Customer Reviews

i.Tech Solar Voice 908 Solar Charging OTE Bluetooth Headset (Blue, Silver ,Black)

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

 

 

I bought this headset to replace my Jabra BT8040 Bluetooth Headset which frequently crashes on power down (constant tone interrupts the shutdown tones). The crash seems to always happen when the audio between my iPhone 3G(s) and the BT8040 would get out of sync by several seconds, including after one pauses the "iPod" application playback.


Pros:

- Pairing went well

- A2DP audio clear, but...

- Exhibits the same audio delay as the BT8040, so that's likely an iPhone problem, which several Apple Store staff have attempted to gloss over.

- Solar charging at least seemed to work, after some prodding


The Cons have to be pretty bad for me to email Gizmos for Life for an RMA number the evening after I got the 908, so here they are:

Cons:

- As the instructions say, solar charging only happens with some pretty bright sunlight . Folks north of the Arctic Circle may find this a problem

- Through the 908, my iPhone 3G(s) had more problems interpreting my Voice Control commands than my BT8040. Microphone audio quality may be bad.

- DECEPTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY: From the photographs of this headset, I believe it had an in the ear design, without need for an earloop. I could *only* wear the headset using the earloop. I stopped using earloops because almost all of them irritated my earlobes.

- THE DEAL BREAKER: i.Tech decided to be different than the dozens of headsets from various manufacturers that I've owned. For Voice Dialing, instead of depressing the multi-function button for a second, you tap the Increase Volume control. Voice Dialing will only work when the headset is in standby mode. First off, I didn't read the instructions to find this out, so I spent quite a number of times turning the headset on and off instead of activating Voice Dialing. On the iPhone 3G(s), Voice Dialing is broadened to Voice Control, and means you can't make a call while at the moment listen to the iPod application.

I've now ordered a Jabra BT530 Bluetooth Headset to replace my BT8040 instead.

Oh, Gizmos for Life has great customer service people who could use more sleep. :) I sent in my request for an RMA after 9 PM Pacific Time on a Monday. They responded by quarter after 10 PM, which was past midnight for them in Oklahoma City.

Great product, battery lasts forever, sound quality is awesome! Definitely would encourage those who care about the environment to purchase this device.

I really liked the promise. I've forgotten to recharge my 4-year-old Motorola headset often enough that solar charging alone sold me on the Solar Voice, but it didn't work as expected. I let it charge fully off my computer, then gave it probably 8 good hours in a windowsill. Two days later, I didn't even get a one hour call out of it. I gave it a second chance--time next to a light bulb and another four hours in the sun, but it wouldn't even turn on...which wouldn't be so bad, but voices sounded worse than my 4-year-old headset--kinda crackly. The microphone seemed average.

2 stars because it would probably work reliably enough if plugged in, but the sound quality was still disappointing.

The product works fine as a bluetooth head-set, but it DOES NOT charge in sunlight, and is not solar powered as was claimed. Its a small and decent enough device for me to keep anyway, but the lack of solar charging is a sad shame. I doubt I would buy anything from i.Tech solar again due to the seeming lies and miss-representation of the product.

I sure hope the headset charges even while the green indicator ceases to blink. This is how the Iqua SUN worked. I replaced the SUN with this one due to fit issues which ultimately caused sound issues. If I were only to review the i.Tech SolarVoice on sound quality, fit, and features, I would give it 5 starts. It does what it says, and does it well. It even works with voice dialing on the 3GS. However, because I went out of my way for a solar headset, I expected it to charge more often off sunlight.