REVIEW: Bluetooth Stereo Headset i-Phono Mini BT450Rx-C

Bluetake sent us in their latest wonder for a review, the i-Phono Mini Bluetooth v1.2 Stereo headphones, which is used both for voice and stereo music. This headset supports four Bluetooth profiles: A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution), AVRCP (Audio Video Remote Control), HSP (Headset) and HFP (Hands-free). Read more for our detailed review.

The product comes in three flavors, the standard package, the combo package (which is what we will be reviewing today) and the Lite package. The standard package and Lite package are the same, but one includes a wall plug charger and the Lite one includes a USB charging cable (with is a proprietary connector on the headset's end). The combo package includes the Standard package, plus the i-Phono mini Bluetooth Stereo Transmitter (BT450Tx) which enables your iPod and any other audio device to transmit wirelessly its audio. In my opinion, there shouldn't have been both a Standard and Lite package because both wall plug and USB charging are equally important for a modern mobile user who also carries a laptop half the time. To make things worse, there doesn't seem to be an option to buy the USB cable as an accessory for the i-Phono Mini headset.

On the box we also found a very well documented manual which was easy to follow and understand. The manual includes step-by-step instructions how to pair the i-Phono Mini with PDAs, Windows, mobile phones and its transmitter (usually called "audio gateway" in tech talk). The wall plug charger includes a splitter that allows to charge both the Transmitter and the i-Phono Mini at the same time, which is very convenient. Another nice touch is the included pouch which can help you carry around your i-Phono Mini easier. The i-Phono Mini carries out all its actions via two buttons, the Power On/Off button and the Volume -/+ volume. Depending how long you press these buttons, or which profile you use them with, they carry different actions. For example, keep pressing Vol+ it would carry out the AVRCP command to load the next track. When pressing both the On/Off and Vol buttons, the device goes to pairing mode. When you press the On/Off button after a cellphone or VoIP/IM call, it will answer the call or hang up.

Until now there were two kinds of designs used for Bluetooth stereo headphones: over-the-head and neckbands. The i-Phono Mini takes an innovative approach to Bluetooth stereo headsets and introduces the "ear hook" design. The two speakerphones are joined by a 40cm cable. Around each of the circular speakers there is a plastic hook-like shape that you hook around your ear to secure your speakers to your ears. I found this design very comfortable for everyday use (it does not hurt the back of the ear as neckbands do), but there were a number of times during my tests where the speakers wouldn't sit tightly to my ears and they would either move too much while I was walking, or even fall off. This ear-hook design is not recommended for use with sports and definitely not for these moments when no one is looking and you just want to... dance.

The i-Phono Mini supports all devices that can output using the four bluetooth profiles listed above. Bluetake were very kind to also send us their latest Class 1 USB Bluetooth 2.0+EDR dongle so we can test the headset with Windows XP as well as with other devices. From what I know so far, Bluetake's USB dongles and Bluetooth stack are the only ones that support AVRCP, A2DP and headset profiles for the Windows desktop. Pairing is pretty easy with the i-Phono Mini for Windows XP and the manual has step-by-step instructions how to make the device work with your IM voice conversations or with VoIP, or simply listening to music. Unfortunately Mac OS X 10.4.3 does not support any of the four profiles the device does so you can't use the headset with your Mac (this is Apple's fault primarily).

I liked a lot the careful design of the Transmitter. Depending which model iPod you have, the feature connector on the Transmitter can be relocated so it fits nicely on top of your iPod. The Transmitter is using the feature connector of the iPod to enable remote control capabilities to the iPod (AVRC profile supports Vol -/+, Next/Previous, Play/Stop) in addition to the A2DP ones. The Transmitter also has a special cable extension that allows to transmit wirelessly audio with any device that can output on a 3.5mm jack: HiFi systems, Sony PSP, sound cards, PDAs, phones without Bluetooth or A2DP support, other mp3 players etc.

I specifically also tested the i-Phono Mini with my A2DP-capable Motorola phone (the Linux-based E680i) and my HP iPaq PDA (with Widcomm's A2DP profile installed as provided by HP). Both devices paired without headaches and I was able to listen to all sounds via the headset. The phone capabilities worked as advertised and the headset's microphone made voice clear on the othr side of the line. When I got called the headset stopped transmitting music and switched to its hands-free profile, all automatically. After the end of the call, it continued played music. This is a great convenience and truly practical. And speaking about music, this headset has the best stereo quality I have heard off any other Bluetooth stereo headset. There is some static heard via the headset, especially in between music or when on a hands-free standby mode, which is pretty annoying, but when you playback music you don't tend to notice it.

However, not everything is rosy with this product. The biggest problem is the mediocre reception I encountered with this Class 2 device (Class 2 devices are supposed to have a range up to 10 meters). No matter if you use the headset with a Class 1 dongle, a phone, a PDA or its own Trasmitter, you should not expect more than 4-6 meters of uninterrupted playback (in open space with no WiFi or other strong wireless signals around you). When behind a thin wooden wall, the connection was interrupted even if when I was physically just 2 meters away from the transmitter! When refitting the headset on my ears by placing my hands around the speakers, I would get choppy playback (with the Trasnmitter just CENTIMETERS away)! This is a very disappointing low reception performance (even for a Class-2 device) and I hope it is eventually fixed by Bluetake's engineers on future models. I have reviewed over 5 Bluetooth headsets last year and this model is the weakest of all in reception performance. Which is a shame, because it has the best audio quality of all.

The second problem is its so-so battery life. The device sports a 3.7V, 300 mAh Lithium battery which in our tests managed just about 6 hours of audio playback (as expected according to the manual). The similarly equipped (300 mAh) Anycom bluetooth stereo headset we reviewed last month yielded 10+ hours of battery life! Again, hopefully the Bluetake engineers will optimize their firmware to achieve better battery life. There is room for software improvements there, no doubt.

Overall, this is a good product, well-thought design-wise, good-looking and extremely compatible! And audio quality is near perfect for such a wireless headset. But its reception problems and mediocre battery life is a problem. If you plan to use this headset with an mp3 player, PDA or phone that will always be in your pocket or bag in close proximity to your headset, get this product. If you instead need more freedom away from the source audio device and you move around your office or house a lot, you better look elsewhere or you might lose important phone calls using it.

Pros:

- Excellent sound quality

- Exceptional compatibility

- Sexy-looking and comfortable

- Good manual, pairing usability

- Convenient and well-thought iPod/audio Trasmitter

Cons:

- Terrible reception

- Mediocre battery life

- Profound static sound

- Headset falls off ears too easily

- No USB charging cable on all retail boxes

Overall Rating: 7/10