[splacko]

More news...I picked up an HS810 Bluetooth today (at a steal of a price...$40.00) and I must say that I was impressed! I know that there were a couple of people who have had problems with the 810, and 850 on their Nextel 7100i, but I have been using it since the initial charge, and I'm not disappointed one bit. The clarity is there, and I don't sound like I'm in a hole. The unit sitting on my ear takes a little getting used to, but I like it better than the 850...and it matches the phone! But I'm sure that more BT's will be bought and used.

[telrod11]

Does anyone have issues with getting connectivity between your headset and the 7100g?

Bought the Voyager 510, and am pleased with it, but about 1/2 the time, especially when I initiate a call, I can't get the headset to activate. That leaves me sitting there talking to someone on speakerphone, while I keep rolling the button and trying to "activate the PLT". Anyone have any tips on this? Also, is there a "hot" button that I can use to keep pounding the Bluetooth activation, instead of having to scroll down to it and hitting enter? (Like the OP button that turns on the speakerphone?

[Bradhar911]

Originally Posted by telrod11

Does anyone have issues with getting connectivity between your headset and the 7100g?

Bought the Voyager 510, and am pleased with it, but about 1/2 the time, especially when I initiate a call, I can't get the headset to activate. That leaves me sitting there talking to someone on speakerphone, while I keep rolling the button and trying to "activate the PLT". Anyone have any tips on this? Also, is there a "hot" button that I can use to keep pounding the Bluetooth activation, instead of having to scroll down to it and hitting enter? (Like the OP button that turns on the speakerphone?

Same exact problem as telrod11 except I have the 7100i. The 510 connects and disconnects randomly while I have it on and doing such things as checking e-mail or using calander. Have had this problem since switching over to the 7100i a couple of weeks ago. I've changed every setting I can find under bluetooth on the BB (deactivated the device, then reactivated it) but no avail.

[Crash]

Thanks to barjohn and all others for the thoughtful comments. I'm transitioning from a 7230 to a 7100T so that I can use the Bluetooth technology. There are many mixed signals from many of you, and I guess I'm looking for anyone who feels strongly that they have found the best headset option for the 7100T. If anyone feels pretty good about their headset choice, please let me know.

My wife recently bought a HS820 to go with her Razr, and she is luke-warm about the sound quality... so I'm inclined to try something else.

Thanks!

[barjohn]

There are still some issues with the Bluetooth stack on the 7100's anyone looking for perfection is going to be disapointed. I have tried numerous headsets and all of them will ocasionally lose the connection. Actually, they are still connected but the call will go to the handset. You can switch it back to the headset with the trackwheel. Why this happens with the 7100 I don't know. It is as if the user had selected to switch the signal from the headset to the handset. What happens is that you press the headset answer button but if you don't listen to the handset, you think the other party has not answered or that you are not connected because you hear nothing in the headset. Then you press the headset button again thinking you must not have made a connection only what you did was just hang up instead. I have experienced this several times and now know to check the handset and see if the sound is coming from it. I can then switch it back to the headset with the trackwheel.

I hope this helps explain what others may be experiencing. I have not noticed the same phenomenum with other non BB handsets that use the Windows Modbile stack.

[spblat]

Crash, I feel strongly that I chose the wrong handset in selecting the 7100T. I was initially driven insane by random rebooting issues, which now seem to have cleared up. Then I was having trouble with volume level on my earlier bluetooth headset. And lately, I'm sick to death of keyboard accuracy problems and the sluggish interface. I am totally pleased with my Plantronics 640 and it's working well with the 7100, but the very moment I have an opportunity to ditch my 7100 for a 8700 or maybe a Treo 650 when BB Connect is available, I'm going to jump.

Good luck!

[Crash]

Thanks John & spblat, I appreciate the feedback. I hope I didn't make a mistake with the 7100T, but I can always jump too if I experience the same problems.

If anyone else has any recommendations for a good 7100T headset, please chime in!

Many thanks...

[barjohn]

You might want to try the Flamingo headset. It works well with it though it lacks real noise cancellation and wind noise can be a problem.

P.S. I'm an old Gator. Go Gators...

[BadBoyBill]

Barjohn im a new user so if you have already reviewed this headset i apologize in advance but could not find any comunications on it. I belive my 850 is un beatable until today when we recived a shipment of oakley glasses with blue tooth built in them WOW. Ijust wanna know how they work before i shell out 300 for them.

http://oakley.com/o/o2794d
tha should be the link to them there are three paid there. Let me know what you think
Thanks alot in advance

[barjohn]

I have not although I have given it some thought. I too didn't want to shell out $300 for what may be a poor headset.

[BadBoyBill]

That is a possbility but i question the fact oakleys are nothing short of amazing in my eyes i would hope they would ruin there rep with a bad headset. But who know if you try them let me know. Im going to stew on it for a few more days i might just do it we have a 15 day return policy so if they dont work ill just return them. If i do i will post a review of them.

[romerom]

A while back I was using the gg telecom gg03a and thought it was pretty cool. i didn't like how hard it was to get the mute feature turned on/off due to the layout of the buttons but other than that.. it was fine, until it broke. i wore it on the lanyard and it would just get in the way sometimes..

so i'm lookin at a new headset and based on the reviews here.. the front runners seem to be:
cardo scala 500 - http://www.cardowireless.com/scala500/image_gallery/ - static??
bluetrek g2 - http://bluetrek.com/products/g2/inthebox.htm
flamingo headset - http://www.flamingoheadset.com/

flamingo's downside seems to be the wind noise.. haven't really heard a downside of the bluetrek g2 and the downside of the scala 500 seemed to be sound quality.

the features i NEED in a headset are MUTE (i'm on alot of conference calls).. and i like the lanyard option so i don't have to have it on the ear.. plus, it makes me feel spiffy!

whats this i hear about call waiting on these headsets? how would call waiting on a bluetooth headset work, anyway?

[dcfroe]

Bar John,

Tried to go to your review site tonight but it is down. I have spent the last 3 nights visiting forums, Searching web sites and pretty much just getting confused.

About a month ago I had asked about the posibility of finding an over the head bluetooth headset to work with my Blackberry 7520. I can not find one. I finnally gave up and purchased a M850. It is Ok but I am getting complaints from my customers that they cannot hear me and / or understand me. Some of both problems.

I wear glasses and have very sensitive ears. I could get used to the 850 and as far as comfort it was OK. (Still would love to find an over the head setup, Wait I already said that didn't I). I am in sales and nothing is worse than to have a customer complain they can't understand you.

From what I've gleaned the last 3 days favorites seem to be:

Flamingo (not sure of model #)
Cardo Scala 500
others??????

Can you give me some recammendations please?

Thanks to all.

Dan

[barjohn]

I appologize, my site was down while I was switching servers. It should be back up now or very soon if the DNS has not yet propogated to your area.

I just purchased a BMW 325i to replace my Mercedes and paired my 7290 to it's Bluetooth. Pairing was easy and my initial impression with it is very good. Much better than the Lexus unit. I haven't yet tried recordings but I will soon and I'll post them. I hope to get my 8700 next week and I will try it out and see how it does on the car system and transferring the phone book.

Today I will finish and post my review of the nXZEN headset come hell or high water. I have just been swamped at work lately with a big review coming up next Friday and a software development project that is a little behind where I want it to be.

A few of you have PM's me for my reccomendations and I can't say I have found the perfect headset yet. The nXZEN has the best noise cancellation of any headset I have tested; however, it has some glitches that I don't like and the problem with really good noise cancellation is that it sometimes chops up the sound and gives it that digital characteristic of the synthesized voice. Fortunately this only happens in really loud environments where a regular headset would be useless so it isn't a big complaint.

More to come...

[barjohn]

For those that might be interested, I have recorded the audio from my BMW 325i's Bluetooth handsfree set up over a BB 7290.

http://www.barjohn.com/Public_downlo..._Handsfree.wav

I think it sounds pretty good and much better than the Lexus unit.

[Robert L]

Well, NxZen (Gennum corp) has my headset back in Canada. They were answering me ok until they received it, now its all quiet. It appears they only like contact through creating a ticket on the website. I agreed to send it back because they pretty much refused to tell Ecost it was defective.

Them saying that "all sales are final" at Ecost isn't exactly correct, but its not the best site about returning things, thats for sure. But I'm sure they would have exchanged it if Gennum had told them too.

Gennum claimed they wanted the headset to test, since they have such a low failure rate. Thats fine but most electronics do have a low failure rate unless its a defective design. Anyway, I'm still waiting for them to tell me whats up. It was them that told me 7 days, even though I didn't believe that. It should have just been exchanged when they got it back, far as I'm concerned.

So, thats a pretty big downside if something goes wrong under warranty or comes in defective. Its not all that hard sending into Canada but certain custom rules apply of course. Gennum needs more retailers IMO, some that actually takes defects back without so much trouble.

They were fairly responsive about the problem, after getting past the first few canned emails. But anyone thinking of buying it should consider the fact you have to deal with just emails and international type shipping if there is a problem.

Hopefully they will contact me next week and and send something back that actually works.

[barjohn]

I have just posted my review on the nXZEN Plus 5500. It will be edited once I get time to do more testing but it should be helpful. I found the company responsive to my complaints and interested in improving their product. You will see in my review that it isn't a perfect solution but it is a strong step in the right direction. I will post a section on my review with recommendations for the company and hopefully they will try and incorporate those suggestions in the next incarnation.

www.barjohn.com for the review. I have include pictures.

[kennethbokor]

All, it's been a few weeks since my last post where I reviewed several headsets. Here are a few more thoughts regarding some more.

Cardo Scala 500

I did end up returning this unit. The comfort fit was superb and the volume ok. There was some caller echoing when I cranked up the volume, however the wind noise cancelling is very good. Overall quality is suspect as I have been reading many complaints about things breaking. So, I gave this up.

Gennum NxZen

Shortly after my last reviews, I picked up this headset at a local best buy. The lightweight unit feels ok, however you do need to try the different ear pieces to find the right fit. Overall comfort was the clear silicone piece as it fit the best. Sound quality was good and noise reduction is good. I did expect the noise reduction to be better than it was. I did not like the volume buttons as I found them hard to use for my stubby fingers. Most headsets have a light that blinks which indicates that the unit is on. This unit only lights up on power up/off and pairing. Once on, there is no way to visual see that it is on. I found that this bugged me as I could not remember sometimes if I turned it off or not.

My overall experience with this unit paired to my bb7250 is ok. But just ok. for the price point, I would have expected more. The answer delay was long for my tastes (> 3 seconds) and I still had a problem wearing this for extended periods. Needless to say I returned it after a week.

Plantronics Voyager 510

I reviewed this previously and did like it a lot originally, but wanted to try others. Well, I have now gone back to it and have tried it for a longer period of time than prior. I have decided to keep this unit as I have been using it for over 3 weeks now and it works great. The call answer delay can be a little long sometimes (3-4 seconds) but it does change, sometimes a bit faster. The plus for me is the volume. With the right earbud (and I did have to try different ones to find the best fit), I can keep the volume low (even in the car) and thereby eliminate the caller echo problem. When the volume is up at about 3/4, the echoing starts. But I don't have to raise the volume above half at all.

Callers can here me fine, although the mic does pick up more background noise. But I have made dozens of calls now with it from various locations (car, airports, etc.) and no one has complained about sound and voice quality.

Finally, my search is over (I hope!) and I am happy with the 510. Batter life is excellent, comfort and fit are good, useability is good.

Hope my thoughts help some of you.

Ken

[barjohn]

Ken, thanks for your review. In my tests the noise cancellation was better than the others but I didnt like the sound quality on my end. I don't know how to describe it and I haven't figured out a good way to record a comparison (yet) but when I can you will plainly hear the difference and what I mean. I agree with you on the volume buttons and that was one of my complaints. I too found the clear gel ear insert the most comfortable. I could not find any of the inserts that would hold the unit in my ear without the assistance of the ear loop and more pain than I was willing to suffer. I likes the size and weight. By the way the unit does flash its blue light when you are connected but not when it is connected and idle. The Plantronics is an all around excellent unit. I will probably try the 640 next.

A small aside, I have my BB 7100t for sale. See: http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=19053

EDIT: It is sold!

[Shoofro]

This response also posted here: http://www.blackberryforums.com/show...eadset+reviews

I just received my first Blackberry (7250) yesterday. Prior to receiving my BB, I ordered the Flamingo bluetooth headset based on the reviews in this thread. The headset and BB both came in yesterday, and I charged them during the day. Between last night and today, I have made about ten calls, totaling about an hour, using the headset.

The result - crystal clear sound on my end, and not a single complaint or negative comment from the other sides of the conversations. In fact, after I told my wife and mother that I was using a new phone and headset, they both commented that the sound was much better than my previous phone while using a wired Jabra headset. Interestingly, neither had ever complained about the sound quality with the old phone and headset, so that says something about how good the 7250/Flamingo combo is working for me.

I know some of the other posts here have mentioned wind noise being an issue with the Flamingo. I was able to use it in my car with the air conditioner on (without a problem), whereas my wired Jabra headset picks up the wind noise from the a/c. I don't use my phone outside alot, so it's not a big issue for me. The Flamingo shipped with a windsock, but I have not used it yet.

I am still having a little difficulty in getting the headset put into my ear, but once it's there, it stays in place fine and is more comfortable than my old Jabra. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, and thanks to all of you for your assistance and comments on headsets.

PS - I purchased it from www.blueheadsets.com (1st time purchase - easy experience with shipping dates as promised), and the site states that it is not compatible with Blackberry. I knew from another post that the Flamingo worked with the 7250, so I tried it. I'm glad I did.