$38.00 at the time of this review at Wireless Ground
Courtesy of Wireless Ground, I received this new headset to review. I've been putting it through its paces as my regular headset in place of my Jawbone for the past few weeks. The Jawbone is a tough act to follow, but the Southwing is a decent headset with a lot of features for the price.
In terms of features, the Southwing SH505 boasts:
• Touch-sensitive controls
• Push4™Favorite number button
• Up to 10 hours of talk time
• Upgrade-able for future compatability
• USB charging
In the box, the Southwing comes with an AC charging cable, a USB charging cable, and an hear hook. Frequent travelers will be happy to know that this headset can be charged via USB, so you can skip taking the AC adapter with you. Unfortunately, the charging port on the headset itself is proprietary, and not mini-USB, so you must bring that cable to charge it at the very least. The charging port is at the top of the headset and it's covered with a small rubber stopper to protect it. Also included a good printed manual (these seem to be going the way of the dinosaur nowadays, don't they?). The box also states that it comes with a headset cord to hang it around your neck, but I did not receive this with my test unit (and I probably wouldn't have used it anyway - clipping my cell phone to my pants is as geeky as I can get).
The Southwing features two things that I haven't seen on many other headsets on the market: upgradeability through a PC application and touch-sensitive volume controls. Unfortunately, I was unable to test the PC application - my main computer is an Apple MacBook, and though I have a Lenovo T60 through work, they disable the USB ports for anything but keyboards and mice, and my husband's 7-year-old Dell laptop is off-limits to me since I have a habit of downloading software to it that has caused some trouble before. The touch-sensitive volume controls were used as a matter of course throughout the testing period.
Pairing
The SH505 has a neat feature that puts it into pairing mode automatically the first time you turn it on after charging it fully. It was a cinch to pair it to my iPhone. The only odd thing to note in the pairing process is that the PIN code is 1111, not 0000 as has been the case with every other bluetooth headset I've used. You'll just need to remember this if you are pairing the headset to a new phone without the manual handy.
It connects quickly to my iPhone when switched on. It works as expected, ringing with every received call (you hear a built-in ringtone, not the ringtone selected on your iPhone, but more on this later) and allowing calls to be transferred back to the iPhone as needed. When listening to voicemail using the Visual Voicemail feature, the SH505 can be selected as the audio output as well.
The manual states that the SH505 can be paired to up to 3 devices, but only 1 device can be active at any time. This is a welcome feature - I've had headsets that could only be paired to one phone at a time, making switching between phones and using that headset a pain.
Using the SH505
When a call is received, you hear a built-in ringtone through the SH505. The SH505 does have the capability to play your phone's ringtone if your phone has the capability to "push" its ringtone to the headset. Unfortunately, the iPhone does not do this.
You can change the SH505's ringtone - it has 12 you can select from! They're nothing fancy, but changing them can alleviate the boredom of hearing the same thing in your ear every day.
When a call comes in, you have the choice to answer or reject it via the SH505. The reject feature is nice - my Jawbone can't do this. To accept a call, you press the Push4™ button once (the Push4™ button is simply what they call the main button on the face of the headset). To reject a call, you press it twice quickly. Rejecting a call causes the iPhone to show a "missed call" notification immediately.
The SH505 has touch-sensitive volume buttons. The button to increase volume is on the the upper portion of the outside face of the headset, and the complementary button to decrease the volume is on the lower portion of the outside face of the headset. They are not marked in any way, so you need to check the diagram in the manual to identify exactly where they are. They work as expected, and touching them during a call shows the Bluetooth volume meter on the iPhone's screen. I don't think the touch-sensitive aspect is really necessary, since normal tactile buttons would work just as well. However, making them touch-sensitive does serve to make sure the SH505 has a cleaner look than it otherwise might.
In addition to the 2 touch-sensitive buttons, the SH505 has 2 normal buttons - the on/off button, and the Push4™ button. The Push4™ button handles most of the functionality to accept, end, and reject calls, as well as initiating a call via voice dial (which the iPhone does not have, so I could not test this), re-dialing the last number called, muting the microphone while on a call, setting the headset to automatically answer all incoming calls, transferring a call back to your phone's built-in microphone and speaker, and temporarily disconnecting the SH505 from your phone if you want to conserve battery power by severing the bluetooth connection.
And there's more! The Push4™ button can also be programmed to dial a favorite number, and it manages multiple calls (placing a current call on hold when a new call is incoming, and making another call while on an active call). In order to do all of these things with just one button, you need a different sequence of presses for each function, and it's a bit much to remember. I would love to see a wallet card-sized "cheat sheet" come in the box with this headset! Regardless, it is nice to have all of these features available in a headset.
The SH505 is listed as having 10 hours of talk time. I'm not that much of a talker and didn't test this out to the full 10 hours, but I saw nothing during my time with the headset to indicate that it would not reach that usage level. In fact, it held a charge longer than I expected during a period when I had it in my bag for a few days without using it, and then I used it for a number of days after that without needing to charge it. Obviously, this was not a scientific method of testing battery life, but it gave me the confidence that the headset holds a charge well and that I can go for more than a week without needing to charge it.
Fit
I am a fairly small person at 5'3" and I must have correspondingly small ears since I tend to have trouble with many bluetooth headsets that have ear hooks. Most of the time, placing the ear hook over my ear appropriately will never allow the earpiece to fit in my ear. The SH505 is not a perfect fit, but it works with some adjusting, though it means that it takes me a few seconds to put it on my ear when I get a call, which can be a little frustrating. It can be used without the ear hook, but the arm to which the ear hook attaches gets in the way and the earpiece won't fit into my ear snugly. So, I make do with the ear attached and take a little time to get it on when I receive a call.
Below are pictures of the Southwing without the earhook attached, and next to the Jawbone, also without its earhook.
Size-wise, the SH505 looks nice, and is comparable in size to the Jawbone and Sony Ericsson HBH-662 that I also own. Also thrown in the following comparison picture is my husband's Motorola HS820 (I'd love to get him a new one, but he is not into gadgets and doesn't really care which headset he has as long as it works - can you believe it?). The LED that indicates status is very subdued - it is underneath the Push4™ button and isn't really visible in bright light. You definitely don't get the Borg look with a bright flashing light on your ear with this headset. It flashes red or green depending on the status and current function.
Sound Quality
With a bluetooth headset, call quality is where the money is. In order to test the quality of this headset, I used the K7.net messaging service. Through K7.net, you can get a free phone number (with a Seattle area code) that accepts voice messages and faxes. These messages and faxes are then emailed to you as attachments. For all of the following samples, I simply dialed my K7.net number, and saved the audio file attached to emails sent to me by the system.
(I must give credit to Julie at The Gadgeteer who uses K7.net in her reviews as well, which I kidnapped here in order to give audio samples to supplement this review).
This first sample is the baseline of my iPhone without any headset used while driving in my car (This only took me a minute and I was careful - I swear. For the record, I always use a hands-free device when talking on my cell phone in the car and I can't wait until Massachusetts passes a law banning cell phone use while driving without a hands-free device. :) ).
You can hear that it's loud and pretty clear, with only one minor network burble of distortion: iPhoneReference
The next call is using the SH505 while driving in the same area, and I opened the window and turned on the radio: SH505Test
I'm not an audiophile and my terminology may be a bit off to describe this, but the SH505 makes my voice sound somewhat dampened in comparison to the iPhone alone. But it's still clear enough to understand, and does a better good job of not picking up the surrounding sounds than I expected. Reports from people I talk to describe that my voice doesn't come across very loud when using the headset, but they haven't reported any problems understanding me (no garbling or skips).
The next call is in my home, where I have full signal strength at 5 bars, walking away from my iPhone to test the range: SH505rangetest
You can hear in this file that the headset does have the full 30-foot range that is normal for Bluetooth, but there is a fair amount of static as you get further away from your phone, as expected. There is no static when you are close to your phone - when I'm using a bluetooth headset, my phone is usually in my purse or on the desk or a nearby table, depending on where I am. I usually wander up to 10 feet away from my phone, and the SH505 has not given me any static in those normal use conditions.
Summary
Overall, I think the SH505 is a good headset that has an extensive feature set and good sound quality, especially given its price. I would suggest that you find a unit to try on first to see how it fits you (and I would recommend this before purchasing any bluetooth headset). If you work in a noisy environment, you may want to opt for a headset that specifies noise canceling as a feature instead. But if you spend most of your time on your phone while in your car or at home or at the office, this headset would be great for you.
Southwing SH505 Bluetooth headset review
$38.00 at the time of this review at Wireless Ground