The Airlite comes in two color combinations: black and silver and black and black. It is very well-designed as far as size and functionality. It is, however, a little boxy looking. Personal preferences will determine if this is a plus or a minus.
The same holds true of the angle and size of the in-ear portion of the unit. One of our testers found that it was the first headset he ever tried that actually fit in his ear. Another got lesser audio quality because it sat too far out from her ear. This emphasizes the fact that since individual physiologies differ, you are always best to try a headset before you buy, or to at least buy with a good return policy.
As promised, the Honeywell Airlite 700 Wireless Bluetooth Headset is one of the most comfortable headsets that we have tried to date. As shown in Figure 8, the Airlite is much smaller that many others. Weighting in at only 9 grams (.32oz) it is also extremely lightweight. All of our testers found the ear loops lightweight and comfortable and were able to wear the headset for hours with little or no discomfort.
The unit is rated by the manufacturer to be capable of 7 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby time. We found that even if we talked on the phone for an hour each day, the unit could go for 3 days without recharging, which should be adequate even for heavy users.
The headset had good range. Although the manufacturer rates it for 33 feet, we found that after about 20 feet, the audio picked some static. However, this was not bad compared to other headsets that we’ve tested.
The voice transmissions were generally clear and understandable. While the person we called always sounded good to us, often that person found our audio had an echo or they stated that we sounded like we were in a tunnel. Noise cancellation was adequate. We could talk in a noisy area and still be understandable to the other person.
Knowing that clarity and sound performance is dependent on many things besides the headset, we tried the headset with several phones including a Motorola Razr 3, a Samsung, and a Motorola W885. All had similar results.
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Figure 8: The Airlite compared to several other larger headsets.
