Bluetooth Headsets are pretty much common these days, so I don’t have to remind you what they exactly are. Instead, I’m going to list some of their advantages first. Since many people still thinks that they don’t need a Bluetooth headset — even while they’re driving — or that a Bluetooth headset is somewhat an unnecessary gadget.
- Your hands are free – The biggest advantage, it gives you, is that you can make hands-free calls. This means your both hands are free at the same time and you can use them to do your other tasks.
- Make Hands-free calls while Driving – The second advantage actually correlates to the first one. Since, during calls, your focus is not on Cell phone that you would have been glued to your ear, you can concentrate on your driving better. This, in turn, means that you can avoid many roadside accidents.
- No wires – Having no cords can be a sole complete reason to buy a Bluetooth Headset in itself!. Now I don’t need to tell you why everybody hate wires. They can be broken, they can be tangled and they are messy. Going over Bluetooth means you can roam freely without worrying about wires — but only until Bluetooth range permits you, more on that later.
In case you’ve opted to Buy a Bluetooth Headset now, a Million-dollar question may arise in your mind like this:
So which ones are the good for me, then?
If you’ve searched online or in market there are literally tons of different Bluetooth headsets available and each manufacturer is labeling them with “HD-call quality, comfortable and best range” type of things. In fact there are some categories too, like traditional, mono and single-ear headsets etc. It is always worth considering to seek out online reviews on trusted sites like Music Critic to guide you on choosing the right wireless headsets for you. It will further help you to decide which among top quality brands will suit your preference and budget
Reading reviews of a product was a great option some years ago. But now, courtesy of Amazon Associates and other affiliate programs, almost 90% of these reviews are money-biased, cheesy and “All-things-are-fine” type of reviews. That’s why I am only telling you to consider some important points, before going for any Bluetooth headset, without endorsing/recommending any brand/headset.
However, I’ll tell you which one is better in which way. By the way, I have nothing against amazon associates or any other affiliate programs like that. My problem is with fake, money-biased reviews.
7 Things to Look At Before Going for Any Bluetooth Headset
1: Design – Design is probably the most important thing you should look at, when buying a Bluetooth Headset. Because if you don’t feel comfortable in wearing it for hours, it’ll be useless for you. There are different styles available to choose from.
- Over-Ear Design – These types of headsets basically consists of a plastic-made loop which goes from over and back of your ear. One obvious advantage, this design gives you, is grip and helps headset to stick on your ear. On the other hand if you wear spectacles, better avoid it because that loop may irritate your ear when combined with eyeglasses. Apart from this, as eartips are not into your ear-canal, you may hear some ambient noise. Also these headset usually have an extended flip-boom mice for better voice quality over calls.
- Earbud Design – Contrary to Over-Ear design. Earbud-style Headsets don’t have any loop. Their eartip firmly sticks into your ear-canal, which in turn means very-little-to-no background noise. Since they are pronged to be dropped, thanks to no plastic hook/loop, some manufactures have tried to get rid of this problem by using an extra eargel. Jawbone Era is a good example for it.
2: Weight – There are two different arguments: Whether weight of a headset plays an important part or not? Most of the people correlate weight directly to comfort and vice versa.
But you know what?
Comfort actually varies from one person to another. There is no one-size-fits-all rule. The same implies with weight. What I feel bulky, might be perfect for you. Sennheiser PRESENCE-UC is one of the most lightweight headset with just 13g.
3: Noise Cancellation – Noise Cancellation is usually featured in Over-Ear style headsets rather than earbuds, with the exception of Jawbone Era. Active Noise Cancellation is done by using DSP algorithms. Noise Cancellation is actually difficult to measure because it’ll be the other person (the one who’s calling you) that will feel its effect. Yet, it can be very crucial if you’re in a noisy market. Plantronics Voyager Legend and Jawbone Era are the best Bluetooth headsets in terms of Noise Cancellation.
4: Call Quality – Most of the people buy headsets to make hands-free calls. So if a headset have a poor call quality, it is useless. Different manufacturers have their own solutions such as Sennheiser uses 3 built-in microphones while others like Jabra Motion uses long mic. But let me tell you, speaker and microphone size don’t have any direct relationship with Call Quality.
5: Battery life – Battery life figures can be very misleading. Companies usually boast their Headsets’ battery life. Usually a headset can have 7-8 hours of continuous talk time before dying out. But some are terrible such as Jawbone Era, which has only 3.5 hours battery life. So if you want a long-lasting battery life, then you can consider Sennheiser PRESENCE. It easily lasts more than 10 hours.
6: Connectivity Options – Advance headsets offer many connectivity options apart from Bluetooth. One important thing to check first, in any headset, is that which version of Bluetooth it has. Many headsets features Bluetooth 3.0 but some advance headsets like Plantronics Voyager Edge boast Bluetooth 4.0. This latest versions has many benefits such as low power consumption. Apart from calls, you can listen to your tracks, stored in your cell phones, through A2DP feature of the Bluetooth.
Some headsets, such as Jabra Motion, also features NFC. You can connect your Headset through it, just by tapping it with your smartphone. But to avail it, you’ll need an NFC-compatible Cell phone. On Bluetooth, usual range of a headset is 30 meters. Voyager Edge can work up to 35 meters of distance however.
7: Other Factors To Consider – And here are the other things you better check before going for any headset.
- Sound Quality – As I said earlier, you can use headset to listen music too. This means that a headset must have an impressive sound quality. But just as every people like different types of music — bass-heavy, treble, clear, loud etc — each Bluetooth Headset sounds different. Jawbone Era is good for Loud music, Voyager Legend had clear sound whereas Jabra Motion sounds crispy. In case you want a loud headset, you must look at its speaker size, because bigger the speaker more louder will be sound.
- Sensors – Many headsets, nowadays, feature motion-sensors. Headset perform many tasks using them such as answering call automatically if it’s on your ear and will mute it, if you’re not wearing it etc.
- Voice commands – Internal voice commands are supported by many headsets. You can even control your Siri App through a headset’ companion app. If you like to know what commands you can say to your voice-command-enabled headset, you usually have to say like this: “What can I say?”. Then it’ll name out all of those commands.
Conclusion:
So these are some of the common things to analyse before buying any Bluetooth Headset. In case you want to know more about Bluetooth Headsets, I’ve written a very detailed Bluetooth headsets review on List Enthusiast. In that post, I have reviewed different Bluetooth headsets so that you can have one that suits you perfectly.
