Product Review: Sony Ericsson HBH-PV700 Bluetooth Headset

Posted on November 1st, 2006 by John Andrews

Headset for the Fashion Conscious

A couple of months ago I upgraded from my Treo 650 to a Treo 700p and my wife took this as her chance to upgrade from her boring Sanyo “just a phone” phone to my Trēo 650 smartphone. She quickly got the Trēo bug and then a week later she was looking to accessorize her Trēo with a more fashionable case and Bluetooth headset. I had been using the original Palm Treo Wireless Headset but she thought it looked too “techie” and wanted something that looked a little more fashionable. When I saw an advertisement for the green and white Sony Ericsson HBH-PV700 (shown above) I showed it to my wife. She liked it so I ordered one for her from the mytreo.net online store.

Much to my surprise, rather than being the white and lime green headset I had seen around the internet, the headset I received was white and blue. Upon further investigation on the web, I was able to determine that the headset also comes in black/silver in addition to the white/green and white/blue models. The problem is that they have the same model number, and my attempts to contact Sony Ericsson for clarification on how to order the desired color failed. So I recommend buying this headset from a brick and mortar store where you can confirm the color, or asking an online store to ping their warehouse to confirm color before shipping.

A New Headset for Me – First Impressions

I actually liked the blue color better than the green, and since my wife didn’t really care for the blue version I decided to keep it for myself and see if I liked it better than my Palm Trēo headset. In the meantime, my wife decided to wait for my evaluation before deciding to order the white and green version of the HBH-VP700 or keep looking around for something else.

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After opening the box and putting the headset next to my old headset, I realized that while the HBH-PV700 looks thinner and less bulky, it was actually longer than my Palm Trēo headset.

The next thing I noticed was that the ear clip was attached to the headset using a ring on the clip that sides over a post on the headset. A rubber o-ring on the ear clip ensures a tight fit on the headset and allows you to rotate the ear clip to any desired position. While this mechanism is fine if you always use the headset on the same ear, it makes it more difficult to change the ear clip if you use the headset on both ears (like I sometimes do). I prefer the approach used by Palm Trēo’s headset where you can rotate the ear clip 180 degrees and flip it around in order to use it with the opposite ear, a process that can be done in a couple of seconds.

(Click to Enlarge)

I also noticed that due to the way the ear clip worked on the HBH-PV700, it had greater resistance to being pulled away from the headset. While this probably helps to keep the headset attached to your ear, it also makes it more difficult to get it on your ear in the first place.

The part of the headset that contains the speaker and extends into your ear is longer on the HBH-PV700 and somewhat angled compared to the Trēo Headset. I believe this helps to keep the headset from moving around once it is on your ear and probably helps provide clearer sound since it fits further into the ear canal.

Once attached to my ear, the extra weight of the HBH-PV700 (23g) compared to my Palm Trēo Headset (16.9g ) was immediately noticeable. It wasn’t a big problem, but once you get used to a lighter headset you will notice the difference. I also think that the extra length combined with the extra weight made the HBH-PV700 less secure on the ear if your head moves around a lot, such as when jogging or leaning over to pick something up from the floor.

The talk and standby time of both headsets were similar, but the Palm Trēo headset had the edge with 7 hours talk time and 170 hours standby time vs. the HBH-PV700 with 5 hours talk time and 150 hours standby time. The difference didn’t really matter to me, but depending on how often you use your headset between charges, the difference may be a factor for you.

Before I could test the sound quality of the HBH-PV700 I had to make sure it was fully charged. That’s when I remembered that one of the reasons I had purchased the Palm Trēo headset was because it used the same charger as the Trēo, allowing me to charge both my Trēo and my headset in the car or at home with the same charger.

The HBH-PV700 comes with a charger that has a peg on one side and two pins on the other. I’m guessing that this is the same type of charging device used for Sony Ericsson phones so they may benefit from using the same charger for their phone and headset, but it also means Trēo owners like me will need to keep track of one more charging adapter.

Out and About

Once the headset was fully charged it was time to try it out. Both volume buttons are on the top of edge of the headset (or bottom edge, depending on which ear you have it on), similar to where they are located on the Palm Trēo headset, and the main button is on the side of the headset (again, similar to the Palm Trēo headset).

You turn the headset on or off by pressing the side button for 5 seconds. A small green LED flashes once every 3 seconds to indicate the headset is on. While this was much less obtrusive than the bright blue LED on my Palm Trēo headset, it was also pretty hard to see when outside in the sunlight and I would have to cover the light with my hand in order to see the green light and know the headset was turned on. I’d really like to have something in between the blinding blue light of my Palm Trēo headset and the dim green light of the HBH-PV700.

The first time you pair the headset to a phone, you press the side button for 5 seconds until the LED flashes between green and red, and then go through the normal steps for pairing a headset to your Trēo (using passkey of 0000). If you have already paired the headset to a phone, you can pair it to a second phone by pressing the volume up and down buttons at the same time for 5 seconds to put into pairing mode.

I placed a couple of calls from my office at work and was pleasantly surprised that the sound quality was quite clear. I was even able to leave my Trēo on my desk and walk around the office and even a bit down the hallway without any degradation of sound quality. The distance between the headset and the Trēo before getting static seemed to be much better than my Palm Trēo headset and I confirmed this by switching back and forth between the headsets a few times.

I’m not sure if Trēo users (and the people they are calling) are ever completely satisfied with the sound quality of Bluetooth headsets, but compared to my Palm Trēo headset I’d say the overall sound quality was about the same. The HBH-PV700 doesn’t include some of the fancy auto volume adjustments or DSP features available in some of the more expensive headsets, but then again, neither did my Palm Trēo headset.

The HBH-PV700 works with phones that support voice commands through Bluetooth. This feature is activated by pressing the side button until you hear a beep (after the headset is already turned on), but unfortunately this feature prevents the HBH-PV700 from supporting the “redial last number” feature I frequently used with my Palm Trēo headset. So while this voice dial feature might be of interest to those that have a phone that supports it, it adds little (or negative) value for Trēo users.

Over the course of a few weeks there were a few times when the battery seemed to run out earlier than I would have expected, but I’m not sure if this was because I was using the headset more than I realized or because the shorter talk/standby times were less than what I was used to. Still, the same thing sometimes occurred with my Palm Trēo headset, so I probably just need to pay more attention to keeping the headset charged.

Conclusion

This headset reminds me of something I heard a woman once say on TV: “You must suffer to be beautiful”. If you are a woman who wears shoes that hurt your feet because you like the way they look, then you may be willing to put up with the shortcomings of this headset because you like the way it looks. There really aren’t very many headsets out there that even attempt to target women that care how they look with a headset on their ear, but this is one of them. Overall, the HBH-PV700 isn’t a bad headset and it works pretty well under most conditions. From a performance standpoint I’d consider it about average compared to other headsets that are available for the same price.

However, if you are more focused on function and less on how well your headset matches the rest of you outfit, there are better headsets available for your Trēo, though many of them are also more expensive.

Pros

More elegant and fashionable looking headset compared to most of the techie-looking alternatives
Available in different colors (but make sure you know which color you are getting)

Cons