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UPDATE (06/23/2009): A full compliance & test report of stereo Bluetooth sound (A2DP) in iPhone OS 3

I’ve finished (thoroughly) testing my six A2DP headphones with the new Bluetooth stereo support of iPhone OS 3.0 (OS3 for short), along with their traditional mobile phone headset functionality.

(the stereo headphones, all paired with my iPhone)

(in-call view: as can be seen, you can dynamically switch from the Bluetooth headset to the iPhone. In this regard, the operating system is far more versatile than Windows Mobile, Blackberry or Symbian S60, which don’t allow for this.)

A little bit of letdown: A2DP (stereo Bluetooth) previous / next don’t work in OS 3.0

First and foremost, OS3’s AVRCP (Bluetooth remote control allowing for pausing / advancing / rewinding) doesn’t support stepping to the next song or going back to the start of the current / previous one. All it (partially) supports is pausing and resuming. Of course, even this is definitely more than nothing; let me point out that Nokia’s S60 operating system doesn’t support pausing/resuming in a lot of contemporary, popular stereo headphones like those of Plantronics (except for their latest models). In addition, you’ll use pause / resume most of the time and not previous / next. (Just make sure you create playlists that don’t contain songs you don’t want to listen to; then, you won’t need “skip to the next song” to quickly step over unwanted songs.) Additional, similar user reports are HERE and HERE. Even some A2DP headphones manufacturers state (see for example THIS; click the iPhone icon and look for the “iPhone OS 3.0:” section) the same (in this case, without mentioning this is a generic problem with OS3 also applying to all the available A2DP headphones).

I encountered no problems with the following headphones in playing back/pausing music and answering/closing calls from the headphone:

Motorola HT820 (model D),

Gear4 BluPhones,

Plantronics Pulsar 590.

With the Cellink BTST-9000-D and the Plantronics Voyager 855, pause/resume doesn’t work at all. With the former (Celling), it only started to work after conducting a call; with the Plantronics 855, not even after that. Incidentally, it is always hard to initially make the Cellink work with the iPhone: when you connect the headphones to the iPhone, it takes some minutes (and several volume up/down presses until the actual A2DP sound transfer starts).

The Altec (Plantronics) 903 / 906, which I currently consider the best A2DP headphones I know and have tested (this doesn’t mean there may not be better models out there!), seems to be pretty strange. At first, it worked OK. At my second attempt, it connected to my Nokia N95 first. After this, it wouldn’t work with the iPhone any more: while pause / resume worked, there was no sound transfer and the in-call headset functionality didn’t work either. I’ll definitely return to the problem after asking the Altec folks about the latest firmware for the headphones. (I, since I’ve received the headphones in February, at MWC, have an early firmware on the headphones. This early firmware has caused me major problems in the past – after I’ve paired with the desktop Windows 7 on my IBM Thinkpad t42p and also enabled A2DP between the two devices, it required a full reset to make it work again.)

I’ll still return to the question of A2DP outdoor stability and usability as some people reported they have problems with it. In my tests, I haven’t encountered similar problems with headphones (e.g., the Plantronics 590) not suffering from drop-outs in environments where fading etc. seriously degrades the wireless sound quality during transmission causing consequent drop-outs, stuttering and pauses with headphones with less sensitive, lower-quality radios (e.g., the Gear4 BluPhones).

For the time being, however, you can safely shop for at least the above-mentioned and problem-less models. And, as mentioned, I’ll post an update on the best buy (in my opinion), the Altec (Plantronics) 903 / 906.

Recommended, related articles

Altec (Plantronics) 903 / 906 review

A REAL, MULTIPLATFORM Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) headphones roundup: FIVE headphones