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Review of iHave NFC/BT4.0 phone headset w/lots of pics!!!

This is a review of iHave NFC BT4.0 headset. http://www.tvc-mall.com/details/IHA...r-iPhone-iPad-Samsung-Sony-HTC-Etc.-BLUE-506/
Every time I think these single on-ear headsets are the thing of the past, I ran into more people on the street or in the cars using it. That is why I continue reviewing these wireless bluetooth headset and constantly look for something new and innovative. Typically, they all have a similar functionality, only with different design looks. But some do stand out by offering the latest low power BT4.0 or support of A2DP and HFP profiles to stream your audio from the phone. More expensive models from brand names go into other features but those will cost you over $100. While I was researching for the next review, I came across this new Chinese brand, iHave, which is currently being sold on www.tvc-mall.com as one of their official distributors. When I started to read the spec, I thought to myself that it's almost too good to be true, so obviously I requested a review sample to test it myself so I can share my review with you. Here is what I found.
This iHave headset arrived in a very professional package with a nice clear display presentation, though I wasn't able to read anything on the back since it was in Chinese. Luckily, they included a set of detailed instructions in English, although the operation is very intuitive so you don't even need instructions. In addition to headset, the accessories included 3 sets of eartips including 2 with stabilizer, behind the ear hook, and a magnetic charger. Though there is no direct micro-usb connection to headset, to keep a design slim, the included magnetic charger is something you will find only in high end expensive headset. For whose who use this type of headset, you probably aware that plugging/unplugging of micro-usb connector puts a lot of wear'n'tear on the headset. Here, it's a zero effort to bring it close for an attachment and plugging full usb connector into your wall charger or computer. It fully charges in less than an hour, provides almost 4hr of talk time, and about 5 days of standby time.
Now, about the headset design. It's very thin and lightweight, with an elegant surface texture. It definitely doesn't look or feel cheap, though made out of plastic. Conveniently located at the corner of back edge, there is a multifunction button, wide enough for easy location. At the bottom edge you have a physical on/off switch which is a great option to eliminate any second guessing if you headset is on or off. At the top edge, you have volume up/down rocker which also supports playback control. YES, you can skip next/prev track when streaming the music by holding down volume buttons, while multifunction button works as play/pause. I hardly seen any other headsets of the same type which offer full A2DP1.2 and HFP1.6 support including playback control.
And if that wasn't enough, this headset also support NFC for a fast pair up with your phone. All I had to do is to place it near my Note 2, and it recognized and paired to phone and media audio within seconds without me even lifting a finger. The operation was very robust and worked even with my phone case on. You can pair it up with up to 8 bluetooth devices, and it even supports pair up with 2 devices at the same time. Though I tested the calling in relatively noise free environment (everything sounded crystal clear), it supports CVC6.0 dual mic noise cancellation.
Overall, I was very impressed with a design and a performance of this wireless headset. Pretty much it included every piece of available technology from magnetic charging clip, to NFC and BT4.0 support with the latest A2DP1.2/HFP1.6 protocols, full playback controls when streaming audio media from your phone, and universal compatibility with any bluetooth enabled devices. It also looked really cool. The best part? It only cost $27.89. At that price and with all these features, instead of calling it iHave they should rename it to iMustHave This one definitely gets my recommendation!
Here are the pictures.
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HAVIT bluetooth speaker - review

I have to admit that over time I've used several mid/low end bluetooth speakers and I ended up giving all of them away as presents to my friends. They were all fantastic accessories for my mobile phone but they were lacking ... something.
We all know there is no such thing as a perfect gadget or device and, if you add the human subjectivity, you end up with an endless quest for a "great device".
All in all, now I'm settled (at least for a while) ...
Basically this is a JAMBOX replica which really delivers, at a fraction of the price of the original.
Here are some photos with the package and its content:
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After opening the box I found the actual device and the cables supplied with it.
The speaker itself is plain black and feels soft when touched. The coating, even if it's very nice, it's making the surfaces prone to fingerprints so you may feel "forced" to clean it often .
The controls are somewhat classic ... volume up/down, answer/hang up, prev/next and play/pause functions, all on 3 buttons. The functions are available by short or long pressing the respective market button.
The main power switch as well as the power supply/charge and audio in/out connectors are located on the back of the device, clearly marked and easily accessible.
Now, after all the photos let's talk a little bit about the functionality of the device:
Pairing:
If you have a regular phone (not NFC enabled) then, after switching on the speaker, you can easily find it when searching for bluetooth devices and you can add it. That's all.
If you phone.tablet is NFC enables though, the pairing is as easy as touching it on the NFC sensitive area of the speaker and you're good to go.
Even if the NFC area is not marked on the speaker, it is there, as marked in the picture below:
The blue LED visible in the above picture will flask quickly while the device is in "pairing" state and slowly when in normal functioning mode.
I have to say here (for the picky ones) that the LED is bright so it may be somehow annoying if you look at it in low light (or at night).
After the pairing you can start using it as an external speaker and also as a speakerphone, because it has a microphone and an answer/hang up button.
Voice call quality:
When used for voice calls the voice of your call partner will sound very clear and nice (and I mean VERY CLEAR AND NICE ) but, at least in my case, the other party was hearing me a little too over-processed (probably because of the noise canceling DSP inside) but there were no complaints about not understanding me (the voice was a little metallic/robotic when I was not speaking loud enough to make a good difference from the ambient noise).
Music quality:
This is something highly subjective
If I'm comparing the speaker to my home sound system then ... there is no comparison that can be made. As an old commercial for muscle cars was stating: "there is no replacement for displacement" ... the speakers are small so you can not expect that bass fulfilling sound. Nevertheless, the audio quality is GREAT. If you have the intention to use this little BT speaker when you;re in vacation or when camping then you will have nothing to complain about. The bass is not strong but is there, definitely. The median frequencies are extremely clear, w/o being too saturated, while the highs are just in the right quantity.
I personally listen to Leonard Cohen type of music (involving a lot of vocal play) and the voices are nice, warm and natural, w/o popping out from the speaker.
If you look at a spectral analysis of the output (using any audio analyzer out there, like this one for example), you can see the spectrum being nicely populated (with the obvious lack of bass).
All in all, the music is great and the max volume is still usable w/o too many distortions.
Connectivity:
This a big plus for this little buddy ...
As you can see from the picture with the connectors, you have access to line-in as well as to line-out connectors.
What does this mean?
Line-in - you can use the speaker as a conventional speaker, with the included cable, and you can play music from any player, even if it's not bluetooth capable. Just plug it in and go .... Of course, you will not be able to use any of the call capabilities while in line-in mode.
Line-out - you can use the speaker as a bluetooth interface between your phone/tablet and some high-quality speakers. I plugged it to my home stereo system and the result was extremely nice, with great sound (the EDR enabled Bluetooth standard did its job)
The USB connector is being used for charging the unit using any USB port. I personally use one of the many usb adapters I have lying around the house.
Battery life:
This is subject that I can not clearly review simply because I did not managed to drain the battery yet .
After receiving the unit (2 weeks ago) I plugged it into a power adapter and I left it there until the charging status LED (a tiny RED LED located below the BLUE one) turned off. After that I've used the unit about 1-2 hours every other day and it's not dead yet. I still have to use it in order to see the battery life. Until now though I only can say it has a great autonomy on battery .
Final words:
This is not the first speaker with this form factor and size I've come across but surely is one great gadget for the price.
If you look at the audio quality for this price range then it's a safe buy - one of the safest I come across.
I can only recommend it to anyone who wants a great bluetooth speaker for only ~35 USD.
Here is the link I used (from amazon): http://www.amazon.com/HAVIT®-HV-SK4...=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1401162562&sr=1-4
I hope you find this review useful. I don't do reviews usually but this was special and I thought it deserved one.

[Review] MPow AquaPro IPX7 Bluetooth speaker

About a month ago, MPow contacted me about a Bluetooth speaker they wanted me to review for them. As I wanted one for quite some time anyways, I thought why not kill two birds with one stone.
The shipping was rather fast, the device arrived just two or three days after I agreed to review the device.
Overview
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Looking at the specs, the MPow AquaPro is IPX7 rated. For everyone not familiar with IP ratings, it basically means the device is water resistant and withstands immersion up to 1m for 30min. While the packaging titles the speaker “waterproof”, I personally wouldn’t call IPX7 waterproof, but rather water resistant. But this should still be more than enough for what most users are gonna do with it anyways.
Another point is the rugged shell: the case is well built and has a very solid feel, especially because of the green/yellow rubber coating surrounding the case
A, for me personally, rather useless feature the speaker has is the SOS alert, which makes a loud noise in case you’re in an emergency. But well, maybe it could come in handy for someone, someday, who knows?
The device was neatly packaged with a short, but rather useless manual, a 30cm USB cable for charging and a 60cm 3.5mm aux cable.
The speaker has 4 buttons on the top for power/connect, vol-, vol+ and play/pause. On the right side you can find the SOS button as well as the USB and aux ports and the charging indicator LED.
Features and Impressions
When I first looked at the speaker, my initial thought was that the speaker was rather small with 8x8x4cm, too small to be loud enough, nor make a clear sound when using max volume. However, I could not have been more mistaken. The speaker is more than loud enough and also has an impressively clear sound. But what impressed me the most is the incredible bass, coming from such a relatively small speaker. It even managed to move around my table once while I played a bass-heavy song.
Looking at the battery, it may not be the biggest battery available, but I got between 7 to 8 hours of actual play time out of one full charge. This brings me to my only big negative point about this speaker: the low battery alert. It really is annoying as hell. As soon as the battery reaches a certain level, the speaker starts playing a godawful sound every minute. This could have been implemented way, way better using an LED first and after a certain amount of time moving on to a sound notification. But well, it is something you usually don’t encounter that often anyways.
One more rather small criticism I have to add is looking into the manual. The best you can do is not to look into it at all, because as I said before, it is quite useless. The use of the speaker is rather self-explanatory and the times for powering the speaker on and off, as well as connecting are anything but accurate. But as the manual isn’t really needed, I don’t really care about that at all.
Conclusion
Now, to sum things up, the device really makes an impression. It is well built, it is more than powerful enough for pretty much all use cases and it is not expensive at all. I have been using it mostly for showering, and after one month worth of showers the device is still working perfectly. So if you are looking for a small, affordable but still powerful Bluetooth speaker, this is the way to go.
Special Offer
As an extra, they also offered me a discount code for 4$ off when buying on Amazon:
Code: 75UGBSUR
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019VROWAG
http://www.xmpow.com/mpow-aquapro-portable-wireless-bluetooth-speaker-mbs9.html
Expiration date: June 20th

Code does not work. Not in the Canadian store s at least...

It's useful after I tried it.
kojam said:
Code does not work. Not in the Canadian store s at least...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's useful on the giving link provided in the review on Amazon after I tried it on the right permalink. But what a pity, there are only three days left.

[Review] Syllable D900s cableless Bluetooth headphones

Hey,
some days ago Syllable sent me a pair of their D900s bluetooth in-ear headphones for review so here it is now
Let me clarify that I am neither paid by them nor related to them in any other way.
So let's start :highfive:
General information​
The headphones ship in a box:
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On the backside there is a lot of information printed onto it:
After opening the box you can see the headphones, which sit in another small box:
Going further along the unpacking, you get several goodies:
a micro usb charging cable
earplugs in different sizes
a band which you can use to hold the headphones together (I like the idea a lot!)
Here are the headphones unpacked:
Each of them has a button and clicking it will pause the music or end the current call. Pressing twice will call the last person you called. Unfortunately there is no way to skip tracks like it was possible on the D700.
Review:
Pairing​I used an Elephone P8000 as a pairing device and it worked fine with the headphones. To pair you have to press and hold the button on the right headphone until it starts to blink. Then "SYLLABLE TIP" can be found in your BT smartphone menu. Once it is paired you can switch on the left headphone and they will automatically pair. The next time you want to use them just hold and press the button for a short time and your phone will pair with them automatically because it already knows them. So basically you have two modes:
discovery mode (long press on startup) which lets you pair new devices
normal mode (short press on startup) which lets you pair devices already known to the speakers
Note: Only one device can be paired at a time so if you switch devices, you have to turn off bluetooth on the first device in order to pair the second one. I think that's reasonable as also only one person can listen to the music coming out of these headphones so there is no need to pair more than one device at a time.
Sound Quality​The sound quality is surprisingly good for the size! I usually wear on-ear headphones which have a lot of bass - obviously the D900s cannot compete with these. They have more highs and mids. When I pushed a bit onto the earphones the bass became more present but that is nothing I want to do while running. I still like the sound quality given these things have tiny speakers compared to my big headphones.
Calling​I made some test calls while in a silent room and my partner could hardly understand me. That is now big surprise to me though because the microphone is basically in your ear. If you call people a lot via BT, go for different headphones.
Battery Life​The D900s came pre-charged but I charged them nevertheless. The battery lasts surprisingly long (nearly 4 hours!). If you want to use these things for daily music I am pretty sure that you won't make it through the whole day if you listen to music all the time. But that is still not a problem, because the tiny plastic box in which the speakers can rest has a dedicated battery built in. Here you can see how they are charged:
. Once they are full you have 4 blue LEDs in the box which indicates the external battery capacity. So even if you are on the go you can charge them by simply putting them in the box!
Design​The design of the D900s is subtle but it still looks a bit odd to have these things in your ear My pair came in decent black so you won't notice them immediately. I will still wear them in my daily life I guess.
Conclusion​After all I am rather impressed by these headphones! You basically get a full functional bluetooth headphone pair with built in microphone, calling feature, and a decent battery life! And they are really tiny! Also the bluetooth range is really great! The only downside I can on the D900s spot is the low bass.
Pro:
Tiny!
Good battery life!
External battery!
Calling feature!
Great BT range!
Comes with two pairs of earplugs!
Good fit!
Con:
Little bass
Call partners will hardly understand you.
If you're looking for a pair of wireless headphones and you want them to be as tiny as possible, go for these guys! :highfive:
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1UruurN
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1YoxHKx

[Review] Syllable D300 Bluetooth headphones for 12$!

Hey,
some days ago Syllable sent me a pair of their D300 bluetooth in-ear headphones for review so here it is now
Let me first clarify that I am neither paid by them nor related to them in any other way.
Let's start :highfive:
General information​
The headphones ship in a small box with a long charging connector and ear plugs in different sizes:
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The medium ear plugs are already attached to the speakers, a smaller and a bigger pair ships with them (bigger is not in picture). I really like the little clamp that comes with them so I can attach them to my shirt. Big plus!
The headphones have three buttons as you can see here:
The key mapping is
Volume+/Next Song
Shutdown or switch on/Pause
Volume-/Previous Song
The first element in the list corresponds to a long press whereas the second element is a normal/short press. This is quite counterintuitive given that the buttons have + and - printed on itself. Once you figure that out it is easy to use though The buttons are also a bit sluggish to press but they are still usable. There is also a microphone built in which really surprised me keeping in mind that these things cost just 12$! The call quality is mediocre though. If you receive a call while wearing them a single press on the middle button answers it. If you then press again the call is hung it.
Pairing​I used a Blackview Alife P1 Pro and an Elephone P8000 as a pairing device and both worked fine with the headphones. To pair you simply have to press and hold the middle button until the speakers turn themselves on. Then keep holding the button until the built in LED starts to alter between blue and red. The "D300" can then be found in your BT smartphone menu. Only one device can be paired at a time so if you switch devices, you have to turn off bluetooth on the first device in order to pair the second one. I think that's reasonable as also only one person can listen to the music coming out of these headphones so there is no need to pair more than one device at a time. If you wanna use it after pairing again a short power button press is sufficient so you don't have to hold the button longer than 1 second when starting the phones the next time.
Sound Quality​The sound quality is good! I usually wear on ear headphones which have a lot of bass - obviously the D300 have less bass and more mids and highs. When I pushed a bit onto the earphones the bass became more present but that is nothing I want to do while running. I still like the sound quality given the low price and the fact that these things have tiny speakers compared to my big headphones. They also have better bass compared to D700 which I reviewed here.
Battery Life​The D300 came pre-charged and I tested them immediately. The box states 4 hours music time which is a realistic value. After charging the device's battery via micro USB, you get 3.5-4 hours out of them.
Design​The design of the D300 is rather extroverted. My pair came in a neon blue color and I am pretty sure the designers aimed rather at runners than at businessmen. The headphones are not ugly but I personally would not wear them other than for sports or when being at home.
Conclusion​After all I am rather impressed by these inexpensive headphones! You basically get a full functional bluetooth headphone pair with built in microphone, calling feature, music adjustment buttons and a decent battery life for just 12$! Also the bluetooth range is good! The only downside I can on the D300 spot is the extreme color.
Pro:
Cheap - 12$!
Good sound quality!
Decent battery life!
Calling feature!
Great BT range!
Comes with three pairs of earplugs!
Good fit!
Con:
Color
If you're looking for a cheap pair of wireless headphones for doings sports, go for these guys! You won't be disappointed. :highfive: I definitely recommend to buy them because of the low price and good features! I would also prefer them over the D700 but that is my personal opinion.