This headset uses an easily replaceable AAA battery, providing up to 15 hours of talk time. This is the perfect accompaniment for those constantly on the road who can’t afford to be out of power to ensure they are legal and safe at all times or those who are simply forgetful or always in a rush. This product is also great value for its unique charging style and whopping Talktime. As a bonus its also got automatic power down when not in use to further extend it’s battery life.
- Talktime: up to 15 hours
- Standby Time: up to 450 hours
- Weight: 26g (including battery)
Price: From £18
2 Nokia HS-36W Bluetooth Headset
This wireless headset enjoys the classic Nokia design. So if you are looking for something with simple elegance this discreet headset will fit the bill. It’s comfortable to wear with an adjustable earloop, lightweight, extremely practical and great value for money.
Price: From £25
3 Nokia CP-68, 69, 70, 71, 74 Leather Cases
There is now a great array of quality Nokia carrying cases available to keep your mobile life safe, secure and protected. All the cases come with padded protection and the majority with belt clip and the option to attach horizontally or vertically. A great investment to ensure your phone keeps as new as the day you brought it.
Price: From £3
4 Nokia HS-6 Display Headset
Take calls and listen to music without touching your phone using the Nokia Display Headset. This elegant headset consists of stereo headphones and a single-line LCD display that gives you all the information you need to know about who’s calling or what song is playing-without taking your phone out of your bag. With a total of nine buttons for controlling the phone, radio, and MP3 functions, the Display Headset is easy to use and convenient to wear but light enough that it won’t weigh you down. Sounds good? Definitely!
- Weight: 40g
Price: From £25
5 Route 66 Mobile 7 (kit)
Make your phone into a highly desirable, fully equipped, business tool by introducing it to Mobile 7. Mobile 7’s navigation system has house number accuracy! After a short plug & play installation, turn-by-turn voice instructions and on-screen directions will guide you from your current position to the destination that you have entered. This non-stop FREE service helps you via dynamic routing to avoid traffic jams, road works or accidents. What’s more it’s a flexible and affordable addition to your phone.
Nokia version compatible with: Nokia 3230, 6260, 6600, 6630, 6670, 6680, 6681, 7610, N70, N90
Included in the sales package:
- Memory card (256 MB DV RS-MMC Mobile)
- Navigation software, geographic map and user manual (CD)
- Memory card reader/writer
- Bluetooth GPS receiver (SiRF Star III)
- In-car charger cable for GPS receiver
- ROUTE 66 lanyard
- Quick Start Guide
- Universal car mount for smartphone
Price: From £128
6 Sony Ericsson HCB-700 Bluetooth Car Handsfree
Truly handsfree call handling in the car! Simply say the phone number and the Voice Digit Dialling will dial it for you. The unique Caller ID display shows you the name and number of the person calling. For excellent safety you can mount the control unit so it’s within easy reach and attach the info unit at eye level making this a comfortable and convenient, and most importantly, much safer so you can focus on the traffic. You can also start handling calls from the moment you get into your car with the Bluetooth technology. Just turn the ignition key and you’re ready to make a call. You don’t even have to take your phone out of your pocket.
Price: From £80
7 Sony Ericsson HBH-PV700 Bluetooth Headset
The HBH-PV700 is the latest, must-have and affordable Bluetooth headset from Sony Ericsson. Compatible with the Bluetooth mobile phones of both Sony Ericsson and other phone brands its low weight and has an ergonomic ear hook that fits both ears. The cotemporary colours of a pastel lime and matt white make this product a refreshing change from all the black and grey currently on the marketing.
- Talktime: 5 hours
- Standby Time: 150 hours
- Weight: 23g
Price: From £29
8 Motorola H500 Bluetooth Headset (pink)
Bluetooth is definitely becoming an affordable piece of kit. The new H500 not only comes in a luscious pink but it presently has the longest Talktime of all Motorola Bluetooth rechargeable headsets. At last! – it’s one for the girly girls who also demand superior performance and good value from their Bluetooth headsets.
- Talktime: up to 8 hours
- Standby Time: up to 8 days
- Weight: 17g
Price: From £25
9 Plantronics Discovery 640 RRP around £70
Plantronics’ Discovery 640 is a Bluetooth headset that claims to have been “designed for the style-conscious consumer”. Certainly it looks pretty good, and it is one of the lightest Bluetooth headsets on the market at 9g. It comes with an innovative cradle charging system and top-up AAA battery, arrives in this neat packaging, has up to 15 hours talk time, and includes an incoming call vibrate alert. The user gets Bluetooth v1.2 with multipoint connectivity for seamless switching between Bluetooth enabled devices ; it works up to 10m from the Bluetooth partner.
10 Epson PictureMate RRP £99.99
There are a number of small low-cost photo printers on offer now, and mobile retailers could do worse than checking them out. They aren’t as technically demanding as conventional printers, typically being the hardcopy equivalent of a point-and-shoot camera – which means they fit well with the needs of the typical cameraphone buyer.
This is one of the soundest we’ve seen, the Epson PictureMate 100. You can use a memory card (there are slots for all the popular card formats), a USB or Pictbridge cable, or Bluetooth (extra cost option). It prints high-quality 10x15cm photos at the touch of a button, and they work out around 22p per pic.
And it’s easy to use. You switch it on, slot in the ink pack, drop a handful of paper into the tray and once the printer is charged (about 3 to 4 mins) you’re ready to go. The colour LCD preview monitor helps the user tweak the photo for position, colour balance and sharpness. But the PictureMate also comes with additional effects that can be added to photos directly from the preview screen with no need to go via a computer. For example, a border or frame can easily be added.
The carry handle and optional rechargeable battery pack mean that the user can print photos anytime and anywhere.
It’s not especially quick, but it is virtually idiot-proof and the print quality is excellent – most people wouldn’t know that the prints hadn’t come from Boots. And of course the user can leave the printer running off their photos while they go and do something more interesting.
Epson also has a PicturePack simplyfing purchasing (and selling!) consumables for the PictureMate. The PicturePack is a one-box solution that contains ink
and glossy photo paper – everything needed to produce 135 glossy photos for around £28.
11 Jabra SP500 Speakerphone RRP around £50
We’ve been using this Bluetooth speakerphone for some weeks now, and we were very happy to see it get the Mobile Business Accessory of the Year Award.
It looks a bit odd; other speakerphones tend to be flat slabs or round smoke-detector type discs. But in use it all comes together neatly. It clips fairly unobtrusively on to a car’s sun-visor, the swing-out microphone boom folds away discreetly when not required, and the slightly surprising weight (a chunky 170g, which may actually be too much for the flimsiest visor) has obviously gone into a quality speaker. This genuinely gives enough undistorted volume for the SP500 to double efficiently as a conference-call speakerphone back at the office, where the metal visor clip can be replaced by a three-point suction mount.
With rechargeable batteries, the SP100 claims to provide up to 12 hours of talk time and 20 days on standby; we actually got a little more than 20 days in testing. We also liked the automatic volume control, the dedicated instant-pairing button (it has Bluetooth v1.2 for multiple connections), and some neat little touches like the way the ‘unit live’ indicator LED turns off automatically one minute after an active call – to avoid distracting a driver at night. Thoughtful.
12 Pentax PocketJet 3 RRP around £300
Portable printers had a brief vogue a while ago, but they were noisy, slow and messy. If that’s your recollection, the Pentax PocketJet 3 will open your eyes – it offers slim, smart, easy-to-use design and efficient printing via Bluetooth from Symbian smart phones, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry devices and other hosts. Users on the move are genuinely free to print without the need to carry and connect cables.
What you get is 200/300-dpi high quality in an ultra-portable, ultra-package with USB or IrDA connectivity as an alternative to Bluetooth. It’s not an inkjet, so there’s no messy ink cartridges to replace; instead the printing technology is thermal, which means special (and expensive) paper. The Blackberry and Symbian links come via ThinPrint’s Content Beamer software; Pentax provides drivers for other systems.
13 Jabra JX10 RRP £99
Jabra announced the JX10 designer Bluetooth headset a few months ago, but it’s now shipping. It obviously aims to sell primarily on its looks: it was created by the renowned Danish design company Jacob Jensen to set a new standard in Bluetooth headset design. The result: a distinctively minimalist (and very European) shape with an elegant silver finish.
It’s also a decent headset, one of the smallest and lightest available – weighs less than 10g, measures less than 4cm in length. Fitting securely either with or without the thin and discreet ear-hook, users will barely notice they are wearing it.
There’s a one-touch button for convenient pairing, exceptional audio quality (thanks to DSP technology to reduce background noise and automatically volume adjustment), and a special carrying case. Users get up to six hours talk time and 200 hours standby. Charging is via the usual USB cable or a desktop charging cradle.
But it’s the style that matters. As the chief designer says: “When people put on the Jabra JX10 they will feel as though they are putting on a piece of jewellery, not just a Bluetooth headset”.
14 Movon RRP £29.99 via Elite Mobile
Before it decided to take on the Korean-made Movon headset, distributor Elite Mobile gave it to an independent evaluator – the product support specialist TMTI. The results were pretty stunning: for one thing, the Movon came out with one of the longest talk times on the market, averaging over 11 hours (a full hour more than the manufacturer’s own figure).
TMTI also gave the Movon top marks for its construction and durability, ease of use, comfort, overall audio quality and comparison with similar products on the market. It also highlighted several product features, including the easy-to-use multifunction button used for making and receiving calls and for pairing.
The TMTI report also commends the clarity of sound from both the speaker and microphone.
The Movon weighs 16g, links with almost any Bluetooth mobile phone, operates from up to 10m, and comes in black, silver and pearl white. Elite thinks that it is “probably the best quality, best value and best-featured Bluetooth headset we have ever marketed”.