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Motorola S9-HD stereo Bluetooth headphones

February 26, 2010 by admin  
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4142 Motorola S9 HD stereo Bluetooth headphones
The - is a stylish, yet subdued headset, clad mostly in a rubberized matte black plastic exterior. There are two small strips of black chrome on each side of the the back of the headphones. The - came to us with an AC , a handy carrying pouch, and a set of user-changeable rubber eargels. We also had an iPod connector in the package to allow for wireless listening to our iPod Touch. There are 2 sets of large eargels, with a loose outer layer that seals off your ear, to keep out and the music in. The other set is smaller, and lacks the loose outer part, thus making the S9- a bit safer for joggers who still need to be aware of their .
The - headphones wrap easily and nicely around the back of your head, with each resting comfortably in each ear. for the S9- are found easily on both sides of the headphones, and are nicely arranged in a column containing 3 buttons each. On the right you’ll find the music controls – forward, reverse, and play/pause. The left , then, provides the up and down volume controls as well as the call button.

The and mini-USB charging port are located at the back of the , on the underside of the bump. The mini-USB port is covered by a rubber flap to keep moisture and debris out. The LED notification light is centered in the middle of the lump, between the and charging port. The arms of the headset are made of slightly bendable plastic, so that it can easily stretch to accommodate users’ heads.

The - weighs in at a barely-there 38g (1.3oz), which makes a difference when you wear them for extended periods of time. I was able to wear the S9- for hours, listening to music without experiencing any discomfort at all. The eargels are nice and soft, and there is just enough tension in the side arms to keep a firm fit, without causing ear fatigue or giving me a headache.

Setup and Use

The LED notification light at the back of the headset flashes blue slowly while the headset is powered on and connected to a phone or device. When you first power the S9- on, the light will flash blue three times, and will then turn solid blue to indicate ‘pairing’ mode. If you wish to reactivate pairing mode later, simply turn the headset off, and then press and hold the again until the LED shows solid blue. When you’ve successfully paired your headset with your cell phone, you’ll see a blue light with 10 purple flashes.

When you have paired the - with your phone, you can simply press the call button on the left to answer or end a phone call. The play/pause button on the right can be used to reject the call. If your phone supports voice dial, you can activate this from standby simply by pressing the answer/hang up button. If you wish to simply redial the last number that you called, press and hold this button for a few seconds. While on a phone call, you can use the play/pause button to mute/unmute the headset’s microphone.
The - supports multiple connections, so that, for instance, you could connect to your cell phone for calls, but connect to your Bluetooth-enabled computer for music. To do this, first pair your cell phone with the S9-, and then turn both your phone and the headset off. Now turn the headphones back on and put them into pairing mode. Follow the normal steps to pair your headset with your computer (or an iPod, if using the included adapter), and confirm that they are successfully paired. Now, turn the headphones off once again, and then turn both your phone and the - back on. The S9- should automatically reconnect to both devices.I was able to use the -’s multi-point feature to listen to music from my Bluetooth-enabled laptop while still accepting calls on my Nokia N95. When a call came in, pressing the answer/hang up key automatically paused the music, and when I ended the call, the music automatically resumed playing.

As you would imagine, when you have the S9- connected to a music device, such as either your computer or a compatible cell phone, you can press the play/pause button to launch the music player. While this worked on my cell phone, it did not work properly on my Bluetooth-enabled laptop. Either way, once your music player is launched, the play/pause button on the - will allow you to control the music. You can press the forward button once to skip to the next track, or hold it for a few seconds to simply fast-forward through the track; likewise with the back button. These music controls worked perfectly with both my Nokia N95 and Winamp running on my laptop.

Although the - is sleek and stylish, that comes with a sacrifice in battery life. Motorola claims a battery life of only 6 hours talk or music playback time, which is actually less than most smaller, single-ear Bluetooth headsets. In my testing, 6 hours of music playback was accurate, though I did notice a slight increase in music playback time when using my computer for music, as opposed to my phone, which was slightly disappointing. Thankfully, the - recharges fully in 2 hours using the provided AC , and since the headset uses mini-USB, I was able to top it off using an open USB port on my computer, as well.

The - boasts a range of 30 feet, though in experience, this is an exaggeration. When paired with my phone (using both the Nokia N95 and the Palm Treo Pro, to avoid phone-specific bias) or the iPhone Touch, I found that the audio would cut out occasionally. For example, with the phone in my front pocket the audio would drop, but performed much better with the phone in my back pocket. Jogging with the phone or iPod in my hand was a slightly better experience, though there were still rare drop-outs there as well. Paired with my computer was a much better experience, and I was able to watch a movie with the S9- from roughly 10 feet away easily. Based on this, it appears as though the S9- performs better when there is a direct line-of-sight between the headset and the device.

Audio Quality

When listening to music, the - excels at producing high-quality music. The S9- features SRS WOW audio technology, which allows you to enjoy a digitally enhanced audio experience, with more full bass and better overall quality. You can enable/disable SRS WOW by pressing and holding the forward button, and there is a noticeable difference in quality. I enjoyed having the option, as well, since some music is better with enhanced bass, while others sounded better with SRS WOW disabled. I was also very pleased with the volume of the -, as well as the ability to keep music ‘in’, and ‘out’.

Unfortunately, while the - excels at music, it is an entirely different experience when attempting to chat with someone over the phone. Even indoors, callers reported a muffled sound, and there was often static on my end, even with perfect reception and using several different mobile phones. I tested the - inside a busy grocery store, and both callers simply asked me to call them back later. Similarly, the - failed the truck tests miserably, even with the windows rolled up. When using the headset for voice calls in an open area with wind, I was not able to understand the caller, and they were not able to understand anything I said, either.

Conclusion

As more and more cell phones support A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets, I’m glad to see Motorola attempting to streamline and stylize these headsets into something that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to sport in public. The - is just that, with great music quality, extremely comfortable design, and easy to use controls. Unfortunately, the S9- falls a bit short when it comes to battery life and, more importantly, call quality. The S9- is mostly unusable for voice conversations. Based on this, we give the - a “Recommended” rating, with the warning that while they make tremendous music headphones, they shouldn’t be relied upon for voice calls.

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