As a legal requirement from December 2003, using a headset should be taken seriously, as well as less expensive and harmful than if you are distracted into having an accident whilst holding your handset. Buying and using a headset is therefore much cheaper than the either the excess on your insurance policy or the increase in next year's cost of coverage, if you do have a claim made against you.

Anyway, sermon over, on to the product in hand – the Bluetake BT400 G5 Bluetooth Headset, try saying that fast 5 times with a couple of drinks consumed!

The headset supports Headset and Hands-Free Profiles, so you can take advantage of these if your handset has provision for them, which most modern handsets do. By modern, I mean handsets produced within the last 18-24 months, or higher end handsets from before then, e.g. Nokia 8910.

Depending on the handset used, I found it wasn’t picked up automatically when turned on, but if you pressed the call button, it would connect to the handset, and then (or after another press) be ready to receive a voice dial command, assuming you have set up voice dials for some of your contacts. When the headset was powered off, the display on the handset would reflect the disconnection. See the footnote below for a bit more detail.

It also claims to provide 250 standby hours, and 5 hours talk time – I imagine like most specs, these are under ideal or lab conditions, and that the real world specs are probably 15-20% less. Even so, that’s pretty darn good and if you're like me, you’ll probably plug it in every night and buy the car charger if you spend 4+ hours a day talking on the phone as part of your job dictates.

In terms of use, the headset is very light, easy to adjust, and comfortable for long stretches.

The call quality can vary – one recipient of a call from me thought I sounded like I was in a tunnel. Another I asked, said I was very clear but a little low. Now, this call happened to be in the house as a test, with no or very little background noise to overcome. Therefore, if I had to guess, I’d say the output of the microphone could do with being enhanced a bit. On calls made and received, the other person sounded very clear and as with most Bluetooth headsets, if the phone doesn’t have a clear line-of-sight to the headset, interference sets in. It wasn’t too bad, but enough distortion and crackling to require you to listen harder to understand what the other person was saying. On reflection, it was no more than other headsets of a similar ilk, but just a bit more than my Motorola HS-850.

The Bluetake BT400 G5 has a much better volume level than the Motorola headset, in fact, it could be said it has too much. Certainly, in a noisier car/van, this would be appreciated, but it might come at the expense of having to almost shout so as the person on the other end of the phone could hear you due to the lower microphone level and any background noise not cancelled by the headset. Going back a few months to a time when I was in such as scenario, the Motorola HS-850 also suffered in this regard, so if you do drive a typical diesel van/car with not much by the way of absorption, then be prepared to raise you voice.

One other aspect of the headset that may prove of interest to some users is the fact that the BT400 G5 can be used with your computer. If you use anything along the lines of MSN Messenger, NetMetting, Skype, etc on Windows, or iChat AV on Mac OS X.3 or above, then you will be able to use said headset for the purpose of chatting to friends/family/etc over the internet.

From an aesthetic point of view, the BT400 G5 is a nice design, and is a suitable size for both sexes to use without making you feel like you're some sort of freak or alien with this “thing” on your ear. By comparison to the wired earpieces some people use, Bluetooth® is (in my opinion) a much more user-friendly method of safely using your handset whilst driving. No wires to be caught up on or yanked out when changing gears.

So, for the money the Bluetake BT400 G5 asks, it certainly is one I feel is a steal, and proves that some generally unknown brands bring something to the table other than simply “me too” status. Quite frankly, there are other headsets for twice the price that would not be much (if any) better than the Bluetake BT400 G5 is.

It’s not the perfect headset, but providing Bluetake continue to walk the path this headset is pointing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see their name mentioned more and as first choice compared to the established brands.

If you feel this could be the headset for you, then you’ll find more details and pricing at http://www.eurosimm.com/sites/eurosimm.nsf/details.jsp?ItemCode=LDNP-6ASJPC

* As a footnote, the list of handsets supporting the BT400 G5 is a lot less than what actually does.

My time was primarily spent with my 3 Motorola E1000 and Nokia 8910i. I’d presume my Motorola V600 would be as equally adept at pairing with the headset as the E1000 does.

Review by - PJ Skelton

Published - 18/06/2005

More Bluetooth Headset Reviews-

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