BlueAnt T1

Pros: Advanced features
Blueant reputation

Cons: HORRIBLE ear loop design and performance
Sketchy voice quality
Connectivity issues
Cumbersome voice-dialing

Summary: The whole is lesser than the sum of its parts. I?ve been a big Blueant fan for probably three years now. Their sound quality and noise isolation features have been second to none. So I was excited when I read about the T1 and all its advanced features. I couldn?t wait to get my hands on it.

At first, all was good. I loved the design and the performance seemed to be good. But the more I used it, the more disillusioned I became. I?ll try not to write a book, but here are my observations.

- Sound quality ? good but not excellent. Listeners would frequently complain that I sounded muffled or like I was talking from a tunnel. This seemed to come and go. When it was good, it was good, but when it was bad, it was terrible.
- Noise isolation ? meh. Blueant claimed it would virtually eliminate noise from winds up to 22 mph. Well, maybe it does in a laboratory setting, but I never experienced that in the real world. Any time I was ever in the wind, the listener could hear it. To an everyday wearer like me, it really seemed no different than any other Blueant headset I?ve used the last three years.
- Design ? meh. A little larger than I like, but tolerable. The flat black color isn?t exactly eye-catching, but maybe that?s a good thing. Whatever blows your hair back, I guess. I like that it had a physical on/off switch and a volume rocker.
- Connection ? easy to pair, but a little slow to connect. Plus it would randomly disconnect and then immediately reconnect to phone for no obvious reason, even when sitting right beside the phone or while wearing it next to the phone.
- Features ? incoming voice announcement is nice, but sometimes the headset would fail to recognize your response (e.g. ?Answer?) and would respond like you hadn?t acted. Also, voice dialing is a bit cumbersome, because it?s a two-step process. First, you have to say ?phone commands?. Then, once it puts you into your phone?s voice-dialing system, you have to the phone?s voice system. This first step is not required with less-advanced devices that still support voice dialing.
- Ear loop ? YES, I gave ?ear loop? its own category, because THIS was my greatest, single frustration. When new, the ear loop stayed put in the hole on the back of the headset (where the loop can be slid or turned to fit the wearer). But after it?s been used for a few weeks, the hole seems to widen slightly, the ear loop gets oily & slippery, and it becomes virtually useless. The loop slides and turns with almost no resistance, so much so that it might as well not even be there. It?s really just more in the way at this point. As I can?t seem to ever find an ear bud that lets me wear a headset in my ear canal without a loop, this was a fatal flaw.

It?s a shame really, because I was (and probably still am) a pretty big Blueant fanboy. But the combination of sound and connection issues, a few feature annoyances, and the stunningly poor design of the ear loop system makes this (sadly) a FAIL to this user.

To the boys Down Under I say: ?Back to the drawing board!?