Bluetooth headset recommendations?

June 12, 2008 9:45 PM

What's the best bluetooth headset out there these days? Preferred specs inside.

Obviously there are tradeoffs between weight, comfort, sound quality, battery life, aesthetics, etc... Nevertheless, given the unranked priorities of comfort, sound quality, and battery life, what do you recommend?

Extra points to headsets that charge via a standard USB-Mini-USB cable (like this).

posted by piro to technology (3 comments total)

I recommend a Jawbone, I own 2. best headset I've ever owned, only downside is it requires a special cable to charge, however it charges off of a usb port/blackberry charger/etc.
posted by iamabot at 9:55 PM on June 12, 2008

Both my S.O. and I have Motorola H700s, and we're both very happy with them (although I'm looking forward to others' suggestions). Pairing it is very simple, it's extremely light, the battery life is decent, and it charges via Mini-USB.

The only thing I don't like about it, is the "flippy" (boom snaps open to turn on, closed to turn off) action is driven by a spring that's too powerful for the plastic parts. I occasionally flip it open with my thumb, and if I don't control the opening action (i.e. if I just let it snap open under its own power) it will sometimes fling parts of itself across the room. I think the part of the boom closest to my face was originally just held on with a little glue, and now the glue has broken and there's only friction holding it in place. Bit of a bummer.

Also: I wouldn't recommend trying to "share" it between two devices. I had this idea that I'd use it sometimes with my cellphone and other times paired with my computer (for Skype, VoIP, etc.), and this is just a real pain. I'm not sure it's the H700's fault -- although I have seen some newer headsets that claim they can be paired with multiple devices -- but I have to go through this obnoxious procedure of disconnecting, powering off one device, pairing it with the second device, powering the first device back up, in order to get it to switch cleanly.

But assuming you're only using it with one device, I can definitely recommend it. It really changes the way you use the phone. I originally thought of it purely as a driving accessory, but now I use it for taking long conference calls when I'm at home and would never go back to a regular handset or even a wired headset.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:19 PM on June 12, 2008

Yeah, my hipster friends love their jawbones. The Apple headset is also coveted.
posted by exhilaration at 12:54 PM on June 13, 2008