xenoranger's Full Review: Motorola H500 Bluetooth Headset
I've been a huge fan of Bluetooth for about a year now. When I first purchased my Motorola H350, I fell in love with the freedom Bluetooth Hands Free devices offer. A year later, My H350 started to fail on me. So, with time to upgrade, I'm now using th e Motorola H500. Believe me, it's a worthy upgrade.
The H500 is more like an upgrade from the H350. Both are similar in design. If it wasn't for a difference in the housing of the product, you couldn't even tell they were different models by sight. The slim design of the H500 makes it fairly light weight, and easy to wear. It clips to your ear (like most Bluetooth hands free devices). The first few days you wear it, it may pinch a little. It does take a little bit to break these in, but once you're on day 4, they're quite comfortable. The speaker on the underside is positioned just right for superb audio quality. In addition to this, the device is small enough where you won't see an unsightly chunk of technology hanging off the side of your head making others wonder if you're one of the Borg. The microphone points forward and works fairly well for speaking with others. The device is also reversible, which allows the user to place it on either the right or left ear.
Well, design is sound, but that's the least of my worries. When it comes to functionality, I've noticed that the H500 outperforms other Bluetooth hands free devices I've used. Most people I've spoken with don't hear the same Buzzing sound that is associated with earlier Bluetooth Hands Free devices. Instead, communication is clear. Taking advantage of Bluetooth 1.2, overall performance has been improved over the previous H350 (which I believe used Bluetooth 1.0). The microphone does a fairly good job of reducing background noise, however if you have someone speaking next to you, there is a possibility the person on the other end of your call may hear them. As far as general commotion goes, The H500 does a fairly good job of reducing this, compared to previous BT Hands Free devices I've used. The last time I'd tried testing distance with my H350, I found that I could leave the phone in the basement of a house and make it to the third floor while maintaining the connection. With the Bluetooth 1.2, I know this isn't true. The range was shortened for the signal, however the quality was improved. If you increase the distance, most 1.2 devices will drop to 1.0 to compensate. I haven't tested this, but I would suspect it to be true, which means that you'll experience a degradation in audio quality and performance.
The H500 features an 18 hour standby time. With my use, I find myself recharging the unit almost once a week. But if you do significantly more talking on your mobile, the H500 does support 8 hours of active talk time. This should last about as long as most phone batteries (excluding the iPhone, which is longer). Pairing is simple and easy. While the device is in the off position, just press and hold the call button until the blue light holds solid. The device will be discoverable, and you'll need to take whatever steps on your phone to pair it. Once you've entered in the security code (provided in the manual), you're paired. The only times I've had pairing issues is when the battery was low. Unlike the H350, the H500 doesn't give ample notification that the battery is running out. This was signified by 5 quick tones. To be honest, the H500 has been near dead, and the only indication I've found was difficulty in pairing and connecting with my handset. I'm not sure if Motorola meant it to be this way, but the 5 tone indicator was more appreciated.
With only a 2 hour charge time, the H500 is an easy to setup BT Hands Free Device. Usage takes some training. First off, the device will act and react differently with different handsets. I'm using the HTC 620s (aka: T-Mobile Dash). I've previously used the Motorola v195. With the v195, the BT Hands Free device will play a preset ringtone. Nice, cool, whatever you think on that. Personally, I prefer how it operates with my Dash because I'll actually hear my ringtone played through the H500 instead of allowing my phone to just ring a predetermined/generic ringtone. Though this is not 100% determined by the H500, I find it worth mentioning since each phone may behave slightly different with this device. Despite the difference in ringtones, the H500 adheres to the standard set of Bluetooth commends. Pressing the call button once enables voice dialing. If your phone supports this, you should simply be able to call out the name of the person you wish to call. On the Dash and the Motorola v3 (any RAZR model), you should be able to give the phone commands like “call Tom” and it'll pull up Tom from your phone book. By pressing and holding the call button for 2-3 seconds, you should hear a beep which indicates the phone will now dial the last number you called. This is just the surface of the commands. There are roughly 20 commands in total that you can access through the use of the volume and call buttons. It can be confusing at times, since how to access the commands is conditional. Holding the call button for 3 seconds may be last call return, but if you're in a call, it can also put the caller on hold. If you're conferencing, there are other commands to join the calls as well as separate them. Learning how to access these commands can be time consuming. As such, I find myself using the simple call, hold, and mute commands. The rest of the commands I generally perform from the phone itself.
Above all, I highly recommend getting a Bluetooth Hands Free device for your phone. Since most phones support Bluetooth 1.2 these days, you'll find compatibility with the H500 to be an option. As for the H500, this unit runs around $30 at Radio Shack. I purchased mine on Black Friday for $10. It's been a very useful addition to my tech belt, and I would strongly recommend it to others. Granted there are better models out there, but for the price, this is a great little device.
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