Reviewed on 2008-03-19 
What DOESN'T GE do well???
General Electric...I don't know about the rest of you, but upon seeing who made this item I thought to myself 'Really? They make cellphone accessories now?'
Yep. They do. And they make them well.
But not only that, they perfected a concept I'd always been hoping somebody would - a bluetooth headset that allows you to simply swap out AAA batteries at will. Who wants to be talking on their bluetooth and suddenly the thing just dies on them in the middle of a conversation? Well...now you need to charge it until eternity. And, of course, the day finally comes when the piece of trash battery included with the headset only holds about 5 minutes of juice. Who wants that? With the AAA battery, it never wears out, it's not all that heavy, and you can replace it whenever you like in about 5-10 seconds. If you're really good you can do it one-handed while driving!
When I said GE perfected this concept, I was serious. The only other AAA-operated bluetooth headsets were both made by Motorola (there's one that runs on a AAAA battery, but I don't feel like spending $15 on a battery that's weaker than a AAA, nor do I feel like smashing open a bunch of 9V batteries to GET AAAA batteries). I own both of the Motorola versions, the H300 and the HS805. The H300 was their first attempt, and it's alright. I could run with it on, but it was incredibly quiet, the earpiece didn't insert into the ear, and it had a tendency to echo the other person's voice back to them. The HS805, the so-called 'upgraded version' of the H300, was simply a piece of junk. It had all the problems of the H300, plus it would fall off my ear if a gust of wind passed nearby. It had all of the problems of the H300 and no improvements whatsoever.
Enter General Electric. This bluetooth you're looking at right now - do you know how many of those problems it has? None. Zero. Zip. And using a long-life AAA battery, it has a MONTH of standby time. 30 DAYS. I hardly need to keep AAA batteries in my car with a life like that, but I do anyway. No echo, no discomfort, yesterday I ran 6 miles with it on and only needed to adjust it 3 times when it wiggled itself loose. It inserts into your ear so you can hear it extra well, and the earpiece is vertically adjustable to your ear's length. The earpiece also allows the weight of the device to be shared between your ear canal and the top of your ear. My ONLY complaint on this device is that it seems to have a difficult time filtering out wind. So outdoor use requires you to face a different direction and while driving you need to point your A/C vent away from your face. Not even a big enough deal to warrant 4 stars, in my book.
The best bluetooth on the market, IMHO, is less than $35. The choice is clear. Hope you all enjoyed this... |
