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Controls are made simple. There’s no need to press any buttons to turn the HS850 on, since flipping the microphone open takes care of that. Pressing the centre-mounted silver button will allow you to voice dial, if you’ve setup voice dialling on your phone of course. Likewise, if you have the headset open and on your ear when a call is received, pressing this button will answer it. There are also two silver buttons on either side of the device to control the volume level.

Sound quality from the HS850 is first rate, and far superior to my old Sony/Ericsson headset. Not only is the sound output great, but I no longer have friends telling me that my voice is breaking up when I’m talking to them, as often happened with my old headset. Part of the reason for the solid signal quality is that the HS850 is a Bluetooth 1.2 device, whereas most headsets on the market only comply to the Bluetooth 1.1 standard.

One of the main advantages of Bluetooth 1.2 is Adaptive Frequency Hopping. Since Bluetooth shares the same frequency as many other devices like WiFi adapters, Adaptive Frequency Hopping allows the device to monitor other traffic and avoid channels that are already in use. The other big plus point with Bluetooth 1.2 is faster device connection, which is borne out by how quickly the HS850 connects to my K700i after I’ve flipped the microphone open.

Battery life is pretty impressive, with eight hours talk time and up to 200 hours standby from a full charge. For my uses at least, I only have to charge the HS850 once a week, and even then it’s far from run down.

Considering the attractive design, superb performance and cutting edge Bluetooth 1.2 support, I expected the HS850 to carry a very high price tag. I was however, very pleasantly surprised when I found it on sale for only £64.95 including VAT. In fact, the HS850 isn’t widely available yet, and even the supplier I found is only taking pre-orders, so there’s a chance that the price could become even more competitive when volume stock arrives.

One thing is for sure though, this is an excellent Bluetooth headset and Motorola should be commended for managing to create an innovative and well designed device at a great price.

Verdict

The Motorola HS850 is, without a doubt, the best Bluetooth headset I have ever used. This device makes it simpler than ever to use your mobile phone without ever having to take it out of your pocket. It’s also small, light, beautifully designed and competitively priced. If you’ve got a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone, you want one of these.

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