Customer Reviews

Motorola Bluetooth Stereo Headphones for MOTOROKR S9 (Black) [Retail Packaged]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I've been looking for a long time to buy Bluetooth stereo headphones for the workouts in the gym - I got tired of having to deal cords that would get tangled up during the workouts or would become a mess in the gym bag. When this model came out I jumped at the opportunity to buy them since they were the first stereo Bluetooth headset with a form factor that is appropriate for wearing in public. (Most of the other ones are too big and just scream "Look at me, I am a dork!") And since I bought them a little over a year ago, I have been extremely satisfied with them - for the most part. Here are a few pros and cons that I have come up with.

Pros:

1. Comfortable enough for a daily workout. Even with my moderately large head, I did not have much of a comfort issue with wearing them every day for a couple of hours. I would not recommend wearing them for more than three hours in a row though. But that would be the case with most headphones anyways.
2. Easy setup. I had no problem connecting them to either my cell phone/mp3 player or my laptop.
3. Decent range. As long as there is an uninterrupted line of sight between the linking device and the headset, you can use them on the other side of a large room or a smaller gym. Comes in handy when working out and don't want anything attached to any part of your body.
4. Decent music playback sound.
5. Decent battery life. For a relatively small device like this one, it was pleasing to find out that it did not have to be recharged more than a couple of times a week with standard use.
6. As a phone earpiece it is useful to have around the head headset because it improves stability a lot. All of my other earpieces fall out of my ears way too easily.
7. Being transferred from the mp3 player to the phone when receiving an incoming call is really useful and cool. This works with iPhone as well.

Cons:

1. It would be really useful if these headphones were collapsible. In that case they could be taken with you in your pocket almost anywhere you go. Plus, it would avoid dangers of having them twisted while stored in your bag.
2. Touch-sensitive controls are too sensitive and very, very small. It took me a while to get used to them.
3. The stereo feature works only for music. When using them for calling, only the left earpiece delivers sound, which is sort of weird. This takes some time to get used to.
4. For some reason, when I linked them to my laptop, they got de-linked with my cell-phone. I had to go through the whole process again to have them back in the desired configuration.
5. When using it with iPhone, the track-skipping buttons don't work.
6. When using it with iPhone, the headphones don't work with all applications. This turned out to be annoying and inconvenient when I tried using them with Skype.

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago one of the touch-sensitive controls broke, and now I can't decrease the volume. This is really annoying because other than that they still work great. I tried sending them back to Motorola, but apparently they don't fix products that are bought through Amazon, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE BRAND NEW! This is extremely annoying to say the least. I decided to buy a new pair, and found another one on Amazon for $40. (If at the moment all the available ones are more expensive than that, you may want to wait a bit.) Since this price is about 2.5 times cheaper than what you could get in any AT&T store, it seems to me a worth-while investment. I am now on my third pair, but I figured that paying about $40 a year for something that I get to use every day is worth it.

This is my third set of these in about 19 months. If they weren't the most convenient way for me to run with my cell phone and listen to music at the same time without bothersome wires, I would never have purchased the 3rd set. Both of the previous sets still work, but, lost their ability to control music volume....at a level that was just low enough that you could barely hear it. I hope this one lasts longer. Another drawback is not knowing how much charge is in the battery. I typically recharge mine after every third run (approx. 2 1/2 hours of music). Good luck.

I have had only good results with my Motorola S9. I use it daily with my iTouch. The battery lasts @ 4-5 hours with the volume about 50%. Recharge takes about 2 hours when fully dead. I have gotten a range of 40 feet with the S9 and iTouch.

I am a runner and have been using these headphones for the past four years with different devices on the treadmill in the gym as well as outdoors. Currently I use them with my iPhone 4S, with which this headset paired effortlessly. However I am now on my third headset.

After about a year the battery did not seem to be holding a charge, and I got a replacement headset. I see from other reviews that other people have also had some battery issues, though I have no idea how widespread that is.

Soon after getting that replacement I started going to a gym where the treadmill area was not well ventilated and tended to be humid. I got drenched in sweat and so did the headset. The volume control stopped working (it was stuck on the highest volume) and there was static coming out of one of the ear buds. Fortunately it was not too late to get another free replacement from the store where I purchased them.

I note that all electronic items can be "zapped" by moisture unless they are specifically designed to be water resistant. It appears that this headset is not. It never was an issue for me until I started running indoors at my first gym. I have since switched gyms, and my new gym is well ventilated. I also wear the Buff (which I have reviewed on Amazon) when I run. Since this covers my entire head and is great for absorbing sweat, including sweat on the back of my neck, the sweat is no longer an issue for me.

Note: If you want a corded headset to use when sweat will be an issue, I suggest the Sennheiser PMX 70, which I have reviewed on Amazon.

In any event, my latest headset has been working just fine for the past three years.

Before purchasing this headset, you should keep some things in mind.

First, depending on what device you use, it may be necessary to buy a separate blue tooth adapter (I had to do that when I used this headset with an iPod).

Second, if you wear glasses, it works best to put the headset on first and the glasses on second. The glasses won't fit quite as snugly as they normally do, but for exercise it will be fine. I found that if I put my sunglasses on first, the headset did not fit as snugly in my ears, with a resulting loss in sound. The same thing applies if you wear a headband or bandana--put the headset on first.

Third, since the headset is curved in the back, if you wear anything with a collar that sticks up in the back, the collar will push against the headset, which will come slightly out of its position in your ears. So wearing the headset with a ski jacket won't work very well. With a thinner collar, you will occasionally have to reposition the headset as the collar pushes against it. Also, if you wear a ski hat to run, you will not be able to pull it down over your ears.

Fourth, because of the back of the neck design, you will not be able to use this headset comfortably to lay on your back (like on a blanket at the beach, a couch in your den, a chaise lounge by the pool) or to sit in a reclining position with your head back (like in a car or airplane). Likewise you will need to remove it to use certain equipment at the gym, like the situp bench.

All in all I am very satisfied with this product now that I have resolved the sweat issue.

My daughter uses her for her iPod Touch. She charged it fully and used them right away. She says they music quality is great and she loves that there are no wires to tangle/untangle. I hope they last longer than the previous reviews.

I was super reluctant to go with the S9 knowing the newer S10 has been out in the market for a while. I'm sure it goes against anyone's norm to shell out for the previous generation of a product. But from the overwhelmingly negative reviews given to the S10, I took a chance and went for this little gem. So far I've been quite pleased with my decision. Sound quality is great, controls are simple enough to remember/find/select, overall quality is pretty sturdy and doesn't feel cheap. It paired immediately with my Motorola Droid X simply by powering it on and identifying it from my phone. It's practically 'plug-n-play' straight from the box (or in this case, pair-n-play). Soon as you turn it on and find it from your device, it automatically connects (at least in my case) without having to navigate various Bluetooth menus. I did somehow prompt the screen to input the pairing code once, but I had already paired it prior without doing that step, so not sure if it was even necessary.

In terms of fit, I have a relatively big noggin (fitted-cap size: 7.5), but that hasn't been an issue. One negative so far is one I expected before even purchasing, which is lack of comfortability while wearing my glasses. I'm a "who needs contacts?" kind of guy, and have suffered for it in multiple ways, the majority of which have always been with athletic activities. I mainly purchased this headset for jogging and yardwork, but like I said, I knew my glasses would pose an issue before I bought them. Having said that, the best workaround I've found is simply to put the headset in first, then rest the legs of my glasses above the rim that goes over your ear. Feels a bit iffy when you're looking down (my glasses have slipped off my face at least once), but for the most part, the benefit of being able to cancel out the roaring engines of my lawn equipment with music has made it totally worth it. And rest assured, despite what some reviews may say, it WILL drown out any sound outside of the ear buds so long as you fit them correctly. Putting them over the legs of my glasses caused heavy strain around my ear and the buds never really fit all the way inside, making it unbearably uncomfortable and unusable since I could barely hear out of them.

In terms of sound, like other reviewers have mentioned, the device does get finicky as soon as you step outdoors. I mainly use mine to jog, and I typically pace each stride and breath along with whatever song is playing at the time, so it can get extremely annoying when the daggum thing keeps blanking out like it loses signal to my phone. Indoors I've been able to pretty much walk anywhere in the house and leave my phone in a centralized area without a single break in sound. Even when I keep my phone in the recommended area for best signal strength, it still tends to skip as if I were listening to a scratched CD. Also, like was mentioned before, when you switch over to a phone call, for some reason it only plays out of the left ear piece, which can get kind of weird after listening to music out of both ears. Sound is decent, though I have had callers complain they couldn't hear me well if I walked too far away from my phone. I don't think I'd use it as my primary headset for phone calls. To me it's more of a convenience feature. Other than that, I have nothing else negative to say about this product.

Summarize:
Fits well over a moderately bigger head
Great sound quality (when it's not skipping/cutting off - mainly only does it outdoors)
Hard to fit well if you wear glasses, but doable nonetheless
Haven't experienced any trouble with sweat leaking into it, so I'm not 100% sure if it is or isn't sweat-proof, though I hope it is!!
Pairs immediately with device via Bluetooth with absolutely no hassle.
Not the greatest phone headset for making calls, but works considerably well.
I would definitely recommend this product and squash doubts of it being pre-gen technology.

I have gone through seven pairs of these in the past year and a half. The main reason I bought these was to have a nice set of headphones for running. The functionality is great when connected to my ipod or android phone. The problem lies with the design. Motorola advertises these as sweat proof but they are not. The sweat seems to seep into the unit and corrode the touch buttons. I have had a pair that the pause button went out. Not a huge deal as I don't use it that much. Then the volume button decided to stick and go to full volume whenever turned on. Got a new pair and the same thing happened with the next track button. It just kept advancing tracks every few seconds. I never run in the rain or subject them to anything besides a normal workout. If they would finally make them "sweat proof" like they claim, this would absolutely be a five star product.

I needed a relatively cheap headset for listening to music and making calls hands-free. This did the trick. Paired with an iPhone 4 it worked great. Sound was better than expected. Only downside was the track forward/reverse buttons don't change the track for me. (although they do make the "bleep" sound indicating they work.) So, maybe that's an iphone/pairing problem. Not a deal breaker for me.

I especially liked the ability to use the voice recognition to play music, make calls, etc. through the headset. Not a feature of this headset in particular, but cool that it worked.

I bought the Motorola DROID on drop day from Verizon Wireless. I couldn't be happier with my phone...except for diminished performance when attempting playback using the headphone jack. The quality is simply not what I expected from an otherwise exemplary phone.

Enter BT. Since I use my phone a lot for my music as well (mostly Pandora online radio, but also my own music as well as a few other online stations, including ShoutCast), and since I am a closet audiophile that prefers FLAC type files to anything else, using the headphone jack is simply not an option for me anymore. To get sound in my car, I opted for the Ridiculously easy to use MOTOROKR T505 Speakerphone / FM Transmitter, and it works beautifully, even in my 10 year old '99 Altima (with a cheap, probably 12 year old, Clarion Dual-DIN head unit). Once I realized that the quality was much better than I could have hoped for, and that I was not sacrificing my rich tones and flavors, I realized that I needed a comparable set of headphones for workouts, etc.

I originally bought these MOTOROKR S9 black on black headset b/c 1) It's stereo output, and 2) it also has a mic, meaning it is a true headset - I can listen to music *and* receive calls on it. They work great! Buttons on the side allowing for volume up / down, call answer, and hangup, and this means no interruption regardless of what I am doing. The earphones come with 3 different sized cushions and contrary to conventional wisdom, they are not really heavy on the ear, and neither are they painful to wear for long periods of time (I average 3-4 hours a day, every other day).

The ***only*** thing I found disadvantageous with this headset is the price - for another $7, I was able to return these and grab the S9 HD.

Obviously, the sound *quality* on the HDs is better - but don't let the regular S's fool you. They pack a powerful sound in their own right, and they work really, *really* well with the Motorola DROID. I recommend these to anyone who has a modern SmartPhone, particularly Android-based devices.

It works perfectly, without any complain. Great design. I could connect it with my cellphone (nokia e51), but the features of forward and rewind did not work. The rest was fine.