» Sony Ericsson HBH-DS980 Bluetooth Streaming Headset

Sony Ericsson HBH-DS980 Bluetooth Streaming Headset Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: HUGE letdown
Comment: Based on the other reviews, I was ready to be impressed with this headset. I tried to keep an open mind, but I've had enough. I know a lot of people like noise isolating gel earbuds to get better sound, but I hate those. I want to be able to hear a car horn or a person's voice around me. The sound quality was excellent for a few seconds, but I had to keep pushing the buds deeper in my ears, otherwise they would wiggle out and sound tinny. The bluetooth functions were great, but if you move around, the signal drops out. Well, even when I was sitting still on the beach, the signal would drop out and the music would skip. Worst of all, the first unit I had died after about two weeks. I returned it for a replacement, thinking I got a dud. The second one died after a week and a half. The battery was charged, the music was playing, a buzzing chirping noise came through the buds, and then it was completely dead. I couldn't power it up, recharge it or reset it according to the instruction manual. I just sent my second one back for a full refund.

for $100 I expected a working product. What a letdown.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but...
Comment: DS980 syncs with all devices I own, especially SE K850i.
Whilst streaming A2DP is without problems, I noticed that I cannot always get it to work as a handset when originating calls - dunno whose fault, DS980's or the phone's.
I listen to music and podcasts and conclude that as a music listening device, DS980's low frequencies are not well reproduced. The voice and higher frequencies are perfect so it's very good for podcasts and speech.
Whilst it's possible to originate calls from DS980 itself by selecting a contact, with only one line of display, is a drawn-out affair, best avoided, hence, the OLED is a waste of money.
The wires are easily tangled and its difficult to untangle without manually unclipping the tight "safety locks", but these are cheap plastic locks and don't think will last too long at current rate.
It's a pity that SE included wall charger and not a USB charging cable. Note that SE charge/data cables have two different charging pins and the pins form USB Data cable will not charge DS980 - you'll either need to keep lugging around the wall charger or buy a USB Charging cable (I got a third-party one as I cannot find a genuine SE one).

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Comment: Best stereo blutooth headset I have ever used. Period. The sound quality is excellent. It pairs perfectly with all my cell phones (Tilt and SE 880i) and the response is great. No complaints about battery life for a device of this type.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great when it works
Comment: I just purchased the HBH-DS980 from amazon.com. From the time i opened the box till the battery died and i had to plug it in. The HBH-DS980 performed flawlessly i was able to listen to all my music on my LG voyager and make phone calls to my friends. But as soon as i plugged the HBH-DS980 into the charger supplied with it. My screen became scrambled and it has stayed that way. I can still make phone call, listen to music but with the loss of my screen the device has became useless. It goes to show you the Sony quality you wont lose the call, but u will lose the device. I still up in the air whether or not to give the HBH-DS980 another shot. I still love the performance, but buyer beware.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect, except...
Comment: For notebook usage, it is perfect, as frequent traveller point of view which may ease a lot on very limited space and movement on coach/flight, it would be much more comfortable with wireless.

My main intension of getting this device is daily use on my SE W880i & SE W890i. Everything meet my expectation except one tiny limitation I would like to high light. in fact it is not the problem from DS980, it is just a feature that wasn't Bluetooth headset are made for.

If you are a regular radio listener and your phone support radio, then I am sure you listen to the radio from your mobile phone very often. If you do, then you might need to reconsider this fact before you buying this device. Mobile phone uses the wired headset as the antena to receive radio signal. Which Bluetooth Headset are not designed to receive radio signal. In another word, when you want to listen to the radio on your mobile phone, you still need your regular wired headset.

I listen to radio often, therefore the bluetooth headset does not help. I still need the wired headset. because of this, I can't eliminate my wired headset totally. I don't think i want to carry two headsets, it would be just add more trouble compared with just one wired headset. For now, I just stay with my default wired headset.

Hopefully some newer phones can receive radio signal without the wired headset as antena (or some BT headset can receive radio signal, unlikely), then I will reconsider getting one of these BT headsets.

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