Jinxo
Joined: Jan 06, 2004
Posts: 17
PM |
Had an HBH-35. Pretty ok. Range problems, battery would give an honest 2.5hrs, mic easily killed by winds. Still, all in all, I'd recommend it.
It got stolen a week ago. Someone just lifted the entire pouch right off my belt as I was waiting for the train.
Replaced it with a Jabra BT200. Was same price as the HBH-35, so I made a deal with the store, if I didn't like it, I could take it back next day and exchange it for another HBH-35.
IMO better than the HBH-35. Battery does about 3hrs. Mic still becomes overpowered by winds, but still puts up a better fight than the HBH-35. Seems to work better with my PC as well. Most importantly, has far better reception and transmission than the 35. Its main drawback I'd say is that it seems to pick up more background noise than the 35. I need to talk a bit louder now when I'm outside.
It also is much harder to spot when worn than the clearly visible HBH-35, with the mic hanging from behind your ear the only telling sign. Whether you prefer this or not is a matter of personal preference.
I have a T610, and it connects with it fairly quickly. However, it only connects ~60% of the times on its own, irrespective of range/interference. Annoying. HBH-35 was at around 75%. Also, I've already had to tranfer the call to the phone and back again a couple of times, because the audio because horribly garbled or totally muted on the BT200.
A little hint here. I don't know if this applies for all phone+BT200 combos, so I'll put it out for T610 owners only, and do with it what you will. I suggest you do not pair the headset with the phone in its "enhanced" mode (set it in pair mode with the pwr and vol.up buttons pressed). It stays connected after a call, and will eat up the headset battery in a matter of hours. Not as fast as if in a full call, but still fast. At first I was actually ready to take the headset back, thought the battery was faulty. This issue doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere in the manual, so I'm wondering if it's bad documentation, or a quirk specific to (my?) T610 + (my?) BT200.
Finally, the Jabra is fairly comfortable to wear. Quite a bit more comfortable than the HBH-35, IMO, and I wear glasses non-stop. In long calls, I'd have to move the 35 around from ear to ear every 20mins or so, mostly because the speaker was annoying as it was pressing against my ear. I spent almost the entire day today wearing the BT200, and all I did for comfort is keep the MiniGEL thingie out of my ear canal when not in a call sometimes, partially simply for unobstructed hearing.
I'm keeping the Jabra. And I recommend it.
Anybody else with comments, please, chip in.
cheers
Alex
PS : Didn't get the BT250 because it's still near impossible to find here (down under) at retail stores, and it would have probably been a touch outside my budget. |
Posted: 2004-02-13 18:48
