Boxwave Treo Stereo Headset

Boxwave Treo Retractable Stereo Headset

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to be sent a new headset for the Treo 650 from Boxwave, this proved good timing, as the Nano finally gave up the ghost completely, refusing to power on most of the time, and when it did, never turning off again until the battery was flat! Apple have finally sent me the box to return it, so hopefully I shouldn’t be without it for more that a week or so, but in the meantime it gives me a good chance to try using the Treo as my main MP3 player.

There are two noticeable things about the Boxwave set over the standard Treo headset, 1: It has two ear buds and 2: It has a retractable lead and a volume control, OK that’s three, but who’s counting.
The retractable gizmo is the same as found on most space saving cables, pull once to expand, and again to shrink it back down, not much more to say, it does a good job of stopping the cable getting tangled up, a constant problem I have with headsets.

The more interesting feature is the volume control, which also houses the answer button and the slider switch to select MP3’s or phone. The way this works is, to listen to MP3’s, you switch to music, and you get full Stereo: the sound through the buds is as good as any other I have tried. My only complaint is that they are not true in ear canal ones. When a call comes in, you switch to the phone setting and press the answer button, the music is stopped and the call is piped to both ears, but only in mono, obviously. Your voice is picked up by the mic built into the control housing. Once the call is finished, click the answer button again to hang up and slide the switch back to music, and the sound picks up from where you left off in Stereo again. The volume of calls and MP3’s are controlled by a wheel on the control and provides plenty of adjustment, and in the last couple of weeks I have had no complaints from callers about the quality of my voice, so the mic must do a good job as well.

All in all, big improvement on the standard headset, and they make listening to MP3’s a lot easier. The only thing I would change is the type of bud itself and if it was possible, add a remote, the ability to change tracks and pause, with the phone still in my pocket would make this headset ideal.

- David Keppler Associate Writer (UK)