To give a little background I have been an iPhone user since the 3g was released in Ireland. Prior to that I was on a Nokia of some description, I still have it in a drawer as they are virtually indestructible.
I was, at the time, reluctant to change from Nokia as I didn’t see the point in smart phones and, to be fair, at the time they didn’t really offer much beyond a Nokia except a better screen.
Apps weren’t a thing yet, so I wasn’t really convinced and if it hadn’t been for the fact that Bart was upgrading his iPhone I wouldn’t have converted as early but I took his 3g to see how I felt about them.
Once the app store was released, I was strongly convinced and since then
I have upgraded either as Bart upgraded his or when we could afford to replace both at once.
For Christmas 2018, Bart bought me a pair of Addidas over-ear wired headphones which we bought in the apple store. They cost 180 euro, which I considered to be quite expensive, especially given the quality wasn’t great.
They wore out very quickly and within a year they needed replacing.
The entire thing left me feeling somewhat cheated. When it came to replacing them I decided to spend the same kind of money on wireless earphones and, for Christmas, Bart bought me a pair of Powerbeats 3
I have a few criticisms and I’d like to get them out of the way
Firstly. The volume and power control are on the left side, which means I have to reach my right hand across my chest to answer calls or adjust the volume.
I can just about manage enough control with my left hand, but as someone who has minor dexterity issues it is awkward for me, so I expect it might be problematic for someone who has more significant accessibility concerns than I do.
I think they should be on the right side unless you specifically ask for a left-handed model.
Secondly. The ear hooks don’t seem to be readily adjustable, so they can hurt for the first few weeks until they eventually adjust or your ears do.
And finally, you can’t charge them while using them, though that appears to be a function of bluetooth earsets and not just these.
That said, they are incredibly straight forward to use. They pair very easily with all of my devices, I have a Windows 10 gaming rig, an Ubuntu laptop any my iPhone and iPad.
I remember Bluetooth during my Nokia years and the connection would frequently drop for no good reason and the audio quality was not great, but the earphones are better than the wired earphones I was using.
I have replaced my wired headphones for all purposes be it watching Netflix late at night or Discording during WoW raids.
I have to use another mic for that because I often eat and drink while gaming and the headset’s mic picks that up, which can be distracting to the other gamers.
Though, I will say, that’s not a criticism. That’s a result of my using a mic that was designed for phone calls for a different purpose.
They work with everything. Painlessly. My computer, which is a windows machine, doesn’t have a built in bluetooth device, and the inexpensive dongle we got works seamlessly with my headset.
Good quality for money
Perfecly solve the problem I was looking for.
So this is what the microphone one the headset sounds like.
But while doing this I have discovered, as most people reviewing bluetooth headsets have (no doubt), that because of the way bluetooth headsets work;
there’s a moment or two where even though you’re speaking, audacity doesn’t recognise that there’s input. So they’re probably not much use for podcasting unless you’re expecting that.
And here I am back on the radio mic. And I’m surprised by the quality of the headset’s mic. There’s definitely more noise, but that’s to be expected but I was expecting there to be a lot more.
I also almost forgot to mention the battery life. Which is excellent, I have used them actively for hours on end and been surprised when they eventually die because I’ve forgotten I’m on bluetooth earphones and not my wired ones.
So on the whole, I wholeheartedly recommend them and give them a solid 4.5 out of 5.