Updated 3 November 2011:

Pretty much all the initial impressions as reviewed below still applies. The only exception being the quality of the Ear-Clip. I wear glasses, which in this case is a curse and a blessing. As shown in the photograph, the ear-clip got caught between my ear and my glasses, snapped and broke off while trying to take the unit off. For now, I can still clip it under my glasses and it stays in position just good enough for me to continue using it.

Overall, over ten months later, I’m still happy with the earpiece and would consider it good value for the money. However, come on Sony …. what does it take to put a better or more flexible material for the Ear-Clip?

 

Original Post Jan 2011:

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OK, I have a noisy car with a high-end Alpine blackbird navigation that has Bluetooth, and all the bells and whistles. That was one of my biggest Gizmo add-on mistakes. The Satnav that is, not the car. The wee microphone is so useless that no one can hear me during a telecall. I wanted a small unit and I do not like to look borg just to make a phone call. So, in search of a simple and functional Bluetooth earpiece, I decided on one of the latest, that happened to be the Bluetooth gadget from Sony. The Sony VH110B Bluetooth headset.

It is 1.8 inches long, 0.75 inches wide, and 0.4 inches deep (without the earpiece). I weighed it and it is exactly 10g (3.5 ounces). VH110B retails for $29 from the Sony shop or their webstore. VH110B was released only a few weeks ago as one of the new generation eco-friendly units and a successor to VH110.

It does what it says on the box. Pairing with an iPhone4 took about 2 seconds and after each restart it seamlessly auto-pairs again. Press the big round button and the iPhone goes into voice activation mode. That of course is as useful as a plastic spoon on your first date, unless you know how to speak Klingon with the iPhone that is. The volume control – and + do exactly that.  The main button indeed picks up and ends a call as intended and I couldn’t find the mute function, so I had to use the phone itself for that.

The sound quality is, just above so so. I made a bunch of calls in good and bad reception areas and my listeners were quite pleased with the quality of the sound, even when I was revving at the traffic wardens. I could hear them very clearly when they were speaking too. VH110B does seamless full duplex transmission. Me and my listeners could speak simultaneously (my wife and I usually do) without any short micro muting at the start of the sentences – that is so irritating in some of the more expensive voice activated or noise cancelling units.

The disappointment was the hissing noise (white noise) I could hear through the headset during silences or while I was speaking. It is noticeable, but not off putting.

HV110B comes with its own lightweight charger, although the charging connection is a standard Micro USB, which was one of the main reasons I went for this headset. The best thing about this headset though, is the 10 hours talk time capability and 2 WEEKS of standby time!

For $29, it is hard to criticize this headset. It is better than my older Samsung, Jabber and other middle of the road headsets I’ve managed to lose. I’d give it a; very good value for money rating or an 8 out of 10.

Here is the official Sony site:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666269892&tab=featuresTab

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