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 Noise Canceling - NOT!,
01 June 2005
The main reason I got this headset was for use when driving. A heavily touted feature of the HBH-300 was its noise canceling properties, and clear speech due to its extended boom.
It has been my experience that this headset is extremely susceptible to wind noise. If I'm driving, with my windows rolled up, and have the A/C blowing toward my head, even on the lowest fan setting, I'm told it sounds like I'm in a wind tunnel, and people cannot understand me. Since it gets hot in southern California, it's not really an option to drive around with the windows closed and the A/C off just to talk on the phone. On the plus side, it does cause me to get off the phone ASAP. Which I suppose is a good thing while driving in LA.
Another annoyance of this headset is the flashing light on the side. It's big, and at night, it's bright. When the headset is on, this light is always flashing. When driving at night, it lights up the whole driver side window. I hate it, and I wish there was a way to turn it off (besides turning the headset off!). It's bad enough having this thing on your ear without a big flashing light drawing peoples attention to it.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
 Excellent sound quality, good battery life and comfortable,
24 May 2005
I have a Sony Ericsson T610 and I've been thinking about getting a bluetooth headset for sometime. The wired headset that came with the phone and this cheap one I bought on Ebay are both horrible, so I figured getting a bluetooth would leave me wireless, looking like the Borg and provide better sound quality. I read some reviews on the cheap ones that you can find in the $30-40 range and they were all bad. Then I came across this one that had glowing reviews, a great battery life and a noise canceling feature.
I had no problems pairing the device with my phone. The voice dialing feature is great, you don't even have to touch your phone once you tag your contacts with a voice tag. The sound quality and noise cancellation feature is particularly good; people don't even know I'm driving in the car when I use this. The long boom while somewhat obtrusive looking provides excellent microphone clarity which you won't get from the short guys.
I only have one small complaint, but it's not even enough to drop this to a 4/5 stars. If I have the bluetooth on my phone and headset off and I receive a call, then try to turn the bluetooth on my phone on, then the headset on, and finally try to connect; it connects fine, but it doesn't work. However if the bluetooth on my phone was already on when I receive the call I can turn the headset on, connect and it works fine. Sounds like an issue with the phone to me.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
The best Bluetooth headset I've found!,
06 February 2005
I've owned this headset for a few months now and I have to say this is the best one of all the ones I've tried so far (I use the HBH-300 with a Sony Ericsson T616 which, by the way, is an excellent phone -- I have had my T616 about a year and a half now).
Let me tell you about my experiences with 2 other headsets I've tried (hopefully this will help you and save you a lot of time and lot of returns -- it was a headache and somewhat discouraging, as it seemed I would never find a Bluetooth headset that I deemed excellent):
1. Sony Ericsson HBH-60: When I bought my T616 phone, I bought the HBH-60 Bluetooth headset to use with it. I was impressed with the headset itself, as it was easy to put on my ear and not too uncomfortable. But I ended up selling it on Amazon a few months ago because I could not get it to work with the voice recognition on my T616, even after reading through the instruction manual and going to Sony Ericsson's web site for technical support (no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the voice dialing to work, and that's important to me -- I mean, what good is the headset if I can't use voice dialing with it? Sure, I could still use it, but I paid about $150.00 for that headset a year and half ago when it was the coolest looking Bluetooth headset I found and there weren't many other headsets to compare it to -- so for me, to spend $150.00 on a headset (a lot of money) and not be able to use voice dialing (a key feature of the phone), it just wasn't worth it -- unfortunately, I only got about $60.00 for it when I sold it on Amazon).
2. Jabra BT-250: Although the sound quality was excellent, the headset was comfortable on my ear, and people told me they could hear me extremely well, I could not put the headset on my ear with one hand, and to me that's important, because if I'm driving and a call comes in, I need one hand on the steering wheel while I put the headset on my ear with my other hand.
Bluespoon Chameleon: When I heard about Bluespoon's Bluetooth headset and its different way of attaching to your ear, I was quite interested. However, before the Chameleon model came out, there was only the Digital model, and that thing cost like $300.00, and I'm sorry, but I'm not going to spend $300.00 on a headset -- my phone didn't even cost that much! Later on, Bluespoon came out with the Chameleon model at a more reasonable $150.00 or so. So I tried the Chameleon and not only was it extremely uncomfortable on my ear (it hurt and my ear turned red in color), but it was so incredibly hard just to get it on my ear -- despite all of the web sites I went to for picture diagrams showing how to put it on, this thing proved to be extremely difficult to put on. I never tested the voice quality of it though, and so I can't tell you how good or bad the voice quality was. So, as with the Jabra BT-250, I returned it because of the difficulty in placing it on my ear and also because of the pain with using it (at least I could get the Jabra on my ear pretty easily, with two hands of course).
Now for my final review of the HBH-300:
- What an excellent headset! I've mastered the ability of placing it on my ear with one hand. It is reasonably comfortable on my ear and you never forget it's there, but it does become uncomfortable after a while (not too uncomfortable, but you do get used to it).
- The battery life is awesome! I believe it when Sony Ericsson says on the box that it has a talk time of up to 10 hours, as I hardly ever have to recharge it (of course, since I don't use my cell phone as often as other people do, I can't absolutely say the talk time is 10 hours, but based on my experiences with it so far, I believe the 10 hour talk time is probably true).
- The sound quality is excellent on both my end and the other person's end -- it isn't perfect, as my girlfriend told me a couple of times that she couldn't hear me well, but I would say it is more often good than bad, and I'm happy with the sound quality overall.
- On the negative side, I have to agree with the other reviewers about that loud, piercing beep when you use it to place a call, for example. Like other reviewers have said, I wish you could lower the volume on that beep, but I haven't found a way to do that, and I may never will.
- The other thing I found useless was the desk stand, as I had a hard time getting the wire for the charger to stay tucked into the loop design for charging purposes, and so I never use it (when I want to recharge it, I just connect it to the headset).
Overall, I have to say again that this is the best Bluetooth headset I've tried thus far and I am planning on keeping it, as overall I am very pleased with it, especially because of its reasonably good comfort and excellent battery life. Plus, I do like the idea of using a Sony Ericsson headset with a Sony Ericsson phone (in my mind, using the same brand for the headset and phone makes the most sense, especially in terms of equipment compatibility). Although I had planned on trying the Plantronics M3500 Bluetooth headset before I bought the HBH-300, I never did, mainly because I heard about some software (?) problems with the Plantronics headset, and the reviews I read about it were not that great.
In closing, I wish you the best in your search for a Bluetooth headset -- although you may not agree with me, I think this is the best Bluetooth headset and the best value on the market.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
Short-lived. DON'T BUY IT!!!,
12 November 2004
When I first got this headset, I was more than happy with it. I told everyone about how great it was. Sound quality was exceptional. I could walk all over my little apartment and still be within bluetooth range. The people I talked to said they heard me clearly and there was little to no background noise. I have it paired with the Sony Ericsson T637 phone. It paired easily.
The only thing that really bugged me was the piercingly loud beep I got when I accepted a call on the headset. I found no way of adjusting the volume for that beep. Adjusting the volume for the headset does not affect that beep.
The reason I'm giving it 3 stars is that it's only been a little over a month now and it's malfunctioned. It won't stay turned on. I tried to turn it on and it stayed on for 2-5 seconds and then turned itself off. I tried to set it on its cradle to see if maybe the battery was low. It wouldn't recharge. The battery indicator did not show that it was low. This headset was not cheap and now I can't use it. I can't even turn it on. I need to see if I can get it serviced.
UPDATE 1: I called Sony Ericsson support and they will replace my headset. If this heaset were in good working order, I would recommend it.
UPDATE 2: I just received my replacement today, and it is not the right product. I called Sony Ericsson support again and they said they don't have any HBH-300s in stock right now. They can offer me an HBH-600, which is in stock. I don't think the support guy realized that that is an older model with only 2.5 hours talk time, whereas the HBH-300 has up to 10 hours talk time on a fully charged battery. If I want the HBH-300, though, I would have to wait and call back to check on its availability. Apparently, they can't just set it up so that when they do get it in stock, I'm already on the waiting list to have one shipped out to me. So I guess I'm waiting. But for my inconvenience, they want me to keep this other product they sent me.
The Sony Ericsson support phone number is 1-866-766-9374 if you need it.
Update 3: Called support line again to see if HBH-300 is in stock. Brian, a support guy, said they have 10 in stock. But now they will need me to send back the other product they said I could keep before they send me my headset. There's nothing they can offer me for my inconvenience. It's been over a month now and twice the product was not in stock, they offer me a lesser headset, they offer me the wrong product they shipped to replace the headset, now they want it back, and then I would have to wait to see if the product is in stock again once they get this product back! I'm really not liking Sony Ericsson support!
HERE'S A BIT OF ADVICE: YOU MIGHT WANT TO STEER CLEAR OF THIS PRODUCT ALTOGETHER!
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
Excellent hands free,
12 October 2004
The headset was easily paired with the t637 and the voice recognition features worked well. When answering incoming call waiting features it will drop the first call. Call waiting and conference calls have to be made directly thru the phone. Magic word feature will not work on the headset. Other than that this is an excellent headset, fairly good range and sound quality.
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
 Good value for money,
23 September 2004
Although relatively expensive than other alternatives but very reliable and the battery time is good (10 hours), very easy to use and good value for money, I tried both Jabra and plaintronics and I am happy with this one
Reviewed by: Amazon.com Reviewer
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