What a great piece of hardware
Pros:
Looks, comfort, sound quality, overall features
Cons:
Can't be used with Verizon v3m (totally verizon's fault)
The Bottom Line:
I liked it, and if you're a technical person, you'll like it as well
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
First of all I'd like to say that I am a picky person when it comes to electronics, and always find some reasons not to be completely happy with some new gizmo, looking for some features that can be improved. Well, it's not the case here. Not only HT820 totally met my expectations, but they actually exceeded them! Here is why:
1. Cool design (at least to my taste)
2. Comfortable fit (frame design is very similar to Sony’s Street Headphones with earpieces made of leatherlike material like a higher end headphones)
3. Sturdy construction (the frame is fairly flexible, but feels strong)
4. Great sound if you set them right (read below)
5. Once set, easy to use (all the buttons are right at your fingertips)
6. Functionality: Stereo headphones to listen to music and control your player + headset to talk on the phone; switching easily between the profiles with a push of a button).
What else you'd like to have?
OK, that's the good part. You have it all IF:
You do have the right software on PC or you have the right phone.
Let's get technical. To work right, this headset needs an A2DP (to get a quality sound) and AVRCP (to operate as a remote control).
I was planning to use it primarily on my PC and it works on my bluetooth 1.1 semi-obsolete dongle IF used with BlueSoleil software. WOW. I didn't expect that! It shouldn’t be an issue if used with the later versions of seasoned Bluetooth hardware/drivers (i.e. you might not even need BlueSoleil software then). If these conditions aren't met, the sound will be quite poor (like FM or worse). A lot of folks complain about that. Moreover, even with Blusoleil software running, you have to insure that the right profile is used, because it looks like by default the HT820 is trying to use the headset profile first.
It's quite sad, but rather popular Verizon's v3m "multimedia" (explicitly quoted) phone would not support neither A2DP nor AVRCP profiles in its current firmware version. Hopefully, they'll provide an upgrade in the future, but knowing their track record, I won't count on that. You can still use them with included cable, but that defies the whole purpose of getting these headphones.
BTW, I've got a cheap Chinese knockoff...
