good alternative to Ericsson's HBH series
Written: Jan 15 '03 (Updated Jan 18 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: affordable and well fitting bluetooth headset
Cons: limited range and questionable sound quality
The Bottom Line: Great headset and great alternative towards motorola and ericsson and certainly much much better than some of the strange brands you see on Ebay.
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| edwinx's Full Review: Freespeak Wireless Headset And Multi-Adapter For N... |
Phone: Ericsson T39m with R4A firmware
Headset: Jabra Freespeak Bluetooth version BT200
I was looking for a BT(Bluetooth) headset for a while. After reading horror stories of smaller brands that have limited range, dropped calls and such, I decided to stay with Ericsson branded headsets. But after a while, the name Jabra appeared and people were happy with it so I decided to give those a look. At first I wanted to get an older hbh10/15 on ebay since it was cheaper than the hbh30 but those were hard to come by too. Then at my local store, they just got the BT200 and it was well priced so I picked one up.
First Impressions:
I was kinda put off by the styling. While it seems more discreet since it hides behind the ear, it does look like a high-tech earing aid. The construction is solid, no parts seem easily breakable. The part that hooks onto the ear is semi flexible as well as the part that sticks out with the mic on the end. The interesting part of this headset is Jabra's Gel ear bud, at first I was afraid that it would be something that stuck right in your ear thus easily to be dirtied by wax and whatnot but in fact, it sorts of sits on the outside of your ear and the Gel is replaceable, the package includes a total of 3 Gel buds.
How it felt:
Putting it on was kinda tricky, it took me a few tries before I got it right. After I got it on, it was snug, much more snug than the HBH30 that I tried before. Probably better suited for people that will use this while doing light exercises or work that require constant movement of their head. Even after a few hours of use, the headset felt good. I did not feel tired or my ear felt in any way fatigued.
Sound Quality and Range:
For sound quality, I will be comparing this to my phone and a hbh30. The volume is very good, louder than the hbh30. Sound quality was comparable as well, about 95% of the hbh30. I did find the Jabra to have more "digital artifcats" than the hbh30 and the ranged was more limited. With corners and maybe a door, the range was slightly farther than 10feet.
Battery Life:
It only took 2 hours to charge the headset, there is a nice blue LED on the headset to indicate charging and use.
The manual says about 3hours talk time on the headset and that is consistent with what other peoplet have found as well.
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being BEST)
First Impressions:
Jabra - 8/10 (easier to hide)
Hbh30 - 7/10
How if Felt:
Jabra - 9/10 (felt more snug and less likely to fall out)
hbh30 - 8/10
Sound Quality and Range:
Jabra - 7/10 (more digital artifacts and it didn't sound as clean as hbh, people could tell I was on something other than landline/gsm phone but not enough to know that I was using a headset.)
hbh30 - 9/10 (just sounded great. just like the phone)
update: jan17/03
The jabra can only be paired to 1 other device at a time whereas the hbh30 can be paired to 2 other phones at a time.
The charging cradle that comes with the Jabra also doubles as a belt clip (too bulky for my tastes though).
Range is short, about 10feet or less.
update: jan18/03
when using the headset with my pc, the sound is not constant.
ie.
there are gaps in the audio, like a bad realaudio stream. I tested this with my MSI BT usb dongle and I tried to listen to my mp3s with my headset.
also, regarding range, the sound is stable but once you start to move around, it breaks up for a second or so before it stabilizes again and the reception is better if the phone is on the same side as the headset.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
edwinx
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Location: vacouver, BC, Canada
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
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