However, do not be fooled into thinking that these Bluetooth cans are just for music, they also double us as a fully featured Bluetooth hands free system ideal fro the new generation of music phones which support the required control profiles. Pairing the stereo headphones is the first task and one achieved by holding the power button until the LED flashes blue and red then enter the pairing key of 8888 when requested by your mobile or PC Bluetooth dongle.

Slide the Sagem SH1's onto your head and although they are quite weighty you soon realise that the padding and neck band are very comfortable and the covering of the headphones offers some audio isolation even through they are an open backed design. The main MFB (multi function button) switches the unit on with a tone and also this activates a small flashing blue LED on the right-hand earphone. There are also a set of volume controls which adjust the audio level of both playback stereo audio and mobile phone calls.

With the headphones paired to our test Nokia we got started with replay tests using pre stored MP3 files from the phones SD memory card, we also tested with a Sagem mobile that supports the AD2P profile required for good stereo audio transmission. First up the standard Nokia did work and managed around 8 meters from the headset a bit short of the claimed 10 meter range of the headphones but probably a more real life distance. However the audio quality was frankly poor sounding muddy and not much better than someone playing a CD down a phone call. We hoped that this was due to the limited audio support of the standard headphone profile used by the Nokia.

So connecting the SH1 to a Sagem My700x handset that supports AD2P should produce better results right? well almost, certainly the sound was now stereo and not as muddy or murky as with the Nokia but the audio still seems a bit limited and lifeless. We have found in the past that a Bluetooth link which is limited by the standard to just 1mbit/s of data transfer can struggle to carry an audio stream, but this seemed just too limited. We were unable to test with a PC as we were without a Bluetooth dongle that supported AD2P and we can only hope that the slightly disappointing audio quality is due to the capability of a mobile music player.

The internal battery can be charges from either a Sagem mobile phone charger or the supplied mains adaptor set-up, the battery is good for a reported 150 hours on standby and we managed to get just over 6.5 hours of replay when in stereo headset mode. When working in audio mode mobile phone calls can also be taken, the MFB operates as an answer / end call key and the volume buttons work as expected. As a hands free system it works very well and any worries we had about microphone placement were unfounded calls were clear and loud and our callers said we sounded equally understandable.

So in essence the Sagem SH1 Bluetooth headphones are a good hands free system but a so so stereo headphone system, perhaps they work better with a Bluetooth dongle but in A2DP mode they failed to delivery the quality we expected. Priced at around £50 they would be quite keen if they fully delivered on their spec.

Published - 27/08/2006

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