Lightweight at 51g or about ½oz
the unit is very thin (15mm) and both looks and feels
stylish in its silver and gray plastic. It feels
solid in the hand and gives a great sense of quality.
The buttons for volume up/down and call answer operate
with a quality feel. The design hides the buttons
in the Logitech logo which acts as the volume control,
top for up, bottom for down and together for Mute.
Calls are answered and cleared by pressing the bar
that runs the length of the body. I like the tiny
piercing multi-colored status LED at the top of the
bar; it says "Status" rather than shouts "I'm
Bluetooth look at me".
The ear cushion is soft and compliant
and feels more like a cotton material than foam.
The ear loop is a rubber coated wire that can be
formed to create a tight hold or freed to make the
unit easier to put on and take off. The ear loop
can be rotated easily for left or right handed use.
It's really very flexible.
The interesting part of the design is the microphone
section at the tip; this forms the 'WindStop' technology
that sets the unit apart. By using a rubber like
substance that is perforated with many holes and
tunnels the effect is to dissipate low frequency
air movements - wind, that pass the unit yet allow
through the tiny vibrations that form speech. By
doing this in the 'Analogue' world they claim to
return some battery life as there is no digital signal
processor having to digitally subtract the noise.
The headset offers Bluetooth 1.2 support and paired
quickly and easily with a range of phones, smartphones
and my PC. We paired the headset with Moto RAZR,
Moto V330, iMate SP3, imate SP3i, HP iPAQ hw6515,
Sony Ericsson T68i, the Treo 650 and Dell Inspiron
XPS-II with Broadcom Bluetooth stack. All paired
with an ease. Voice dialing worked reliably with
the Motorola RAZR V3. Bluetooth range is good, the
claimed 10M, 30+ft range pans out in the open and
equates to the ability to place the phone or Phone/PDA
on your desk and walk around the room unhindered.
However it didn't get nearly that much of a range
on the Treo 650. On the limit the unit tended to
silence first before letting go of the signal giving
you a chance to move closer.
Audio quality was fine, inbound and out with best
results showing on my favorite SIP phone software
on my PC. Volume was agreeable to both caller and
recipient however, I often find that I'm always working
at full volume, just to be clear.
So, did the WindStop technology
do its thing? Err, not so much. My test is to place
a call in the car with the window open at 30MPH.
Now, I know that's a bit un-scientific as the wind
noise from car-to-car is huge but for comparison
it works, or doesn't as the case may be and in
this case it offered no appreciable difference
than my usual headset the Motorola HS850. Both
fell short of my cars built-in Bluetooth support
with its roof mounted microphone. So how about background
noise suppression, the suppression of other peoples
conversation in a crowded or noisy environment; it
did ok even though it lacks a DSP, and it was able
to pick up my voice from the busy throng of the
New York streets well enough for the other party
to hear.
Logitech claim a full day's (7hrs)
life from the battery, and that bore out in the tests;
the test is to put it on your head for a day wherever
you go… even if you look a bit of a cyborg!
The only ill effect of day long wear was that the
soft ear cushion does become tiring as it presses
into my ear; that's personal though and others that
tried the unit were able to adjust their way out
of that.
One feature the unit lacked was an easy way to turn the
device off; I think that Motorola are alone in this but
when you fold the Moto' 850 up it switches off completely.
This means that you can leave it in your car for occasional
use and only charge it once a month or three. To switch
off the Logitech you must press and hold the switch and
listen for the turn off tone; this applies for power on
too. When a call came in, if the headset was off, I couldn't
wake it up fast enough to receive that call. Give us a
good old fashioned on and off switch.
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