Five Best iPhone Bluetooth headsets

If you don’t mind looking like a pretentious wanker and annoying the life out of everyone in earshot, a Bluetooth headset is a must-have accessory for your Apple iPhone.

After exhaustive research, hundreds of hours spent people watching and consulting with my local iPhone “specialist,” this is the definitive list of iPhone Bluetooth headsets – the best of the best of the best. There are hundreds of the things available and just sifting through the sales pitches is enough to make you want to vomit. Motorola pitch one of theirs as, “Design perfection - the ultimate in style, comfort and convenience.” Sheesh ! The only thing I can think of that was design perfection is Audrey Hepburn, but they have to say something I suppose.

I have tried all these and I would say that they are noise reducing – not noise eliminating. For the most part, they pick up extraneous sounds and do a better job of eliminating sounds that come from the side rather than above, in front of or underneath them.

Just remember to take it off when you are having lunch at your local wine bar – it doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as you think it does.

According to the manufacturers, this particular headset comes with an “Advanced, military-grade noise-canceling system which continuously adapts to your environment.” So maybe this particular model will be useful in the wine bar, who knows? Especially if the wine bar is in Detroit.

For once, I am not offended by the way a gadget looks and if I was buying a Bluetooth headset, I would probably allow myself to be persuaded to buy this one just because it was originally developed for DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to create a communication headset that would pick up voice in hostile environments. How could you resist? Bring on the explosions and sound of machine-gun-fire. Available in red, black or grey – disappointingly no khaki camouflage available. Maybe next year.

Heavily discounted to about $85 which tells me it was seriously overpriced in the first place. Issues as usual are the proprietary accessories - lose the cable and you are looking at a new headset.

Once again heavily discounted to the point where this one is an extremely good buy. Definitely NOT worth $150 which is the RRP, but not you can buy them for about $65 – a good deal, I think. Not as “Cool” looking as the Jawbone and the usual sales pitch that describes it as, “the optimal road-warrior conversation piece!,” exclamation mark included. As if anyone wants to talk about your Bluetooth headset.

Plantronics do a couple of Bluetooth headsets and this is the top of their range. The Voyager 510 is also worth considering and at about $15 cheaper is a good budget headset.

The Discovery is small and almost guaranteed to get lost, but has a variety of charging options.

The name alone is actually enough for me. This one is Bluetooth v.2.0 so has a better than average battery life – the makers claim 7 hours talk time and 170 hours standby, but then they are also claiming crystal clear sound and while it may be better than average, crystal it’s not.

One thing I like about this is that it sensibly comes with a strap, so you can look slightly less un-cool by hanging it around your neck when not using it.

Considering the light weight, it has a good sound quality. Not as heavily discounted as the others, but it wasn’t stupidly overpriced in the first place. Good battery life and the reputation of Sony Ericsson behind it. Available for around $43 – another good buy.

Solid, less likely to get lost. Worth the money.

All of these headsets are limited by the fact that they just do not work as well as a wired headset and have limited battery life. Also, considering they are supposed to be wireless, you need a surprising amount of cables to charge them. The latest one from Apple requires ridiculous trouble to charge through either the iPhone or a dock. These are as good as it gets just yet and to my mind, these are all disposable. They are flimsy, will get lost easily and present a real challenge as to what to do with them when you are not on the phone. The whole point of the iPhone is supposed to be the fact that it’s all in one, and carrying a bag full of bits and pieces around makes no sense.