Jabra Engage 65 Stereo / Mono: Serious Business Headsets
Jabra’s Engage series. Do they necessarily live up to their premium positioning?
The short answer would be: ‘Yes – absolutely!’ The slightly longer answer: ‘Jabra has surely managed to strike that fine balance between robust hardware and seamless software, thus delivering optimal communication solutions for business organizations.’
Jabra prides itself on its innovation-driven approach. And this shows up in their products. Yet still, are these headsets the headsets your business needs?
This review will provide the most comprehensive and relevant information about the Engage series and the Engage 65 headsets.
Towards the end of the review, you should have a pretty good idea of whether Engage 65 is the right headset for your business. Let us start with what’s on the outside.
Table of Contents
Design/Appearance
The Jabra Engage 65 wireless headsets come in three variations – stereo, mono, and convertible. Different wearing styles are included or available as accessories depending on the variation. For the mono variation, there’s an additional neckband accessory.
Our first impression about the Engage 65 is that they are extremely light (all three variations). This, of course, is a very good thing. Also, we noticed that the Jabra 65 is built from quality materials.
The soft ear cushions make them comfortable on the ears. The cushions themselves do not cover the entire ear. Nevertheless, the communication experience remains immersive enough.
After testing the stereo version in a loud office environment, the headset did a great job isolating any undesired background noises.
The headsets have a busy light indicator on the side and a mic. This feature essentially functions as a do-not-disturb indicator for colleagues. Thus, when users have invested their attention in some tasks, they can signal it to colleagues.
The headset further has volume adjustment buttons and an Answer/Decline one. Also, there’s a one-touch Mute/Unmute button at the tip of the mic. Overall, the headsets are quite intuitive to operate.
The other component of the Jabra Engage 65 set – the base station – is just as easy to operate. It has one-touch buttons for the answer, end, and mute call functionality. Also, it displays battery life and connected devices.
The touch-screen base station also has a simple navigation menu. Settings are easily accessed, and basic tasks such as connecting an additional headset are easily performed.
Audio/Sound
Regarding two-way audio quality, Jabra Engage 65 exhibits industry-leading performance. The headsets are provisioned with an advanced noise-canceling microphone and enhanced speakers.
When tested, the noise-canceling technology successfully muted background sounds from keyboards, conversations, and music.
On the other hand, the speakers delivered a crystal-clear sound. This goes both for calls and music.
The Jabra Engage 65 passed our audio testing with flying colors. The overall mic and speaker quality have been superb.
The Engage 65 has even more audio-related features that boost the communication experience.
Two such features are the patented PeakStop™ and IntelliTone™ 2.0. Both are intended to remove potentially harmful sounds.
PeakStop™ eliminates sudden sound spikes. If the person on the other side experiences an abrupt loss of connection or similar, your ears will be spared the glitchy noises.
On the other hand, IntelliTone™ 2.0 balances a relatively stable sound curve. The way it works is that it maintains average sound levels below predefined thresholds throughout the day. These thresholds may amount to 50, 60, or 85 dBs.
Connectivity
In Jabra’s words, their Engage series are ‘engineered to be an entirely new class of DECT wireless professional headsets. The increased DECT flexibility of the Engage series backs such a claim.
The major practical outcome as a result of this improvement: Up to 3 times more users can work within the same office.
As a rule of thumb, increased DECT flexibility results in less connection density. And because Jabra’s DECT capacity has been boosted, more devices are set up within the same working space – without any connection interruptions.
Range
Another advantage of coming with improved DECT connectivity is the increased range.
Users can take their headsets up to 490 feet from their base stations. This is three times more than the indoor range of most DECT phones. Remember that this range drops to 330ft with the convertible version.
Battery
The Engage 65 displays impressive battery endurance. On paper, the mono and stereo variations should last for 13 hours of talk time, while the convertible one – 9.
When testing the stereo variation, the battery lasted for almost 12 hours. However, this mismatch of 1 hour is tolerable. Especially given that the fast charge feature powers the headset to 40% in just 30 mins. Charging up the battery fully takes 90 minutes.
Last but not least, the headsets have an intelligent power nap feature. This feature functions essentially as a standby mode. It activates after 30 minutes of inactivity due to the in-built sensors.
Set-Up/Configuration
Setting up and starting Engage 65 is easy. Individual users can obtain full step-by-step audio instructions from the base station. Upon initializing their headsets, users are strongly encouraged to download the JabraDirect app.
JabraDirect allows users to modify settings via their desktop interface. Also, it is used for automatic firmware updates. Click here to see what exactly JabraDirect can be used for.
There is good news for the IT departments, too. Setting up and configuring an entire office’s hardware might be time-consuming. Jabra has approached the problem head-on.
The company has developed a solution for mass device deployment and maintenance. This solution is called Jabra Xpress. It is a free online tool through which IT teams perform 3 major tasks:
- Installation of new headsets;
- Firmware updates on existing headsets;
- Remote device monitoring and maintenance.
Jabra Xpress is intended to leave manual deployment behind, thus saving both money and time for companies. With it, IT departments can deploy thousands of headsets in just a few minutes. Regardless if there are 5 or 500 headsets in the queue, Xpress will deliver results simultaneously.
Hardware Connectivity
The Engage 65 can be paired with a laptop’s softphone and a traditional desk phone.
Also, the headset can be used as a corded device. Remember that when used as a corded device, the headset does not support headset call controls or busy light functionality.
Software Compatibility
Usually, hardware products by enterprise-oriented companies such as Jabra are compatible with software products aimed at large business organizations. This is why Jabra devices work best with software like Skype for Business and other professional softphone apps.
If you wish to use it with regular Skype or Slack, you might experience difficulties.
Need to make sure that the Engage 65 will be compatible with your existing hardware and software infrastructure?
Check Jabra’s compatibility guide for full hardware and software compatibility information.
Security
When it comes to security, the entire Engage series are absolute heavyweights.
Patented pairing. 256-bit AES encryption. 128-bit authentication. We are going beyond DECT Security Level C.
In other words, Jabra’s information encryption methods match ‘military standards’. The algorithms used for encryption are FIPS-compliant.
Jabra’s encryption methods are equivalent to military-level security.
The FIPS security certification is demanded from all government agencies and their associated contractors.
Ensuring secure communication is essential if you see your business as a potential contractor to a government-related agency. If so, the Engage 65 should be your go-to hardware. The security levels displayed by Jabra remain unmatched in the industry.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology also recommends the FIPS standard financial institutions demanding the highest degree of security. For example, companies like JP Morgan quickly adopted the Jabra hardware.
Final Words
From boosted hardware technicalities to handy software utilities, it is not hard to see that the Jabra Engage 65 headsets have been designed with enterprises in mind.
If you want to equip your office with serious hardware, Jabra’s Engage series is perhaps your best bet.