Bluetooth Headset Hunt + Review

A special dedication to PW.

It’s been a few months that I have been driving illegally and dangerously, talking on the phone with one hand while driving a manual car! My wired headset that comes with my phone went MIA, result of transferring the headset around different cars.

Beacuse of that I was unhappy because I was driving dangerously and was happy because I get to buy a new headset . The lost headset was in a extremely bad shape with the connector and the headspeaker piece super glued many times.

I’ve made up my mind to buy a Bluetooth headset like years before I lost my wired headset. Why Bluetooth?

Wired	Bluetooth
The phone have to be taken out at least once to be attached	The phone can stay in your bag or pocket
End up in a tangled mess	No wire so just hook on to ear
Restricted movement when turning left and right	Just hook On
Ugly with wire dangling	told you to JUST HOOK ON EAR!!!

 

Buying anything for me is always not easy for me so the battle of research and analysis start with: Clip on or ear hook?
FYI, the picture above is 2 awarded headset by i.Tech Clip II mini and i.VoicePro with Stuff Readers Choise Winner 2007 and Gold award by HWM respectively.

Clip on	Ear Hook
Neat with a small earpiece	Ugly accessory to ear
Does not solve restricted movement	Solve restricted movement problem
Wired… What the difference between the normal wired headset?	No wire… This is the main reason to get a Bluetooth headset. yea…

Obviously, Ear hook won… Ting Ting Ting…

It is not easy to research on headset performance online so we head on to Lowyat Plaza for Bluetooth headset hunt to check test out the performance of the headset.

Shopping at Lowyat is like looking for a needle in sea for the cheapest store. We came to a shop that offers RM30 cheaper in any range of bluetooth headset compare to other store. It is around the back quiet area (Lot-1-TC26-28).

At first we were thinking whether they are selling ‘water’ goods but no. Overlooked the name 'Mobile Concept (M) Sdn Bhd’, which was the wholesale and main distributor for bluetooth headset! Hahaha…

The girl at the shop were very kind and cute. She was really patient with us. You’ll know why…

We ask for sample and tryouts on various headset to test which will perform the best. Well, mostly tested was i.Tech bluetooth headset as they are no 1 best selling headset in HK, Malaysia and Singapore.

Most headset function are almost the same so design is the deciding factor. Unless they have some killer function like quality sound and powerful noise cancelation capability.

Note: The below comparison is subjected to the battery condition as well as considering the fact that it is a sample unit.

First, we tried i.Tech i.Oval 303.

1. Look: Look sleek, small and lightweight. 4/5
2. Speaker: The speaker sound were good. 3/5
3. Mic: The microphone is moderately good. 3/5
4. Price: RM79.90 Good price. 5/5
This can be use for MP3 listening as well. –>Sorry for my mistake Updated on 21/07/2009

Next, Jabra BT2050. We got to try out some other brands to make some comparison.

1. Look: Look fat, small and lightweight. 4/5
2. Speaker: It is the best in its range compared to i.Air 301 and i.Oval. 4/5
3. Mic: The microphone is moderately good. 3/5
4. Price: RM129.90 Slightly on high for this range model. 3/5
Not sure if can play MP3.

Next, i.Tech i.Air 301.

1. Look: Look sleek, big and moderately weight. 3/5
2. Speaker: The speaker sound were full of noise. 2/5
3. Mic: PW said she could not stand the outcome of my voice on this. 2/5
4. Price: RM89.90 Moderately priced. 4/5
Not sure if can play MP3.

Lastly, i.Tech i.VoicePro. The most expensive one because it comes with a ‘Kill Noise’. How? There is 2 mic on this phone one is responsible to take in the voice and the other with the surrounding noise. (Voice mix with noise) – surrounding noise = Voice only.

1. Look: Look fat, big, ugly and moderately weight. 2/5
2. Speaker: It was excellent voice and very little noise. I’m not sure if the noise cancellation have any effect on this. 5/5
3. Mic: Excellent!!! No noise can be heard, ONLY YOUR VOICE!!!  5/5 <— No one will know where you are!
4. Price: RM190.00 Quite Expensive. 2/5
Disadvantage: you can’t listen to MP3 using this only for call purpose.

The ultimate decision rest with PW as she always get frustrated when talking on phone with me because:
1. I can’t hear her well with my K810-too-soft-speaker with me saying “har?” repeatedly.
2. She can’t really hear me when I’m driving in my car wind howling sound (Sunny boy is old). or with my radio on.

After a very long thought and testing, we decided to get the most expensive one (i.Tech proudest product):

It comes with 3 standard colors (there is a limited edition color ‘gold’ which was priced RM40 extra):

I unboxed it immediately as I got back:

The pack comes with the headset (of course ), USB charger, 3 pin adapter to USB convertor (loved this one, convenient, can use for other USB appliance), extra hook clip and manual. (clockwise)

Thanks for reading such a lengthy post. It is specially dedicated to PW for buying this headset for me as an early birthday present!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR!

 

 

Nibbled Blue-teeth,

Catfish

PS: The bluetooth headset were fully charged way before I finish writing this post!

To PW:
Yes, next is your present. Start scouting for it now… You have 6 month to look out for it! hahah… Just tell me ya if anything comes along! Love you!