Database Users

BT Headset recommendations

Hi,
I'm looking for a BT headset that I can wear whilst working on cars, crawling over and under them ;-)
I need to make sure that it doesn't easily fall off and also has a big answer button so that I can answer calls without getting oly hands all over my ears!
I would also find it useful to work with voice command so that I can make outgoing calls.
The plan is that I would leave the phone on the side in the workshop out of harms way and just wear the headset.

Hey, I work on airplanes for a living. I have tried all types of BT headsets and for me the Motorola S9 is the winner. Listen to music, talk on the phone it works awsome. I work all night with them on and A: they never fall off and B: battery lasts at least 6 hrs. The sound quality is great and the controls are all right there. They are kinda small but I have not got them oily yet. Anyways thats my two cents.
Steve
Lovin my Tilt (but only while it runs HTC rom)

I'm not sure I would want to go for the Motorola S9 - it looks quite big and since I wouldn't be listening to music, just wanting it for calls I'm wondering if it is aa little OTT.

Jabra BT3030 - Dog Tag

Does anyone know about this Blue Tooth headset - it's a dog tag with ear buds. Looks great, but can't seem to find it in the USA. Does anyone have one and if so how do you like it and where can I get it?

Fry's has them
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/54...prKSJ8pDg**.node1?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Thanks!
Does anyone have one? Pros? Cons?

BT3030 - my feedback
I just got a Jabra BT3030 a few days ago and I have used it a few times now. Here is a quick feedback.
First impression right out of the box is that the build quality is pretty good. The controls have a silicone / rubber 3D texture over a stainless steel backing that makes them easy to find and operate. The controls are also big enough to be used with gloves (important to me since I use it while doing outdoors activity). The most frequently used buttons are the largest (full width of the device) and at opposite ends, good design.
The BT3030 comes both with a neck strap (nice metal one, can be replaced with anything you like) and a plastic clip to clip it to a shirt pocket, etc... The clip looks and feels pretty flimsy and I wouldn’t trust it for anything more than just preventing the BT3030 from flapping around when on the neck strap.
Finally in the box there is a set of headphones (in the ear style), two pairs (small and large) ear bud shell, an AC charger, a “getting started” guide and the usual legal notices.
My BT3030 powered up right out of the box, but I still charged it for a couple of hours before using it. One of the great thing is that it uses a mini USB port for charging. This is a critical selection factor for me as I am trying to standardize on mini USB for as many devices as I can to make my like easier - and not have to carry one charger per device.
Pairing with my ATT Tilt was a breeze and I got it going within a couple of minutes.
As mentioned earlier, the BT3030 comes with a set of headphones (look nice enough), but since there is a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack connector, you can use you favorite headphones (I use a pair of Sony MDR-EX71 - not top of the line, but still pretty good one). The headset connector is on the side of the unit, which isn’t the greatest for cable management: I would have preferred it on top, where the neck strap attaches, but that’s a minor detail.
For music testing I used both the windows media player as well as PocketMusic 5.0. and there the results are mixed.
On the plus side, the BT3030 works as advertised.
I was able to record voice tag for contacts and use the voice calling feature with no problem.
I made a few phone calls with it and the sound quality was very good at both ends (or so was the persons I called claim).
Listening to music, I am able to start / stop / skip to next / previous track with both applications.
When a calls comes in while listening to music, there is a beep in the headphones and your can decided to take (click on the call button) or ignore (click and hold the call button) the call. You can terminate the call by pressing the call button. Music playing will resume automatically within a few seconds of the call been terminated (by either party). On the music application side, I found that Pocket Music would take longer (10+ seconds) to resume playing and it would reset at the beginning of the song that was played while interrupted while Window Player would resume within 5 seconds where it left off.
Finally, there are no independent volume settings for call / music, which could be a problem depending on what you listen / etc…
On the minus side, a few issues:
Volume management: when you press the volume up / down on the BT3030, it is not clear which volume it is controlling: the BT3030, the Tilt system volume or the music application volume. After some testing, I came to the conclusion that they all operate independently and that the volume buttons on the BT3030 control the internal amplification volume of the Jabra BT3030 itself.
Max volume: which bring the next complain. The max volume on the BT3030 is just shy of what I need (I am getting older, but I am not deaf yet ) . For regular listening (loud music, both ear buds plugged it), it is adequate. My major use is for listening to podcasts when I ride my mountain bike (got keep you brain occupied during these longs grinds uphill) and between the usually lower volume level of the podcasts and the wind noise generated around the ear buds, the max volume generated by the BT3030 is just a few click short of what I need.
Fast forward / reverse: This last issue has to do with the inability to fast forward / reverse through music. I was expecting that keeping either the << or >> buttons pressed on the BT3030 would fast reverse / forward through the current song. Well, it doesn’t work, it just skips to the previous / next song in the playlist. At this point I am not sure whether it is a limitation of the BT3030 itself or a issue with the Bluetooth profile.
Summary:
Plus:
- Works as advertised
- Mini USB interface for charging
- Small, rugged, splashproof
Minuses
- Flimsy clip
- Max volume not enough
- Fast forward / Reverse not working
Denis

Got mine today..
So far so good - it is wasy to set up and exactly what I needed. Not one for those big earclip type of devices.
As mentioned by Denis the volume on the BT3030 could be higher and I would like to see more detail in the instructions. Still figuring out what the light paterns mean.

Do you think it is good for sports? I sweat a lot, and I'm afraid it might damage the headset/dogtag... I live in South America, but there's a friend abroad who might bring me one of those, and I was thinking about one of these or the LCD ones.

Sports
It seems tough enough for that kind of thing to me - it's metal and rubber. THe ear buds seems to been suitable as well plus comforatble

How's the sound quality with this thing for both calls and music? I have the Tritton AX Bluestream:
http://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRIBH102.html
AKA Sonorix C3:
http://www.sonorix.com/eng/index.php
and it's essentially the same thing. Mini review:
Pros:
-looks sleek
-OLED screen is very nice
-all features work well with Tilt (Kaiser), including music, calling, music controls, pairing
-Mic seems to work fairly well, but you have to clip it somewhere where your voice easily reaches it and don't expect any background noise cancellation.
Cons:
-maybe I'm picky, but the music sound quality sounds slightly worse than a 128kbps MP3 file, especially during complicated rock songs. In other words, if you're the type who always used the headphones that came with your audio players, it will probably be fine. Metallica sounds okay, but you lose some of the quality in the drums, guitar solos, and symbals. Bass is pretty okay. It seems it's mostly the higher frequencies that are lost.
-controls are very minimal and often confusing. There's like 20 different button combinations to do different things.
-Received sound quality during calls is fairly bad. You can understand what the other person is saying, no doubt, but its VERY "tinny" sounding. Like listening to headphones from a foot away.
-Doesn't automatically pair on power up.

Sound
The sound is good not great - It would be nice if it was just a touch louder. But here is what I really like - you get 3 different size ear buds - in noisy situations putting both in works wonders for calls. I just took it on flight and the ear buds are great for keeping out ambient noise.

Does anyone know if the fast forward / rewind is supposed to work?
As I mentioned in my previous post, I cannot do a fast FW or fast RW with te BT3030. Is that an issue with thie Jabra or with all BT headset (profile issue?)?
Thanks

epauldc29 said:
The sound is good not great - It would be nice if it was just a touch louder. But here is what I really like - you get 3 different size ear buds - in noisy situations putting both in works wonders for calls. I just took it on flight and the ear buds are great for keeping out ambient noise.
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In the other post ledrocnoc said that the volume controlled it's own internal sound. Were the Kaiser system volume and the music player sound at max and it's still slow?

Tilt and player volumes were at maximum...
jym04 said:
In the other post ledrocnoc said that the volume controlled it's own internal sound. Were the Kaiser system volume and the music player sound at max and it's still slow?
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Click to collapse
In my case both the phone (ATT Tilt) and the player (Pocket Music and Windows Media Player) were maxed out. The volume controls on the BT3030 did not seem to affect either of these.

ledrocnoc said:
In my case both the phone (ATT Tilt) and the player (Pocket Music and Windows Media Player) were maxed out. The volume controls on the BT3030 did not seem to affect either of these.
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Oh, I see, but what I meant to ask was if you thought the volume was still low with all volumes (kaiser, player and dogtag) at max. I ended up writing "slow" instead of "low"

jym04 said:
Oh, I see, but what I meant to ask was if you thought the volume was still low with all volumes (kaiser, player and dogtag) at max. I ended up writing "slow" instead of "low"
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That's what I thought you meant ("low" instead of "slow") and what I thought I answered . I just wasn't clear, but yes, with the volumes on the phone and player application and the BT3030 maxed out, it still is fairly "tame" (not ear splitting as one would expect it). Maybe we can thank the lawyers for that (you know, if you physically can't make the volume very loud, you can't hurt your hearing), or maybe the engineers (trying to preserve battery life by limiting the volume)...
Bottom line, with all the volumes maxed out, even with a decent pair of headphones (Sony MD-EX71), it's just OK, not loud by any means (and not, I do not have any hearing problems).

Ow.. that's a shame. I was really looking into this, but there are situations where I need some volume. Guess I'll have to look for another Bt headset.
Thanks a lot.

jym04 said:
Ow.. that's a shame. I was really looking into this, but there are situations where I need some volume. Guess I'll have to look for another Bt headset.
Thanks a lot.
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Same here, I might end up returning this unit and give a try to the Motorola S705. Same price, not as "rugged", but includes a radio and hopefully a little more "ooomf" in the power department!

You may wanna wait for the motorola s605, seen 'em at CES, similar in size to the Jabra bt3030's but also include fm tuner, but unlike the s705's theres no dislay. They were quoting them at 59 bucks when they come out Q2 2008. I was impressed with 'em, if they hadn't been wired down they would have probably fallen in my pocket as I was leaving (kidding of course.....or am I?)

I've just also had a BT3030 for myself. About £40 including UK postage is not too high a price. I'd rate this headset 4 stars over 5 and recommend it to those who have a good phone that supports Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP.
* Agreed with ledrocnoc that the miniUSB charging port is a unique and cool thing about this headset. I just wonder if I could simply use a USB-miniUSB cable to connect the headset to my laptop then I could throw away hasles of the charging adapter. (@ledrocnoc: do you think I could do this? would there be any problem with voltage or stuffs? Thanks.)
* I'm using the BT3030 with a PDA (HTC Universal / O2 Xda Exec) with built-in Bluetooth 1.2 and with a laptop with built-in Bluetooth 2.0 (both devices come with A2DP and AVRCP). To be honest, I'm so disappointed at the (music) sound quality when using with the PDA. There're much background noise and crack-sound; and even worse, sound distortion is quite noticable. On the contrary, when using with the laptop, the (music) sound is very very good and those disappointments disappear. I guess the main cause is the low transfer rate of Bluetooth 1.2 on my PDA, not the headset itself.
* Until now, I couldn't pair the headset with the BOTH devices (PDA & laptop) simultaneously as advertised. Anybody struggling the same problem? One more thing, pairing process isn't as easy and fast as I expected. Sometimes the laptop couldn't detect and connect the BT3030, but thing's going fine with the PDA.
* I especially love the idea of exchangable earphones. Now I can use my preferred SONY's earphones with this headset (bluetooth adapter, to be exact), although the accompanied Jabra earphones are also very good.

I got a Motorola S705 and I am pretty happy with it...
ngtrannam said:
(@ledrocnoc: do you think I could do this? would there be any problem with voltage or stuffs? Thanks.
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Click to collapse
This should work. My understanding is that miniUSB is a standard and all devices are interchangeable electrically.
My experience is that if some "chargers" (or USB ports) aren't compatible with some devices it just won't charge them, I have never burned any devices by plugging them with other chargers, etc...
Now, as the title of my reply says, I've returned my BT3030 and I got a Motorola S705, for less $ and it provides more functionality! Here is a quick review:
The pluses so far:
- Mini-usb connection for charging (again, important to me, as I like to minimize the number of chargers I take on the road)
- LCD interface. It's just basic menus, but at least you know exactly what the device is doing instead of trying to decode a combination of LED colors and blinking rate (like on the BT3030)
- Radio... I didn't think I needed it, but it's actually pretty handy. A couple of times I was listening to a radio show in the car when I had to get out... I just tuned the S705 to the same radio station and off I was, show uninterrupted
- Joystick control: I was concerned early on that this would be a pain, but for my use it actually gives me a better control / feel (I use it mostly riding my mountain bike, so I have to be able to operate it with gloves). On the BT3030 I always pusked the wrong button, with the S705, the buttons for answering the phone is on the side and the joystick controls the audio functionality.
- Volume: the S705 can definitively crank out more volume out of the same headset than the BT3030. Not by much, but enough to make worth it (volume issue was a deal killer for me on the BT3030). Note on the volume issue: it will probably not be a problem for most people. What I found out is that the podcast that I listen to most frequently are actually recorded pretty low compared to other podcasts and regular music. Since I have yet to find an automated way of doing volume leveling on podcast (iTunes can, but it ain't compatible with my phone), this has been a key issue for me.
- Headphone jack positioning: on the S705 the headset plugs in at the top of the devices, just in front of the lanyard. This is great if you have a headset with a straight jack, as you can wrap the headset cord around the lanyard, up to your neck and keep the wires from dangling all over the place. On the BT3030, the jack in on the side, which I think would be goodif you had a headset with a right angle jack.
Neutrals:
- Battery life: seems pretty good, but honestly I haven't pushed it. I am sure I'll run out of battery on my phone (ATT Tilt / HTC Kaiser) before the S705 runs out.
- Durability: the BT3030 was "splash proof" and had a nice solid feel with the rubber thingy around it. The S705 feels more fragile, but I've had it during a couple of wet rides and it hasn't been a problem so far. Time will tell.
- Sound quality: good enough for my application (listening to podcasts and music will I ride my mountain bike. These long grinds uphills get really boring really fast without it!).
- Range: not critical for me as my phone is in my backpack or in my breast pocket, but I've been able to get 20 feet a couple of time where I had to walk away from the phone. Good enough for my application!
Cons:
- Bluetooth connection? I've had some instance of Bluetooth connection dropping on the phone side. This is weird because the symptoms are a dropped connection and when I look at the phone, bluetooth is turned off. I just need to turn bluetooth on again and everything works again. I've never had that happen with other bluetooth devices before on that phone, so it would point to the S705, but it doesn't make sense to me...
- Fast FW/ Rev: not sure if this is an issue with the device, the BlueTooth remote control profile or the music player on the phone, but there is no fast forward / reverse functionality. Hitting the >> or << function either with a stab of a continuous push only skips the the next / previous song. I had the same problem with the BT3030 and it's a pain when listening to podcast (where you might want to listed again to a section of particular interest or just skip over something boring).
- Lock switch: it would be nice if there was a switch to lock out the buttons to prevent unintended operation.
Overall 4.5 stars out of 5, so far so good! We'll see about the durability!

Loud A2DP, a chimera, an uncatchable dream still, even if we are walking towards the end of the first 2K decade.
I've tried a lot of them, wasted a lot of money, all of them were dull, low volumed craps of silicon got me everytime going back to wires.
But now I discovered something really worth mentioning. It's not 100% perfect but yes it's 96% perfect (I had Motorola S705 and i'd give it 20%), loud, clear and screaming.
Gentlemen it's Nokia's BH-500. 3.5mm audiojack for your fave earphones and loud loud LOUD.. Espec on my kaiser this thing rocks. It's almost like listening to Pocket Music wired something like a volumeclick down no more..
After everything been through I HAVE to spread the good news guys. No more wasted money on A2DP. (They should allow testing before you buy but they don't. If they did I'be rich )
I'm looking for non-wired now. I'll give BH-503 a try (princess Leia kindastyle). It's new to the market and I trust Nokia in the sound dept. (N91 is the best and loud MP3 player ever ever) so I'll keep you informed..

Jabra BT8010 Headset

Does anyone on here have it? How well does it work with WM6 and the Kaiser in general?
Sorry if this has been addressed in the past. I tried searching the Accessories forum with both basic and advanced searches and came back with no results. Which is odd considering I could have SWORN I saw it talked about here at some point int he past.

I have a Jabra BT620s, which is also A2DP. It is total crap. I would look at a different brand. Motorola headsets are supposed to work well.

Jabra BT8010 and Tilt
joshuah82 said:
Does anyone on here have it? How well does it work with WM6 and the Kaiser in general?
Sorry if this has been addressed in the past. I tried searching the Accessories forum with both basic and advanced searches and came back with no results. Which is odd considering I could have SWORN I saw it talked about here at some point int he past.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 8010 and it with all due respect to the previous poster, it works great. I have used it with the original shipped ROM and several cooked ROMS (Currently on Sleuth's 6.1 ver 3) and it worked well with all of them. I will say it seems to work the best (longer distance from the PPC) with the radio included in Sleuth's 6.1

Can either of you provide more specific information about the issues you had with it? I've never had a bluetooth headset before so I might not even notice.

My BT620s sounded like a bad record. The pitch kept shifting very subtly, but it is INSANELY annoying and makes it completely un-listenable. Also, it would drop audio for about 5 seconds of every minute, which is very annoying. It had trouble with pairing, when you turned it off, it would sometimes refuse to re-connect to the phone. The call quality with it was OK though. I sold mine and bought a pair of Motorolas.

i have the bt8010 (only for a week) and the head set is pretty good
i have had the headset cut out on me i think there is interference from the cell or wifi. but it doesn't happen all the time. the battery life is good i have played at least 9 hours of music (stereo) straight before it need a charge. the sound quality is ok, there is some distortion on the extreme high and low notes.
but it is wireless
the headset need to be angled in a upward angle in order to be conformable (at least for me) i was able to were it for 3 hours with out a problem
the cord between the ears some times get pulled by twisting my neck, it's about 1 inch too long
i have used it in a noisy production floor and the person on the other side head me fine, a little downed out but they didn't hear the hum of the loud machine in the background and because i had the stereo on i head him better then on my phone, and yes you do hear the person on both right and left sides.
i was going to get a Motorola (mono) one but i got this one because the talk time and standby life is longer (according to specs) and this one has stereo option.
this is the only headset that you could switch from work to play
i am happy with it, and other around me like it.
btw i got mine refurbished.

I have the BT8010. I've had it for about 7 to 8 months now, maybe longer.
I really do not like the headset at all. It has great sound so don't get me wrong. If sound is all you are interested in then go for it. But if you are looking for fit or the ear loops to stay on then they aren't the ones.
For me, the fit for me is horrible and the headset hurts because I have small ears.
SECOND and this is the BIGGEST LET DOWN, the ear loops keep falling out.
So if you get it go ahead and call and order some extras right away. You can contact them via phone I think and they will send you a few. Just keep one in your wallet and one in the car and some @ home, and some in your briefcase.
The ear loops fall out way too easy for my tastes. I'm currently looking for another set of A2DB enabled headsets.

I use it for some 4 month. Mostly monoaural. It's ok, but...
Pros: VERY good sound quality (noise reduction, environment supression), good battery lifetime (up to 3 days), clear display, handy controls.
Cons: the ear hanger (? sorry for my english) slips out from the unit causing unit to fall, fast dial numbers are too short (cannot add cell codes e.g. enabling my phone number identification before dial number), does not fit perfectly into the ear - the sound is good when I puch it with my finger toward my ear, but listening to the music is a bit painful (not full spectrum due to distance between speaker and ear-hole that cannot be, at least in my case, adjusted).
Overall: good design/performance. Better quality then BT800 (my previous earphone). Cannot be securely and properly adjusted toward ear.

has anyone got more insight on this headset... i am looking in purhcasing it.

I use the 8010. The only complaint I had was the ear hook kept falling out, like the poster above. What I did was to superglue the hook in. Now, it doesn't fall, and it fit tighter to the ear, making it better to hear conversations and music. I lost one of the hooks before, and when I called jabra to order another set of hooks, they sent me out a Free pair, no ? asked, so support is great. Now, you can find the headset at a very good price. I paid $100 for mines, you can find them for $40-60.

Jabra BT8010 connection
I also have problems with the ear loop falling out. But it's not that often.
What I find annoying is that it doesn't automatically connect to my HTC prophet as stereo headphones when I switch the Jabra to music mode. I have to manually go into bluetooth settings and click on Jabra BT8010 to set as stereo headphones. Does anyone have a fix for this? If I don't do the above steps, AVRCP is able to work, but music will still come out of the phone. It would be nice if I can just listen to music with a push of the mode button without having to fumble for my phone.

i have em .. and to be honest i cant really complain
the only problem ive actually had is like everyone else has mentioned...the ear loop comming off..but thats so small in comparison to what they have to offer.
imo :
the sync from my car to my home bt system is awesome!
the clarity is superb
volume, settings, caller id and the phonebook work flawlessly..and to top it off i got em off of ebay for 25 bucks brand new with a reciept..
cant beat it!

i ahve jabra bt620s and sound is too low, how can i increase the sound on bt headset

the best bluetooth I know so far is Itech. They don't sell here but you can find it on ebay. A2DP, bluetooth stereo, cliping on you cloth, looks like a ipod shuttle on you collar.

Blue Ant or Jawbone?

I would like some advice specific to these to bluetooth devices. I'm going out to get one this week and would like to purchase the best of the two. Basically I'm looking for good audio quality on both ends. Stable compatibility with the tilt. Good looks, of course. The Jawbone seems to be pretty popular, how does the Blue Ant compare? Pros and cons please.

Like most of these questions, you're going to get both opinions. Bought them both - ended up keeping the Blue Ant. Better price (got mine for $60 delivered). Upgradeable firmware. Great call quality/voice command quality. Liked the noise suppression better. Smaller (more comfortable for me and I always thought I had bigger ears). Again, you'll probably find others that will disagree with me.

Thank You... I'll do a little more research

OK. So I got the Jawbone ($129.99) last night and I am very happy, so far. I thought it would look too Star Trekish, but actually, its not too bad. Certainly, considering you have some atrificial device hanging from your ear anyway. How I arrived to this state of happiness: Last week I bought the Jabra BT8040 ($79.99) and after about 6 hours I took it back because it did not sit firmly in my ear (didn't try the extra ear buds), the sound quality was poor, and people complained about noise in my background (noise that I hardly considered). The Jawbone fit perfectly, right out the package and sound quality was perfect on both ends.
I would still like feedback on the Blueant Z9, please.

I have lots of Jawbone experience and I like it the best so far. I've just checked out the BlueAnt site and have now ordered one to test side by side. I do like the idea of downloadable firmware, we'll see.

Did you guys order from the BlueAnt site or from another retailer?

lopezpm said:
Did you guys order from the BlueAnt site or from another retailer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a pricegrabber search, I used Tiger cause I know them but there were lower prices, $60-70 range

Best Buy. i'm impatient.

Jawbone sound is spectacular, function is pretty good, but for me the fit was terrible. Spent so much time fiddling with the wire ear loops they both broke -- my fault, not a quality issue.
Let me know how the BlueAnt works out. So far, I pretty much *hate* the fit of every headset ever made.
gt

I have Jawbone. They are fantastic. A little bulky on the ear but the technology is wonderful. I have no complain from people telling they hear static or winds noises.
my only complain is, the earbud keeping falling off here and there (interchangable depending on your ear). The earloop sometimes doesn't fit properly due to my status.

RemE said:
I have lots of Jawbone experience and I like it the best so far. I've just checked out the BlueAnt site and have now ordered one to test side by side. I do like the idea of downloadable firmware, we'll see.
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Looking forward to your test results.....

So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?

Keeper of the Grail said:
So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://teksoftco.com/index.php?section=bluemusic
or
http://teksoftco.com/index.php?section=freeware
Does this answer your question?

I've been reading reviews on the Z9 and the Jawbone, and every review contradicts the other. I couldn't make up my mind from reading reviews so I bought both and tried them out myself. Here is a comparison as I saw it.
1. Loudness - The Z9 has separate volume buttons for up and down and is plenty loud to hear in a noisy place. It’s loud enough that when I was in a quiet place or in my car with out the radio on I had to turn the volume down a bit.
The Jawbone doesn’t have an up and down volume button. It has a button that every time you press it, it raises the volume one level. Once you reach level 5 it goes back down to the lowest level and you have to start raising it again. It relies on it’s audio enhancement technology that will automatically adjust the volume depending on the surrounding noise. Overall, I felt that the Jawbone just wasn't loud enough for me.
2. Fit - They both fit really well but the Z9 hurts my ear after I take it off if I've had in for more than 30 minutes. The Z9 goes on fast when you get a call if it isn’t in your ear.
The Jawbone fits nice also, but it takes a little longer to put it on if it’s not in when you get a call. The good thing is that I can leave it on longer than the Z9 because it doesn’t hurt my ear at all. It just takes time to find the right combination for your ear, between the 4 ear pads and the 4 ear loops. But once you do it fits great. There is a shake test on YouTube showing that if you shake your head rapidly the Jawbone falls off while the Z9 stays on. I tried it and it's true. But who the hell goes around shaking their head like that.
3. Noise cancellation - This one was too close to call, I tested with the radio turned up in my truck and called my voicemail at work. They both did a great job. You could barely hear the music playing in the background and the music would cut in and out, while I was talking. It sounded like you had music in the background at a very low volume. As for the voice, it came across loud and it never cut out.
4. Size – Now this is a huge difference, the Z9 is about third the size of the Jawbone. This doesn’t mean that the Jawbone is overbearing or anything it just means that the Z9 is really small.
After testing them both for a couple of days, I am keeping the Z9. The deciding factor was that the Jawbone just wasn’t loud enough for me. Both are great noise cancelling headsets. If the Jawbone were louder I would be keeping that one because of the comfort level.
If you guys and gals have any questions let me know and I will try to answer them.

Keeper of the Grail said:
So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?
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Try this free app, BTaudio toggle, it directs all sounds out thru the BT headset. It works great on the Kaiser. I map a a key to make it easy to direct all sounds when needed. Search for it to get the thread about it.
I tried Bluemusic and found that it did NOT work well with my Kaiser in that it seems to kill the voice dialer function. When pressing the headset button voice dialer does not work, bluemusic seems to use it to toggle the sound between the headset and phone, showstopper for me.

I haven't had much luck with a headset that fits my ear properly, and is loud enough. I've had a bunch ... have/had a Jawbone. I just can't get it to stay in my ear regardless of which hook or bud I use.
On a whim i bought a Moto H375 at Costco with wall and car charger (std mini USB) for $40.
I can charge it from any standard mini USB cable
It fits and stays in my ear
It is so loud I often have to turn the phone volume down
Battery life is good
It has some kind of auto pairing, so all you have to do is turn it on and tell your device to search. I didn't have to fumble with some odd button press to put the headset into a pairing mode. Both my Tilt and BB 8310 found it immediately ... laptop too.
When my phone rings I actually hear my ringtone in my ear ... not some generic bleep bleep sound.
It worked fine with MS Voice Command, without any hacks, with the current STOCK AT&T ROM, does name announcement just fine.
My only complaint is that the ear hook isn't super comfortable if you wear it for longer than an hour ... but then I don't walk around like a drone all day wearing one anyway.
for $40 it certainly is worth checking out.

Thanks lopezpm for your review.... if RemE comes to the same conclusion..(soon)... I'll go for the Z9

Jawbone
I got the Jawbone for the last 4 months with it's amazing audio. The only thing that "burn" it is the charging cable, They use their own type of connector which require me to take the only cable they supplied with me when I travel for something longer then 3 days.
I tried contacting throught the web site in order to get another cable but after 2 months of waiting I understood they won't reply.
I got my'n at the MobilityToday.com shop for 80$ (the red version)

Got my Z9 and so far I have to say that I'm impressed. I downloaded and updated it's firmware from their web site. It was a bit of a project but the instructions were good. The Z9 is truely tiny compared to the Jawbone and the Z9 has many more call control features, controlled with button combination presses.
Fit for me is good, the clear plastic hooks are slightly less comfortable than the Jawbone but with careful adjusting while looking in a mirror can help you get a fit that works well. The Z9 weighs next to nothing and can be adjusted to be almost invisible to your senses. They give you two spare ear hooks.
Sound incoming is loud and clear and I do appreciate the dedicated up and down controls. I wear my headsets on my left ear so that puts the buttons on the bottom in my case which is not as good from an operational standpoint, especially when using button combinations.
Charging is done with a dedicated charger with micro usb type connector (looks identical to Jabra's). The Z9's charger is rated at 5v, the Jabra is 6v. The Z9 also comes with a micro USB to standard USB charge/data cable. The cable's have labels stating to ONLY use them with the Z9.
Noise Cancellation, so far so good. One difference from the Jawbone is that the Z9's noise cancelling is default at "standard" at call connect where the Jawbone's NC is "On" at startup and can be turned Off while in a call by pressing it's rear button (where you get a multi-tone indication that it's Off) The Z9's NC can be turned from "standard" to "Max" with a tap on the call button and it actually says "noise cancelling max" in your ear with a male Austrailian accented voice tag. A 3 sec press on the call button is needed to "end call". I called a friend with a Jawbone and did quality tests and was told that the quality was very good. I did walk around outside and the Z9 did fairly well in wind compared to Jawbone, maybe slightly better. I have not had a chance to torture test in the car at high speeds yet but so far I'm pretty happy.
Annoying Bits, should you walk out of range of your phone (eg. left phone on desk and walked out of room), the Jawbone gives a single "lost connection" tone while the Z9 gives it's lost signal tone, every 2 seconds, over and over for about a minute or two, then it powers down. When you are back in range it won't auto-pair like the Jawbone, you need to tap the call button to wake it, then it re-pairs quickly. Also I'm finding that the single tap of the button during a call (disconnects call with Jawbone, changes Noise Reduction Level with Z9) with the Z9 I often change NC level by accident because I'm so used to tapping the button to hang-up, they really should reverse the two features and tap-hold for 3 sec to change noise cnx level since it's not used as much as hanging up! At least we could rally for a firmware change
All in all for the price ($70 USD in my case) the Z9 is a contender!
Edit, after a few days use I will say that the Jawbone is the most comfortable. The Z9's clear plastic ear clip does hurt after a while, more than the Jawbone.
Edit, after driving with it a few hours today, well, it was better than my Jawbones! (and I love my Jawbones) It was way louder, in fact I had to turn it down! I called a fellow nit-picking, Jawbone using friend and did many in-car tourture tests, speed, wind, etc. The Jawbone might have a slight edge in noise cancelling but overall I was loud and clear to them and they were loud and clear to me.
So in my book both are great headsets, I'll keep and use both.

I have owned headsets by Jabra, Plantronics, Sony and Cardo (god-awful, threw it at my window and broke it after only two days) and I must say that my Jawbone blows everything else I've previously owned out of the water, the fit is great for me, sound quality is excellent, no one complains when talking to me except when I'm in heavy wind. You can't really go wrong with the Jawbone!

[Q] Phone call quality on headset

Does anyone actually use the phone as a phone? I'm finding that the echo cancel really limits the quality of the phone. I can hardly carry on a decent conversation in the car using the supplied headset.
Does anyone else have this problem?
Try this: connect the headset. Call your phone from another phone. Listen to both at the same time. You can clearly hear when you talk that the phone is suppressing noise.
What I find is that when I'm in the car, it actually seems to suppress the volume of the person on the other end! So, it can be very frustrating as I miss words that they say.
Combine this with AT&T's marvelous AGC (where if you don't talk, it cranks the volume so that when you do talk, it blows the person on the other end away!), and the total quality of the call is horrible.
I've been using cell phones for almost 20 years. This is the worst phone quality I've ever experience.

When I use the phone directly for calls, everything sounds clear and at a consistent volume with one exception, while waiting for the other party to answer, the call ringing tone goes up and down in volume.
I've paired 3 different bluetooth headsets to the phone and found that the volume in my headset goes up and down quite a bit. Usually it's the worst at the beginning of the call. Sometimes I can't hear the other person answer but then it levels out a bit and the volume fluctuations are less extreme. I've tried an old Sony Ericsson, a Jabra Extreme, and have settled on a Plantronics Voyager Pro+. The Voyager is about the best I've tried but still exhibits the volume fluctuations but not as bad. It also supports A2DP so I can listen to podcasts through the headset.

I use it with the Sync system in my ford f150 and have no problems at all. It works great. I dont use headsets so..........only my sync system

I thought it was just me. My Plantronics 925 does this as well. Calls from the phone are fine, but the headset volume cuts in and out. Is this a bad Bluetooth stack or other problem? I think I remember another phone (WM 6.5) that had to get hacked to fix this. I'm a little miffed on this. Did anyone at Samsung or ATT test the bluetooth on this phone before selling it?

I have had very good call quality whether using the "phone as a phone", the phones speaker phone, or a blue ant bluetooth headset. I have had poor call quality only when trying to call someone in very low signal area. That has only been once. Otherwise overall clarity and volume have not been an issue, actually phone volume on high is too loud for my ears!

adding to my earlier post. I exchanged my Focus due to an unrelated issue. Both handsets had the same fade out issue with the bluetooth headsets. I've experienced it on every call so I don't think it's signal related. I don't see any volume fluctuation at all when using the handset without the bluetooth headset. I've tried the same three bluetooth headsets on my wife's iPhone 3GS and all work fine. I've also streamed at least a couple of hours of podcasts from the Focus to my headset and the volume is perfectly level. Whatever the issue, it's only related to phone calls. Very frustrating.

I've experienced the same issues. I have an Aliph Jawbone Icon. Before I updated the firmware on it I could barely hear someone on the other end. With the new jawbone firmware I have the ability to control the volume in the headset and only when I have it turned all the way up does it work ok. I do, however, still have trouble when people are talking that when the first start and or finish talking what they say seems to get clipped. Further, the volume seems to fade in and out. Also, if I'm using the AT&T navigator software and have my headset attached it will give me directions through the headset, but the end of every direction gets chopped off. So, the avene or street part of a direction doesn't come through.

I've been following this issue in a few different forums. Today a moderator in the Microsoft Answers forum jumped in and said they were experiencing the same problem and they would escalate the issue.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...4ce-30ee-4734-9dab-28ce0d561132?prof=required

Can't recommend this phone
I was so excited when I first got my Focus. I thought it was such a huge step forward for MS mobile and actually had some chance at being mainstream. Sure it lacked a few features but there was the hope that MS would update the phone quickly. After all, they seemed to have made such phenomenal progress in getting the phone to market, seemed like fixing a few things and adding a few features would be a no-brainer.
Well, here we are 3 months later (Apple released the first update for iPhone 1.0.1 only one month later) and lots of rumors but nothing substantial on the long-awaited update. We'll see cut/paste but it's not at all clear if they will address anything else.
Here in CA we have a law that says we can't talk on the phone unless it's hands free. For the first time since that law was imposed, I've been regularly breaking it. I can't use a handsfree headset. Even the wired one that comes with the phone is so damn inconvenient that by the time I get it going, the caller is long gone. So, seemingly MAJOR features like BT headsets appear to get no notice at all from MS. I've looked through all the threads and there's nothing from MS. They don't even acknowledge the problem.
Looking at the thread from mcraine, I don't see where MS is going to do anything about this. Also, don't see any indication that it's part of any forthcoming updates.
Too bad. I thought this MS had a chance with this phone but they are blowing it big time. Momentum is gone now. If we have to wait another 3 months to get the browser fixed then the phone is destined to be like the Palm Pre. Good phone but can't keep up with the 'big' boys. This horse jumped out of the gate and was looking really good for the first couple of strides but then completely fell down and they are trying to coax it to get up again.

same issue here as well. mine is only a month old. it is not as noticable when sync'd to the car, but still noticable. and as said before more at the beginning of the call. if there were not issues, it would not be M$