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- Sep 5, 2010
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It might not be new to the store shelves and online sellers but it's totally new to me.
One thing woefully lacking forever with Bluetooth earpieces has been a boom microphone . Every gimmick and digital oddity has been attempted with, at most, limited success to make things work as well as a microphone near the mouth.
Along comes a product that not only comes with a boom but a retractable one at that so when not being used it pushes back into unit so one doesn't look like a telemarketer that forgot to remove their headset or a truck driver with the Blue Parrot unit on. It's not the tiniest unit out there but it's also still smaller than their old "flip" models from years gone by.
It came with the unit itself ,a charger cord/wall wart (micro usb like most stuff come with now), 2 over ear clips,2 large ear tips,2 medium and 1 small along with a pretty nifty inner padded hard plastic carry case and an instruction manual that's as thick as a book but only about 5 pages are relevant unless you're into warnings, government studies and such. It came in a huge plastic box that will probably make you fuss or cuss trying to get it open unless you press the top of the box to its right (you'll see what I mean) and it just pops right on open revealing the earpiece and other stuff. I believe they had seasonal delivery workers in mind when they designed the box it comes in as it looks like nothing short of running over it with a forklift or truck will break anything inside. Overkill but I'm not complaining.
The unit works not only for phone calls but the music on your phone can be played and it does a more than adequate jib of switching the media to mono unlike others I've tried over the years. It comes with a dedicated on/off switch, volume up/down buttons and a "call" button. All are well located but small in length and height. It reminds me of an older Nokia one I've got that the buttons are hard to find at first but after a few uses the feel becomes second nature and give a feel of quality and durability.
Like the Nokia, the flashing light is VERY small and dim so it won't light up even a totally dark room to the point of making you think 5-0 is behind you as you inadvertently wonder if you've got your license, registration and proof of insurance handy.
The in/on ear feel isn't bad at all for me but that can be very subjective for users so I'll just leave it at it feels forget it's on like for me. I use the small tip when I've got the clip on or medium ear tip when not using a clip and both make the unit feel comfortable yet solidly attached on my ear. No wobble but also not tight and pressing on my skin uncomfortably.
The way the tips fit it's more of an on ear than in ear fit, kinda almost in the ear but not quite there. This can be annoying if you're not used to Jawbone and Plantronics models that have the same type of ear gel.
4 hours of music used about half the battery so I'd expect to get about 5 hours of actual talk time, maybe a little more based on my others used for music vs talk.
The volume is on par for me of all others of the gel type in that it's plenty loud but doesn't isolate noise on the side you're wearing it on so you can get noise as well as the phone call vocals/music. I keep my phone on medium high and the Whisper worked well on medium high as well until I rolled my windows down and was driving. At that point I needed high volume to drown down the wind noise. The actual tone is a bit on the tinny side, no bass at all, so a caller with a high pitch voice speaking while you're surrounded by noise can be very hard to comprehend. My wife has that type of voice and I could barely hear her at all but she also practically whispers unless she's mad at me about something. Those calls I can hear just fine on any Bluetooth earpiece. Classical music quieter passages was just fine at high volume when driving with the windows down. I will be trying an old Jabra tear drop shaped gel because it does push the audio further into the ear canal and does lower the tone a bit at the same time. It works great on my Jawbones.
Now where the Whisper excels over everything else in my fleet that I've collected over the years. Noise cancelling from my end. With the boom retracted it was a good sounding unit, like any other that uses digital processing to minimize noise. Once the boom was extended it was a totally didn't story for the better. The 4 mics on it are strategically located and the digital processing make it noise proof. Wind directly into the microphone and the loud noises of being in a grocery store were totally blocked without my voice turning robotic in the least and I didn't have to have the placement perfect like with my Jawbones to get that total block.
There is no music player buttons like track forward/reverse, pause/play/stop but I actually prefer that because it gives me the excuse to continue to use the music player controls on my Fit instead.
It is a class 1 Bluetooth, boasting of 100 yards of range. I can say it does reach from 1 end of my house to the other without static. My house isn't 100 yards long but it beats not being able to leave the room without dropping a call back to the phone that's too far away. I'm not sure I'm wanting it to actually reach its touted range because I could accidentally leave the phone somewhere, get up the road a bit and THEN realize I left my phone at home/work/wherever and have to turn back around. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the buzzing on my wrist that tells me the watch has left the range of the phone because I get quite a few vibrations for different reasons on it throughout the day and I don't aways look at them right away. Might be range, might be an email or text, might be I've reached my steps goal.
If call quality on the other end is a must for you, this is something to consider. We don't always want others to be aware that we're in a store, walking the dog, in traffic , etc when we're on the phone and the Whisper fits the bill for giving total anonymity of noise based location.
One thing woefully lacking forever with Bluetooth earpieces has been a boom microphone . Every gimmick and digital oddity has been attempted with, at most, limited success to make things work as well as a microphone near the mouth.
Along comes a product that not only comes with a boom but a retractable one at that so when not being used it pushes back into unit so one doesn't look like a telemarketer that forgot to remove their headset or a truck driver with the Blue Parrot unit on. It's not the tiniest unit out there but it's also still smaller than their old "flip" models from years gone by.
It came with the unit itself ,a charger cord/wall wart (micro usb like most stuff come with now), 2 over ear clips,2 large ear tips,2 medium and 1 small along with a pretty nifty inner padded hard plastic carry case and an instruction manual that's as thick as a book but only about 5 pages are relevant unless you're into warnings, government studies and such. It came in a huge plastic box that will probably make you fuss or cuss trying to get it open unless you press the top of the box to its right (you'll see what I mean) and it just pops right on open revealing the earpiece and other stuff. I believe they had seasonal delivery workers in mind when they designed the box it comes in as it looks like nothing short of running over it with a forklift or truck will break anything inside. Overkill but I'm not complaining.
The unit works not only for phone calls but the music on your phone can be played and it does a more than adequate jib of switching the media to mono unlike others I've tried over the years. It comes with a dedicated on/off switch, volume up/down buttons and a "call" button. All are well located but small in length and height. It reminds me of an older Nokia one I've got that the buttons are hard to find at first but after a few uses the feel becomes second nature and give a feel of quality and durability.
Like the Nokia, the flashing light is VERY small and dim so it won't light up even a totally dark room to the point of making you think 5-0 is behind you as you inadvertently wonder if you've got your license, registration and proof of insurance handy.
The in/on ear feel isn't bad at all for me but that can be very subjective for users so I'll just leave it at it feels forget it's on like for me. I use the small tip when I've got the clip on or medium ear tip when not using a clip and both make the unit feel comfortable yet solidly attached on my ear. No wobble but also not tight and pressing on my skin uncomfortably.
The way the tips fit it's more of an on ear than in ear fit, kinda almost in the ear but not quite there. This can be annoying if you're not used to Jawbone and Plantronics models that have the same type of ear gel.
4 hours of music used about half the battery so I'd expect to get about 5 hours of actual talk time, maybe a little more based on my others used for music vs talk.
The volume is on par for me of all others of the gel type in that it's plenty loud but doesn't isolate noise on the side you're wearing it on so you can get noise as well as the phone call vocals/music. I keep my phone on medium high and the Whisper worked well on medium high as well until I rolled my windows down and was driving. At that point I needed high volume to drown down the wind noise. The actual tone is a bit on the tinny side, no bass at all, so a caller with a high pitch voice speaking while you're surrounded by noise can be very hard to comprehend. My wife has that type of voice and I could barely hear her at all but she also practically whispers unless she's mad at me about something. Those calls I can hear just fine on any Bluetooth earpiece. Classical music quieter passages was just fine at high volume when driving with the windows down. I will be trying an old Jabra tear drop shaped gel because it does push the audio further into the ear canal and does lower the tone a bit at the same time. It works great on my Jawbones.
Now where the Whisper excels over everything else in my fleet that I've collected over the years. Noise cancelling from my end. With the boom retracted it was a good sounding unit, like any other that uses digital processing to minimize noise. Once the boom was extended it was a totally didn't story for the better. The 4 mics on it are strategically located and the digital processing make it noise proof. Wind directly into the microphone and the loud noises of being in a grocery store were totally blocked without my voice turning robotic in the least and I didn't have to have the placement perfect like with my Jawbones to get that total block.
There is no music player buttons like track forward/reverse, pause/play/stop but I actually prefer that because it gives me the excuse to continue to use the music player controls on my Fit instead.
It is a class 1 Bluetooth, boasting of 100 yards of range. I can say it does reach from 1 end of my house to the other without static. My house isn't 100 yards long but it beats not being able to leave the room without dropping a call back to the phone that's too far away. I'm not sure I'm wanting it to actually reach its touted range because I could accidentally leave the phone somewhere, get up the road a bit and THEN realize I left my phone at home/work/wherever and have to turn back around. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the buzzing on my wrist that tells me the watch has left the range of the phone because I get quite a few vibrations for different reasons on it throughout the day and I don't aways look at them right away. Might be range, might be an email or text, might be I've reached my steps goal.
If call quality on the other end is a must for you, this is something to consider. We don't always want others to be aware that we're in a store, walking the dog, in traffic , etc when we're on the phone and the Whisper fits the bill for giving total anonymity of noise based location.
