Friday, October 7, 2011

Genius Bluetooth Stereo Headset gets a MashButtons hands-on


Amidst all the season’s game reviews, it seems MashButtons has broadened its reach to now include games and tech. After recently posting our review on Parrot’s AR.Drone, it is now time to see how the Genius Bluetooth Stereo Headset (HS-905 BT) fares against our abuse. This device is a portable Bluetooth headset that clips on to provide freedom from your Bluetooth enabled audio players from iPhone and other phones to tablets and netbooks. The package includes a Bluetooth stereo headset that is capable of both music and calls, while allowing controls for various features without digging in your pockets or purse to change tracks, volume, pause, or answer calls. I will be providing my feedback on both the headphones and the stereo minijack which allows for connection with other headphones or speakers.

This is a first, but I will be starting with the bad, which isn’t much at all but just want to get it out of the way so I can get to the good stuff. The headphones provided that plug into the stereo minijack are bad. I was only able to turn it up about half way before there was distortion. The design and build of them also just feel cheaply made. So what did I do, immediately grabbed a couple pairs of my higher end headphones because I wanted to see if the poor sound quality was due to the headphones or the minijack. Well, with that little bit of disappointment, it is time to transition to the good which is the Bluetooth minijack.
The product is redeemed by the minijack after plugging in a pair of Teknmotion Intruders and Bose earbuds. After about an hour and a half of charging, it took a brief moment to sync with my iPhone, pressed play and turned the volume to 80 percent and yup I still had the high sound quality without being attached to my phone. Having the controls on the minijack are nice and is rather convenient for everyday and active use. Aside from leaving my phone at my desk throughout the day and keeping my headphones on while moving around the office and conference rooms, I only experienced intermittent interuptions twice while maintaining great sound quality. Also, there is a microphone on the minijack, so you can also turn your favorite headphones into a functional handsfree headset. Lastly, the battery lasted through a full workday, which is all that I needed before recharging and reusing the next day.

Though the Genius Bluetooth Stereo Headset gets the job done as advertised, if you really want to make these shine and assuming you already have a decent pair of headphones, this is a great way to cut the cord to your phone or Bluetooth enabled music player, especially for active people. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it kept the sound quality as I have tried a number of Bluetooth headsets, and was unable to find any with quality sound, but since you can use any headset with the minijack, it is a solution to the typical poor quality to other wireless headsets on the market.

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