I reviewed Microsoft Surface Headphones 2 in late 2020. Recently I got the change to try the Microsoft Teams Certified version of Surface Headphones 2+. These headphones are tagged “for business” and it also marks the opening era of Teams Certified headsets for Surface family.
No, they don’t look much different from the outside. Controls – those really easy ones – are still there and work like a charm as before.
I am still a big fan for dials for volume and noise-cancellation. The UI just works really nicely.
What is different between Surface Headphones 2 and 2+?
Of course the big thing: dongle and being a Teams Certified headset. Dongle brings stability to Bluetooth (dedicated “line”) and it also allows the headset to have more richer controls that sync between Teams and the headset. Dongle has also lights for open mic/mute but since my desktop computer is behind the desk I don’t see them in action. When using this headset with Surface Pro 7 the dongle light starts to make much more sense.
There is also now the Teams-button to make it easy to open Teams and to answer/end Teams calls.
Battery lasts through a long working day (11-13 hours), although initially it states it has 16 hours of use time left. So nothing much has changed there.
Conclusion
Surface Headphones 2+ have become my favorite headset for now – even when it competes with other top quality sets. It is solid and Teams-button & dongle make it really usable in my modern work needs. It is not much different otherwise from the Headphones 2 -version. It could be thought like adding the final missing that that was absent from the earlier version. I have used this headset in various calls and presentations and the result & experience has been very good.
While the battery duration might be short when traveling continues again overall everything else just rocks: usability, no issues / compatibility with Teams and even audio is good enough (not perfect since it doesn’t have a boom mic) it is a very versatile headset that wins in many use cases. Noise cancellation (ANC) and microphone that also cancels ambient noise get the job done really nicely.
For all users this is a great news: there are more to choose from. Each vendor has different pros and cons obviously so everyone has to think their unique needs and what weights more compared to other areas. Including pricing.
I got this headset from Microsoft for testing it.
Vesa Nopanen - My Metaverse Day 
I’m interested in this headset to compared to Jabra. How does it work in noisy environments, does it pickup a lot of noise around you in the microphone?
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Jabra’s boom mic does make a difference there. Thinking from audio perspective a boom mic can pick up a lot better your voice and isolate it from the background noise.
However I have been happy with Surface Headphones 2 and 2+ when it comes to removing noise around me. I haven’t heard any comments from other participants regarding noises.
If you are in a really noisy environment then I suggest you try to arrange a test them yourself – perhaps with a return-option when buying so you know it fits your specific needs.
Teams Certification includes level of noise quality so both should be good in that sense. Teams has also a quite good noise cancellation mechanism built-in that will enhance the effect.
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