I am often asked which bluetooth headsets to buy which can be worn with glasses.

You can go for Nextlink's Bluespoon AX it is the only Bluetooth headset company I know of which makes headsets which can be worn with glasses. Nextlink's earlier models Chameleon and Digital also could be worn with glasses but only on right ear and were not very comfortable. Bluespoon AX is very recent model priced sensibly at US$74 unlike its earlier expensive models.

It is one of very lightestmodel at 10gm; talk time is reasonable at 4-5 hours and standby time of up to 150 hours. Though this model doesn't claim to have active noise cancellation, I could use it at noisy street junctions, restaurants without any difficulty in conversation, very impressive for Bluetooth headset, only other Bluetooth headset which could achieve this was Plantronics M3500.

Unlike previous models from this company Bluespoon AX uses standard "0000" pairing code so that you can now easily pair it with devices without keypads like landline Bluetooth connectors like Bluespoon HOME.

Earlier Bluespoon models were tough on ear, but very well connected for charging, they were the first Bluetooth headsets to offer 110-220V universal charger with multiple country electrical pin/plugs. With Bluespoon AX approach is radically different but still makes sense. It offers no charger, but a USB cable to connect with nearby PC and charge your headset. Which also means you can't charge this headset if you don't own a PC or are not near one. You can buy optional charger to connect to power outlet but I suppose most people won't need it.

This headset is very comfortable on ear with gel like rubberized plugs but still its good idea to change from one ear to another every hour or so if you wear it for long. Pairing with phone is too easy with just single button pairing mode. It can pair with up to 8 devices and when you pair with 9th device, it removes least used device from its memory. So now you can be talking on mobile using this headset when out, but use it for VoIP once you are at home.

If your budget is high then you may try out Bluespoon 5G which is just 5grams weight as name suggests and has similar design but costs US$299/-.

Two year back Bluetooth headsets were new and choices were few and all of them were expensive. Now prices are dipping with good headsets costing $70-80 without sacrificing quality or performance. You can see many innovative designs in next few months. One is premium headsets like Jabra BT800 with LCD, small tiny headsets like Bluespoon 5G and upcoming Plantronics Tahiti which offers 25 hour of talk time with innovative battery arrangement with headset weighing only 9gm. Another noteable model from TSRmobile is Bluetooth PowerBOX , a stereo headset with MP3 Player and Bluetooth Media Player Headset which can also be connected via wires to mp3 player/tv/dvd sources.

Vipul Shah
guide@vipulshah.com