Review: Blueant Z9i Headset
Update (13/8/2008): My Z9i wasn’t performing quite to spec. It wouldn’t pair with more than two devices (advertised as doing 5) and was sometimes connecting and disconnecting with my W880i cellphone. I thought I was going slightly mad, but I found an interesting posting on the Mobile Barbarian blog. It seems that others were having the problem, but there was new firmware to fix the problem. I grabbed the firmware and updated my headset and now it all seems to be working as advertised. Fingers crossed! If you need the firmware, you’ll find references in the posting’s comments.
Original Post:
My old Sony Ericsson bluetooth headset (bought off ebay a few years ago) has started to really play up and it was time to get a new one. We visited Westfield Chermside and I looked at the options in the mobile phone shops there. As an aside if there were no fashion shops and no mobile shops I don’t think there would be anything else other than the supermarkets and department stores at Chermside!
The Plantronics and Blueant headsets looked good, and after some review on the internet I decided on the Blueant Z9i. This is a second generation of the Z9 headset, with new and improved features:
- Can pair with five phones instead of three. Yes, I might need to do that with various SES phones, my main phone, the spare phone in the car and my wife’s phone.
- Simultaneous operation (they call it multipoint) with two phones at once. This means the one earpiece can be used with my phone du jour and the SES duty phone if I am carrying it.
- The background noise cancellation is meant to be better too, but since I didn’t have the old headset I can’t comment on that one.
Here’s the headset (click on the thumbnail for a larger view):
The ‘ant’ button seems to control most things, and that’s good as it is easy to find. An ear loop does come with the Z9i, but it works quite well without it if you’re not jumping around the place. I’m going to try using the loop for a little while (I’ve been using it without, as shown in the photos) and then decide. One advantage of not having the loop is that it is easier to carry the earpiece around (it has a little clip) on the top of a pocket.
The only trouble I’ve had is that the Z9i is so small you forget you’re carrying it in a pocket and I make a phone call with it connected to my phone. I couldn’t hear anything from the phone and that’s when the guy standing beside me reminded me that I’d been using the headset. When I retrieved it the called party (sorry Greg) was still there going ‘hello …. hello ….’ so it was a lucky save.
This was with my Nokia 6230 which is not as clever as the Sony Ericsson W880i. I’ve set the Sony up so that the call stays with the phone if answered using the phone or if a call is made with the phone. Conversly when a call is answered or made using the headse the audio goes to the headset straight away. Transfer options are available too, but it should avoid the headset in the pocket problem in the future.
The audio quality is surprisingly good, so I think that I might be using in preference to the handset even when I’m not driving simply because the sound is clearer and louder than what Sony or Nokia have managed with their own phones.
Shop around too — the prices online are significantly better than those in the shops. Only time to buy in the shop is when you’re getting a new phone and you either get a good price or get it for nothing.
