Motorola H500 Bluetooth Headset

I just recently had a trip from Washington to California come up, that I knew I was going to have to take alone and long duration drives are something, like most people, I need to be actively talking and keeping active in order to keep awake.

I found myself at a local mall buying a cell phone (Sony Ericsson z520A - which I will review another time) and after a few uses in my car I knew its volume and angle I was going to have to hold it at for a trip would simply 'not' work.

I'd taken a look at Fry's Electronics (my staple in life) but decided to look around a bit more and came across the Motorola H500 for $70 at the local Wal-Mart.

My first experiences with this device were honestly ones of frustration - I'm a geek by nature so when I can't typically get a device to work in the first 10 minutes of getting it home I get frustrated ;)

To save you the same frustration - press the button and the headset will blink a few times as it goes into its default on and slow blinking state... Then press and hold the button until the light holds a solid color. Once the headset is holding this solid light you can go to your phone and look up Bluetooth devices. After finally realizing these steps instead of blindly trying to get the phone to find the headset after simply turning it on and finding 'nothing' it was fast from here - it found the headset and requested the code, which is 0000 and wala, it linked right up.

You can either dial your phone normally at this point and be prompted to choose taking the call in the headset or in the phone - or you can do what I did and use the voice feature on your phone, adding voice commands for each person in your phone list. Given I bought this for a trip, I set everyone's name in the phone I thought I'd need and then to my surprise they worked like a charm... With my phone in my belt clip I'd press the button on the headset, it beeps a moment later, I say the name I'm trying to call, it repeats it to the phone's recognition system and dials the call. This feature worked perfectly at home and the calls were clear when using the headset up to about 20 feet away from the phone, even through multiple walls. Before the trip I'd even gone for a few drives to work and found the calls to be clear but ONLY if I had the headset in the 'correct' position. It should seem obvious, but when you're driving it seemed to be less than so for a new device - anyway, I'd found that when driving the headset tends to droop downward instead of being pointed between my mouth/nose where I hear it best so I was constantly realigning the headset to be able to hear - while this was annoying, it was easier than dealing with a phone and driving by any means.

Then something came up. I needed to pick up a car in CA when I drove down and had to take a diesel truck instead of my quiet van and car - the noise level in your vehicle will make using this device very hard at times. Imagine driving down the road, needing directions and trying your headset's voice calling and 20 times in a row you say the name after the beep and a few seconds later it beeps back letting you know it couldn't understand - frustrating. On many occasions I had to grab my phone and manually dial the call and tell it to send to headset which isn't the safest thing to do on a busy freeway! To top it off if you close the phone too fast after the caller picks up the phone/headset think the call is complete and disconnect - I'd had this happen about 4 times over a two day's drive and found myself holding the phone after dialing for at least 20 seconds into a call before closing it to avoid a hang up and also pulling over or slowing down to where it was quieter in the cab in order to dial (take that to mean I'd voice dial before leaving a rest stop and then start the truck).

All in all this headset works great as long as you're in a nice quiet vehicle - otherwise it did a better job than other wired headsets I've had in the past but for $70 I'd had higher expectations for it - namely, hands free dialing working and adjusting to engine noise as imho the cabin noise wasn't as loud as it'd be if you had kids (I have five so I know) in the car or a window cracked so there shouldn't have been any problem and definitely no need for my needing to take drastic steps to use the headset.

A last thing to note about cabin noise. I'd had three of my kids in the truck on the way back and they were very quiet when I tried to make my calls but even with them saying one or two somewhat whispered words while I was LOUDLY trying to use the voice dial, the headset would balk and want me to try again.

I'm going to frustratedly give this device a thumb s up - for people without kids and who don t drive a diesel truck. It works great in my Neon Sport and Windstar Van - so tell everyone to shhhhhhhh and go ahead and make that call in your QUIET vehicle.

Now, that all said, this headset lasted for dozens of calls on a 48 hour drive so at least it s battery lasted well and it d charged back up in about an hour and a half when I got home but while it is a lightweight headset my ear did experience some discomfort with longer periods of wearing and using it somehow I suspect most people wont be wearing it for 10 hours of talk time in two days like I did though and for the normal quick 20 minute call you d never notice and probably think it s the most comfortable device out. For me, I ll be searching around and will buy my wife a different model that someone here on Epinions thinks is better, lighter, louder and the voice option works better with to use on her phone.