - I require one from the training headphones. They have to have satisfying sound quality, while offering the most juicy bass. The 3100 model met the first part of these expectations, but the bass was a bit worse. 3200 eliminates this problem.

If I were to point out one thing that in terms of music changed the most between 3100 and 3200, this is the bass. It is more, it is juicier, and much better suited to power us during intense exercise. It may be a matter of better insulation from the surroundings, or maybe delicate structural changes. In any case - it is clearly better.

The rest remains very similar to how the 3100 sounded, which is surprisingly good for relatively small sports headphones. Good isolation from the environment allows us to effectively fill our ears with sound that is - for this product category - satisfyingly detailed, almost regardless of the genre of music being listened to. Almost, because the 3200 bass characteristics do not work everywhere - I doubt, however, that someone could be motivated by classical guitar during training.

The FIT 3200 is versatile by the fact that we do not have a full-fledged equalizer. Only three modes are available - PLT Signature Balanced, Bass and Bright. The first one is quite universal and is supposed to provide the right balance between low, medium and high tones, but it is still oriented towards the first ones. Bass, in turn, could be described as Mega Bass , focusing on it to such an extent that I sometimes have the impression that low tones sometimes appear even where they are not. I especially do not recommend listening to podcasts in this mode, because their artificial fading sounds at times comical. I admit without beating - if I was taking these headphones for a harder workout, I first made sure in the application that this mode was turned on.

In turn, I activated Bright when I wanted to listen to podcasts. In this type of materials you can feel a fairly clear difference between him and Signature Balanced.

The battery has also been improved.

The previous generation lasted without charging theoretically up to 5 hours (in practice about 4) and with the case we could refill it twice. In addition, 15 minutes of charging gave an hour of listening.

And it was not a bad result, but I was aware that, for example, for longer mountain runs I have to take other headphones with me.

Luckily 3200 solve this problem. Despite the similar size and weight, they theoretically last for 8 hours without charging (in real terms at a maximum volume of less than 7 hours), while the case will provide charging for an additional 16 hours of listening. If that wasn't enough, the quick charge has also been improved, giving us 1.5 hours of charging after 15 minutes

Which definitely solves my problem regarding which headphones to take with me in the mountains.

And also waterproof and similar.

Like the 3100, the 3200 also meet the IP57 standard, which in practice means that we can take them without hesitation for rainy or sweaty training.

Note - the case is not waterproof. I didn't have any problems after packing the minimally wet headphones into it. But don't do it better at home.

Worth it?

Plantronics BackBeat Fit 3100 were one of my favorite headphones - both because of the comfort of use and the passage of noise from the environment to the ears, which increased the level of safety. However, I missed a little time on one charge and bass.

Fit 3200 solve all these problems, except maybe the USB-C mentioned at the beginning, whose absence can only be explained by the need to use previously ordered microUSB connectors. In addition, they are still fantastic in the ears, do not tire during longer workouts and guarantee pleasant - in training conditions - sound quality.

It is debatable whether the introduction of insulation from the environment - at a very high level - can be counted as a plus or minus. Buying them and using them forever in Awareness Mode is a bit pointless - that's the 3150 model. However, if you prefer to cut off from the environment and only sometimes switch to external mode - it's worth the most. Even despite the fact that the price in Polish stores is less than 700 PLN.

On the plus side:

  • very effective isolation from the environment
  • strong and stronger bass than in the previous one
  • very satisfactory sound quality
  • very good work time on one charge and a large supply in a case
  • they stick well to the ears even during demanding workouts
  • stable communication with the phone and between headphones
  • sweat and water resistance

On the downside:

  • for some this bass may be too much
  • control does not have to appeal to everyone
  • the same design, so they are rather large and not very output
  • the case gets dirty quickly and in every possible place
  • the case itself is also quite large
  • microUSB


Plantronics BackBeat FIT 3200 - review

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is VoLTE and how can you activate it on your Xiaomi

Image
In recent years, phone calls have evolved to achieve great sound quality. So much so that today we can find technologies such as VoLTE allowing us to make voice calls in high definition on our Xiaomi. Beyond the classic GSM networks, movistar, vodafone and other operators have integrated this technology, which in turn derives from the advantages of Internet access. Thanks to 4G or LTE networks, VoLTE allows us to make not only high-definition calls, but also to improve consumption and add other services . What is VoLTE and what are its advantages after activating it on a Xiaomi In detail, VoLTE is a technology capable of transmitting voice communications over the Internet . For this, whether we have a Redmi Note 8 Pro, a Xiaomi Mi A2 or any other smartphone from the firm, our voice will be encoded from analog to digital allowing its transmission in the form of packets through the network. With this, as we have already said, after activating VoLTE we will achieve higher sou
Read more

So you can check the battery status of your Xiaomi smartphone and how many cycles you have performed

Image
Today, our smartphone has become one of the most important tools in our day to day. That is why the duration of its battery and the state of it is very important if we want to be able to use it with total peace of mind and in a continuous way. In view of this, MIUI includes a secret menu that allows us to verify the state or health of the battery of our Xiaomi smartphone and also check the cycles that we have performed . Let's not forget that each cycle represents a full battery charge from 0% to 100% Since lithium batteries degrade with the passage of time , use and recharges that we have made, knowing these two data will give us a vision of the general state of your state and with it knowing if it has worsened considerably with the passage of weather. How to check the battery status and cycles performed on our Xiaomi smartphone To access this hidden menu in MIUI and check the battery status of our Xiaomi smartphone we will only have to perform the following steps:
Read more

How to exit the FASTBOOT mode of your Xiaomi if you have entered accidentally

Image
Although, the fastboot mode of Xiaomi phones with MIUI allows us to solve bugs or change ROMs, it is also common to enter without wanting to. If this has been your case, you most likely want to get out of Xiaomi's fastboot without spoiling anything. In general, leaving this mode that includes all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO with MIUI is extremely simple. Even so, on certain occasions, exiting fastboot mode is more complex , either because Recovery starts or because our smartphone does not work correctly. In view of this, below we are going to explain how to exit the fastbook mode of your Xiaomi if you have entered without wanting to . In addition, if the conventional mode does not work, we will also give you other tips to exit this mode without causing any damage at the software level. How to exit Xiaomi fastboot If we have accidentally entered the Xiaomi fastboot , to exit this way we will only have to perform the following steps: Press and hold the power button for about 10
Read more

Does your Xiaomi charge slowly or intermittently? So you can fix it

Image
Does your Xiaomi charge very slowly or intermittently? This error is usually very common when our cable is in poor condition, we use a low-quality charger or even when the USB or USB Type-C port of your Xiaomi is dirty or obstructed. With a view to this, below we will explain the main steps or solutions to take if your Xiaomi charges slowly , if the charge is intermittent or if in the worst case, your mobile does not detect the USB that is connected to the socket electric. 1. Clean the USB port Although it may sound simple, in most cases slow charging problems are usually caused by a piece of paper or a speck of dust that obstructs the pins of the USB port . Taking into account the nature of this connector, it is normal that after repeated use dirt accumulates inside. A dirty USB C port is usually the main cause of slow or intermittent charging. To solve this charging problem and clean the USB C port of your Xiaomi, it is recommended to blow lightly inside the port itself.
Read more

Problems with Android Auto and your Xiaomi? So you can fix it

Image
Unfortunately Android Auto continues to present certain problems on some Xiaomi . Errors such as error 16 that prevent our smartphone from correctly linking to this Google vehicle system. Still, these bugs are largely solvable. And it is that, in most cases the impossibility of using Android Auto through our Xiaomi is given by the dual applications themselves. In view of this and taking as a source this interesting article from Mi Community , below we will explain how to solve two of the most common errors that we usually find when linking or connecting our Xiaomi to a car with Android Auto. Fix Android Auto error on Xiaomi devices One of the main errors of the type « An error has occurred » that we usually find when connecting Android Auto to our Xiaomi is related to Google Play Services . In itself, this error shows the message « It seems that Google Play Services does not work at the moment «, making it impossible to connect Android Auto to our Xiaomi. To solve it we j
Read more

If your Xiaomi disconnects only from the WiFi it may be because of that MIUI setting

Image
One of the most common problems in Xiaomi smartphones is usually related to the WiFi connection and its automatic disconnection . A quite annoying problem, which in most cases is usually caused by a bad MIUI configuration . If you have a Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO and you notice that sometimes your smartphone disconnects only from the WiFi without having taken any action, do not miss this article where we tell you how to solve it in most cases. Disconnection of WiFi on your Xiaomi, how to solve it Although it is true that the problem may be caused by some other failure, in most cases the spontaneous disconnection of the WiFi connection is caused by a bad MIUI configuration, specifically, its automatic connection to the networks with better signal . By having this option activated on our smartphone, if the WiFi signal drops at any time, it will automatically disconnect to use the data connection . To deactivate it enough to do the following steps: Go to Settings> WiFi> Wi-Fi
Read more

How to change the font in MIUI and thus further customize your Xiaomi: so you can change the type, color and size of the letters of MIUI

Image
Among the multiple options that MIUI offers us we find the possibility of changing the source of our Xiaomi . This option will not only allow us to change the font , but also change the font color and size . For this it is necessary to make use of some Asian region, be it India, Hong Kong or any other. In addition, it should be noted that this adjustment that allows us to change the source is only available for MIUI 9 , MIUI 10 and MIUI 11 , so if we have a Xiaomi Mi A2 or Xiaomi Mi A3 we will not be able to do it. How to change the font in MIUI To change the font in MIUI we must perform the following steps: Go to Settings> Additional settings> Region Next we select India or Hong Kong as a region. Go to the Themes application, download the font that we like the most from the new lower option that will appear with hundreds of fonts and then apply it. After applying it, it will be necessary to restart our Xiaomi mobile. Once done , we will have installed the ne
Read more

What is the Safe Mode of your Xiaomi, what is it for and how can you activate it

Image
In addition to the typical options that we find in the MIUI settings, Xiaomi also adds a mode called " Safe Mode " or " Safe Mode " to its smartphones. We will talk about this below, explaining its usefulness and how to activate or deactivate it on your Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO. Safe Mode allows us to start a special boot, loading only the system itself and the applications that were installed on our Xiaomi when we bought it. That is, starting the Safe Mode or Safe Mode our smartphone will start loading only the essential applications . This mode is a temporary state of our smartphone and does not make any important modification on the device. In itself, Safe Mode does not delete our data , it just starts our Xiaomi, loading the basics and essentials for its operation. Safe Mode only starts essential MIUI applications. Thanks to this, the Safe Mode will help us to rule out failures in our Xiaomi derived from the installation of an application or the modific
Read more

Improve and amplify the volume of your Xiaomi and / or headphones with these simple adjustments

Image
With the evolution of technology and the arrival of content on demand, many of us spend much of the day with our headphones on, playing music or watching series and movies. That is why many of you have asked us how to increase the volume of the headphones in Xiaomi smartphones or even how to improve the sound quality in Xiaomi AirDots or Redmi AirDots S wireless headphones. How to improve the sound and increase the volume of the headphones in MIUI of Xiaomi If what we want is to increase or amplify the volume of our headphones on a Xiaomi smartphone with MIUI we must perform the following steps: Go to Settings app> Region We will change our region to Andorra, India or any other country outside the EU. With this adjustment we will be able to "skip" the European restrictions that limit the sound volume, obtaining greater amplification , both in headphones, and through the speaker itself. Headphones with cable and jack connector Xiaomi Mi Hybrid Pro HD. In add
Read more

How to activate the second space if your Xiaomi does not have this option

Image
MIUI's Second Space functionality allows us to have two smartphones in one. A way to divide our Xiaomi into two different accounts , either for personal and work use, to perform tests or simply, to prevent our son or little brother from accessing our applications and documents. Unfortunately, terminals like the Redmi Note 10 lack this functionality . The same happens with other terminals of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO of mid-range and entry. If we access the Settings, this functionality is not found among the various MIUI options . Even so, there is a little trick that allows us to access the Second Space functionality even if your Xiaomi does not have it . In this way we can create a second space without any type of restriction and in any Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO. Activate the second space on your Xiaomi If your Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO does not have the Second space functionality when accessing Settings> Special functions , do not worry, below we will explain how to use it with
Read more