So far these are actually pretty good. I bought them for the basic reason, the bluetooth headset with microphone for my phone calls, which per a few calls has been OK. I’ve been told they sound a little ‘boxy’, on the phone call, but I’m unsure what that meant, though they said they could hear me alright. They are kind of tight around my head and do make my ears sore after a short time, but they’re tolerable once you get used to them. (I actually put them over a box to keep them ‘stretched out’ a bit overnight, which kind of helped. I worry though that the folding areas on both sides might wear out and snap sooner or later though, with repeated folding, so I’m trying not to do that often. (I hold close to the fold on each side, and bend them gently together to make the fold, gently, to be safe). They play MP3’s from a microSD card rather well, and have impressive sound and volume (they almost don’t turn down low enough, since they cover your ears so well). They didn’t work with an 8gig MicroSD, but played fine from a 2Gig MicroSD I had handy (I didn’t have a 4 gig card nearby, so I couldn’t test with that, but my assumption is they do, and that’d be the max). These also have the mini-phono jack and cable for listening from a device, via said cable (the cable is Audio IN, not for the microphone also, so it can’t be used as a wired phone mic/headset via the cable). Once the cable is plugged in, they automatically switch the input to the jack, and ‘verbally’ announce it. Which has me wondering about using the cable when the battery is dead.. (if it will switch over to the cabled input.. or if that’s necessary..? hmm. might be a stupid question, since I’d assume it’d just be a direct connection..) The FM radio (The other main reason, beside the mini-phono Input, I purchased this version) is ‘adequate’. It could benefit with a better antenna, but I could find and listen to the Detroit Tigers on FM radio, while I was out mowing my lawn and working on my car. I will admit, it took a while to find the station, since it begins at either the lowest station or highest station initially, and you have to keep tapping the (forward or reverse track) buttons until you hear a station you recognize, to get your bearings, to find the station you are looking for. NOTE: the antenna is Not the best. The FM radio could be improved with a little metallic or conductive surface on the earpiece to use the human’s body as an antenna, I would expect. Since, they work best while you are tuning, but as soon as you remove your hand, the reception quality drops. I often found myself holding onto one side of the earphones when I was kneeling down to pick up something on the ground, so the static didn’t give me a headache. On the good side, if you turn off the FM radio (And/Or turn off the headphones, or put them on the charger), then turn it back on, it comes back on with the same station. This is good, since potentially with the little delay, you can turn them on, and hit the radio button, then get your hand off while the tuner is ‘re-acquiring or fine tuning’ and hold a reasonable signal. Don’t expect to be able to use these for FM in your basement, since they barely hold the signal when I’m standing in my garage, lest I had my hand on the headphones. The battery did last at least 4.5 hours when I was listening to the FM radio, I believe… It was a long game. When listening to MP3, It lasted about 5 hours. The volume was as low as I could get it when on MP3, and a little higher on FM radio. On the phone, it was on it’s highest setting which was too high for me, but the one-down was too quiet.. This may have been a pairing issue though.. I think I needed to have the volume at low on my phone, and Lowest on the headphones when I paired to get it to sync properly. I’m not a fan of the buttons being multi-use, since I mistakenly would change the station or track when I would intend to adjust the volume slightly. (a single tap on the fwd or rvrs buttons will change a station or track, but a Hold for a second-ish, plus a another second-ish will adjust the volume, up or down (respectively) in steps). The power button starts you off in pairing mode (I believe you have to hold it for a few seconds the first time around to truly Pair it), which will connect it to your phone, provided your phone or other bluetooth device (tablet, PC, etc) is ready to pair and will find the headphones. The mp3/fm button will switch between the two settings after the headphones are turned on. Connecting the mini-phone is an instant override to activate the mini-phono input. the MicroSD card gets inserted ‘gold tips’ first (obviously), and with the ‘lable-side’ facing the soft earphones (your head, if you were wearing them). The instructions were so poorly translated, they were almost painful to read. You’d have better luck just guessing. The low battery notification comes on repeatedly when the battery gets low, broadcasting Loudly about every 30 seconds to a minute ‘LOW BATTERY’.. I don’t know how much time before the battery dies, but I’d be happier having it just announce it once or twice, and letting me listen to my music until the battery dies. I believe that if I used the voice activation on my phone, this would accept the voice commands, but I’m sure would drain my battery quickly on standby. Without that option, and just listening to MP3’s from my phones media player via bluetooth, I had no problems listening for a couple hours, before I took the headphones off.. (on the first day I had them, my ears were quite sore, possibly from not being used to them, or them not being loosened up yet). Overall, I’m happy with the, but I hope they don’t fall apart on me like I’ve seen on some of the other posts.. Though I do have some superglue laying around if I need to resolve that, but I’m most worried about the electronics burning out, or the battery not lasting more than a couple years (if the plastic and electronics hold up), I’ll be disappointed when they do, but currently, I’m satisfied.
Genie - Research Bot
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