HP Poly Voyager Free 60+ review: Great if somebody else is paying

It’s easy to find great true wireless earbuds, but most of them feel very similar, lacking anything interesting to stand out from the crowd. However, Poly’s new Voyager Free 60 series is taking a stab at enlightening the experience with a case featuring touchscreen controls and a mind-blowing set of features. While these buds are marketed toward corporate buyers, and even feature certifications for the top video chat services, they’re pretty great for just about everybody, as long as you can stomach the price — or get your employer to cover it.

Price and availability

There are several SKUs for the HP Poly Voyager Free 60 lineup, but the earbuds are physically the same across all models. The only variables are color, included accessories, and whether they’re customized for Microsoft Teams.

For a starting price of $230, the base model Voyager Free 60 doesn’t come with any notable extras, just a standard charging case, USB cable, and eartips. Stepping up to the Voyager Free 60 UC will cost $280 and it adds a BT700 Bluetooth adapter and travel bag. Finally, the top-tier Voyager Free 60+ UC comes in at $330. This is the only model with the touchscreen case (but no travel case), and includes the BT700 Bluetooth adapter and a 3.5mm headphone jack cable.

All models can be configured and ordered directly from the Poly website, and you can contact the sales department directly for larger orders. Alternatively, the Voyager Free 60+ (with touchscreen case) is also available from Amazon.

Design and hardware

For this review, we’re checking out the flagship Voyager Free 60+ UC model with touchscreen case. There’s no point ignoring the elephant in the room, the case is huge. The clamshell design is noticeably larger than any other earbud case I’ve ever held. It’s not so big that you can’t slip it into loose pockets, but it will travel better in a messenger bag or purse.

In fact, I would recommend against carrying the case loose. I discovered by accident that the lid pops open easily from a short fall and may send the buds tumbling.

The touchscreen display is small, about the size of early smartwatch screens, but it’s enough to fit a few buttons for playback controls, changing settings, and showing battery levels. The display has a plastic cover, and it tends to show fingerprint smudges. I’m also a little concerned it may be easy to scratch, though mine hasn’t shown any yet.

The buds aren’t particularly stylish or fashionable, just a bit utilitarian. A pair of ANC microphones are hidden under a silver grille along the top of the stem, which also serves as a touch-sensitive strip you can swipe for actions like advancing music tracks, changing volume, or toggling ANC. There’s also a button at the bottom of the stem to pause music or answer calls.

I could wear the buds for several hours with relatively little ear fatigue or discomfort. This will obviously vary from one person to the next, but they didn’t fall out easily, even during runs or trying to shake them out. However, the stem pokes out enough that it could be easy to bump by accident.

The included BT700 Bluetooth adapter (USB-A or C) comes pre-paired with the buds and is held in the case by a rubber gasket. It provides Bluetooth LE Audio and uses the LC3 codec that promises better sound quality and performance compared to SBC. Strangely, the desktop companion apps require it to change earbud settings, even though smartphone apps are free to do this with a regular Bluetooth connection.

And finally, alongside the usual array of charging cables, manuals, and three pairs of silicone tips, Poly also includes a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack cable, and it does exactly what you would hope. This cable allows the case to transmit audio from any headphone jack to the earbuds. Ironically, Poly named this feature “Airplane Mode” for the notion that it’s intended for in-flight entertainment systems, but it obviously works with anything like old iPods or record players.

Audio and ANC

You may not expect much from earbuds marketed toward executives and IT personnel, but the Voyager Free 60 buds defy expectations. Sound quality is great and easily matches up against the best earbuds I’ve tried. The buds can deliver rich and nuanced bass, nicely balanced mids, and crisp highs.

They have an excellent soundstage, and I found myself wanting to listen to music more often simply because they sound so good and remain comfortable to wear for a while. The only time sound quality noticeably declined was with “airplane mode,” which sounded a bit too compressed to really enjoy music, but still fine for movies and podcasts.

While these are capable of great sound quality, the app lacks a proper equalizer. Instead, there are three simple presets: Bass, Flat, and Bright. Bass is selected by default and gives a naturally warm tone to the lows and mids without muddying up frequencies, so it sounds good with most music.

The Bright profile emphasizes treble and sharpens the highs, almost like it was tuned to bring out the full drum kit for mid-00s rock. Finally, the Flat profile exists, but it’s too flavorless to be of much use. I hope firmware updates bring a full EQ someday, because fine control would really make these hard to beat.

ANC performance is by far the best I’ve encountered with any earbuds. It offers both Standard and Adaptive modes, though there’s little discernible difference. Low-frequency noise completely disappears with either mode, and they cut out some higher frequencies as well.

There are also two transparency modes, one designed to amplify the whole environment, and another that’s supposed to favor speech. Again, I didn’t notice much difference, but I’m impressed that the transparency mode produces far less of that obnoxious airy sound than most other buds.

Signal quality is pretty comparable to any earbuds I’ve reviewed, which is to say it’s generally great but can suffer minor glitches around heavy interference. That’s where the BT700 adapter comes in, as it’s designed to compete in office spaces packed with computers and other gadgets.

While I can’t simulate those conditions, I certainly noticed the adapter added some range, and it absolutely eliminated any glitching that occurred in my home office. It felt like audio quality also improved very slightly, but I ultimately went back to my laptop’s built-in Bluetooth because it wasn’t worth sacrificing a port just for this.

Finally, call quality is one of the major marketing points, particularly in windy and loud settings. While I didn’t get to test in windy conditions, the noise reduction noticeably helped during a call from a loud store.

App and features

I want to believe the Voyager Free 60 earbuds were inspired by a scene from the movie xXx where Vin Diesel is sitting in a muscle car and points to a pile of weapons while saying, “I want all of that, in here.”

The feature list is staggering compared to most wireless earbuds. The unique (or at least rare) features include the touchscreen case, Bluetooth dongle, 3.5mm headphone passthrough cable (“airplane mode”), and certifications for Zoom and Microsoft Teams (certification pending for Google Voice and Meet).

And among the more common, but still not widely available features, you can find multipoint connectivity, ANC and transparency modes, AptX and AAC support, in-ear detection, audible alerts with Find My Device, and configurable hearing protection.

That’s all before discussing the companion apps, which aren’t just available for iOS and Android, but also Windows and macOS. Frankly, this is almost necessary given that the list of settings looks almost as long as Facebook’s privacy page.

This isn’t to say there aren’t a few things missing, like the aforementioned EQ to control your sound curve. Additionally, while most buds support double or triple-clicks to perform additional actions, for some reason the button only supports a single configurable action on the first click. As a result, I found myself reaching for the touchscreen case or my phone more often.

There’s also no low-latency mode, which means these buds aren’t ideal for gaming or any apps that lack Bluetooth sync. Out of all of these, the full EQ is the only one I really miss, but hopefully some or all of these may be added with firmware updates.

Of course, the touchscreen case is the most distinctive feature on the list. It generally defaults to showing battery levels, but it uses context from your phone or computer to switch to other functions. For example, player controls come up when you’re playing music or videos, and call buttons appear during a phone call or video chat. You’re also usually just a few taps away from toggling ANC modes and controlling volume.

The touchscreen is a clever feature, and despite being a first-generation design, it’s easy to see this becoming fairly commonplace for upmarket earbuds. With that said, this version still feels unfinished and lacks some obvious capabilities like switching EQ presets or activating the Find My Device feature. I also think there are missed opportunities to turn the case into an independent audio source by adding a gigabyte of storage for music and podcasts, or even preloaded relaxation sounds.

The biggest caveat is that it’s rarely more convenient than using a phone or computer. For example, if I’m listening to music or podcasts, both the phone and case are probably in my pockets, and it’s just as much effort to reach for either one. And since the player running on my phone can do more, I usually reach for it more often anyway. The real advantage to the touchscreen is more obvious when I happen to be moving around without my phone in hand, or if I just leave it on my desk and treat it like a tiny control panel.

Battery and charging

Poly claims five and a half hours of talk time or eight hours listening. I found these numbers a bit optimistic, and they really deliver closer to five hours and seven hours, respectively. That’s still quite good, especially since this is with ANC on at all times.

Charging either version of the case can be done via USB-C cable or Qi wireless charging, and both methods support fast charging standards, so it’s easy to fill up a bit wherever you go.

Competition

If you’re just looking for good Bluetooth earbuds, there are plenty on the market that will come in at much lower prices like the recently released OnePlus Buds Pro 2 for $179. This still gives you multipoint connectivity, and should produce slightly better music quality, but you’ll sacrifice some ANC performance. Of course, even these are on the higher end of consumer earbud prices, and there are many good options.

But for those that spend all day on calls or video chats, and especially if Zoom or Microsoft Teams certifications are necessary, the options are more limited. There are quite a few full-size headphones and call center-style headsets, but if you narrow the search to true wireless earbuds, the selection drops to just four.

The base model Poly Voyager Free 60 earbuds currently sport the lowest MSRP at $230, but for a slightly higher $242, the Jabra Evolve2 Buds have similar specs and marginally better IP57 water resistance. The Evolve 2 also includes a Bluetooth dongle for that price, whereas it will cost an extra $50 or $100 to get it with the Voyager Free 60 UC or 60+ UC, respectively.

For an even higher $299, the Logitech Zone True Wireless earbuds are similar on paper, but they feature an IP68 rating and step up to 12mm drivers for a stronger bass response. And finally, the Bang & Olufsen is selling its Beocom EX earbuds for a hefty $449, and they sure are pretty — that’s a feature, right?

Should you buy them?

If your company offers a generous equipment budget, take advantage and put the Voyager Free 60 on the list and don’t look back. These are really great earbuds with an impressive set of features and sound quality, and the certifications are marketed specifically to give corporations a reason to buy them for employees. While there are a handful of things that can and should be improved — and most are possible through firmware updates — there’s very little chance anybody short of an audiophile will have many complaints.

On the other hand, if you don’t specifically need high-end mics or certifications, it doesn’t make sense to buy earbuds starting at $230. It’s not hard to find earbuds with similar sound quality for about half the price while still picking up the specific features that matter to you.