2. BT620s - Almost No Wires

Look, no wires - Bluetooth music and calls with the Jabra BT620s

By the time you've put in earbuds or canalphones, you have enough dangling cables that it's hardly worth going wireless. The BT620s Bluetooth headphones are neck-band style, so they sit at the back of your head - this is not a problem unless you have a lot of thick hair or a really ornate hairstyle. They're lightweight (100 g) and comfortable to wear for extended periods, but the style may not suit everyone. The volume and sound quality isn't going to match in-ear headphones either: there's good bass detail, acceptable midtones and reasonable treble once you punch up the volume, but the sound is quite bright and punchy, which can be a little tiring to listen to. But you're balancing that against the convenience of losing all the cables and still getting all your music and your phone calls.

In theory, you can control music playback and phone calls from the buttons on the headphones. Press in on the left side to answer or end a call, or press and hold to reject calls, redial, switch in a waiting call or activate voice dialing (if your phone supports those features). Press in on the right hand side to play, pause and stop music; the left cam has volume buttons, the right has rewind and fast forward. These only work with your device, however, if you have the right Bluetooth profiles. And while it's handy to have big buttons that you can press without looking, you have to be careful not to press them when you put the headphones on or take them off.

The BT620s headphones use the relatively new A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) Bluetooth profile, which not that many devices support yet. We tested it with the new Palm Treo 750V, which does, as do many Windows Mobile 5 devices if they have the push email update, as well as several Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson phones. You can also use it with a Bluetooth-enabled PC. The profile lets you stream stereo sound from a device. If you want to control your player over Bluetooth and have music pause rather than be muted during calls, you also need the AVRCP - the remote control profile - which is less common, but works with Windows Media Player. You can add the stereo profile to any MP3 player with Jabra's A120s adapter - it just plugs into the headphone socket - but that doesn't give you remote control.

To get the music from your player to the headphones (or to any stereo Bluetooth headset), you need to put the A120s adapter and your Bluetooth headset into pairing mode and they'll find each other. This can take a few tries, not because of signal problems, but because you have to press for the right length of time on the only button you get on the A120s. Bluetooth is meant to be seamless and invisible, and it is - when it works. But pairing devices is often a hit-or-miss affair, and while Jabra devices are as easy to pair with phones as anything on the market, it's a little more nerve-wracking when you can't see what's going on. Press-and-hold buttons with LED indicators look sleek and are hard to break even if you toss the device in a bag, but they're not a clear as a slider that tells you when it's on or off. Once you are used to tapping, pressing and pressing-and-holding the buttons, using Jabra devices is very intuitive, but when you're trying to get started you'll need to sit down with the manuals and a timer to figure out the difference between flashing and pulsing lights.

Jabra claims a range of 10 m (33'), which is standard Bluetooth; we could get easily that far away without any interference or interruption to the music in an open space. Thin brick walls and windows lower the range a little, while a thick stone wall cuts it out completely. You get almost the promised 14 hours of music from a single charge - longer than many MP3 players can manage. If you're charging the headphones by connecting to your PC (they use a standard mini USB cable) you can also use them to listen to music playing on your PC at the same time; this is a nice extra, although certainly not what you'd buy them for. There's also a power adapter in the box as standard equipment.

The BT620s aren't just headphones - they also work as a Bluetooth headset for your mobile phone. The microphone is on the right cam, so callers might hear more background noise than usual, as it's not as close to your mouth as with most headsets, but we didn't have a problem with that or with volume.

Jabra is a little ahead of the market with these headphones in terms of connections; check if your devices are ready for them, or get the A120s adapter and sacrifice the remote control options. You can get better sound with RF wireless headphones, but those are often larger, heavier and more power hungry. And if everything talks the right profile, you'll hardly have to lift a finger to get music and conversations under control.

Conclusion: Waiting For Bluetooth

Unless your device has a good range of Bluetooth profiles, you'll need an adapter to make the most of the BT620s headphones.

You can't quite have it all with either of these headphone combinations; pick either the sound quality of your favorite headphones and full phone control, or wireless everything with the right devices with over the ear phones around the back of your neck. And while it's certainly not Jabra's fault that you probably won't get remote control options for your favorite music device, it's still frustrating. When the rest of the market catches up, the BT620s will be ready; for now, the BT325s with your favorite headphones are probably more useful.