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Jabra BT125
by G-smith
this little Bluetooth headset from Jabra is, to be honest, not the best product on the market, however, I wouldn't have expected it to be at the competitively low price. I have been impressed by this headset since the day I purchased it, and it has served me well for everything I have needed it for.
The first thing you will ... notice with this headset is that it is very small. This is good because it is very easy to take anywhere you wish to take it, but also means that I lose it a lot easier! Also, I may even say that the headset may be too small. With it being so compact, the microphone is quite a distance from the mouth. This is not a problem because the mic is very sensitive and picks up everything that I say very well, but the extra sensitivity means that it does pick up a lot of background noise, which can be very annoying.
Anyway, on to the comfort. With the headset being so small, it weighs next to nothing, and I soon forget that it is in my ear. This is very good and I think that small headsets like these do provide great comfort because you just forget that they are there. However, the ear piece can be a nuisance to set up. It is a sort of wiry metal surrounded by rubber and can be bent and shaped and you wish, but it is very hard to find the position that is comfortable and gives you optimal distance from microphone to mouth to pick up what you are saying easier. anyway, once the ear piece is sorted, the headset is very nice and comfortable on the ear.
The headset also has excellent battery life and lasts me around a week on average depending on how much I use it, and I do use it a lot. I use the headset for my phone (hands free) and for games consoles to talk to other players. It is very easy to connect to everything I have every connected it to and will not take long at all. It is very easy to operate and turn on and off and is, in general a fairly okay product, but I would say it is good for the price. The product also has excellent longevity. I do not know how long I have had this headset, but it was a while since I purchased it, and it has had a few drops etc. in the past, but still works very well to this day!
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Nokia BH-104
by valve90210
When I upgraded my phone a while back I got a free Nokia Hands-free kit thrown in with it. As I get quite a large amount of free minutes in with my contract I tend to use my mobile when I want to make calls rather than using the land line.
I also like to be able to get on with other things while on the phone, as sometimes if ... I'm calling my brother or my Mum, the calls can go on for ages, and as I have so much to do it's useful to be able to get on with bits and pieces while chatting, so a hands-free kit would be a god send!
When I received the hands-free kit, I immediately opened it up and stuck it on charge using the mains adapter that was included, a nice little red led lit up on the end to show that it was charging...very handy, my last blue tooth headset didn't have this so it was impossible to tell if it was fully charged or not. When this set is charged, the light goes yellow.
The headset itself is about 2 inches long and about 3/4 or an inch wide by a little under 1/2 inch deep. It's a fairly basic looking unit, just a rounded off rectangle. On the fron there is a button which takes up approximately half the size of the unit which can be used to answer calls and hang up.
On one side there are 2 buttons which control the in-call volume, they are quite small but are easy to operate even when the headset is in place.
At one end there is the small socket for the mains adapter for charging, at the other a small hole where the microphone is housed.
On the back of the headset there is an ear piece which is designed to sit in the ear, and a flexible holder which can be shaped around your ear to keep the head set in place. The holder arm rotates and swivels so the headset can be used for either ear.
Also on the back is a small power button, a long press will switch it on and switch it off. Each action is accompanied with a short set of tones, increasing in pitch when switching on and decreasing in pitch when switching off, so it is easy to tell if it switching on or off, even while it is in your ear and you can't see the LED which lights up when the device is switched on.
When the headset is switched on, it goes into pairing mode so it is simple to pair it with a mobile phone, you just simple need to have blue tooth activated on the phone and then switch on the headset.
Upon using the headset I found that it is actually quite difficult to get the holder arm flexed and into a position which actually holds the headset in place, and even when I did manage it, it wasn't long before it decided to move about and on occasion actually fall off my ear! After a lot of attempts I finally got it sitting quite well though it will still fall off If I'm not careful and moving about a lot.
From a comfort point of view I would say this is not a great headset as the ear piece is rather too large and combined with the awkwardness of the holder arm I tend to find I end up with it wedged into my ear rather more than it being comfortably sat in place.
The actual functionality of the headset is good, the call volume is pretty good and the caller can be heard clearly. For the most part the microphone seems to pick up my talking fairly well although as the headset sometimes moves about, occasionally it moves enough that the mic stops picking my voice up very well and the person I am speaking to can barely hear me.
Despite it's flaws I have used the headset a lot and found it invaluable! It hold a charge for ages and lasts for a good long time even when being used. If it were just a bit more comfy and the holding mechanism actually worked properly I would give it five stars but as it is this is quite a flaw, so I can only really give it three stars but will say that for a freebie it is actually pretty good.
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RIM Blackberry Visor Mount Speakerphone VM-605
by Jebbisc
When I bought my car I was in such a rush to get the actual car I never considered waiting to get any special features such as the 'blue and me' option. This left me with a dilemma. How to deal with phone calls while driving as there is no way I would ever answer a phone risking myself and others around me.
I tried a standard ... Bluetooth headset but just could not get used to it in my ear. You'd think that being of the generation brought up on Walkman's and MP3 players I'd be used to having a headphone permanently in my ear but I just could not get comfortable with it. Plus I had a dread of becoming one of those people that walk around the supermarket with it in, nooooo!
Any way so after some online investigation I decided to get the official Blackberry visor mount speakerphone. It arrived and I removed it from the packaging (with some difficulty, there was several knives and scissors involved) and first off noticed its looks. It's sleek and looks almost like a futuristic phone itself.
First job to be done was to charge it which was easily done as it uses the same micro USB connection as the actual phone. Once charged the speakerphone needs to be 'paired' with your Blackberry which is easier that it sounds. You press the front of the speaker and it will announce "pairing mode" then you just need to do the usual Bluetooth search on the phone to find the speaker and connect. I took the speakerphone to my car and clipped it onto the driver side visor as instructed. I even tried moving the visor up and down but it stayed fast and never moved once, impressive!
Now first up was to try the simple make and receive calls and see how I got on. I tried the voice dialling without much success. I'd press the panel until hearing the beep and then state who I wanted to call and it would ask if I meant someone else. After much trying I discovered it must be the Scottish accent that was confusing it and that if I spoke clearly and slowly it would pick up the correct name.
I then had a friend call me so I could try answering it as well. The Speakerphone announces 'incoming call from' then the phone number. Would be more helpful if it was a 'known' number in my phone book to use the name instead of the number. But overall the answering was easy, just a press on the front panel of the speakerphone.
If your still on your call when you reach your destination then just press and hold the front of the speakerphone and it will turn off and transfer the call to your Blackberry. But beware this does leave a few seconds of 'dead air' to the person on the other end.
Now for the interesting part, the part that had convinced me to purchase this in the first place. The ability to connect it to my car speakers! The built in FM transmitter is designed so you can either listen to your music on your Blackberry through the car's speakers or use the speakers to listen to your calls through instead.
On the side of the Speakerphone there is an FM key and when this is pressed an FM frequency is announced and now all you need to do is tune your car radio to that same frequency and hey presto! Just remember to save the frequency to one of your channels. The only problem here is that if you do not use the FM transmitter either by making / receiving a call or listening to music from your handset for 60 seconds it will turn off, meaning the radio will then start searching for the nearest available radio station instead. This can cause a bit of bother when a call does come in and you have to change the radio station back to the saved one for this frequency, hit the FM button on the Speakerphone and wait a few seconds while they connect. If you're not quick you'll lose the call.
Overall I am extremely satisfied with this item. The quality of the calls is beyond anything I could have imagined from a Bluetooth set; they are clear and distinct with no distortion or interference. The Speakerphone itself is remarkably easy to set up and once done so doesn't not need re-done.
One final note, be careful when turning the Speakerphone off. Hold the front panel for a few seconds until it beeps and says power off. But make sure not to accidently press it once and then hold it until it turns off as I kept doing for a long time. Pressing the front panel twice re-dials the last number called and as the second pressing of the panel was me turning it off it would transfer the call to the handset. This resulted in a lot of 'pocket' calls to my friends / boyfriend / family etc :)
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