Review: Motorola S9 stereo Bluetooth headset

[Smaniac]

Hello,

After reading some positive opinions on the Lubix LC1 I bought a pair, but unfortunately I didn't like it. So after my not-so-happy experience, I still wanted a decent Bluetooth headset. I realized Bluetooth headsets aren't supposed to have wires, any kind of them, and people were really happy with Motorola S9, so I decided to give it a shot.

The design is great, with no moving parts and it looks very nice. It is also water and sweat resistant, great for physical activities. On the left side there are the volume buttons and a clickable call button on the middle. On the right there are the track buttons and a clickable play/pause button. I was also curious to see how the so called touch controls would behave, so more on that later.

And it is flexible enough to adjust to your head and not break when dropped, but also hard enough to feel solid.

And one more thing: I decided not to post any pictures on this review. Even though that sounds easy, it takes huge amounts of time, and can even take longer than the review itself. The S9 is a very well known product, and you will find excellent pictures on the internet.


Functionality

You turn on the headset by holding the power button. If it finds a known device, it conects to it. If it doesn't, it enters discovery mode. I found the pairing a bit akward at first, because I was used to my other headset. But when I think about it it's actually pretty nice, because if it doesn't find anything, it means you are trying to connect to a new device, and therefore it gets discoverable.

The led as always indicates the status:

Blinking blue: turning on
Blue: discoverable
Blinking blue: connected (call)
Blinking green: connected (A2DP)
Red: charging
Orange: charging 25% done
Green: charge complete

The led is behind the headset, in a semi-hidden place, so it doesn't tell everyone what you are doing.

I really can't see any way to improve functionality, and I have no complaint whatsoever.


5/5


Controls

Ok, here comes the controls. At first I tought, "touch controls, nice", but later I read some reviews saying the controls are too sensitive, and while you are looking for them with your finger you end up pressing something by mistake. Well, fortunately that's either an exaggeration or the reviewer had very heavy fingers.

The controls aren't touch sensitive. They are just very sensitive, and so far I have never pressed them by accident. And there's a reason for them to be sensitive: the buttons are positioned against your ear. If you press the button, you are also pressing the earplugs directly into your ear. If they were harder to press, it would definately hurt.

Actually that does happen with the play/pause and call buttons. Since they are harder to press, if you don't do it properly it will hurt a bit. But soon enough I found a way to overcome that, I just hold the earplug with my thumb before pressing the buttons.

Since the touch-like buttons don't have tactile feedback, you hear a small beep when you press the volume buttons, and a different beep for each of the track buttons. The beep is just loud enough so you can hear it without being annoying.

My main complaint about the controls is that they are located on both sides of the headset. So you have to either use both hands or cross your hand in front of your face to access them. If I could make it better, I would have removed the volume buttons from the left side. Then the 2 buttons on the right would be volume if you press and track if you hold. The call button could continue on the left, because it's not used that often and it doesn't need to be together with the music controls.


4/5


Comfort

One of the most important thing for me in a headset is its comfort. And that's where my other headset had flawed.

The S9 is advertised as a very lightweight headset, which weighs as much as a pair of sunglasses. Well, that's right, but there is something very important to consider: its center of gravity is not in the same place as the support on your head. Most of its weight is supported by the sides of your head, just above the ears. But the center of gravity is located towards the back, because that is where the battery, radio and other components are. It is like holding a stick. If you hold it from the center, you will feel a certain weight. But the farther you go from the center, the heavier it will feel.

Does this mean it's too heavy? Not necessarily. After wearing it for a few minutes, I took it off and were it again, but this time it felt much lighter. Then I found out there is a sweetspot, a position with maximum comfort, in which sometimes you almost forget you are wearing anything. And since the back is a little adjustable, you can also make it lower, bringing the center of gravity forward. The position of your head also has an impact. The straigther you are, the more comfortable it will be. Your spine will also thank you for that.

When wearing it, the only movement it has is up and down. But that is only noticeable when you are also moving, like when you are in a vehicle in a bumpy road, or when you are jogging. That is annoying, but it can be solved by putting something between the back of the headset and your neck. When I'm going to work my shirt does the job just fine. This also helps distributing some of the weight to the neck, because the headset is not just floating around anymore.

And very importantly, it has no wires or any kind of moving part to get in the way.

The earplugs are as comfortable as they usually are. Sometimes I take the headset off for a few minutes to rest my ears, but I also did that with the wired one. I still have to test the small eargels that came with it, but I think it will feel about the same as the normal one.

I don't think this kind of design can be improved much with current technology.


4/5


Portability

Huston, we have a problem. Since it is a solid piece with not moving parts, that also means you have to carry a big piece of plastic around when you are not wearing it. I usually just leave it around my neck, but I'm trying to come up with a belt clip or something like that.

On the bright side when you are wearing it, it looks like a normal headset when seen from the front, and it looks cool when seen from the sides or back.


3/5


Battery

The S9 has an internal battery, which can't be replaced and is charged by a standard mini-USB port located below the back part, and protected by a piece of rubber.

When charging, the led indicates the status of the charge, 0-24% red, 25-99% orange and 100% green. It's a nice touch for emergency charges, because you know orange will give you around 90 minutes of use.

The battery lasts for about 6 hours, which is great. So far it has never died on me, and even if it does mini-USB cables are readily available wherever I am. Sadly some manufacturers are still stubborn enough to use non-standard charging ports.

Anyway, no complaints here.


5/5


Music

Although the S9 doesn't have fancy sound modes, it doesn't really need them. The earplugs fit nicely inside the ears, providing good bass sound and insulating external noise reasonably well. The overall sound quality is excellent.

Some people said they were having issues with interference and signal loss. I never had that under normal use. One thing I noticed though is that sometimes when I'm downtown if I put my hand over the phone the signal is lost. Motorola says that you should always carry your streaming device on a back pocket for maximum quality, because it has a direct line of sight with the receiver on the headset. But I never really had to do that.

Always double-check if you have an original unit before complaining, because fake S9s are very common and they do have those problems.


5/5


Calls

Phone calls are one of the main targets of complaints from the users. And the reason is that sound only comes through the left side. I don't know why they did this, maybe it makes the battery last longer, but if that is the case there should be a choice.

Besides that, call quality is good, and people seem to hear me fine on the other side. One thing though, I have no idea where the microphone is located.

And one important thing, which I find funny, but some people might find annoying: since who sees you from the front sometimes have no idea that you are wearing it, it may look like you are talking to yourself. Sometimes I hold the phone in front of me so that people know that I'm using it.

But anyway, like any music-centric headset, you would be better off with a dedicated mono headset if you intend to spend a lot of time on calls.


2/5


Price/availability

The hardest thing about the S9 was actually buying it. Although the original one can be easily found here, it costs US$ 230. So I just emailed every EBay seller I could find asking if their S9 came with the original hologram. I only found one of them, whose combined price of US$ 100 was higher than most, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Fortunately he did send an original unit with the hologram. If anyone is interested in buying a pair, I can recommend the seller, just send me a PM. And be very careful, especially on EBay, because there are lots of fakes there.


Conclusion

The S9 has all the qualities of a Bluetooth headset without looking or feeling akward. I have been using it daily since I bought them, and my complaints are minor compared to its strengths. Of course, the comfort could be improved, but like I said I don't think there is much we can do with current technology. It is a great headset for those who want a true wireless experience. A competitor might soon appear, but right now I don't know a better product on the market.


Overall score


4 / 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

[arjunr]

Though i'd add something i noticed recently.

When my S9 is about to go out of sync, or the music is about to get interrupted, the pitch changes. The change is vey minor, and I'd saymost people wouldnt notice.
I dont know if this is unique to S9 or just a side-effect of streaming music.

Also a little correction:
Blue Led On= discoverable mode.
Blue blinking= paired mod
Green blinking= Paired in A2DP mode
Phones that dont have A2DP will cause S9 to only blink blue.

[Smaniac]

Some weird problem here is preventing me from editing the post, but I'll add the led info when I get home. Thank you!

And about the pitch, yes, it does happen, but that is a bug on Ming, not S9, because my other Bluetooth headset also has the same pitch problems.

[Dina]

Nice review. Thank you so much.

BTW, I think its time 4 u to edit ur signature and add S9 to it...

[mptem18]

I have to add that in spite of the motorola's claim S9 aren't sweat proof just little resistant to it, mine start with button's malfunction (next track won't work and play/pause just increase volume), searching on the net I found many reports of users with similar troubles, the cause? it seems that the area behind the buttons is isolated inappropriately, my advise try to keep as dry as you can and not allow moisture near the speakers

[j.archambault]

As noted in the Cnet review, my S9 does encounter interferrance outside. Espescially around busy streets. Basically, there are short and intermitant (one-second) interruptions. I don't know if its an issue with the mings bluetooth or the S9. However, I am not the only one to notice this. Just keep that in mind. But, inside
my ming/s9 never skip a beat

[firemenace]

I Too am interested in purchasing the s9 headphones for my Ming, i own the Motorola s805 Headphones which are very good headphones sound/battery life wise. But I personally would rather more "stylish" headphones as the s805 are very doofy looking but do give very good base and voulmefor being bluetooth headphones,i do every now and then experience that stutter u mention in busy streets but its not a regular occurence and doesnt really take away from the headsphones. So i guess ill also take the dive and purchase the s9 aswell, now i gotta look into getting a extra battery because my Ming (24p) only gets about 4 - 5 hours bluetooth mp3 playback

[MotoMania]

Congratulations to Motorola.

International CES 2008
Best of Innovations Honorees
Category: Headphones

Motorola, Inc.

MOTOROKR S9
Model: 98801N
http://www.motorola.com

MOTOROKR S9 integrates wireless mobile music and calls with unmatched lightweight design. Behind-the-head wearing style, preferred for top comfort and stability, combines with music and call selection from the headphones.

Location(s): Central/8545, North Hall Meeting Rooms/N117

Source: http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/awar...rees.asp?boi=1
http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/awar...ategory=896061

[xeckthor]

hi, i have a doubt...im about to buy this headset but i dont know how to recognize if it is a fake s9 or if it is the original...here is my question...

how do i recognize a fake from an original s9???

maybe, those members who own an original s9 should post some pictures for the members like me, thar want to buy one but have the feeling that maybe its fake...=)

the price, here is about 150 dlls, i live in mexico city, so in pesos, its like 1500, its just a matter of walking on downtown...so, about the price, any hologram, any "hidden mark"...i dont know...anything could be helpful


thanks!!!

[Elite_boy]

to looks http://public.fotki.com/Elite-boy/buyings/