I’ve carried two cellphones (currently a Blackberry 8800 and a 1st generation iPhone) for a couple of years. With two cell phones, bluetooth headsets have long been an issue for me.
Most bluetooth headsets can sync to multiple phones, but can only be connected to one phone at a time. Switching the bluetooth headset between phones is a major pain, and is tough to do in time to answer a ringing cell phone. My simple solution has been to carry two bluetooth headsets, one for each phone.
For several years I’ve been looking for a good bluetooth headset that would allow an active connection to two phones simultaneously. On July 1st, 2008, the California “hands-free” law went into effect, increasing my desire for a single bluetooth headset even more.
About a week ago I came across the Jabra BT8040 in a cnet.com article. After a bit of research (including looking through the User Guide I downloaded from Jabra’s site) I purchased it. The BT8040 supports connection to up to 8 devices with 2 active at any one time. It also uses an in-the-ear gel (no over the ear wire which I hate!).
The BT8040 has turned out to be a pretty good headset. People have complained about background noise when I’m in a quiet room - the BT8040 seems to pick up everything. While driving in my noisy truck and in most other environments everyone has said it sounds fine. The BT8040 has active noise reduction and volume limiting to prevent blowing out your ear.
The device pairing is straight forward and works the same as most other bluetooth headsets, right down to the “0000” pin number.
The headset comes with a wall adapter for charging AND a USB cable for charging from a standard USB port (another big plus). The connection on the headset itself is a “micro-USB” which isn’t that common, but it plugs into any standard USB port on a laptop or USB wall charger.
Using the BT8040 with two phones has worked quite well with one limitation: if you want to initiate a call from the headset (eg activate voice dialing on the cell phone), the BT8040 can only call from the last phone used. Not a major issue.
When answering an incoming call, clicking the BT8040 headset button will answer the call regardless of which phone it is coming from. I haven’t tested if I can answer a call from one phone when I’m already on a call from the other phone. I don’t believe the BT8040 can do this, but will find out soon enough.
The BT8040 also supports listening to music, internet radio, etc from computers, media players, phones, etc using the A2DP protocol.
Over all I’d recommend this headset to anyone who uses two cellphones.
COST:
Between $55 and $80
LIKES:
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1.Size and weight
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2.No over the ear wire or support
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3.In ear gel works well
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4.USB Charging
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5.Supports 2 simultaneous phone connections
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6.Bluetooth 2.0
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7.Supports A2DP
DISLIKES:
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1.Initiate calls only on last used phone
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2.Micro USB port on headset (have to carry another cable)
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3.Want better control over the two phones, switching between, etc.
Clickable Links:
google search results for Jabra BT8040
cnet.com review of Jabra BT8040
amazon.com page for Jabra BT8040
