Motorola HS850 - Bluetooth Headset review

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Motorola briefing covering the evolution of Bluetooth. At the end of the presentation Motorola handed out bags full of its latest Bluetooth products. In the bag was a plethora of Bluetooth goodies, but it was the new top of the range headset that instantly caught my eye.

The HS850 is so new, that the review sample I received did not ship in a retail package – it was simply sealed in a bubble wrap pouch. Of course, since the HS850 represents a natural evolution of the HS810, Motorola was kind enough to supply one of those as well, so I was able to use the power supply to charge the HS850.

Now, I drive to work and back every day, so I rely on my Bluetooth headset to stay in contact and keep myself legal. I had previously been using a Sony/Ericsson HBH-60 Bluetooth headset, which worked perfectly with my old Sony/Ericsson T610, but had severe problems working with my K700i. With this in mind, I was keen to try out the HS850 and see how it performed with a Sony/Ericsson phone rather than a Motorola one.

The HS850 is a great looking headset, finished in subtle black with silver detail. It’s also very small and light, and will easily slip into your pocket unobtrusively when you’re not using it. One of the reasons that the HS850 appears so small, is that the boom microphone flips open and closed, so when you’re not using the device it’s very compact.

Without a doubt, the best feature of the HS850 is that flipping open the microphone turns the unit on and instantly connects it to your phone. At the briefing, a Motorola spokesman stated that the HS850 had potentially limitless standby time because you could leave it switched off and just flip open the microphone when you hear your phone ringing. I have to say that I was a little sceptical about this, since most Bluetooth headsets I’ve used take a while to connect to their paired phone when you switch them on, which would probably result in you missing the call by the time the headset and phone were talking to each other. However, I was proved soundly wrong when I started using the HS850. After pairing the device with my K700i phone, I switched it off and had a colleague call me. When the phone started ringing I picked up the HS850, flipped it open and clipped it to my hear – within a few seconds it had connected to my phone and taken control of the call.

Unlike many Bluetooth headsets, the earpiece on the HS850 doesn’t sit inside your ear – instead it sits against your ear with rubber cushioning to keep it comfortable. The ear clip can be switched around so that you can mount the headset on either ear. It also flips forwards to make it easy to place on your ear, even if you wear glasses.