After stepping on my HBH-60 blue tooth mobile hands free, I had to look for a new one. I had been very pleased with the HBH-60 but a new product was on the market, a new version of HBH0-30, the HBH-35.
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| HBH-35 | HBH-60 |
The most obvious reason is the size. The HBH-35 is considerably larger and is more visible when worn. This is not all bad because the boom microphone is closer to your mouth so there is a chance the sound quality is better. I have not confirmed this with the receiving part though.
They (Sony Ericsson) have also managed to fit in larger and replaceable batteries. Reported stand by time is 135hrs and talk time 5hrs. This is almost double compared to the HBH-60.
The operation of both pieces is very similar. There are two volume buttons, up and down, and a main operation button. Push it once and the hands free will connect to your phone, you’ll hear a beep when it’s done. Then you can say the name of the person to call to, another beep to confirm, and then the type of number (work, home etc). If the phone did not recognize the contact you want, you will get a second chance, and a third. Push the operation button again to hang up a call. Some other cool voice activated functions are redial, answer a call and record memo.
The range is supposed to be up to 10m but with both devices, I found them to work best within 2m.
| HBH-35 | HBH-60 |
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Update 14/09/03
After 2 weeks of using the HBH-35 I can say I use it less than I used the HBH-60 due to the bulkiness of 35.
I guess this means that the longer battery life isn’t really a deciding advantage.
The longer boom mike does not seem to have improved sound quality because my phone still has problems recognizing voice commands when in loud surroundings.