Poly Sync 20 USB-C Personal Portable Smart Speakerphone (Plantronics) – Noise/Echo Reduction -Works w/Teams, Zoom, PC, Mac, Mobile – Amazon Exclusive

I purchased the Poly Sync 20 to compare with the Anker PowerConf S3. Both were roughly the same price, had sleek, professional looking designs, small form factors, and similar features (Bluetooth, portability, compatibility). Both use an iOS app to pair and setup, and both worked instantly with my work PC laptop. Both play tones when using the physical buttons (I like the Anker's sound effects better), and both have useful status LEDs the indicate volume level, in-use, muted, etc. The Anker uses a USB A cable, the PolySync20 uses USB C. Both get their power over USB and don't need a separate power cord and adapter (yay!). Where the products really differ are in their speaker quality. The PolySync20 gets about 25% louder, and when playing a speaker test YouTube vide, covers a LOT more of the lower-end frequencies. Where a deep male voice sounds tinny and very mid-range focused on the Anker, the PolySync20 captures deeper, richer bass. All other things being equal, I will be returning the Anker and sticking with the PolySync20 because of the sound quality.

Update: I’m still loving this speaker. One thing I found is that Slack doesn’t treat it like Teams does. If I’m playing music through another device, Teams will take over, but Slack on my computer does not. It seems to be treated just like another application at the same level as music. Even if I pause the music first, it may take a couple of seconds before this speaker handles the Slack call/huddle. Original Review: Initial impression is really good with this speakerphone. It was a little bigger than I thought it would be, but not a problem sitting on my desk. It came with a carry bag so I can easily take it with me when I choose to do so. There’s a lanyard but I didn’t attach it because I don’t anticipate carrying it like that. I bought the Teams model and the integration is useful. I didn’t have to install their software for it to work, Teams recognized it and let me know how to use it. I can use volume control on the speaker or my computer. The mute button on the speaker mirrors the icon in Teams, and there are lights to let you know when the mic is active or muted. When I’m playing music through my iPhone or iPad and I join a meeting, it pauses until the call ends, then resumes. Another nice feature is if somebody starts a Teams meeting, the Teams light on the speaker will flash and you just need to tap the button to join. the same happens if you have an incoming call. Yesterday one of my coworkers thought I was still using my headset, he didn’t realize I was using a speaker. Everybody on the call told me that I sounded great on the other end and the voices were clear on my end as well. The speaker sounds real nice playing music also. I don’t think it is quite a nice as my Bose Soundlink Mini, but I do like it. There is a down-firing speaker that uses the desk to produce more bass response. One kind of hidden feature is the multi-point pairing. I plug into USB for my computer, but also paired it to my iPhone and iPad. It turns out it will connect to all three at the same time. I assumed it would only connect to iPhone or iPad at one time.

I was havnig a hard time hearing people on my cellphone speaker phone. I decided to buy this product and see if it is better. It arrived thenext day, easy to pair and I was able to use it immediately. After several hours or charging, I began using it. It connected to my cell phone really fast as well as my PC. Once connected, I tried a call and wow, it was loud. I could hear my friend really well and loud. He also heard me the same way. You could also play music. This model has a dedicated button toconnect to Microsoft Teams. I have not tried it yet but I will soon. The price was excellent considering tha I used Amazons 5 month payment plan. Awesome! In closing, this product is excellent. Good quality product, comes with a usb c adapter, case and works very well. I highly recommend.

So I know this is more of a wireless take-around speaker, but I have this connected to my computer 24/7 so I never have to worry about it dying or charging and I absolutely love it. The sound quality from my computer was so horrendous, but this speaker has excellent sound quality, and I love the buttons that you can so easily raise the volume or lower the volume as well as if I have a meeting or if I’m listening to a song and it’s super loud the loudness itself from the video actually comes out clearly. The speaker itself is definitely feels that is made solid in it and feels durable enough that if I didn’t want to take it around it totally would be a perfect Takeaway take around speaker. So sometimes you can go on sale a little bit cheaper to make it more affordable but honestly, even $100 for this is totally worth the value.

Like many others, I spend approximately 6 hours a day in remote meetings due to work from home and COVID. I started out wearing my Airpods for all my meetings, but I was in so many meetings that my battery wouldn't make it until the end of the day. I started looking for an alternative solution. I initially thought finding a good speakerphone would be super simple task (just search on Amazon and buy the top-rated product), but I found that to not be the case. I eventually ended up cycling through all of the following devices: Jabra 510 Jabra 710 Jabra 750 Finally, the Poly Sync 20. You NEED a speakerphone with duplex audio (which only the Jabra 750 and Poly Sync 20 supports). Otherwise, you can be talking over the other person and not even realize it. It took a few meetings before I realized that I was doing this (and others could accidentally perceive you as being rude). The duplex audio works on the Jabra 750, but somehow the DSP and processing makes your voice sound unnatural and distant. It was bad enough that multiple people would comment to me about the bad microphone quality. I eventually tried the Poly Sync 20 (which took some risk taking because it was hard to find reliable information on it), and I'm super glad that I did! It resolves a lot of the issues that I had with the Jabra, and actually had some additional perks as well. It does the most important thing I needed from my speakerphone: it supports duplex audio while keeping my voice sounding natural and unprocessed. As a side perk, the speaker quality for playing music sounds MUCH better than the Jabra. The Jabra is tuned for voice only, so it has a huge mid boost and absolutely no bass. The Poly Sync has a flatter frequency response, so it can be used easily as a laptop speaker for listening to music or watching a movie. It also serves as a phone charger, so it has great practically for carrying around in your bag. What started out as a seemingly simple task (find a good speakerphone for my WFH meetings) turned into a much longer search, but I'm glad I finally found the "holy grail" of speakerphones. As a final note, I found it very hard to find reliable information regarding speakerphones in general. It seems like most of the reviews are some kind of affiliate marketing. For me, there was no replacement for ordering the devices and testing out the microphone and speaker quality firsthand. After doing so, there was no comparison between this device and the Jabra devices.

Really good product. Good sound quality and portability is a key factor. Noise suppression works perfectly.

I've had my speaker for 4 months and have no complaints about the sound quantity or durability of the speaker. In fact the speaker is aesthetically pleasing and sounds extremely clear. But I didnt buy the speaker for it's looks, I bought it for its Teams functionality; for work. I use the speaker daily for conference calls and the speaker boasts that it connects with Teams seamlessly..which is not necessarily true in my experience. The poly 2.0 that I have has a USB cable built in to the speaker that when described was to be used for charging. Interestingly enough the Teams features cannot be used without connecting the speaker to the computer via the USB cable - which completely negates the fact that it is supposed to be a bluetooth speaker! Something as simple as putting myself on mute via the button on the speaker cannot be done unless the speaker is physically connected to my computer. Also I emailed the company to try and troubleshoot the issues I was having and their "Final Solution" to my problem was me buying their USB adapter for $110 (after i've already spent $110 on the speaker mind you) so that my bluetooth speaker that is connected to my computer via bluetooth can then be connected to my computer..........? I'm only unsatisfied with the product because I feel I was misled. I feel the company inflated a product that they knew didn't have the features advertised. Call it creative advertising I guess. P.S. I only get the Teams features (while hardwired to my computer of course) 50% of the time.

Update 29 January 2023. After having the unit in use an additional month, I'm pulling off two of the stars I originally gave the speakerphone. I still give it a solid 3 stars, but it has issues I consider important. Timing it confirmed that the Poly Sync 20 USB-A goes into standby mode after 15 minutes, and into sleep mode after 45. This I can live with. But I had occasion last week to be on a lengthy conference call that ran almost an hour. At the 45-minute mark, the speakerphone--though always plugged into a direct, wall-outlet power source and in active use (i.e., on a call and not muted)--STILL dropped into sleep mode. It didn't disconnect the call; once I realized what had happened I was able to grab the cell phone and enable its tinny-sounding speaker. But the Poly Sync became a boat anchor during a business con call, which caused me to miss a bit of the conversation until I recognized the problem and got my cell phone into play. I assume I could have hit the power button to bring the speakerphone back to life, but every time I do that it recites--which I otherwise want and need--that it has successfully powered on, the battery status, and that Bluetooth connections have been established with Phone 1 and Phone 2. What I DON'T want is any part of that to be broadcast to a half-dozen unsuspecting people on a business conference call. Additionally, I mentioned that the unit is always connected via a USB adapter directly to a wall outlet. But evidently it never bypasses the onboard battery, and the battery is always on a trickle charge. This seems a design flaw. After ending that 50+ minute conference call I powered up the Poly Sync 20 again and the announcement told me that the battery charge was down to "medium." So it had been draining the battery for the 45 minutes I was on the con call even though it had been connected to direct power the whole time. This isn't a massive problem, but it does lead me to believe that, in the end, the battery life will be less than might otherwise be expected. The user guide for the device gives no indication that the battery is replaceable. ---------- I'm giving it 5 Stars...but really it's 4.75. :-) Functionally, it does everything I expected of it. That it's small and portable is a plus, but I bought it to sit in front of my keyboard in my home office. Wherein comes the .25 star reduction. Whether the unit remains connected to an electrical outlet or is on internal battery only, it will stay "awake" for a set period of time where incoming calls will ring-through automatically as expected. Then it goes into a standby mode where, at least on the unit I purchased 24 Nov 2022, it's easy to "wake up" with one of a few different button-taps, BUT calls don't ring through in this mode. If the smartphone rings, you have to manually wake the unit up before using it to answer the call. A minor issue. Perhaps more of an issue is that after a couple of hours in standby mode (I haven't actually timed it, and the online User Guide doesn't address any of these standby/power-off matters) even in an always-plugged-in home office environment, the unit powers itself off. There is no indication that this has occurred because there is no audible announcement and, since the LED display turns off in normal standby mode, there is no visible distinction to tell whether you're in standby or have powered off. Once aware of this, it isn't a deal breaker. I've simply gotten in the habit of, if I haven't used the phone in an hour or two, tapping the power button to pull it out of standby mode. If it's powered off, it can be powered back on quickly, but you have to press and hold the power button for 2 seconds, and then the unit needs a few seconds to re-sync the Bluetooth connection(s). Not a big deal unless your phone is already on its 2nd or 3rd ring before you realize why you can't answer the call on the speakerphone. A big entry on the plus side for me is the reason I wrote "Bluetooth connection(s)" above. This little Poly Sync 20 gem is capable of pairing and REMAINING synced with two phones at the same time. I have a personal and a business phone and after syncing them both individually, each time I power-on the speakerphone (providing the phones are in range, of course) I get a little announcement telling me both "phone one" and "phone two" are synced to the Bluetooth connection. I can't tell you what would happen if I received two calls at EXACTLY the same moment, but that isn't likely to happen. To me, this a huge benefit, not just for an office setup but for a two-phone household. I can receive or make calls from either phone without any further adjustments to the speakerphone. Works like a charm. Of course, this isn't Poly's most feature-rich model, but it has all the basics I need. I used to use a landline for the business and one of Polycom's iconic (and superb for its time) SoundStation conference phones. Ported the number over to a cell service because there simply was no longer any point in paying AT&T almost $130 per month for a wired service with fewer features overall and at over twice the price than modern cell phone plans. This Poly Sync 20 gives me microphone clarity, plenty of speaker volume adjustment, a quick tap to answer calls, a mute button, a programmable (for a few functions) button, and a USB charging port for other devices. For me, it's a great value for the money and a recommended purchase if you need something like it. (But, Poly, please consider making some adjustments to the standby and power-off stuff in the future.)