Motorola S805 Wireless Headphones

I had originally gotten the HP wireless Bluetooth headphones for my iPaq hx4700 Pocket PC which weren't bad but were fragile and broke shortly after I got them.

I almost got another pair of HP's, thinking only those were compatible with my Pocket PC. After seeing Motorola made Bluetooth headphones that looked better, I decided to find if they are compatible with Pocket PCs also, and I found that they are compatible, all bluetooth headphones use the same standard (think virtual 3.5mm stereo jack like on wired headphones).

I then had to decide among the several models available to find which would be the best for my use. I was planning on using them mostly for working out/weight lifting, so I wanted small ones (obviously, something made me change my mind). After looking at the small ones, it became apparent they all have a few problems in common: They have poor battery life (6 hours or less), they look fragile like my old HP's that broke, most go behind the neck which may be a problem on the bench press, and they lack additional features like a wired mode.

I decided on the Motorola S805's because:
-They had an impressive 17 hour battery life for music playing
-They look much less fragile than other models, I didn't want another pair that would break after a few months
-They have a wired mode where you can plug in an included wire and use them like regular wired headphones (one review said the sound turned from stereo to mono in wired mode, I have clearly confirmed this to be untrue, and this had almost put me off choosing this model)
-The over the top band would not be in the way for some exercises as the behind the neck ones may have
-I liked the idea of the rotary controls for volume and skipping tracks

One thing I noticed when I got them is the charging port is a regular USB port like on a camera or mp3 player, the included AC adapter has a USB connector on the end. This allows you to charge the headphones from your computer's USB port, I even plugged them to my printer's PictBridge USB port and it did charge them, who would have thought a printer could charge wireless headphones? Since my camera's USB cable is always dangling from my PC, I decided to use it to charge them (AC adapters use power whether they're in use or not, by using the PC's USB power instead I prevent wasting this power) and will keep the AC adapter for vacations, etc.

I had read many reviews before buying them, many contradicted the others, such as "these are the most comfortable" and "these are the most uncomfortable" or "these are the best sounding headphones" and "these must be the worst sounding headphones". Here's what I have to say: The comfort is great, better than I was expecting, they are also surprisingly light for their size and can be adjusted to your head size. The sound quality is excellent for Bluetooth headphones, but I'm sure you can find some regular wired ones that sound even better, but it's still a very good sound quality. I believe the reviews that complain of poor sound quality had the headphones connected in "phone mode" (sorry for lack of the correct term) which is phone quality for when they are used for phone calls when used with a cell phone (they do have a built in microphone to make phone calls).

Now for the controls, this was also one of the points I chose this model: The volume and track skipping controls are wheels on both earpieces. On the left side, the wheel controls volume, on the right side it's track back/next. These are very easy to use as they are huge wheels you can instantly get your hand on, you don't need to find a tiny 1mm button and not be sure it's the right one since you can't see them. There are also 2 other buttons, a "phone" button and a play/pause/stop button. The phone button is used to turn them on and off, answer and hang up calls, change lines, etc., and the play/pause/stop button is used for just that. Each button can be pressed for a short or long amount of time, and depending on the situation will cause different actions. For my use, which is only to listen to music, it isn't hard to remember the basic functions:
On: Phone button long press (until it flashes twice)
Off: Phone button long press (until it flashes three times)
Pair: Phone button very long (6 sec) press
Play/Pause: Play/Pause/Stop button short press
Stop: Play/Pause/Stop button long press

That's not too bad, what starts getting complicated is for those who will use them for phone calls:
Voice dial call: Phone button short press
Answer/End call: Phone button short press
Reject call: Phone button long press
Redial: Phone button long press if voice dialing is on, or Phone button short press if voice dialing is off, then short press again to dial
Answer 2nd line: Phone button long press
Toggle between 2 lines: Phone button long press
Join 3-way call: Phone button and Play/Pause/Stop buttons long press at same time
Put call on hold or resume: Phone button long press
Mute call: Short press Play/Pause/Stop button

As you can see that's quite a few combinations and situations to remember, I can only imagine someone trying to use these features: "Oh I got a call, now is it a short or a long press and on which button to accept the call? Oh I have another line, do I press the phone button for 2 seconds, 6 seconds or the play button for 3 seconds? Or is it the play button while holding the phone button for 4 seconds? Oh no I have a call from the boss, how do I reject it!? Oh no a short press was to accept it!".

I would highly recommend these headphones, they have great battery life, many features, easy to use controls (for music that is, of course!) and look more sturdy than other models.