Review: Lubix NC1 stereo Bluetooth headset

[Smaniac]

Hello,

I don't know if this is the best place to post this, but I couldn't find anywhere more suitable, and I chose this forum because I own a A1200 and the headset was tested with it. But in case there is a problem moderators may feel free to move the topic.

I was getting tired of the annoyance of wired headphones, so I started looking for a Bluetooth solution. After reading lots of reviews and opinions, I got down to 2 contestants: Motorola S9 and Lubix NC1. I decided it was worth giving the NC1 a shot.

Lubix has 2 stereo headsets: NC1 and LC1. LC1 has a LCD screen for call id and a bigger battery, but that also makes it bigger and heavier. Since I was aiming for music mostly, I chose the NC1 for the added portability.

The design is without a doubt what makes the NC1 unique. It consists of two earpieces connected by a wire, the left one has 2 jog dials and a blue led. When not in use, the pieces are magnetically attached for transportation. Although it is the smallest stereo Bluetooth headset I have ever seen, it is still bigger than I could wish for.

Just one note, the full name is actually UBHS-NC1-3D. Although I haven't found the meaning of UBHS anywhere, I suspect it stands for Ubixon Bluetooth HeadSet. 3D is obviously because of the 3D sound.




Funcionality

It is almost as easy to use as a Bluetooth headeset can be. You turn it on while holding the call button to activate discovery, then just locate it and you are ready to go. After that you can connect to the last device by pressing the call button. It can also work with different devices simultaneously, as long as each one connects through a unique protocol. When I turn it on at home, it automatically connects to my PC for music and to my cellphone for calls. If I don't want it to connect to the phone I just turn Bluetooth off.

The led indicates the status. It always blinks blue when the headset is on, with varying frequencies/durations for several status. The only exception is the low battery sign, which blinks red. This led can be pretty annoying sometimes, considering its main function appears to be letting everyone around you know that you have a Bluetooth headset, like that could mean anything.


4 / 5


Controls

It has 2 jog dials on the left earpiece. The top one controls volume, and with a press you can change 3D sound mode (more on that later), answer an incoming call, or connect to the last device. If you hold it you activate voice dial. The bottom one changes tracks, and a press will play/pause the current song. Holding it will stop playing. Rotating the dial down also hangs up a current call.



This is really where the NC1 shines. The controls are beautifully simple and effective. You can use them with only one hand, and it is almost impossible to mess it up.


5 / 5


Comfort

The headset comes with 2 different sized pairs of eargels. The big one didn't fit properly, and the small one is a bit loose, losing some of the already low bass sounds. If you can, it might be a good idea to buy a good eargel to go with it.

Since all of the components are located on the earpieces, that means it is also where all the weight is. Although 11 grams per side might seem light, it is definately noticeable on the ears. After an hour or so it can get really uncomfortable. Even after using the headset for 4 weeks I still haven't totally gotten used to it, and my ears still hurt after a while.

It already has a wire, so maybe the battery could be placed on it. I have to wear shirts to work, so the wire is always under the collar anyway, I would barely notice the extra weight.

And speaking of that, it is important to notice that it does have a wire, which is about 75 cm long. It not nearly as annoying as a wired headset, but sometimes it can get in the way. This was most noticeable when I was using the headset at home, when watching something on my computer. Since I don't usually wear a shirt at home (who lives in Brazil or any other tropical country will definately understand why), the wire is always touching my skin, which is very uncomfortable.


2 / 5


Portability

The marketing says you can wear it around like a necklace when not in use. But unless you really want to draw some attention, I would advise against that. Not only you will have a big plastic thing hanging around your neck, a blue light will be blinking all the time. However, if you are one of those people who wear their music players or even their cellphones around their neck, you will really feel at home with the NC1.

So my first solution is to just put it in my shirt pocket, with the wire around my neck. The wire is barely long enough to reach the pocket though, so this might not work with someone taller or with a wider neck.

For cases like those you can use a second solution, which involves wrapping the wire around the earpieces, and putting it in any pocket. This is really a very discrete way to carry it, and you will barely notice the weight.



And most importantly of all, the earpieces are big enough to be noticed when you are using them. It will draw some attention, whether you like it or not. At night I highly recommend you put something over the led. One day I was walking with it and I spotted a friend who was around 60 meters in front of me. I put the earpieces in my pocket, but when I got close he said, "can I see that Bluetooth headset of yours?"

Portability is the number one reason why I bought this. It is good, but still very far from perfect.


3 / 5


Battery

Like all headsets I know, the NC1 has an internal battery which can't be replaced. The manufacturer gives a 6 month warranty, so I guess the battery should still be in top shape by then.

The stated life time is 5 hours for music and 6 hours for calls. I haven't had more than a couple minutes of phone calls with it, so I can't really comment on that. But for music it lasts a little less than the 5 hours. That is more than enough for me, and I think it would last that with the 3D sound turned off, but I like it, so it is a good tradeoff.

However I would have preferred a less durable but smaller battery. I suspect it is responsible for most of the weight and size of the earpieces.

I have two complaints about the battery. First, it uses a non-standard charger. That means that if I need to charge it in more than one place I have to buy another charger. Even though it is not expensive, it is hard to find.

The second one is that the only warning for low battery is a red blinking light, which by the way must have a really high threshold, because battery has already died on me twice without I ever noticing the warning.

When I was about to close the review I finally saw the red light. It actually alternates between blue and red. But again, it has a very high threshold, because the battery died soon after the red light started blinking. And chances are when that happens you will not be carrying the charger.

Ubixon, I beg you, please use a standard mini-USB port next time. Motorola has learned this very valuable lesson.


2 / 5


Music

This is a very music-centric headset, so they really put some special attention on it.

I am not and audiophile, but it sounds great. The 3D sound works like a charm. It has four modes, and I really like the last one, called MEX. It delivers what they call a "wide stereo" sound, with a bass boost. I will refrain from trying to explain the effect because I wouldn't know the technical terms anyway. I just know it works fine.

And I believe a more efficient eargel would dramatically improve sound quality, however I don't have access to one without importing.

Last but definately not least, the excellent controls make listening to music a very pleasing experience.


4 / 5


Calls

The sound quality is more than enough for calls, which depend much more on the network and signal quality than anything else. A very nice thing is that sound comes through both ears, unlike some other stereo headsets. I have no idea how good the microphone is, because I haven't been on the other side of the conversation. But no one has complained about it, so I assume it must be good.

The controls for calls are also simple and not confusing at all.

But if you are looking for a headset for making phone calls, there are smaller, more efficient and much cheaper options.


3 / 5


Price/availability

The price is on par with other headsets. I spent a total of US$ 85, and had to import it from the United States through EBay, since it is nowhere to be found here in Brazil.


Conclusion

The NC1 is a good headset, but not perfect. It draws too much attention and gets a little unforfortable after some time.

But some of the problems are not excluive to this particular headset. Although Bluetooth has been around for some years now, headsets still need a lot of room for components, particularly the battery. I hope the technology will be more mature in the near future, so that we can have smaller and better devices.

The NC1 is definately a step on the right direction though. Although it has its flaws, the design idea was great. I can't wait to see a smaller and more modern version. I just really hope they don't change the controls, which for me are as good as it gets.

Now I will probably buy a Motorola S9, because I have read so many different opinions, and I want to test it myself. When I do I will also post a review and probably a head-to-head comparison with the NC1.


Overall score


3.3 / 5

This score is a ponderate average, considering each individual score and a factor of importance for each one. Since each weight takes into account my personal taste, this score also reflects only my overall opinion.

The weights are as follows:

Funcionality - 2
Controls - 4
Comfort - 5
Portability - 5
Battery - 2
Music - 5
Calls - 2

PS: I am not a native English speaker, so if there are any suggestions to make the text better I would be really thankful. Any other opinion will also be gladly accepted.

[Yield]

I just got a set of these last week as well. Overall I am pretty happy with these but they definitely could use some improvement. In terms of design and functions, I think it is well laid out except for the on/off button. It's harder to reach and a little flimsy feeling. In terms of the ear pieces, you do feel that they are there and some may find them a bit heavy but I really don't think you're going to get much lighter than these in the near future for this type of a design. I don't want to have a big fixed piece going around the back of my head so the S9 wasn't an option. The small eargels work pretty well for me. Overall I think this is about the best design you're going to get if you want a minimum of size and bulk. And yeah, people are going to know you've got headphones on and they look a little techno-geeky but again, it's pretty hard to look subtle with headphones on unless they're little buds and then you have lots of wires, which is what we're trying to get rid of in the first place!

My biggest pet peeve by far is linking with the phone, although I'm starting to think the main problem is with realplayer and not lubix. First off, when you turn on the headphones they do not automatically pair with the phone. You have press any button on them and then they connect. After that you are good to go when it comes to making calls. However, if you want to stream music, the real problem starts. If you've already connected to the phone and go into realplayer and play music it won't send it automatically to the headphones. You have to open the menu and say send to bluetooth. Then, if you already had the headphones paired with the phone prior to starting realplayer, Realplayer gives me an error of "cant connect to a2dp audio sink" or something like that! Great. What you have to do is turn on the headphones but not connect to the phone. Then go into realplayer, start playing music, and then send it to the bluetooth device. At that point realplayer will recognize the headphones and stream it properly. So obviously something isn't working as it should, I'm thinking it's more to do with realplayer not recognizing that the phone has already connected to an a2dp device but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Smaniac can confirm if this happens to him as well.

In terms of sound quality, I'm very happy with it. Much better than most buds I've tried and the different sound setting make a big difference. The bass setting works pretty well. For calls, it works ok but not amazing. People will probably know you're on a headset. I haven't made a lot of call with it but people have told me I sound a little far away. If you're in a noisy environment they probably won't work well. Worst case scenario, you take the left earpiece out (where the mic is) and hold it close to your mouth while you talk and you can hear the other person in the right ear. That made me a lot louder to the other person.

I got the phones for ~$55 on buy.com. I DO NOT recommend getting them from buy.com - I'm pretty sure they may have sent me a refurbished set. I noticed that the package looks like it may have been opened already. Also, my charger doesn't work properly. When I plug it into the headphones it won't charge unless I place the headphones at a particular angle! Really annoying. I'm thinking of sending them back although I already sent the first set back to buy.com after they wouldn't charge at all.

EDIT: Oh, and somebody please make another media player that has a2dp support!! It's sucks having to go from exmms back to realplayer

[Smaniac]

I just ordered a Motorola S9, when it gets here I'll post my opinions.

And about the connectivity issues, yep, it happens here.

I hadn't noticed before because I don't usually connect the headset before opening RealPlayer.

It works (or doesn't) in the exact same way as yours does.

In my honest opinion Motorola's implementation of Bluetooth is seriously broken.

What Windows Vista (and I guess any other Windows, including Mobile) does is install a driver to the headset, and after that it works just like a sound card.

What that means is that absolutely any program at all can stream to the headset.

If our phones were like that we could use apps like ZM Player and eXMMS/RockBox with our Bluetooth headsets in a transparent way, the software didn't even need to know it was streaming to Bluetooth.

But again, our phones, even though Motorola call them "smart", aren't supposed to accept third-party apps, and we should be stuck to RealPlayer.

I didn't put any of this on the review because it is about the headset, not the phone.

And yes, you probably have a refurbished unit, because I don't think you can buy a new one for $55. I paid $70 plus shipping on mine.

[fsjon]

Do you have the s9 vs nc1 review avaliable yet?