Customer Reviews

IOGEAR GBMH211W6 - Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Headphones with Built-In Microphone

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I am a data center technician and have long been frustrated that I was never able to listen to music without a headset but when I would do that I suddenly lost the ability to hear things such as IMs or my cell phone ringing. Of course you can only pair a bluetooth headset with one device -- until now.

I easily paired these headphones with my MacBook and my BlackBerry Pearl and they do exactly what they say. I can listen to music through iTunes and have the ability to hear IM alerts and such and I can control the music volume and track as well as play/pause all from the headset it's self. If a call comes into my cell phone these headphones automatically pause the music on my computer and allow me to take the call and will unpause the music whenever the call is complete. I am also able to place a call using voice dialing without going near my computer or my phone. The way this is able to work is these headphones support 2 different bluetooth profiles. One is the headset profile and the other is the headphone profile. Your cell phone will pair with the headset profile and your laptop with the headphone profile.

Aside from the incredible advantage that the above options provide the headphones are very comfortable and they sound great. I'm sure if your an audiophile who swears by Bose you will probably find something wrong with the quality but for what the normal mobile person uses these types of things for I think they far excel. Being surrounded by thousands of computers has always been an issue for me with the background noise but I am able to hear music just fine and I've had a couple conversations on the phone using these that the other party had no issue hearing me.

And beyond all of that... the battery life is AWESOME. I used these for about 8 hours in the data center and had it paired with both devices the whole time.... at least 7 hours of that was with music playing and when I left for the day the headphones gave no indication that the battery was running low. Oh.... and range is far better than any bluetooth headset I have used with my phone.... I've gone well over the 30ft range that it claims and the connection was still stable.... and this is in a building where the 2.4ghz spectrum is quite crowded.

The microphone gain on these is very low. You will have to yell for the other end to hear you! They are also not great if you plan on using them during active workouts since they are a bit too heavy to stay on the ear. THEY DON'T USE A STANDARD USB connector to charge! I HATE that - yet another cable to carry around. Forget about it!

Look at the Kensington bluetooth stereo headphones with microphone to solve both problems. Don't buy the Motorola ROKR S9 - they are flawed and will break! I had to return two sets.

UPDATE!!!!!!! --- DO NOT BUY!

these were promising at first.
they were so great i bought a second pair!

Unfortch the plastic clip broke on both sets, and the 1st set no longer holds a charge. I've only had it for 8 months!

i would change the rating if i could folks!
unless u want to buy a new pair in 8 months I suggest you find a different headset.

sorry all :(

my first review is below
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
the iogear wireless stereo headphones are all they promise and more.

for cell phones:

the pros: same as computer, plus

- alerts you to incoming calls
- great clearity both for voice and music

phone cons: none. easy to hook up with a2dp phones


for computer:

the pros:

- great sound quality
- great range
- adjustable fit and stays on the ear even when exercising! which is a suprise because they are around ear headphones (they clip on to your ear).


the cons:

- you most likey have to update to the newest bluetooth stack for your system and make sure the "check scms-t" is disabled. if your great with computers than it's worth the extra time to find a bluetooth stack, upgrade and install the package (these are free) if you are not computer savy i suggest you don't buy this product.

- customer support for this item is non existant, being lazy i contacted them but they were unaware of the problem and offered no assistance. this is a common problem for bluetooth. scms-t is a copyright protection check and if a product hasn't been reviewed by and passed the bluetooth copyright standards than you will get this error on any bluetooth accessory you add to your computer. good thing is companies are listening and chances are if you have a computer that is about 6 mo. or newer you will only have to make sure the check scms-t in disabled under your bluetooth settings. otherwise you'll have to completely uninstall your current stack and then reinstall the new stack.

- as for fit i read alot of reviews that people who wear glasses have problems with around ear headphones and these ARE around ear headphones so that may be a problem for you. i don't wear glasses so i don't know.

recap:

for cell phones:

- its a great product buy it

for computers:

- if uninstalling a your bluetooth software and upgrading to a new version doesn't scare you then buy it, these are by far the best i've seen.

- if your not good with computers you may want to rethink buying these

I purchase one of these in Aug 2008 and it would not charge. Amazon replaced it with no problem. I use it very seldom, and the sound was good, but I probably have not got 10 total hrs on it because the ear pieces hurt after about an hour of use. Today I decided to charge it and left the house. It was plugged into a USB extender with external power. While I was gone the unit heated up smoked and melted. It set off the smoke alarm and my son was home and unplugged it. It took out the adapter also. In any case it did not hurt my PC USB port since the power was external. Lucky me! In any case I would not recommend this product. Amazon has always been good and I purchase a lot of items so no complaint with Amazon, just the headset. It could have been a lot worse if it had caught fire and spread. Dangerous product in my opinion.

I use these with my ipod, and they work great. They don't use a standard mini usb charging cable - I hate that!! Another cable to bring everywhere!! The sound quality is good, they are loud enough for my needs. They work well with the sony ipod bluetooth transmiter, and have built in controls for volume and search that work well also. The range is 20-30 ft, and they are comfortable to wear for long periods of time. I used them with my Blackberry Flip phone, and had to speak up some in order to be heard, so the mic is weak, and since it's built in to the earpiece, it's probably just too far away. These are a good purchase for listening to music.

I wanted a bluetooth stereo headset primarily for the gym. I did not want to carry my phone and mp3 player, and I really wanted to lose the wires. After some digging, I bought these cuz they were cheap. I've taken them to the gym 3 times and so far they've been great. Easy to sync with my cell phone, the one chord that wraps around doesn't bother me, sound is very good, and they are fairly light. The ear clip keeps them on the ear nice and snug, they never feel like they are going to fall off. I even tried them on the treadmill, and to my surprise they didn't fall off, or flop around. Bear in mind that I was only on the treadmill for about 10 minutes, but I did run fast for those 10.

I goofed around with making and receiving calls as well. The music fades out when receving a call, and fades back in after the call is over. The sound on my end was good, and the sound on the other end was fine too.

Overall I really am glad I purchaed this one, for now. I've only had these for one week, so we'll see how durable these things are, but for $30 and free shipping to Hawai'i, I am not complaining.

The headphones work well, I have only had the sound cut out for a second a few times, but I am pretty sure the problem is with my cell phone. Otherwise the sound is great, and they feel comfortable and stay on your ears even while running or exercising.

If its a calm place and you are not moving much then this device works gr8. But when you go out it totally fails you. Even if there is no wind, the music or the voice always gets stuck.
Not at all good for outdoor use and pretty disappointed with it.
It works great with both computer and phone, if you are inside the house

These headphones have very, very low volume and transitively terrible quality music. You can't expect much from low end wireless headphones but I would suggest you order the Insignia Wireless headphones, whether you get them for 10 bucks used on here or retail for 25 bucks more than this pair. It's worth it even in that case. These headphones are just no good.

They do everything they claim to, and maybe the maximum decibel capacity is even listed here, but I didn't see it, and I was very disappointed. You cannot passionately listen to any music at this volume, and volume aside the music gets fuzzy during any slightly loud part of a song. Might be okay volume for talking on the phone, but even then I suspect I'd keep asking my friends to repeat themselves. Really-- the max volume is THAT low on these bashful little wastes of money.

Go with these if you want low-end wireless headphones for music: Insignia Stereo Bluetooth Headphones NS-BTHDP With those, you can't switch between phone and music as you can with the Iogears, but some of us can't live without music at all. You can't have music with these headphones.

I'll also note that I haven't damaged my hearing with loud music or anything, my hearing is fine every time I get tested and has gotten no worse. It's not me, it's the headphones.

According to their website this will work with an LG Fusic. It won't. I spent about 6 hours, really, on the phone with Sprint, LG, and IOGEAR. They said the product was defective. Amazon sent a replacement, no trouble, except that this one still wouldn't work with the phone. It worked for calls, but not MP3 playback. My major issue was the terrible customer service from IOGEAR. I will never buy another IOGEAR product! Which is a shame because the stuff they have looks cool = All Flash, No Substance.
Amazon was great about taking back both products, even though I had thrown away the box on one. They refunded my money. Don't buy IOGEAR, but buy from Amazon! Check out their grocery prices, they're better than my local stores.