Customer Reviews

Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset Grey

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have had my Motorola HS850 (Black) for over 8 months and have been using it with my Motorola V3 RAZR (Black) for the duration. Currently I am waiting for a replacement HS850 from Motorola (free of charge), I sent it back to them a few days ago. I will try to make this a detailed enough review so you can know what to expect if you get one of these.

Beware that a wireless hands free can significantly increase your phone time since it is so easy to use. Before I had a wireless hands free I used my cell phone for about 1000 min a month. With my HS850 it increased to 3000 - 4000 min a month.

It is my opinion that the HS850 was not designed for such heavy use. The HS850 worked great for about 4 months, but problems became unmanageable by 8 months. If you are a light cell phone user and know that you will remain a light user I would highly recommend the HS850. If you are a heavy cell phone user or think that getting a wireless hands free will significantly increase your cell phone usage I would recommend you consider a higher quality more heavy duty hands free wireless.

The good:
Extremely easy to use
Does not pick up much wind noise in light wind.
Other party can hear you very well
Extremely long battery life. 8 hrs advertised, I got up to about 6 hrs.
Very comfortable on your ear. You can forget that it is there.
Easy ON/OFF and storage with the folding boom.
I give high points to Motorola customer service. They stand behind their product.

The bad:
Poor build quality. (I think it is made in China like everything else these days)
Hangs pretty loose on your ear. (Don't try to jog with it on)
The blue beacon lights up the room at night.
The shroud around the speaker that funnels the sound into your ear wears out easily.
Hard to hear in semi-noisy environments. Marginal in the car.
Folding boom is its greatest weakness. ON/OFF boom switch will eventually wear out with much use.

My total HS850 experience is as follows: I absolutely loved my HS850 for the first 4 months. I had virtually no problems. Following the first 4 months I started experiencing connectivity problems. With greater frequency it would drop my calls and/or my V3 RAZR would signal that my HS850 Bluetooth signal was weak. At about the 6 month point the HS850 started drop calls and become unresponsive at times requiring it to be placed on the charger for a few seconds to reset it even though it already had a full charge. Obviously this was a show stopper if I was not close to a charger. At 8 months the HS850 began to be completely unresponsive, it only worked with lots of luck and many tries to reset the unit. When the unit did work, dropped calls became much more frequent and they were often accompanied by a loud but short feed back burst.

Conclusion: Due to my heavy use of the product my experience with the HS850 was obviously accelerated. If you are to be a light user I would guess you can expect about 1 to 2 years of problem free use from the HS850. Well worth your $60. If you expect to be a heavy user of your hands free wireless I would suggest you shop for something more heavy duty.

My boyfriend and I each got one of these in the hopes that it would end our search for a good bluetooth headset. We thought, cool design, good price, Motorola... Didn't quite work that way.

We both agree that the unit is relatively comfortable, and the flip-out boom is a neat feature - makes for a very small unit when not in use. The buttons are also easy to use, and pairing is simple. Having the boom flip be the on/off is also a nice feature.

Unfortunately, the thing that really matters - sound - isn't there. Even in my luxury SUV, I can barely hear anyone at freeway speeds, with the volume at max. He's got a sportier (read: noisier) SUV, so he can hear even less. We also both feel that fit has a lot to do with this. I, for one, ended up pushing the thing up against my ear, which improved the volume. The earpiece won't hold the unit in this position, though.

So, both units will be going back where they came from this weekend. :(

This is an outstanding bluetooth headset. It connects immediately with my Motorola RAZR cell phone. What I like most is that the arm is the on/off mechanism. Open the arm and the bluetooth turns on and connects. Close the arm when you're done and it turns off. This is easier than the Motorola 500 headset.

I have used this for over a year now with few problems, which I suppose qualifies it as better than average for a headset. It has proven reliable in light use and the comfort, if not great, is acceptable.

However... I am hard of hearing and do not use a hearing aid. When I max up the volume to make the incoming caller more audible, I get complaints from the caller that they hear an echo of their own voice coming back to them. My own voice, they say, is just fine, but the echo of their own voice is annoying. The rubber sound shield, which surrounds the phone's speaker and is supposed to prevent this, is simply too small to fill the gap between the phone and my ear; there is no isolation at all.

I have had an HS810, which has been replaced with the HS850, for 2 and 1/2 years. It is still works great. I am a heavy user, and almost never use my actual phone to talk. Now the rubber part of the earpeice is falling apart. I also have 2 small children whom sometimes handle and play with my earpeice. It has been misused and abused over the years. The range works well. Once I was in my bedroom when my phone rang and I finished my conversation and realized my phone was in my car in the garage. I would say it was at least 30ft away. I only wish the HS850 wasn't so big. I guess the H700 is the perfect fix for that, however I tried it and have gone back to my HS810!!

I love this headset. It's comfortable, works well, has great audio. I tried the cardio but it was terrible, so uncomfortable. I am very pleased with the Motorola HS850

The Motorola HS850 is one of the worst built pieces of equipment that I have ever encountered. We bought 4 units as a trial for our field personnel: 2 of them arrived with faulty boom switches, one had a failed power supply after a week, and the other 2 had faulty boom switches in less than a month of use. The mechanism that switches the device on and off via the boom is flimsy and if not highly unreliable immediately, it will become so after moderate use.
Our technical department had the displeasure of repairing one of the headsets and were disgusted by the build and design quality.

I'm not the kind of person who usually writes products reviews, but wish I had read a review like this before I ordered the Motorola product.

Needless to say we will not be buying in this Motorola product for our staff!

I ordered this product from Amazon and they shipped me a gray one! This may sound really high maintenance but when I order a product that says black headset...I expect a black headset.

However, the headset works well.