 Good sound quality for music and voice |
| Review Date: August 16, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Michael Rork, Burlington, VT |
I love this device, but let's do some bullet points about what it can and can not do well:
+ Connects to two devices at the same time (I use it with the A125s and my Nokia N73 with A2DP Bluetooth profile)
+ Is smart enough to put the music on hold from the A125s when I get a call from my N73, and then when I disconnect the call, returns to the music from the A125s.
- Sometimes loses connection between one or the other device and does not switch back and forth appropriately. Causes me to have to turn the devices off and back on again to reconnect properly. (This gets frustrating and is what brought the star rating down one.)
+ Works great when only connected to one device (N73 for example) when listening to music and answering calls.
- Controls are ok, but not great. Figuring out if you are controlling music or calls can get frustrating if you aren't looking at the LED (which is in your ear!) and when it does control music, there is not fast forward, rewind, or skip backwards. There is only pause/play, stop, and skip forward. Other devices such as the Lubix LC1 do all of this (but have horrible sound quality).
+ LED display is very helpful when pairing devices, seeing where battery level is and where volume level is.
- LED is useless when it comes to receiving calls because it is usually on your ear when you get the call, and removing it to see who is calling is more work than taking your phone out of your pocket. Same goes for the feature of using it as a phone book or recent calls list.
+ Design of use is excellent. Having a mono headset and stereo headphones in one device is brilliant.
- Ear pieces don't stay on ear too well when moving quickly. Ear loops are not secure enough and they do not go in ear.
- Cord between devices is not long enough. The cord will stick to a sweaty neck when you turn your head, and when you take both out of your ears they are not long enough to loop together for security. If cord was longer it would rest on shirt or not matter if it stuck to neck.
+ Music quality is excellent! Now, keep in mind this is a bluetooth headset, not a corded high end pair of headphones. I'm judging them on what they are, not on what they could be. There is going to be room for improvement and audiophiles will find faults with the quality, but compared to every other Bluetooth headphone I've tried, these come close to first place (only the Logitech FreePulse were better, but they do not pair with phones, only their adapter).
+ Speech quality is good, but could be better. My wife says she can hear me almost as clearly as the other mono bluetooth headsets I've used, but still not as well as directly from the phone. As for hearing her and other people, it's not quite loud enough for me, but when I have the stereo piece on it's loud and clear. (Although, it took some getting used to hearing people talk in stereo.)
My breakdown:
If they went in-ear for extra security (and volume), the controls were improved upon for navigating songs better, there was a more convenient way to store them around your neck, and the connectivity worked 100% of the time, these would get a very strong 5 star rating, but for now these bring them down to a 4 star. Why only one star off? Because they are the only device on the market I have found to connect to 2 A2DP profile bluetooth devices, have good to great sound quality, and allow you to take only one ear off when you are on a call. (Any hard connected devices like the Motorola S9 or any over/behind head product is secure in both ears when on, no matter what, which makes them impossible to use while driving.)
So, yes, I recommend this product. It has worked well for me so far, despite the negatives. Maybe the next generation will fix these problems. |
Wear glasses? Uncomfortable.
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| Review Date: September 16, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Wind, Oregon |
Cons:
I bought these about a week ago. I even tried them on in the store and they seemed comfortable enough with my glasses on. However, after a few hours of wear, my ears are really irritated. Also, the ear hook falls off regularly which is annoying. With glasses on, they don't ever seem to line up properly with the ear canal (yes, I've tried bending and twisting them). After pausing the music from the headset, sometimes it takes several tries to unpause it from the headset - it will come on for a second and then pause again. My family says my voice sounds muffled when I talk to them on the phone.
Pros:
If I hold the earpiece so that it lines up correctly with my ear canal, the sound quality seems pretty good to me. I like the fact that I can either use one or both earpieces to listen to music. I routinely have to answer a land line phone at work so I usually put in just one earpiece for listening to music and leave the other one clear for answering the phone. These stereo headphones don't mess up your hair.
Overall, if I didn't wear glasses it wouldn't be too bad. I also have a Cardo Systems Scala 500 that works great but doesn't let you listen to music (it has a clip that connects to your glasses)so, if you're just lookng for phone capability, I would get the Scala. |
Works well
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| Review Date: February 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M. Howe, Motown |
This product works very well. I like the display function because it is easy to tell when it has paired (which it does very quickly) and the battery level. The display also makes it very easy to change options, like vibrating alert. On BT headsets without a display, there is always a tricky combination of buttons to press to change options, and a sequence of flashing lights or sounds to indicate pairing status and battery life - the display makes it so you don't have to remember what different colored lights or flashing sequences mean.
Battery life seems pretty good although I don't use my phone or my headset as much as many people do, so your experience may very.
The sound quality for calls is better than the last BT headset I had (a Motorola) - I have not had any complaints from callers on the other end.
Range is very good. Within 20 feet of the phone everything is very clear - some static starts beyond about 20 feet.
You can download software that allows you to put a contact list in the headset - the software was pretty easy and I did put my most frequently called contacts in the headset, although I don't really expect that I will ever take the earpiece off to use it to dial rather than just using the voicedial function. By setting up the contact list in the phone, the caller ID function on the headset displays the caller name instead of just the phone number if you don't have the contact list setup.
I have not used the stero music function much - just to try it out and make sure that it worked. It is easy to toggle to a call from music, and then when the call is over it automatically goes right back to where you left off with the music. Sound quality is ok, but obviously does not compare to a good set of wired headphones.
The only reason that I give this 4 stars rather than 5 is that the stereo earbud that you attach to listen to music is bulky and ugly. It would be better if it was just an earbud like you would expect to see in regular headphones. There isn't really any reason why it has to look like a slightly smaller version of the main BT piece and have an awkward ear hook instead of just being an earbud. This is not a big deal for me because I use an MP3 player when I want to listen to music, but because one main draw of this headset is the stereo capability, I thought other potential buyers should be warned. |
Wow, being a techno-geek is fun sometimes!
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| Review Date: February 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Bill, Atlanta, GA USA |
I just received my BT8010 to use with my Sprint Mogul, and I'm totally & completely in love with it. I've always been kind of prejudiced against bluetooth headsets because the speaker & mic usually sound very jumbled & it echoes & people just can't hear me. But, with the memory card capacity and media functions of my new phone, I decided to give this "A2DP" thing a shot, whatever that means. First thing I did after charging it up & pairing it to my phone was called my voicemail. I listened to 20 minutes of messages & then sent myself a message to see how my voice sounded on the other end, and on both accounts it actually sounds BETTER than using the phone alone.
The controls are easy to use without taking it off your ear, I only programmed my 2 most frequently called numbers into the built in phonebook, so I just hit menu twice, roll the jog wheel once or twice depending on who I want to call, and hit the talk button to call either of them completely hands free without ever touching my phone or looking at anything. That part's very nice.
When I open up Media Player, MobiTV, XM Radio, or any other media app on my phone, the sound comes through the headphones without me doing anything, very easy to use. It switches to voice mode automatically when I get a voice call. The thing that surprised me most about the music is that it actually sounds pretty dang good. Reviews I read before buying said things like "audiophiles will not want to give up their favorite pair of wired headphones" which made me think it was going to be tinny crackly horrible sound, like phone call quality or something. But it actually sounds pretty good. Sound quality is on par with the factory headphones you get from most higher end MP3 players like iPods. Sure you can get better sound out of a $100 pair of wired earphones, but seriously, these sound pretty dang good.
One other thing I want to mention, a lot of reviews complained that the ear loops are horribly uncomfortable and don't fit ears their size. I've got to wonder if these people are very observant. The ear loop is completely bendable & flexible and sits on a 180 degree pivot. put it in whatever shape feels good around your ear and adjust the pivot until it sits at an angle you like on your head. I'm not sure what they're complaining about...it feels great to me.
So overall, I'll be honest I haven't compared this to any other A2DP devices. I bought this one because I loved the convertible aspect allowing it to so easily double as a regular single ear headset for phone calls. I may not be the most qualified reviewer you'll ever meet, but I can tell you that I'm very very pleased with every aspect of this thing. Come to think of it, I haven't even charged the battery in a week & I've been listening to music almost constantly now that I can. :) |
Jabra BT8010 Bluetooth Headset
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| Review Date: September 13, 2007 |
| Reviewer: L. Gucciardo, USA |
| My review is mixed for this product. When it works it works great. I am using this with a Verizon vx8500 chocalate phone. Upon pairing it the headset works fine.It auto answers and connects with no problems. When I switch to music mode it controls the mp3 player fine. The problems start when you power it down and disconnect it. The next time it connects to the phone it will answer calls just fine ;however the music will play thru the cell phone speaker instead of the head phones. The only way to get it to work again is to break the pair and then go through the process of re-pairing them again. The sound quality is where this headset really shines. Great sound. I just wish it had a little more volume. The only other gripe is the way it fits in your ear. If Jabra would use gel inserts instead of the hard plastic it would sit much more comforably in your ear. The headset is firmware updatable on the Jabra site. Maybe they will come up with a firmware update to correct some of the problems. If the problems get corrected ad 2 more stars. |
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