[nzlug] Bluetooth headsets

[Daniel Pittman]

Robin Sheat <robin at kallisti.net.nz> writes:
> On Wednesday 14 February 2007 15:20, Daniel Pittman wrote:
>
>> In general they vary pretty wildly in quality and performance; search
>> for general reviews -- but the difference in quality and range is huge.
>> The comfort of the device over the longer term is also pretty varied.
>
> Good advice there :) Ascent has 3 models
> (http://ascent.co.nz/Category.aspx?majorcatID=23, filter by
> connection->bluetooth, ignore the headphones), of which I could only find 
> reviews for the logitech one. The reviews were consistently bad, but they're 
> all in the price range I'd be willing to pay (that is, <~$80 or so).

Most of the reviews I found online -- and I did a lot of research --
turned up distinct trends.  Many devices, like the Logitech kit, had
consistent reviews from people disappointed by the performance.

I found the 'epinions' site fairly valuable for this.  It has a good
interface that encourages end user comments and, consequently, collects
quite a lot of them.

That helped me drill down to the short list of models for which I could
find local suppliers and independent reviews.

[...]

>> I have an [Plantronics] Explorist 510, and I am very satisfied with
>> the audio quality, comfort for extended wear, battery life and range.
>
> Cool, will see if I can find one of them.

They have a couple of models a step down-market from the 510 as well; I
elected to go for the higher degree of comfort and utility it offered at
a slightly higher cost.

I did, on the other hand, buy it so that I could have a headset for day
to day use for work purposes, so comfort after eight hours of use was a
priority.

>> As to Linux: at a BlueTooth level they /mostly/ just work.  The
>
> I thought as much. I guess if they want to work with phones, they're
> going to have to be fairly standard.

Yes.  The headset and hands-free BlueTooth profiles, plus the SCO audio
protocol, are very standard.  That isn't the same as trouble free, of
course, but is always a good start.

The final bit of advice: do test it before committing.
Incompatibilities between headsets and mobile phones are not unknown, so
a (non-standard) PC to headset use might also show them.

Regards,
        Daniel
-- 
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