The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
-
"Fantastic features and first one to ever fit!" on by larry619
Pros: Amazing voice recognition; innovative new earpiece fitting system
Cons: None I can find.
Summary: I've owned a lot of bluetooth headsets over the years, and all of them are laying around the house gathering dust. They all suffered from the same problem, they wouldn't stay on my ear. When Cnet gave the new Jawbone 2 an editor's choice a few months back, I even ran out and bought that one. But like all the others, within 5 minutes of putting it on, it was flapping around on my head like a duck wing.
I used to think that my ears were just incredibly odd, but if you look at the user reviews for the Jawbone 2, a lot of people had the same problem, poor fit. What's the use of a headset that you have to hold against your ear all the time. It seemed a lot of manufacturers cared all about the circuitry, but not about the human ear.
UNTIL NOW! Even BlueAnt took a while to get it right, because I've got an old Z9 around here that didn't fit. But the V1 is AMAZING! I won't go into the fantastic voice recognition because everyone is talking about that. It is fantastic, but for me, I feel so good having an earpiece that stays in my ear that it could have come without incredible voice recognition and I'd still love this thing.
It's hard to describe, but if you are the type for whom a headset always fits, this one has the traditional gel pieces that should work fine for you, and you'll love the features of the headset. If you are one of those unlucky people that has always had fit problems like me, BlueAnt found the solution in a replacement piece that fits on the ear side of the headset and inserts slightly into the ear canal. Think of one of those soft memory foam earplugs that you squeeze down, insert into the ear and let expand. That's the kind of thing you can attach on the headset, so that when you put it in your ear, it will expand to the opening of your ear and hold there.
To be fair, it gets a little uncomfortable with the thing inserted in your ear all day, but just a little bit. And the benefit of having a headset that doesn't feel like it is ready to fly off is worth just a minor discomfort to me.
In short, there simply is not a more flexible fitting headset with so many voice activated features out there, but I'll bet everybody will be rushing to copy this style. Thank you, thank you, thank you BlueAnt. -
"Revolutionary! This is the Mac of the headset world!" on by SOHO_Stan
Pros: -Voice Interface huge leap forward in user friendliness over previous headsets.
-Makes calling back people a snap.
-Hansdfree answer/ignore very useful
-Great call quality
-Comfortable, though had to bend the ear hook a little to make it soCons: -wish it had Caller ID by name, but number is MUUCCHHH better than nothing at all
-The Jawbone is still better looking. Everything else about the V1 though is superior.Summary: I have had at least 6 or 7 headsets now and consider myself a power user. I had tried a Jawbone 2 but had trouble with the fit working and the call quality stunk as a result and returned it
Lucky me as I came across this. The V1 fits great and the voice interface makes every other headset I've had seem absolutely primititve. Like a MAC vs an old DOS based PC. I'm kind of surprised now it took so long for someone to do this. Pairing, Connections, Redials, Call Backs, and doing Name Dial on the Phone are a breeze with this thing and you know exactly what is going on with it since it tells you
I would note that if you have a ringtone playing Motorola RAZR 2 phone like I do I found you have to put it vibrate mode for the Caller ID on the headset to play . Otherwise your ringtone is sent across instead of the caller ID apparantly. I also use it with by business phone, a Windows Mobile 6 Samsung and you do not have to put it in vibrate mode for Caller ID to work.
Call Quality is great, Ive yet to have anyone tell me they could hear road noise in the background. People talking loudly very close by seems to be the only time someone complains.
I do have to say the Jawbone looks a little better, but if you can compromise on style a little bit I believe this is by far the most useful headset on the market and I've tried all the high end ones. -
"Great Bluetooth headset" on by Food doc
Pros: Excellent voice recognition, if you forget a command the unit will help you out
Cons: Won't control all functions (like speed dialing) on all phones. You'll have to check your individual phone
Summary: An excellent bluetooth headdset, I used it to replace my Jawbone which always sounded a little 'tinny'. This headset is clear, so clear in fact that I had to turn the volume almost all the way down. The fit is comfortable and what the video clip doesn't show is the adjustability of the ear hook. It can be put into almost any position making it very comfortable to wear.
The voice commands, in the most part, are intuitive and if you forget one just tap the button and you can get a list of what commands are available.
All the controls are telescoped into one button with the exception of the volume controls but the voice recognition software is excellent.
The unit charges with a 'micro' usb plug instead of the usual mini one but BlueAnt supplies a complete charger unit with the necessary tip adapters.
If you're stepping up from a basic bluetooth headset this is a good one to look at as an alternative to the more expensive Jawbone -
"The best of the best! A pleasure to use." on by picc47
Pros: Voice transmission quality is better than with my jawbone, which I was told had a slight echo. I was amazed at how perfectly the voice commands work, and pleased at how easy they are to learn. I find the headset extremely lightweight and comfortable.
Cons: I was concerned initially, because the headset wouldn't turn off after it's initial charge. Excellent phone tech support made a suggestion that worked. (How often does THAT happen?!) It's been perfect ever since. So really no cons.
Summary: Without the voice commands the jawbone would run a close second to the V1. But the ease of use and voice commands puts the BlueAnt V1 way out in front. It charges quickly, and by asking the unit to "check battery" the headset tells you if the charge is high, medium, low or very low - extremely useful information. (You can also speak the command "teach me", and the headset will talk you through a tutorial.) Charge lasts a more than reasonable amount of time...certainly much, much longer than my iPhone 3G. This is my third and favorite bluetooth headset, Jabra BT500 and Jawbone 1 being my first and second sets. I tried several programs for my iPhone 3g that promised to use voice commands. But I never found one that works reliably. The BlueAnt meets all my needs, and I can recommend it without reservation. I also recommend purchasing the Hard Shell Bluetooth Carrying Case for BlueAnt Z9 Z9i X3 V1 V12 made by Young Micro - it offers excellent protection.
-
"Easiest to use and most useful headset I've had by far." on by OK_oilman
Pros: -big advance over previous headsets
-voice commands are very useful once you learn them, doesnt take long
-voice prompts very helpful (battery, connection, caller ID, etc)
-noise reduction great for driving and normal situationsCons: -voice help prompts don't tell you eveything they should. Had to hunt through guide to figure out how to hang up a call (doubleclick).
-strong winds seems to kill performance of voice control and mess up call qualitySummary: Fantastic headset but not completely handsfree. You do need to push the button to make it start listening for you commands, and push it (twice I found out) to end a call unless other caller hangs up. I've probably used Redial and Call back commands over 100 times in the week I've had it. Works great in a car and in office and mostly outdoors..
Strong winds seem to kill the voice command ability though so beware of that.
Voice commands are intuitive, just have to remember the "What can I say" command and the others stick after a a while. It's not smart enough to understand partial commands though and if you say the wrong thing a couple of times it has started doing something you don't want. Once it starts dialing though you can't just say cancel, you have to click to cancel. It tells you what its going to do so you have clear warnings if you need to cancel something. A nitpick but the voice command value greatly outweighs this minor nuisance every once in while.
Caller ID and voice answer is truly handsfree and eyesfree, no button push at all, and is great if you are frequently tied up doing things like I am. Does only caller ID by number though.
Voice prompts are immensely helpful. Use to have to take off gloves pull phone out of my pocket to know if headset was actively connected to phone or if I need to go charge it. Just ask this thing and it tells you.
Noise reduction in car is great people can hear me clearly. When working outdoors Iin noisy environments have to switch to the max or people complain on background noise. When switched to max I do have to repeat myself some so not perfect. My previous noise reduction headset was unusable in such situations still big improvement.
Tried the Goog411 function once, this seems more useful if your travelling or looking for something new. I'm sure when I travel I will use this more but have not yet.
Battery life has been good, so far no need to charge during a workday.
Write a Review
Compare to other headsets
Compare Selected
