Motorola HS850 Bluetooth, Great Headset!

Overall Rating44444

Great Headset!

Awesome sound quality, battery life, and range.
I can leave my phone in my bedroom, and still make and receive calls on this headset twenty-five - thirty feet away IN MY LIVING ROOM!! Amazing.

Pairing was as snap on a Motorola V80, and my PC, but other phones may be different.

The only drawback I find, as I did on the HS820 review, is that my phone reverts to a default ring for both voice & messages, so the cool MP3 ringtones are useless when using the headset :(
Ear fit is on par with the HS820 as well. It flaps around your ear sometimes and it feels like it’s going to fall off, but it doesn’t, and it also fits well when wearing sunglasses.

The battery life is unprecedented. Probably the best on the market as of this writing.

Audio quality:
The sound quality is unequaled. The party on the other end of the line will never know you’re on a headset, calls are clear and they sound like a wired phone/headset. The caveat is that in windy conditions, it will be impossible to use, but so will be a wired headset, so there’s no way around that situation.

The headset functions w/o any issues almost all the time, except in a couple of instances when, if the phone is answered first, and the headset is turned on afterwards, I’ve encountered a very loud static noise, which would go away when folding the boom and extending again thereby turning off and back on.
A couple of times I’ve lost calls and had to revert back to using the phone, but that may have been due to external RF since it only happened twice in a three week period.

Fit and finish:
Motorola has a winner here. The look is stylish, and fit and finish is first class.

Size:
This unit is bigger (longer) than the HS820, since it incorporates a boom, which, when extended, increases the overall lenght to 3.3 inches long, making it more noticeable then other integrated units. It also feels slightly heavier, but not by much.
To it’s credit, the boom doubles as a on/off switch, making it a no brainer figuring out the unit’s state: folded=off and extended=on

Accessories included:
I was surprised that the U.S. version does not come with the leather carry holster and lanyard like the European version does.
Tried to shop for an replacement Motorola holster online and THERE AREN’T ANY, not even replacements for the HS810 which does include the holster.
Also, the U.S charger is noticeably larger then it’s European counterpart (Hello Moto, anyone home?).
A USB charger would also have been nicer than a regular AC adapter, specially when traveling, since all one would have to do is plug into a laptop if the battery is running low.

To recap:

Pros:
Easy one-button function
Fit/Finish
Stylish
Battery Life
Call quality
Range

Cons:
Size
Overrides phone’s customized rings
Ear fit may prove too loose for smaller ears
No holster provided
No USB charger

Update (5/19/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset Color Sent Based on Availability. Comes in Black, Blue and Grey, or SilverBulk Packaged Wireless Phone Accessory, was written by AlphaGeek.

The average rating for this item is 4 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.

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Reviews (3)

AlphaGeek

March 26th, 2010 at 12:27 am    


Overall Rating44444

Great Headset!
Rated 4 stars.


bob

March 27th, 2010 at 12:26 pm    


Overall Rating33333

It’ll have to do for now
I just picked up my first bluetooth phone, and was looking forward to a wireless headset. My last headset was an [...], which gave exceptional noise isolation, and very clear reception and transmission, even in the noisiest of environments. It was just a hassle to leave the wire hanging, and wasn’t easy to get it hooked up from scratch for a call, so I wound up using it a lot only in the car or on long calls. But its exceptional performance left me with high expectations.

I started with a Sony HSH660 (which I reviewed) but it rubbed on the back of my ear and left it hurting. It picked up ambient noises in a noisy environment on its mic and created lots of static on the other end, though I could hear very clearly. So I was looking for better fit and clarity in transmission.

The Motorola is lighter, and its thin earpiece fit in a way that was immediately comfortable in a way the Sony wasn’t. BUT, the HS850 feels vaguely set on my ear, wobbling back and forth on my ear. In contrast, the Sony felt rock solid. The Motorola never actually fell or moved off my ear, it just felt flimsy. The narrow earpiece that made it less painful made it feel less secure. Still, I think that’d be easier to get used to than an earpiece that hurt.

I went out to a mall and checked out the reception. The ambient noise would show up the quality quickly. Here, the Motorola’s mic screened out the ambient noise better, but the people I called said that while there wasn’t much background noise, it sounded like I was on a speakerphone. The boom is certainly too short to allow better positioning and noise isolation like the ety. But while the Motorola’s transmission was better than the Sony, I had more trouble hearing the Motorola. The Sony earphone seemed much clearer, less prone to static or noise than the Motorola. This certainly surprised me. Rather than a clear winner, it was a trade-off. The verdict is about the same in quiet environments, though it is a little easier to hear on both ends.

The Motorola folded up neatly, and the black unit looks sharp. The blue light that is on when the headset is in use is a nice touch. The unit was easy to set up with my phone, and the swinging boom turns the unit on and off. When a phone call is received, it took no time to open the boom, and by the time I got the headphone on my ear, I could press the on button and receive the call seamlessly. I haven’t had a chance to test out the 8 hrs talk time, but others tell me that’s accurate. It folds up more compactly than the Sony.

So here’s my summary:
Pros:
Extremely light weight
Easy and painless over the ear fit
Blue light shows others you are on a call
Easy hookup with your cellphone
Uses the same adapter as Motorola phones

Cons
Earpiece feels flimsy and not that secure on your ear
No battery level
Mic and earphone quality adequate, but not up to best wired headset standards

I’ve decided to keep this headset for now. If the Sony headset were comfortable for me it’d be more of a toss-up. There probably aren’t any perfect BT headsets yet, but I will certainly be on the lookout for something better


tall-latte

April 6th, 2010 at 12:38 am    


Overall Rating55555

Love the flip mic
I was very pleased with this headset. I use it with a Motorola RAZR V3. My last one was a Jabra Bluetooth headset, and it broke after a few months - to stop working, the power button, it always was, until the battery is empty. I love the HS850 as there is no power button! Just instead expand or close. It is great battery life, because it just put it in the standby one by closed. I have also used Skype this headset successfully with both Windows and Mac. The only catch is that it is just one device active at a time, so you have to / release it from your mobile phone before they can successfully use with Windows or Mac. This makes switch back and forth between your PC and phone a bit cumbersome. Of course it took a few hours to get it running under Windows, but it worked first try on the Mac


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