Arctic Sound P311 Bluetooth Headset Review

Over the past couple of years, Arctic Cooling have rebranded themselves slowly to Arctic' to suit their ever diversifying range of products. Rather than dismiss the Arctic Cooling brand entirely, though, they have developed a number of sub-brands for their different types of products such as Arctic Sound and Arctic Power. Today we are going to look at one of Arctic's headsets, the P311. Unlike all the headsets Arctic have produced so far, the P311 connects via Bluetooth and is therefore more appropriate for use with an iPhone or laptop rather than for gaming. Specifications:Packaging Dimensions (LxWxH): 165 x 65 x 230mmWearing Style: Super-Aural, NeckbandBluetooth Version: V2.1+EDR Class 2Frequency Response: 18 Hz 22kHzTotal Harmonic Distortion: 0.1%Battery: Rechargeable 400mAH; Li-Polymer BatteryTalk Time: Up to 20 hoursLimited Warranty: 2 yearsWeight: 32gPackaging and Bundle Arctic have used their trademark silver packaging for the P311 which will really make it stand out on the shelves. The front of the box has a large plastic window that gives you a glimpse of the headset inside the box. Turning the box over reveals a breakdown of the features and specifications of the headset. The bundle included with the headset isn't exactly plentiful; the only items we find in the box aside from the headset itself are a quick-start sheet, a case and a USB charging cable. Unfortunately they don't' include a standard 3-pin charger so you will have to charge from a computer or your own USB charger.The Headset Arctic has opted for a neckband design for the P311 which is perfect for the target market of smartphone and laptop users. Even though the sizable case is less than perfect for those on the move, the headset itself folds up into a very compact form which is ideal for travelling. There are a number of buttons situated on the right-hand earpiece which let you control the various functions of the headset. The large button in the centre of the earpiece has a number of different functions. It can be used to activate the hands-free headset functionality, letting you make, answer, end and refuse calls, redial the last dialled number and switch the call between phone and headset. During music playback, it can be used to play, pause or stop music and also acts as the on/off button of the headset. We can't help feeling there are too many functions on this button and learning how long to hold it for each function from the manual would take quite a while. But thankfully, the other four buttons on the headset only have one function each; the top two allow you to control volume and the bottom two let you skip between tracks. On the periphery of the earpiece we find the inbuilt microphone which is very small in size. This is perfectly adequate for hands-free calling or for Skype even though the sound quality produced isn't exactly studio grade. The plastics used in construction are of an acceptable quality considering the price of the headset but the P311 doesn't have that built to last forever' feeling of SteelSeries' headsets. The area in which the lack of refinement is most noticeable is the action and feel of the buttons; they are very noisy in operation and don't feel securely attached. Even though Arctic have shoehorned in a 400mAH Li-Polymer battery, the P311 remains relatively compact and lightweight. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to test out Arctic's battery claims of 20 hours of music playback but we've had nearly 10 hours of use out of them during our tests and they haven't run out yet!Comfort and PerformanceOne of the most important factors to consider when buying a headset is comfort. The Arctic P321 excels in this area, in part a result of its extremely lightweight design. The earpieces feature faux leather earpads which grip your ears with enough force to secure the headset but without causing discomfort. The headset remains securely in place when walking around and only moves a little when running so the P311 is perfect for people who are out and about. We did find the faux leather earpieces became a little uncomfortable during our running tests as they make your ears sweat more than usual! We tested the headset with our trusty Macbook Pro to see how it coped with music playback, movie playback and Skype. After we had paired the devices, we were presented with a notification asking if we would like to use the headset for audio playback. We promptly agreed and began our testing. Imagine our surprise when we loaded up iTunes and were greeted by some of the most distorted, poor quality playback we've ever experienced. It would seem that the headset, by default, enters mono mode which must be used when you're using the inbuilt microphone. Switching to the stereo headphone' profile in the sound preferences tab rectified this. With the settings all sorted, we loaded up iTunes once more. Thankfully the sound quality was much improved with clear high tones and reasonably prominent bass notes. The lower registers did seem to distort slightly in some tracks, though, and occasionally lacked presence. The movie playback experience wasn't exactly immersive but was perfectly acceptable for watching a movie on the go. We then tested the P311 with our HTC Desire (Android) smartphone. Fortunately, the setup process was much more simple than with our Macbook as all the settings were configured automatically. The Music playback experience was pretty much identical to what we heard with the Macbook and the hands-free functions all worked perfectly. There were a couple of instances when first testing with the HTC Desire where the music stuttered a little but this quickly stopped and the headset was fine for the rest of the test. This said, we couldn't use the hands-free functions without the idiot sheet in front of us as the different button functions would take a while to learn.Final ThoughtsOur experience with the Arctic Sound P311 bluetooth headset has been a bit of a mixed bag. The design of the headset is good despite the slightly suspect build quality in some areas and the sound quality, when configured properly, is good. We can see this headset being a very handy as a hands-free kit, once you learn all the button functions off by heart, as it has all the features of a very expensive hands-free unit with the added benefit of audio playback. At the time of testing, we didn't have a Bluetooth enabled PC available for testing so we're not able to comment on the ease of use but we suspect it will depend, to an extent, on the Bluetooth software used. We thought it unfortunate that you have to use the headset' audio playback mode to enable the inbuilt microphone as audio quality really does suffer as a result. Despite the minor gripes we have with the Arctic P311, considering the sub-£20 price point we are definitely willing to forgive. In fact we wouldn't hesitate to recommend the P311 to anyone looking for a decent Bluetooth headset on a budget. Pros:Compact and Lightweight designHands-free functionOutstanding PriceCons:Sub-par build qualityToo many functions on one buttonRatings:Design: 7Features:9Performance: 6Value: 10 Attached files IMG_8593.jpg (40.5 KB) IMG_8595.jpg (43.4 KB) IMG_8597.jpg (34.6 KB) IMG_8601.jpg (48.1 KB) IMG_8612.jpg (35.8 KB) IMG_8614.jpg (38.5 KB) IMG_8619.jpg (42 KB) IMG_8622.jpg (26.3 KB) IMG_8627.jpg (38.5 KB) IMG_8628.jpg (51.8 KB) IMG_8635.jpg (43.5 KB) IMG_8640.jpg (43.9 KB) p311.jpg (6.7 KB) silver.jpg (12.4 KB)