Apple BT Earpiece (of junk?)

[minivini]

Does anyone else have extremely poor battery performance? I mean, on the order of 20-30 minutes of talk time and/or 6-8 hours of standby? I have been very disappointed in this thing. The range is marginal (5 feet and static sets in) and the battery life is pathetic!

I was all set to return it, then I misplaced it . Just turned up the other day, I recharged it, sync'd it with my new 3G iPhone (hoping it may perform better), and now I remember why I stopped using it to begin with! The static issue does seem to be improved, but the battery is still crap. After a full charge, I unplugged it this morning. I used it for about ten minutes during my commute, and it has been with my phone at my desk the rest of the day. The batter meter just turned red which means 5-10 minutes of talk time left...

jeez, I wish my dog had left my beloved Sony alone. That thing lasted forever! AND it had caller ID!!

[showguy]

I just got back from the Aple store returning mine. The worst piece of junk ever made. Today I got 1 hour of usage and 3 hours of standby and a headache from the hiss before it died.

[oakie]

i avoided it based on the very polar reviews posted on the apple site. usually if i see reviews so polar on an item, it's junk; the fanboys will give it 5 stars just because it has an apple logo while realists will pan it for being the junk it actually turned out to be.

i absolutely loved the styling though, but based on the reviews and seeing how the bud design replicates the ill-fitting and almost painful pack-in earbuds supplied with all ipods, i looked into the Contour Design METAL headset instead.

then i found out that "Contour Design" is just an Apple accessory repackager and the headset was actually produced by Bluetrek, i searched some more and found it for half the price that Contour 'Design' was selling it for ($40 vs. $80). so i bought it in black from eXpansys USA, $39 plus shipping for $5.

Cliff Notes: if you like the styling of the Apple branded headset, you'll love the Bluetrek METAL headset. if you dont mind it in brushed aluminum, you can get it from Apple under "Contour Design". but if you want it in matte black, it's available from Bluetrek as the METAL headset. it is aesthetically equal to and functionally superior to (in fit, range, and battery life) the Apple headset; the only quibble is its lack of noise reduction.

so far it's been excellent compared to my Plantronics/Blackberry HS-655+. it's much smaller and lighter, as it's almost identical dimensionally to the Apple headset, but 1mm thinner. battery life has been exceptional, as i use it primarily for lengthy phone calls with my girlfriend while i'm at home... the longest call so far has been 3 hours and it was still juiced to go longer. rated talk time is almost 5 hours, i believe, with 7 days of standby. it came with 6 different silicone fittings, 3 sizes for an in-canal fit, and 3 sizes for out-of-the-canal style to be used with the removable earhooks, of which they supplied 2. the three in-canal type fittings run a tad small, whereas i normally use a medium fitting for my canalphones, i have to use the largest on the METAL headset and it's still slightly smaller than i prefer. it does fit REALLY deep into the ear, deeper than you may be used to with regular canalphones.

sound is quite good especially since the in-ear fit seals off all ambient noise in the applied ear. range is exceptional!! i live in a decent sized home, and usually leave the phone in my office/den while i float around the living room and kitchen, up to 25-30 feet away with absolutely no static or droppage. havent dropped a connection yet with it.

it's able to handle all of the typical functions such as mute, redial, and of course voice dialing, which i had to test on my blackberry due to the iphone's painful lack of the feature. it does work with the "Say Who" as well as Google's updated voice search applications with no problem.

the only issue most may run into is its lack of noise reduction. i tested it in the car and my girlfriend (bless her for being so patient with me living in another state AND using her to test all of my new gadgets) complained of significant background noise. i guess the trade-off is extended battery life, and considering i primarily use it at home and in my office, i'm happy with that but those who use it primarily to talk while driving wont be as satisfied... or at least the recipients of their calls wont be. besides, you should be paying attention to driving, and not a caller, IMO. but because of its extremely small size, you can have one or the other but not both. a minor quibble, which really shouldnt be an issue at all but is due to apple's way of offering special features, is that you dont get to view the battery life of your headset on the phone nor does it work in any way with the special docks and connectors for the apple branded headset even though they're so dimensionally similar.

as for the additional pack-ins, it comes with a 1" long USB adapter for charging, a 5" long USB extender, pocket/belt clip (please use it; dont be a bluetool), and a DC adapter. this is all in addition to the 2 earhooks and 6 ear fittings mentioned earlier. no wall charger is included, unfortunately, but it uses a standard USB A female receptacle for charging, so you can just pop it into your iphone charger or your computer with the included 1" adapter. the clip requires the use of the 1" adapter to hold the earpiece, so you'll never leave home without the ability to charge the device.

aesthetically, it's ideal for me. no outward facing buttons as they're all placed on the aft end of the device. this of course makes the buttons retardedly small, as there are 2 buttons for volume and a third multifunction button placed in the middle of the row. the multifunction button is slightly taller than the others so you can use it by feel, but it will take a little bit of getting used to. the status LED is also placed on the BACKSIDE of the device, which is great so you're not blinking around like a droid while it's in use. just a miniature dual color LED, blue pulse for in-use, red pulse for near-death, static red while charging, and alternating red-blue in pairing mode.

ok, this got retardedly long, and i apologize for those suffering through it. the last thing i've got is that it pairs up easily; although the iphone may not detect it the first time around, it will on the second shot with no problem. even after 3 weeks now, the phone has never dropped or otherwise lost the headset... just turn on bluetooth on your iphone, turn on the headset, and it's ready to rock. i havent had to re-pair the headset at all, which has been a complaint about the Apple headset.