[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Note that I do not elaborate more on this headphone models (neither do I elaborate on the others – again, I’ve listed the pros / cons of each and every reviewed model in the chart; make sure you VERY thoroughly read it). Most of the rest of the article is "only" presenting you real-world some shots of how it looks like, how much it has the "Princess Leia" effect and, of course, commenting on the other reviews, correcting their mistakes or arguing with their statements. Should you find the information in the chart insufficient or just would need some additional shots, feel free to check out these reviews, also paying attention to my corrections.

The a2dp.info review is pretty cool (albeit has no shots of its own). Its only factual mistake is stating that the LEDs can’t be disabled. (They can be – see the chart.)

The Legit Reviews folks stated the following: "With a behind-the-head design, this headset was feeling quite heavy after long-term use. My ears really started to cry after an especially long session of Battlefield 2 and needed a rest.", which I fully agree with. The Phone Arena review goes even further and states it only takes some 10-20 minutes for it to start to be really annoying. Interestingly, the pocketnow review stated it’s "Comfortable fit". Taking the date of the review (more than three years ago) into account, this can be understood as they may have nothing to compare it against (now, there’re a lot of, much more comfortable alternatives).

Should you want to use it with iPods and the like (that is, with mobile sources while on the move), you certainly will dislike the physical dimensions of the DC800 (130mm x 150mm x 70mm; 100g and not battery-operated; to see what this really means in reality, see the shots in the Unwired review.)

Another full reviews is that of Phone Arena. They have also measured excellent battery life (see page 3): "In our Battery Test, the Motorola headset worked for 990 minutes, which is 16 and a half hours - this is very good result and exceeds the battery time of most phones (in music mode) about twice." Note that they state "Poor sound quality when listening to music" (see Page 3; "We were disappointed by the sound of HT820 while listening to music – it is weak and is not clearly heard and even muffled in a noisy environment like in the street. The quality is poor: the bass is not stressed, it lacks any detail whatever and the lowest frequencies are not played but cause crackling in some cases. The middle frequencies are represented poorly; the vocals sound very unrealistically and without detail, and the high ones sound metallically, without fineness and speed. As a whole we don’t like how the earpieces work."). They must have tested an earlier firmware version (with [early] models A, B and C and the original – upgradeable! – firmware, it really skipped) – this is definitely not the case (at least now, with current firmware versions).

IGN’s review states "The audio quality was only average and didn't really exceed any expectations as it hits the higher sounds nicely, but has nearly non-existent bass." This is in no way true – the headphones do have plenty of bass.

Notebook Review ‘s review is HERE. Note that they state it’s "Lightweight/sleek", which I dare to disagree with.

TreoCentral’s review is HERE. Note that it states "The bass is dynamic, the mid-range is a bit muddy and the highs can get a bit clipped. I suspect the wireless feature muddies up the mids and MP3 encoding tends to clip the highs. I’d suggest encoding music at 160mbps (rather than the standard 128) with variable bit rate." This is not really true – current A2DP implementations are all of very high quality (unless it’s the Microsoft BT stack on pre-WM6 operating systems) and, at 128 kbps, it’s not the highs that will be clipped but compression artifacts can be introduced. Also, because of their not testing the recharge time ("the Motorola HT820 gets the nod over the Nokia BH-601 for two reasons. First off, it’s supposed to charge in just two hours (the Nokia is stated to take three).") they just recited the official (too optimal) specification (2:00 instead of the 3:10 I’ve measured).

The Unwired’s review also complains of the not-that-large maximal volume and it’s being really thick.

PocketNow’s review tested a very old firmware version; newer versions do store more than one paired devices; that is, the first section of "BUGS AND WISHES" is no longer topical.

WMExpert’s review is a bit too positive (it, for example, lists comfort, the biggest problems with this model, as 4/5 – I’d rate it far less); however, it’s still worth a read.

In my previous articles, I’ve already linked to MobileBurn’s roundup. It, unfortunately, is more geared towards testing A2DP / voice compatibility with mostly dumbphones than comparing audio quality or comfort.

Some of the user comments HERE state the headband is just too short. I don’t think this is the case - it's in no way shorter than the other, behind-the-neck models.

Gear4 BluPhones

This is, physically, a well-made and excellent model. Electronically / acoustically, however, it leaves a lot to be desired. There may still be cases when you want to go for it – just carefully check out the cons and the pros listed in the chart.

(package contents)

(cinch charger)