Motorola MotoRokr S9 Bluetooth headphones

bonus feature

Cool, now I can find out when someone has "picked" my phone 'cause the music will stop once they're out of 'tooth range and, presumably, my fist. Handy!

This thing is pants

I tested one of these, it's complete pants. Yes, it's uncomfortable, yes, the buds don't really fit IN your ears, nor ON your ears (so intrusive AND don't block out noise), blurb says they're "adustable"... which is not strictly true, you can only rock the whole unit up or down. Sitting on a highish-backed chair? Bulge at the back keeps bumping annoyingly.

Music sound quality? Average at best for BT headset, well below a set of wired earbuds. Call sound quality? Average. Repeated breaks in connection? You betcha.

The controls are annoyingly hard to locate by touch, and they're so incredibly sensitive that just brushing them knocks it to the next track/volume up or what have you. I didn't try, but buyer reports I've seen say that using it during gym (i.e. sweating) toasts them. So bang goes their USP that they're good for "active use".

Basically most BT headsets suck, so rated against them it maybe deserves a 70% rating versus the best possible BT headset. As a product on its own it gets about a 50% rating ito it's intended functionality.

YMMV.

Catch up 'El Reg..

I've had a pair of these for about 6 months and still love them.

Some notes:

Ability to charge from USB is great (if only my Nokia 6300 did that!).

If they are too tight you can 'bend' them open a bit.

The in-ear sleeve things can pop off quite easily if caught by a pocket etc.

Sound quality is excellent for me (192kbps MP3 from Nokia 6300).

Controls are small, fiddly and sensitive and take a fair bit of getting used to but are fine when you do.

They can fit in a largish inside jacket pocket.

My thoughts

I've had these for a few months now and generally I like them. First off they dont rest on my neck, no where near it.

I was worried about the battery life to start with, but its actually not that bad, because you save battery on your phone to a certain extent.

Also, I have long hair and if I put my hair over them I look like a wierdo (well more like one).

In the manual it says to put the player device in the top third of your body, however I find that my back trouser pocket is best as it has line of sight to the bit at the back then.

My main concern when using them in the office is that the battery will run out, causing my phone to start playing out of its speaker exposing my bad music taste to all! (It will beep twice before running out but you could easily miss it).

Whither RAZR

It's really frustrating that many RAZRs in the US that claim "BlueTooth support" and "play MP3s" don't also support A2DP. That's what I discovered (too late for a free return) with the RAZR V3m. It really should just be a firmware update, but once the phone-producers ship something off the assembly line, they want to be done with it. And the carriers don't "help" here either, except to engage in classic finger pointing.

Moral: Always check the box closely to make sure your checklist items are all there.

Limping scrod

I picked up one of these units (thankfully not at the horrifying retail of $130, but a decent lunch cheaper than $100)

Battery life: good

Range: acceptable with line of sight (Bluetooth? Nah, maybe they're IR?)

Sound: Quality OK but you sure aren't going to damage your hearing with them. Phone portion works acceptably.

Comfort: None.

I do regret the purchase for the most part. See other reviews for detailed descriptions.

Nasty shortcoming...

...of Motorola's policies not the headset.

A friend has one of these and loves it. I was asking him about it, and was interested in buying one for myself.

Then the bombshell... he commented that at one point one of the rubber in-ear bits got knocked off and lost. He called Motorola to buy a replacement. They would not sell him one. His only option is to buy a whole new headset.

I wouldn't touch this thing with a 10-meter pole...