Smartphone Thoughts: Stick It In Your Ear...and Love It! A Review of The Helium Digital HD650 BT Headset

What's in the Package?
Helium has a reputation for quality packaging of their products and the HD-650 is no exception. The kit comes with all the usual accessories and a couple that I wasn't expecting, but which have proven to be very useful!

Figure 5: Here's a look at what comes in the package. From the top left, going clockwise is: Charger Stand; Headset; large and small(er) ear gels; phone attachment strap; neck strap with clip; and mini-USB wall charger.

Figure 6: A close-up of the the HD-650's charging stand. This is just over three times actual size for the unit -- so it's pretty small and light. There is a mini-USB port in the back (top of the picture), so you can use any USB-to-mini-USB cable to charge through any available USB-port as well.

The charger unit also is small and very light, so it can fit almost anywhere in your kit bag. Unfortunately, that's the rub -- another small, light object to carry around with you which can very easily get lost and without it, there isn't any way of recharging the headset.

The two spring-loaded contacts in the cavity of the base connect with metal tabs on the underside of the headset. You need quite a firm press on the headset to get it to click in properly, but at least you know it's seated. During charging, the LED on the front charges from steady red (charging) to steady blue (charged).

Performance
Using the headset is similar to almost every other unit on the market. (Things are so much easier when everybody agrees to a common interface!) Pressing on the black multi-function switch (MFS) above the HELIUM logo for about 5 seconds will power it on. Pressing and holding the MFS for a little longer (10 seconds) will place it in pairing mode, with the LED alternately flashing blue and red.

Pairing the HD-650 with my HTC Kaiser was dead simple, especially with WM6.1. One of the enhancements of the BT profile in the O/S is that for HST/HFT connections, the default '0000' key is assumed, so there is no need to fill this in to get the units to recognize each other. Just put the headset in pairing mode and then select it at the Bluetooth Manager screen, and away you go! After the initial pairing, just powering up the headset is all that's needed to get it connected. It lets you know it's connected via a short beep in the headset.

In use, the headset does everything very well. The listening volume is good for both indoor office use and outdoor walking around. It could have a little more top-end range for me, especially on noisier streets, but in 90% of the cases, it was fine. The MFB and the volume controls have a good, positive response to them, so you know when they've been activated and they respond with a gentle, but firm press. (Other units I've had required you to practically push the button through your skin to get it to activate!)

The tone of reproduced voices is very natural -- not too tinny or flat. I've used the headset to listen (monaurally) to music on the way home and it's OK, but the frequency range has definitely been tuned for the human voice.

When a call is received, the headset produces a 3-tone 'twiddle' sound as its ringtone. The tones are pleasant and are easily distinguishable from outside noise. If you are in vibrate mode on the phone, this becomes a single beep.

I've never heard myself over a headset, but according to my harshest critic of my 'toys' (my dear wife, Monica), this headset is one of the better sounding ones, in terms of naturalness of voice, clarity and volume. It's not as 'powerful' as speaking directly into the phone's microphone, but it's clean and clear. The only downside is noise cancellation. The HD650 is a little limited in this area. It does an adequate job with the office and low-level street sounds, but it cannot handle the wind noise while I'm pedalling along at 25km/h on my bike. Too bad. I just have to pull over and stop to take those calls.

Charging the battery from a dead start took just over an hour. So far, under what I would consider light-to-medium use (4 to 5 calls a day each lasting from 1 to 5 minutes) I've been able to go almost two weeks now without recharging the unit.

The neck strap was a bit new for me, as I hadn't seen one included with a headset before. It took a couple of tries to figure out how it attached, since it isn't covered in the manual.

Figure 7: Here's another shot of the side of the headset. I've removed the ear gel this time so you can see how the neck strap clips onto the unit.

With past headsets, I always had the problem of where to put them when I was talking face-to-face or in a meeting. Now, the neck strap provides a convenient place to store the headset while I'm 'off hook'.

Conclusions
The HD-650 has definitely attained 'everyday-wear' status for me. It's very comfortable for the whole day; has great listening tone and volume for the office or outside; and very clear voice quality (so I'm told). The neck strap is a real bonus for me, while I'm in meetings. The battery life is phenomenal and the price is reasonable. For me, this is definitely a keeper....

Don is an Associate Director with Fujitsu Consulting, responsible for the Enterprise Mobility practice.