Comfortable and clear: what more could one want from a headphone?
Written: Sep 25 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Comfortable to wear and use, crystal clear sound for the wearer and the other party.
Cons: No controls for phone, not retractable.
The Bottom Line: Inexpensive, but surprisingly high-quality headset. If you want something comfortable and effective, give this a try.
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| balajithegreat's Full Review: Nokia 8290 Headset Kit Hdc-5 |
I got this headphone for free when I bought my Nokia 3650 cell-phone. I was a little skeptical when I saw it because I used to boom headsets where I can position the microphone near my mouth. I am a true believer now after a couple of experiences with this headset. And the good thing is that this headset comes with a standard plug, so you can use it with any phone, not just with the phone it came with.
First of all, you have to "set up" the headset for use by slipping a sponge "cover" over the earpiece. You have to be a little adept at handling small things with your fingers to do this since the opening in the cover is quite small compared to the size of the earpiece and you have stretch this out carefully to insert the earpiece into the cover. If you are not careful, you will tear the cover and I am not sure whether you can get replacements (my headphone came with only one cover). You might have to then use the headphone without the cover and that is not going to be as comfortable as with the cover.
But once you are past this hurdle, it is smooth sailing beyond that point. You plug the headphone into the phone and plug the earpiece into your ear and you are all set to go. The earpiece is well-shaped and fit very easily and comfortably into my ear. During 2 hours of talking, I never had to take it out and adjust it, and it never felt like it was going to fall out or anything like that.
The headset comes with a clip that you can use to attach the headset to your clothing if you want. Whether you do it not, it is difficult to position the microphone too close to your mouth (the microphone is actually a large module attached to the headset about 4 inches from the earpiece). This is what made me skeptical at first about how good I would sound to the other party, but it turns out this microphone is surprisingly sensitive. The other people I talked with never had any problems hearing me loudly or clearly enough.
The earpiece also functioned flawlessly and enabled me to hear the other party clearly. I walked along a pretty busy and noisy road talking on my cell-phone with this headset on and I had no problems carrying on a conversation.
This headset does not have any controls for the phone. The microphone module has a button that goes in and out but it does not seem to do anything besides that. There are no buttons for receiving or ending calls. Also, the headset is not retractable, so it can get tied up in knots during storage. That scares me a little because the wires on this thing are quite thin and I don't want to damage the headset trying to untangle it in a hurry. I think Nokia sells a higher-end headset (the HDC-9 maybe) that does have controls for the phone on the headset. If the earpiece and microphone are at least as good as if not better than on this model, it would make an excellent headphone, but I can't really complain about this either.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
balajithegreat
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Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 2 members
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