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 NOT COMFORTABLE,
17 June 2005
In general I am okay with this headset, I am using it with a TREO 650 which lends itself to other issues, the headset is not advanced enough to work automatically with the treo. My main complaint is it is not adjustable to my ear. I actually have to use the big ear gel to get it to stay on because the part that goes over your hear is about 1 cm too high over my ear, so the big ear gel holds it up.... It fits my husband perfectly, so maybe it is that I have smaller ears, it just seems to me that there should be a better way to make it fit.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
 Generally happy,
11 May 2005
I have been using this device for two months, and have been generally happy with it - the audio fidelity is good, the unit is comfortable, the battery life is long and, although I haven't tested the maximum range, I usually use it at 10 to 12 feet from the phone (Nokia 6820). My house is in a marginal reception area for Cingular, and using the headset allows me to put the phone in a "sweet spot" with an unusual orientation, giving me three or four bars instead of one.
The "belt clip" is a joke.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
A good Bluetooth handsfree kit, but with a few problems,
26 April 2005
The FreeSpeak is no doubt a reasonably good performer. The sound on it is reasonably clear and the microphone does a good job too. My only complaint on it is that once I paired mine and turn the kit on, my PDA (a Sony Clie PEG-UX50) would no longer be able to connect to the phone (a SonyEricsson T610) via bluetooth unless the kit is switched back off. Could be a flaw with either the phone's design and/or the Bluetooth specification (I never really did test it with a different phone to verify the problem), but since I am able to receive calls while my PDA is connected to the internet (I have GPRS enabled on my line), it would be nice to be able to answer a call without either talking on my phone or taking the PDA offline. Still, a good starter kit if you don't have any other Bluetooth device paired with your phone.
Update: Well, I've managed to get a Motorola V600 and tried the same headset on it, and the same problem persists- you can't connect other Bluetooth devices to the phone while the headset is connected. I am now also fairly certain that the problem is with Bluetooth's specifications as I was unable to exchange pictures between the phones while the PDA was accessing one of the phones. So, okay. No fault of the phones, PDA or the headset. Just the way Bluetooth works in general.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
Poor belt clip design,
25 April 2005
I don't have much to say about the 250 other than to point out the really poor design of the belt clip/charger. The 250 is supposed to click into this holder (which connects to the power adaptor for charging). This holder is designed to clip onto your belt so that you can carry the 250 when is is not in use. Okay, I agree that you will look extremely nerdy if you have your phone AND your earpiece hanging from your belt but sometimes you need to put the things away and the Freespeak 250 is really too fragile to carry in your pocket. The only problem with this is that the 250 will easily fall out of the holder and if you use it you WILL lose it. It is only a matter of time. My 250 lasted about 45 seconds and when I went to get it from the belt clip it was GONE. Not the holder but the 250 itself. Some lucky stiff at the Houston airport picked it up and walked away.
I also thought that the 250 was not well made. When I would push the on/off or volume buttons I could feel the housing "give" a little, as if the buttons were about to collapse into the housing. A little too flimsy and not indication of a long life expectancy for the earpiece.
I suggest that you consider another alternative - at $90 the 250 is simply overpriced.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
 Not Ready for Prime Time,
21 April 2005
I have used this headset with my Treo 650 and have been very disapointed with it's performance. It may be a function of the Treo's Bluetooth capabilities so keep that in mind and do not waste your money on this headset if you are using a Treo.
It has very poor range; arm's length at best. Outdoors it is useless. It has times when it will refuse to pick up a call. The voice quality is also poor with hissing and crackling. The only place it seems to be remotely useful is in the car where it is within arm's reach and the hissing is only moderate. This is pretty expensive to only be able to use part of the time. Talk time is also much shorter than advertised.
My $.02, save your money for something else.
Update: Recently purchased the new Treo 650 headset by PalmOne. That is the new Bluetooth 1.2 version, not the clone of this Jabra. Much, much better. Now I have a headset that I can use all the time. I have completely replaced all my wired headsets.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
So far not a big fan.,
20 April 2005
First, I'm totally willing to plead user error (but I don't think so). I bought this item because of CNET's high marks. After successfully pairing it, I found in the manual there were special pairing instructions for my phone (T-610) to get extra features. Since re-pairing it, I no longer get a voice activation prompt and have to guess when to say my contact name.
Also, the manual specifies that wireless networks will interfere with Jabra's reception and cause popping. Thank goodness there aren't any of those around! Seriously, these days every Starbucks on the planet has a wireless network up and running.
But my biggest gripe is the inoperable voice dialing. I get "no match" after "no match." My guess is that the ambient noise when you record your voice names has to match up with the ambient noise when you make the handsfree call. (i.e. the interior of my car sounds different than my office or living room).
Finally, my email to Jabra tech support has gone unanswered (24 hours).
I'm still keeping my fingers crossed and will happily edit this review should things work out better. I'm going to try resetting and re-pairing.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
Possibly the best out there, but one prob with Motorola v551,
16 April 2005
Very comfortable and fits well, very light-weight, good battery life, great sound quality and volume on both ends of the conversation (unless too windy). I only have one complaint when using the BT250 with my Motorola v551 phone: Every time I turn on the headset to establish the [already paired] link with my phone, the phone immediately goes into voice-dialing mode (i.e., "Say name now ... say name louder"). Because I usually don't say anything when it does this, the normal harmless result is "Voice name not found," but a few times my phone somehow matched my silence with one of my recorded voice tags, and I found myself disconnecting a call I didn't want to make in the first place.
This did not happen when I used my v551 with a Logitech bluetooth headset (which did not fit me well, causing me not to be able to hear the speaker most of the time).
Jabra support first told me to pair the headset to the phone again, this time using the alternate method for phones that support the hands-free profile. This did result in a few enhanced features, but it didn't stop the unwanted voice-dialing. My next email from Jabra support said that this "is normal behavior when you hold the answer/end button on the headset," and they suggested that I either turn voice dialing off on my phone, or use the phone (instead of the headset) to disconnect the link between the two units. Well, there is only one place I can find on the v551 for turning off voice dialing (under the "headset" options), but this doesn't stop the irritating problem. Using the phone to disconnect and re-establish the link is much less convenient. It DOES stop the problem, however, but only if the headset remains turned on (but disconnected) the whole time, adversely affecting battery life. If I disconnect using the phone, then turn the headset off, the voice-dialing thing will happen when I try to re-establish the link, even if I try to do it from the phone just before turning the headset on (which doesn't work anyway).
I must say again, in spite of the above, this is truly a great headset. I'm pretty sure (from other reviews) that the problem I have does not affect most phones, and it is primarily just an irritant that I have grown used to, and it only occurs once each time I turn the headset on in order to establish the link.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
frustrating,
15 April 2005
I have been through 3 of these headests. The battery standby time is only a few hours at best. Then the blue flashing light goes to low battery mode. WHen that happens, the headset will shut off at some point and you either lose the call or it transfers back to the phone but you'll get no warning. Also, there's a delay from the time you press the answer button until the headset decides to grab the signal. YOu don't know whether to hold the phone to your ear or trust that the headset is working. Bottom line, I have found this headset to be rather unreliable making it very frustrating to use. I would never buy it again and would certainly reccomend against it.
Reviewed by: Anonymous
Overall Good. Read carefully.,
03 April 2005
Hello,
I am a scientist in the field of Microwave/RF circuits and systems. I considered several but finally chose the Jabra A210 along with the BT250 Jabra headset.
A few things to note:
1) swithcing on and off is not intuitive, you have to hold down the power button for "n" number of seconds, the lights will flash in a certain pre-ordained sequence, if you do hold down the power button, then the appliances enter set up mode, and the pairing between the adapter and the headset might be lost. BUT this set (headset and the adapter) have 8 hours talk time and 240 hours standby time (as per manufacturer's claim), even if it performs up to 80% of the reported claim, you wont have to mess around too much with the power switch. You can comfortably use it during the day and come home at night and recahrge the set.
2) Quality of sent and received signals. Please note: The jabra A210 has a pin which can be put in to 3 settings. Setting # 1 is for motorola phones, Setting # 3 for all other phones and Setting # 2 is for when you feel discomfort in setting # 1 or # 3. I have a LG VX 6100 NON-BLUETOOTH from verizon. I tested the settings extensively by calling a friend. (Thanks Guddu.) I tried setting # 1, there were 2 noticeable problems: (a) My friend complained that the volume of my voice was low, but the clarity was good.
(b) I could not use the button on the head set to connect and disconnect calls.
But I must mention, I could receive my friend's voice in absolutely loud and clear tones.
Both the problems were alleviated when I used setting # 3 on the adapter. In fact, when I started using setting # 3, my friend complained that my voice was too loud! There werent any issues related to clarity.
3) Range: The manufacturer claims this to have a range of 10 meters (30 feet). But at the same time, in its manual, it is written that if there are objects in the wireless signal path between the adapter and the headset, the sound quality will suffer. Now we have to consider 2 trade offs for every RF design. (a) power (b) size. We all want the smallest devices with maximum power and range. Well physics and electronics sharply put us back in our places. If you want greater range, you need to put out signal with great field strength. That needs higher battery consumption, high efficiency non linear amplifiers and large antennas. Microstrip patch antennas (generally used for their low profiles and small size) resonate to a particular frequency if their length is correctly defined. But with design modifications, this length can be shortened, but the gain suffers. Also, thanks to the FCC, we have very strict limitations on the frequency bands available (the higher the frequency, the shorter the wave length, and thus smaller the antenna and consequently higher the gain). FCC makes many RF devices work at lower frequencies than we RF engineers would like them to operate at. Also, due to fear of signal from one device interferring with other devices, FCC puts limits on the amount of power a device can put out. Given these considerations, the A210 and BT250 which are required to have excellent power efficiency (8 hours talk time and 240 hours stand by time) and also small and compact size (very small batteries and small antennas) provide adequate range. I walked at a radius of 10 feet and even with walls, metal partitions, etc, the signal strength was not that affected. How ever more than 10 feet, the signal had so much noise in it, I had to move closer to the adapter.
So basically, all factors are pretty much accounted for. Pretty good design ideas have been incorporated. However, there is one major design flaw. That is: The head set and the adapter enter in to stand by mode after one minute of non-usage. So even when you are in the middle of a call and both parties keep silent for more than a minute, the head set and the adapter stop communicating. The call is NOT disconnected. You can either pull the adapter jack out of the cell phone and put it back in, or press the volume key on the cell phone and you will be able to resume the conversation. How ever this is not voice operable. Meaning, if the adapter and the headset enter in to stand by mode during the conversation when both parties to the call are silent, even when they both start talking, the adapter and the head set do not start communicating.
This is extremely uncomfortable. If i have a blue tooth head set and adapter kit for which I have paid $130 or more, then I want absolute mobility with out any reason to come back to the adpater unless I do so from my own free will. Also, the range could be worked on a little.
Lastly, here is a recommendation for the people who designed this set. You need to incorporate greater features in to this adapter and head set. It should be able to not only handle voice data but also music and other types of audio information. This means you might need to use a more efficient method of modulation. Maybe you are using FSK which is constant envelope modulation (I deal with military and radar communication, so I dont know what modulation is used for blue tooth), but you cannot include too much information in to the FSK signal. Try using QAM, maybe not a very high order QAM, but some thing capable of handling all audio information. All you will need to change in the design is: a new power amplifier which is high efficiency and linear. Probably a class E or Class F with feed forward or Envelope elimination and restoration (Kahn) or Doherty principles. It is simple. You will need a one time engineering development cost, but in the long term - with market domination and mass production, it will more than make up for it.
As for buyers. If you are rich, a techno geek or a business person constantly on the phone. Go for this. It is good. If you have limited resources (money) then buy a simple wired hands free kit. (kaushiklodh@yahoo.com)
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
Great headset and easy paired with the Nokia 6620 !,
29 March 2005
The only reason I gave this tiny instrument a 4* rather than a 5* is because of the easy falling nature of this headset. It does not fit tightly onto the ear but just sits loosely on the ear making you feel that it might fall of any time , but not so the case majority of the times.
Other than this I have absolutely nothing to complain about. It paired easily with my 6620. The voice and sound clarity is the best you can find. On one instance the person on the other side of the line did indicate the sound clarity was much better when paired with the headset rather than directly talking on the phone . Astonishing !
Also the 6620 does give a indicator showing if the bluetooth headset is attached, so when you do press the answer button on the phone, you can expect your your headset to take control. The answer button is on the top of the headset which is satisfactory taking into consideration that its a wireless headset and given the volume control button, there hardly any place to place the answer button. No complains about that. The battery does drain but not as quickly as some have mentioned in their reviews.
Looking at some of the neagtive reviews earlier I was very sceptical on buying this, but this headset has proved itself. It does however eat a lot of battery power of the mobile when talking, but that is common for all bluetooth headsets.
Previously I did own a Motorola Headset and this one has just proved its a much better headset than any other there in the market.
All in all this is a very good headset for the said price.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
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