Style

The Bluetake GII is definitely a stylish piece. Its' gunmetal gray and light gray trims are neutral colors that blend with any style. Our Z600 has a blue covering which makes the phone stand out apart from the GII (but it still looks good!). The unit is about an average size for this type of Bluetooth headset - it's not too large, but not exactly tiny either. A small unobtrusive GII logo sits above the volume buttons - nice and understated.

Performance

For testing, I used the Z600 and GII combination with T-Mobile as my carrier. In New York City , T-Mobile isn't exactly the greatest carrier but that's not the fault of the GII. Audio clarity was top-notch for the headset. The volume could be adjusted to fairly high levels. If fact even on the streets of NYC you could hear comfortably.

The boom microphone is fairly sensitive. Though it is short, the boom microphone can pick up your voice well. Unfortunately the boom mike was also problematic because it was a bit too sensitive. At high settings in a quiet office, the microphone was able to pick up the voice of the person calling me. The person on the other end of the line had the disconcerting experience of hearing everything he said, but with a slight delay, and with background noise. Some method of tuning the microphones sensitivity of directionality is needed to prevent picking up unnecessary noise.

Lastly, battery life on the unit was excellent, I was able to talk continuously - far longer than my phone could handle. The standby time on the unit was also quite good. Without use, my GII was able to hold a charge for over two weeks!

Design

The GII has all sorts of nice little design features.

The volume buttons have small raised plus and minus signs on them, good for when you need to reach over and adjust the volume without seeing the device. The multi-function power button has both audio cues (beeps) and light color changes to indicate what function is currently being used. The headset comes with ear loops that are easily reversed for left ear/right ear use. The GII is very light and isn't a burden on the ear.

Unfortunately, there were a few problems with the design. It would be great if the GII came with different sized ear loops - perhaps smaller ones for smaller ears. It does come with a second ear loop but it's the same size. This one size fits all philosophy didn't quite work for me. Another size would have been helpful with the GII.

Possibly because of this, the GII never did fit comfortably on my ear. The speaker on the headset is a raised nub which looks like it should fit close to the ear canal. However, because of the design, there is actually a gap between the ear and the nub -forming a sort of "sound cavity". This is the primary reason a person on the other end of the line is often about to hear their own voice as an echo. Ambient noise was easily captured in this "sound cavity" and on a busy street it was often difficult for my ADD-addled brain to not be distracted by the noise. A tighter fitting design would be helpful; perhaps along the lines of those Jabra ear gel molds.

Finally, the multi-function power button was easy to use but it would have been nice if there was an indication whether the unit was on or off. To power on the unit you hold down the power button for 3 seconds, then the button flashes blue. To turn off the unit, you hold the power button for 3 seconds, then the button flashes red. However, if you just pick up a unit, you have no idea whether it is on or off. There were a number of times where I would put on the GII, only to realize it was powered off.

[Home] [Previous Page] [Next Page]