Motorola H500 Bluetooth headset (Nickel)

CNET Editors' Rating 6.6/10 Good Editorial policies >>
Average user rating from 97 users 5.3/10 Average Read user opinions >>

Product Summary

The good: The Motorola H500 has a sleek, streamlined design and an ergonomic ear hook, and it feels comfortable against the ear. It also comes with four different color options.

The bad: The Motorola H500 is a bit bulky for our tastes, and the volume buttons are small.

The bottom line: While the size isn't to our liking, the Motorola H500's streamlined and ergonomic design makes it an appealing Bluetooth headset. With decent sound quality to boot, the Motorola H500 makes for a satisfactory product.

Specs: Type: Microphone Built-in; Product type: Headset; Design: Over-the-ear See full specs >>

Price range: $18.99 - $59.99

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
Edited by: Kent German
Reviewed on: 02/28/2006

The Motorola H500 is Motorola's update to the Motorola HS820, with a slightly sleeker design, a more ergonomic ear hook, and additional color options. Like its predecessor, the Motorola H500 has a streamlined, curved form factor that's a bit bulky for our tastes, at 2.28 by 1.06 by 0.87 inches and weighing 0.55 ounce. But the style is much improved, with a total of four color options to choose from (Nickel, Pink, Ice, and Magenta), as well as silver and white accents. While its $100 price tag seems pretty affordable already, you can easily get it for $50, thanks to discounts online.

A welcome improvement upon the Motorola H500 is its new ergonomic ear hook, complete with a rubberized back housing designed to fit around the ear. The ear hook is adjustable for additional comfort and can be worn on either ear. As for the earpiece, it's more like a speaker that just rests against the ear. This makes it a lot easier to put on and take off, unlike with headsets that have in-ear buds.

The Motorola H500's controls are another departure from the HS820's, as they are noticeably smaller and take up less room. The multifunction button is in the middle of the headset, while the volume controls are on either side. As named, the multifunction button turns the headset on and off, as well as answers and ends calls, and when it's held down, it doubles as a pairing button. All buttons are easy enough to press, though they're a little too flush to the surface for our tastes, and the volume controls may be too small for larger fingers. On the top of the H500 is the charger port, while the Motorola logo on its surface doubles as a light indicator.

We tested the Motorola H500 with the Nokia 7380 and the Samsung SGH-D357 and were able to pair the devices with the headset without a problem. Phone calls sounded loud and clear, although sound quality suffered in noisier environments. Aside from letting you answer, end, and reject calls, the Motorola H500 supports voice dialing, three-way calling, last-number redialing, call waiting, and putting a call on hold or on mute. However, a note on voice dialing: We had to speak rather loudly for the phone to recognize the numbers.

The Motorola H500 comes with a standard Motorola charger, though if you have an existing Motorola cell phone, you can just use the one charger to juice both your phone and the H500. The Motorola H500 has a rated talk time of 8 hours and a standby time of five days.

See more CNET content tagged:: Motorola Inc.,; headset,; Bluetooth headset

User opinions

5.3/10 Average user rating from 97 users Average

WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEW How would you rate this product?

3/10 Poor April 15, 2006

by irajay26 (see profile)

"Traded it for a Plantronics 640" Read more >>
8/10 Excellent January 18, 2006

by LouCap (see profile)

"So far so good..." Read more >>
3/10 Poor January 19, 2006

by j5ryall (see profile)

"Horrible outgoing sound quality" Read more >>
WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEW See all 97 user opinions >>

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