Bluespoon Digital Bluetooth headset review

23 July 2004 1:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Sometimes the products we get in the office are the so badly presented that they’ve lost half the battle before they’ve even started. While an idea has to be good to get our approval, presentation in our mind is very important.

In steps the Bluespoon digital Bluetooth headset - a natty little number that promises to be one of the smallest headsets available on the market, and at only 10 grams in weight its manufacturers Nextlink is probably right in this assumption. Open the box and your presented with a well written, easy to understand manual, pull back the covers further and you’ve got a power adapter with multiple sockets for use in the UK, Europe and America, certainly a nice touch. Where’s the catch then? The first point, and while we understand isn’t major, is that the interactive users guide is on one of those 3in CDs that look funky, but in reality won’t fit into most CD/DVD drives- certainly not the Apple styled laptop drives appearing in so many new laptops. So what’s the big deal I hear you ask? Well if you are a business user chances are your going to want to view this on your laptop and chances are you won’t be able to.

The second and more important issue is the headset itself. The unit works well, providing plenty of talk time and even more hours on standby while being very easy to pair with our test phones. However when it came to actually putting the unit in your ear has to be a) one of the most difficult things known to man, and b) one of the most uncomfortable things known to man once you’ve got it in there.

Rather than using an over-the-ear system like most other headsets, Bluespoon’s ingenuity comes from a flexible bit of plastic that actually bends inside your inner ear and through pressure alone makes the unit stay put. While this pressure may be okay for a phone call of around 10 seconds - ie enough to leave a message, anything more and it starts to seriously hurt.

Your inner ear isn’t that big (well ours certainly aren’t) and having not only a shaped earpiece, but also a flexi bit of plastic in there as well and you might as well try and cramp two elephants in a phone box.

Thirdly and probably more important that it simply being uncomfortable, this unit will set you back a whopping £190, that’s more that £130 more than most of the Bluetooth enabled headsets available from companies such as Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Acer.

Verdict

It’s a shame though, because apart from this grumble the unit as we said is very nice, stylish and easy to use. Hell, even the charger comes with its own spoiler. So what’s the solution? Unfortunately for the Bluespoon there isn’t, only to say that if you can - and we doubt you will, make sure you try the unit before you buy.

If you’re not that fussy about trying to get what amounts to a cherry and the stalk in your inner ear then perhaps this might just be for you. For us however we like our ears how they are and they aren’t for stuffing.

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Review Recap

Made by: Nextlink
Price as reviewed: £190
The good: small, stylish and easy to set up
The bad: expensive, uncomfortable to wear
Quick verdict: This might be well packaged, but its bloody uncomfortable to wear and very expensive
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