Dave's iPAQ Reviews HP's Bluetooth Headphones

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://davesipaq.com/articles/iPAQ_HP_Bluetooth_headphones.html' target='_blank'>http://davesipaq.com/articles/iPAQ_...headphones.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Bluetooth connectivity has evolved to such an extent that the concept of wires is fast becoming a dinosaur. HP has designed and implemented this technology to near perfection. Giving you exceptional high quality stereo sound, this device is going to change your listening experience with your iPAQ. The 'behind the head' design of the HP Bluetooth Headphones gives you a secure fit while you’re on the move and the placement of the controls makes your experience very comfortable. Raising your right hand up to your ear, you can easily adjust the volume controls, power on/off, play/pause, and track fwd/back controls. Each function is conveniently placed on the ear piece for easy access."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20041115-DavesiPAQBTReview.jpg" /><br /><br />Jack over at Dave's iPAQ gives this stereo headset a spin, and likes what he sees (and hears). If you've been thinking of buying one, make sure to check his review out.

[MPSmith]

Nice review. Wow, those sound like great headphones. If they were compatible with my X50v, I'd get them. (or ask my wife to get them for me for X-mas!)

[ventivent]

Do you need to have the Audio Gateway Profile (AGP) service on your device in order for these headphones to work? Because I don't believe some of the models HP has listed as being compatible (2215, 4150) come equipped with this profile.

[thadrool]

How long does the battery last?

[christak]

How long does the battery last?

The review says 8 hours -- then recharge...

[gorkon280]

At fiirst I was going to post a whine, but then I went to the first page and looked at the picture and read what it came with again. At the end, I first thought you would not get a power pack but it appears now that you do. My first thought after I read that it uses the same adapter as the iPaq was what if BOTH need recharged? :D I see now that it ships with another adapter as well. Nice. I wonder if there's a BT to 8.5mm adapter for things other then my iPaq? My thing is I would have to spend 200 (99 for the headphones, and 99 for a nice sized (larger then 1gb) SD card) to get this. Wireless headphones are something I sorely need. I love to have the headphones on in bed as I lull myself to sleep and I always risk my player going for a ride when I roll over!

[dunos]

Shame they aren't available from the UK HP shop yet. Come on HP!

[tourdewolf]

Nice review. Wow, those sound like great headphones. If they were compatible with my X50v, I'd get them. (or ask my wife to get them for me for X-mas!)


Hopefully it wont' be long until someone finds a workaround. These could be huge, expecially if they were cross platform. Wonder why Belkin hasn't introduced a pair with an addon bluetooth module for the ipod?

[foebea]

Shame they aren't available from the UK HP shop yet. Come on HP!

heh.. shame they arent available in the US shop either. I've been checking just about every day since the first notice here on PPCT and they are always out of stock.

If HP decides to make these publicly available I will buy them immediately. But if they don't want my money then I can put it towards something else, like food and shelter.

This is starting to feel wrong. Why would they advertise this thing if they only have a dozen or so sets?

Come on HP, get it together! :?

[compkid2005]

HP says they will work with the h2200 ipaq series but I want to know what the sound quality will really be like.

[rzanology]

do these things work for the 50v?

[Rudolf]

Well. According to the review, the unit comes with an updated bluetooth stack which supports the audio distribution profile (and the remote control too). I wonder whether those drivers can be installed on any other device than iPaqs ?
I would guess that any other device can use this baby provided that its bluetooth stack supports the mentioned profiles.

[kozak]

Now, in the review, the reviewer stated that you have to install software on the PPC. Does that mean that any bluetooth pocket pc would support those headphones with the software?

I just upgraded from h2215 to a dell X50v. Hope they work with my dell :(

[Sven Johannsen]

Only hesitation I have about BT headphones is that they are prohibited on airlines, which is where I enjoy my music the most. The prohibition is not explicit, but if you look at the little icons and read the text, you are not supposed to use any transmitting or receiving stuff, which includes cell phones, remote control cars, WiFi, and and of course BT. In reality, it wouldn't cause any trouble, as evidenced by the efforts to get both cell phones and WiFi set up on airplanes. You could likely get away with it, but there's a chance you'll get a savy flight attendent, and rules are rules anyway.

[DaleReeck]

Shame they aren't available from the UK HP shop yet. Come on HP!

heh.. shame they arent available in the US shop either. I've been checking just about every day since the first notice here on PPCT and they are always out of stock.

If HP decides to make these publicly available I will buy them immediately. But if they don't want my money then I can put it towards something else, like food and shelter.

This is starting to feel wrong. Why would they advertise this thing if they only have a dozen or so sets?

Come on HP, get it together! :?

That page has said "out of stock" since day one. I don't know if they are even shipping yet. Add these headphones to the list of things that people want but you can't get - along with the Treo 650 and the MPX300 to name a few. I'd crap my pants if some company was able to actually ship something they "announce".

[Phoenix]

It's too bad these aren't compatible with Pocket PCs in general. They look cool but I wouldn't want to be stuck with something that only worked with an Ipaq.

I'm sure someone will come out with a pair that will be cross-compatible.

One thing I'd change about these headphones (besides compatibility), is that I'd like to see them foldable. This would make them so much more compact and easy to transport. Unless you're going to wear them on your ears and around your neck all day, carry them in a bag of some sort, or you happen to be wearing an eVest, they wouldn't be too practical to carry around. Making the band foldable in some way, would be a neccesity.

What I'd really like to see (and I'm not quite sure how it would be implemented, exactly), is a pair of BT-enabled earbud headphones. That would be really cool to see. Although, with two of them, one for each ear but unconnected to each other, I'm not sure how this would work. Maybe one earbud would be slave to the other on some level. Or maybe there could be a thin flexible wire connecting them that would simply lay across the back of a persons head. The batteries would have to be very small as well. Maybe this would too hard for someone to design properly. Maybe I should talk to Nextlink.

Cool product, though - these HP's.

[Sully]

Heck, I would pre-order a set to get it as soon as they become available but you can't even do that. :(

[ricksfiona]

It's too bad these aren't compatible with Pocket PCs in general. They look cool but I wouldn't want to be stuck with something that only worked with an Ipaq.

I'm sure someone will come out with a pair that will be cross-compatible.

One thing I'd change about these headphones (besides compatibility), is that I'd like to see them foldable. This would make them so much more compact and easy to transport. Unless you're going to wear them on your ears and around your neck all day, carry them in a bag of some sort, or you happen to be wearing an eVest, they wouldn't be too practical to carry around. Making the band foldable in some way, would be a neccesity.

What I'd really like to see (and I'm not quite sure how it would be implemented, exactly), is a pair of BT-enabled earbud headphones. That would be really cool to see. Although, with two of them, one for each ear but unconnected to each other, I'm not sure how this would work. Maybe one earbud would be slave to the other on some level. Or maybe there could be a thin flexible wire connecting them that would simply lay across the back of a persons head. The batteries would have to be very small as well. Maybe this would too hard for someone to design properly. Maybe I should talk to Nextlink.

Cool product, though - these HP's.

Wow, great ideas... Though I also thought about foldable headphones as well.. That would make these things SUPER portable. They would be only marginally bigger too making them foldable. C'mon Belkin!

[mesposito2]

The strangest thing about this review (No offense) is that it doesn't center on the most important issue - Quality. Not that the other issues are not important, but they all seem secondary to quality.

Are they equal to wired headphones? Close? Better? Are they acceptable just BECAUSE it's BT and there are no wires?

For yet another $100 for another BT device, they need to be just as good as wired. This is the question that needs to be answered in a review of high-quality headphones.

I'll buy them if I don't have to sacrifice sound.

Mark

[DavesiPAQ]

I think Jack answered your question..


I’m impressed! The quality of the sound is terrific but I would caution you to have high quality music files…the experience is just so much better! I have no hesitation in recommending these headphones. I have used them virtually everyday for the past two weeks and have enjoyed them immensely. I can only tell you that I am glad I have all those pockets in my SCOTTeVEST…this is one more item that I will definitely be carrying!

I second Jack's quote the sound is superb..

[mesposito2]

I think Jack answered your question..

I’m impressed! The quality of the sound is terrific but I would caution you to have high quality music files…

I second Jack's quote the sound is superb..

I don't want to get into a retracted debate on someone's review, so please don't misunderstand me. None of my comments are complaints. I just want more info.

Now, I'd like to respectfully disagree, and I've written quite a few reviews. As a user that reads reviews like these with great interest, here's what I would like to know:

'Terrific' compared to what? I'm looking for a comparison. I can't buy the HP headphones based on 'Terrific', because I don't know what Jack's criteria is. I'm sure a lot of others would like to know the answer to these questions too.

Are they terrific compared to a pair of $100 high-end wired headphones?
Are they terrific compared to $10 headphones?
Are they terrific because he can't believe he can even listen to music over a wireless device?

Does the new HP stay paired, or does BT need to be restarted over and over, like the BT headsets?
Are they loud enough in noisy conditions?


Also, the disclaimer 'caution' made me think that maybe he's saying the quality isn't as good, and therefore requires higher bit-rate files.

If Jack is lurking, maybe he can augment his review a bit here.

Thanks for indulging me. I really would like to know. I've already spent hundreds on BT headsets, and honestly, they don't work that well with PDA's. Specifically, they don't stay paired.


Mark

[DavesiPAQ]

I have the same pair as Jack does. I cannot tell the difference between my wired headset and my BLUETOOTH headset. So I dont know how much of a MP3 afficianado you are but I can tell you that you wont be disappointed..

[mesposito2]

I have the same pair as Jack does. I cannot tell the difference between my wired headset and my BLUETOOTH headset. So I dont know how much of a MP3 afficianado you are but I can tell you that you wont be disappointed..

Great. That's what I was looking for.

Thanks,

Mark

[MPSmith]

Hi Dave: Do you know anyone with an X50v, who can check whether these will work on 'em? I know it's been asked a bunch of times, but this headse seem so great it would ROCK if they were compatible outside the iPAQ family!

Thanks

[DavesiPAQ]

Unfortunately it wont work, just tried it tonight..

[jimski]

Only hesitation I have about BT headphones is that they are prohibited on airlines, which is where I enjoy my music the most. The prohibition is not explicit, but if you look at the little icons and read the text, you are not supposed to use any transmitting or receiving stuff, which includes cell phones, remote control cars, WiFi, and and of course BT.

So how about if I sit in the back of the plane, say about 33ft away from the cockpit door. Shouldn't cause any interference then.

[Silencer]

Can the BT-stack update be installed on other iPAQs? I don´t need stereo sound, but I´d like to use my B-Speech BT Headset with Skype for PPC on my 4150. So? Any news?

[gonsped]

David,

How about giving it a small compatibility test with the most popular pocket PCs out there other than an iPAQ? :)

i.e. Dell X30, O2 XDA series, etc. :devilboy:

[DaleReeck]

Only hesitation I have about BT headphones is that they are prohibited on airlines, which is where I enjoy my music the most. The prohibition is not explicit, but if you look at the little icons and read the text, you are not supposed to use any transmitting or receiving stuff, which includes cell phones, remote control cars, WiFi, and and of course BT.

So how about if I sit in the back of the plane, say about 33ft away from the cockpit door. Shouldn't cause any interference then.

A plane's electronics are throughout the aircraft, not just the cockpit. For instance, control actuators near the wings to control flaps, aerolons and other hydraulic systems. While the concept that wireless devices would affect a plane's electronics is dubious (British flights will allow use of cell phones soon if not already), current FAA regulations still say "no".

[Sven Johannsen]

current FAA regulations still say "no".

And that's that, at the moment.

[cxc4u]

I'm with Silencer; I'd like to know if the software for the BT headphones is actually updating the stack itself or some separate driver like the Stowaway BT Keyboard (product plug here, but it's a really nice keyboard!). Also, can these headphones be used w/ a Bluetooth hub for the PC? It'd be cool to switch between PC music and then your iPaq.

[scouro]

I have an IPAQ 5555 will these headphones work with it? I would really like to know before I do decide to buy these thank you.

[Fuego]

Now, if only they had a built-in mic and could also be used as a BT headset ... would be nice just to have one BT audio device to use with both your phone and PPC. I guess then we'd want it to switch automatically between the phone and PPC on incoming calls, or manually with a button press to make outgoing.

I also presume that their is no issue with using them simultaneously with a PPC connected to say a BT GPRS phone connection.