Jabra Engage 55 Review: A Headset For Work Calls?

We’re doing a very different review today. I get quite a few questions asking me what headphones or earbuds I recommend for taking calls at work and all, and honestly, I don’t really do a lot of reviews for those sorts of stuff, but today, we have the Jabra Engage 55 with us, and if you take a LOT of calls for work, this might be quite interesting.

DECT Vs Bluetooth

So, let’s talk a little about it first. This isn’t a Bluetooth headset, this is a DECT headset. Because of that, this doesn’t work with your phones. This is designed to be a headset for computers, and you get a USB dongle, the Jabra Link 400 in the box that’s pre-paired. I believe there’s the option for USB-A or USB-C, and unfortunately, the one I got was USB-A. It works fine with my PC back at home, but I do need to bring along the A to C adapter for my MacBook Pro. If you’re thinking, why not Bluetooth, well, a couple of reasons. First is that DECT actually offers up to 150 metres of wireless range. That’s way more than Bluetooth headphones. Of course, line of sight is required, all that. But yes, if you’re in a big office and you want to be able to move around while taking calls, getting more coffee or water and such, this will make sure you stay connected.

Secondly, this might not be the case for all DECT headsets of course, but with this dongle, it’s super easy for me to plug in and get the headset running for a call. It’s plug-and-play, literally. There’s the Jabra Direct app that helps to push software updates and all, but yeah.

Design

Okay, now to design. There are three variants for the Engage 55, mono, mono convertible and what we have here, the stereo model. After that, you can choose whether you want the USB-A or USB-C models, the Microsoft Teams-certified one or the UC-certified one, and whether you want the charging stand or not. The headset itself is super lightweight, like, I could wear this all day and not feel tired at all. It’s an on-ear headset, but the clamping force is really light. Pairing that with the super thin and light headband and mic, and yeah, it weighs just like, 83 grams. The earpads are also able to adjust slightly for a more comfortable fit, so that’s nice.

On the mic, there’s a mute button which is very conveniently located, and there’s a LED light at the tip of the boom mic too, so you can tell whether your mic is muted at a glance or not. The earcup that the boom mic is attached to has a single button for power and pairing, picking up and hanging up calls and all. Under that though, there’s a small LED light that serves to give you more information about the headset. Something nice is that when you’re on a call, this light will turn red so your colleagues know not to disturb you. Personally, I thought the LED was a bit small, and if someone’s walking by and you’re sitting down, they might not notice the light right away. There are also two buttons on top and below for volume, and pressing them both at the same time toggles the busy light on or off.

On that same earcup is the charging port, and it’s MicroUSB, which is a huge shame. MicroUSB is a relatively outdated port right now, I would have much preferred to see USB-C on this instead. I have the charging stand though, although that’s also USB-A, but at least I can easily charge and set aside the headset and stand, so that’s a nice addition.

Microphone Quality

Mic quality, you ask? Well, when the folks at Jabra were introducing this to us, they made quite a few bold claims, at least, the product marketing video did. A vacuum, blenders, all that and the background noise rejection on the headset held up. So I thought, okay, let’s try it out in this video.

I’m not 100% sure if it’s a faulty unit I got, but the performance doesn’t seem quite as good as I expected. There was even one call where my boss said I sounded like I was talking through a walkie-talkie. It was a bit odd. The background noise rejection worked pretty well though, so if you get a good unit, I'd say it's quite suitable for making sure you come across clearly in calls.

Sound Quality

Coming to sound quality, I can hear my colleagues just fine when on calls, and sometimes, I do use these for listening to a bit of music and such, but it’s clearly not designed for music listening, so don’t have your hopes up too high.

Jabra Engage 55 Price

So yes, that’s about it for the Engage 55. It’s a lightweight headset that’s pretty decent for taking calls whether you’re in the office or at home and if you need to take a lot of calls, having something that just works is pretty important. So the stereo model starts at S$511 and goes up to S$592 with the charging stand. If you prefer something just over one ear though, there are the mono and the convertible options that start at just S$477.