The Motorola HS850 does have some rather boastful claims, firstly the interoperability which if true would be a vast improvement on the HS820 and secondly on standby time. As the HS850 is switched on by swivelling the microphone boom into place Motorola claim that the headset can be left switched off and then only turned on when required, thus giving a potential standby time of weeks.

This is quite some claim, our experience of Bluetooth headsets and indeed the Bluetooth protocol has been a frustrating one with lost connections and paired devices refusing to work on occasion, the Motorola range of equipment has been the pickiest of all often failing to function apart from when paired with other moto kit. So the thought of being able to switch on when the phone is ringing and get a connection did have us chuckling, so we ripped open the bubble wrap and clamped the HS850 to LP's ear and paired the phone and LP's V600, next we switched off the HS850 and range LP's phone. After one ring we switched on the headset by opening the boom, there is now only 5 rings before voicemail kicks in, after 2 more rings (3 in total) the headset pairs and answers the call, we were shocked.

We tested this repeatedly with Moto phones and found it to be bombproof you really can leave the Motorola HS850 switched off and be able to take calls within 3 rings, its difficult to gauge what difference this makes to standby life but in the week we had the HS850 there was no need to recharge. testing with a Sony Ericsson K700i was similarly impressive, firstly the headset worked well with the SE phone no dropped connections and it held the pair and much to our disbelief the standby mode worked just as well.

On the nuts and bolts stuff the Motorola HS850 supports both the newer Bluetooth 1.2 standard which reduces power consumption and gives better link quality and the older 1.1, Motorola claim that it gives 8 hours talk time and 200 hrs if left in boom down standby mode.

Its is comfortable but Motorola have moved away from an in ear section meaning the rubberised ear surround clamps the unit to the side of your ear rather then relying on sticking something into it, while this is comfortable and easier if you wear glasses it does make for a less secure fitting and a tendency to flap against your head.

Priced at £59.99 the Motorola HS850 is a bit more than your average Bluetooth headset but it does have so much more to offer, the standby feature alone is worth the extra plus the move the bluetooth1.2 and a quite stylish unit all adds up to a good deal.

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