Sony Ericsson HBH-PV705

David Field | 18 Sep 2006

It’s efficient, functional and visually uninspired. But it doesn’t need to be with battery life like this.

There's not a huge amount of difference between Bluetooth headsets, because the standard that governs voice transmission is geared toward highly reliable, but low fidelity signals. Those signals will sound average, regardless of the speaker that’s embedded in the headset. So unless you do something crazy, a Bluetooth headset's a Bluetooth headset.

In light of this, and because all Bluetooth gear is inter-operable, the differences in headsets come down to looks, comfort, battery life and price. The Sony Ericsson HBH-PV705 offers something more though; it continues a fine tradition -- the one that Nokia abandoned some time ago -- of bearing an impossibly stupid model number. Well, that and a very long battery life, which is quoted as 12 hours of talk time, and 300 of standby.

Aesthetically, it's a grey against a darker grey against a different shade of even darker grey affair. To break this up, silver buttons serve as highlights. The included charger plugs into the back of the unit, but if you have a CDS-60 stand for an existing Sony Ericsson mobile phone, you can use this too.

The speaker sits halfway between in and on your ear, which splits the difference between clarity and comfort. At 14g, it's light enough not to be intrusive, but because the clip sits behind your ear it still feels secure. You can use it on either ear after you remove and rearrange the pivot-based ear clip.

It will let you mute the microphone and control the phone it's paired to, just like any other headset. It's in the right price range for a headset of this caliber, and the battery life is a nice addition to have. If looks aren't important to you, and you worry your peripherals won't work without a daily charge, the functional (but uninspiring) HBH-PV705 is worth a look.