Motorola H375 Bluetooth Headset and my Treo 650
January 27, 2008
So in switching cars from my TL to a slightly older MDX, one of the things I’m losing is my built-in Bluetooth speakerphone. I used it constantly. The 2004 TL was one of the first cars to have it built in. At the time, I didn’t even own a Bluetooth anything.
Anyways, now that the MDX doesn’t have one, I began looking for a Bluetooth headset to go with my Treo 650 (yeah, it’s getting a bit old). I’ve tried a Bluetooth headset in the past and wasn’t happy with it at all. I was never sure if the problem was the Treo BT radio or if it was the headset, so I have never owned one since - preferring corded ones instead. After trying out a more modern headset, I’m happy to say it looks like it may have mostly been a bad headset choice.
I bought my Motorola H375 in a combo set at Costco ($50-$60, I can’t recall). It came with a wall charger, the H375 headset, and a car charger. Bottomline, it works pretty well - from a Bluetooth perspective. Dial a call on my Treo, and the headset automatically connects once dialing begins. Incoming call and a quick press of the H375 button answers the phone; a second button press hangs up. The volume buttons are easy and intuitive to press, and you can press both to mute the headset (or press mute on the Treo 650 itself). Unfortunately, the headset does not seem to be loud enough in some “noisy room” situations. Normal room situations (okay, fairly quiet situations) seem to be no problem at all. I was even okay in an airport - at least until the PA system came on.
Battery life is advertised as 6 hrs talk, 8 days standby. That’s somewhat misleading. I have not talked enough to push the 6 hr talk limit, but I’d say you can easily get at least 4 in my experience. 8 days of standby is probably true, but the headset has some interesting power-saving “features”. It seems to turn itself off after about 30-60 minutes of inactivity. When a new call comes in, I’ve got to press the POWER button to turn it back on. Seems a little weak if you ask me. Maybe it’s user error, but I don’t think so.
Overall, I’m keeping it - but it’s not perfect.
its not a compatible bluetooth for a treo
Well maybe no officially compatible… but it’s working for me.
That ‘interestnig’ power save feature is actually a defect, IMHO. Mine also powered off after a brief period of time. The manual indicates that the ‘light’ will stop flashing to save power, but instead the whole dman thing shuts down. I complained to Motorola (which should be called crapola) about this and was told, after being shuffled around a number of times that this defective behaviour has been identified and corrected. I sent them my unit and recieved a ‘B’ model unit that was supposed to have corrected this problem and, lo and behold, it still powered down just the same. I’ve had it, not only with Motorola headsets but with their entire product line. Motorola used to be a premium product. Not it’s just junk.