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134 of 138 people found the following review helpful.
Great solution
By 998Superbike
UPDATED July 18 2010After living with it for several weeks, I wanted to add an update. Overall, the unit still works well. The volume control still poses the issue everyone complains about but I can live with it. There is one additional design issue that rears its ugly head. The clip is a bit annoying. Depending on the type of shirt you have, the unit may need to be clipped upside down, making the headphone cord somewhat shorter. I'm not sure what shirt this unit was designed for but a U.S. mens dress shirt, the button holes are on the left (wearing the shirt) so you'll need to clip the unit upside down forcing the headphone jack to your right side, making the cord shorter. Wearing a shirt having a chest pocket can solve this but a lot of my shirts don't have a chest pocket. A symmetrical mountable clip would make this a better product OR a maybe a longer headphone cord. I still like this product a lot. I use it every time when making calls at the office and when listening to music every chance I get. Still happy with my purchase.SUMMARY:Great compact sleek sexy unit. Worth the price in my opinion. Volume control is different and should have been thought through a bit more but does not detract from the overall utility of this unit. Battery, pairing, and functionality works as described in product description/literature.SIMILAR PRODUCTS OWNED:i-tech clipREVIEW:I love this BT unit! I have been searching for something like this for a long time. I like to buy things that can provide utility in more ways than one. This one seems like it can fit the bill. This is my first experience with a Sony Ericsson product.Primary usage: Listening to music while training/punching/kicking for boxing TKDSecondary usage: Conferences calls for work (zzzzzzzzz)Tertiary usage: (To be determined) Mount to my motorcycle helmet to drive my helmet speakers (not concerned about taking calls during riding)I did not use the FM radio...didn't care about that feature.Pros:-Small-light weight-No complaints, everyone hears me okay-Volume is okay/loud-Discreet (doesn't scream bluetool but more like Security or Secret Service :))-Clip has "teeth" which grip clothing better-Battery life is great, long lasting...I ran 6-7 hours at work non stop listening to music...battery still read full-Headphones sounds nice, compared to Skullcandy's Full Metal Jackets. The FMJs have a bit better range/sound but the shorter cord of the Sony's make up for it. I'm NOT a audiophile but I was able to tell the difference.-The next/pause-start/previous/power buttons work great-Pairing was a non event to a Blackberry 8320Cons:-The volume control is a bit different. Its a small unit so there aren't many places to grab it, mostly you wind up grabbing it by the sides where the volume control is and at times, you may move the volume a bit. If the volume moves alot, you may be fondling the unit too much :)-The ear buds are hard to grasp at times as they are small, rounded and smooth. (not a big deal)-The cord from the left ear to the 3.5mm jack could have been a tad longer. (not a big deal)-Non USB power cord (but may be due to the small circuitry requirements)IN USE:In use for several days. I'll update this review if anything changes for the worse. All in all...wow.
72 of 73 people found the following review helpful.
A great buy: handy, portable and hassle free
By Keb
The MW600 is a wireless Bluetooth unit with a built in display and FM receiver. The device looks and feels very light. It has a rubberized and a glossy black design, with an integrated display and clip, which secures the unit fairly well. The display is really great; it shows caller id, battery indicator and the sound track. When playing FM stations, it displayed the name of the station and name of the song. However, because the unit is so small (about the size of a AA battery, but much lighter), it was hard for me to hold the device without pressing any of the buttons inadvertently. After some practice I got used to it. The play/pause button is normal click button, but the volume control button is unlike I have seen before. It is essentially a slider; you slide you fingers to increase or decrease the volume. It took me a while to get used to its response, but after some use, I adjusted well. Though I think, if you have large/stodgy fingers, physically handling this unit could be a frustrating experience, especially early on.The MW600 has a 3.5 mm jack, which allows you to use personal headphones, a big plus for me. The sound quality was excellent, and the Sony in-ear headphones that came with it reproduced wireless stereo sound very well. It has multipoint feature, because of which I was able to pair up to three devices as it claimed; my HTC Magic phone, Toshiba laptop and a Mac Pro. It allowed me to take calls from my phone seamlessly, the music stopped when a call came in and faded in again as I cut the call. Pairing with all three devices was seamless and without any problems, although I had to enter passcode "0000" with Mac Pro and PC as it mentioned in the instructions, but strangely not with my phone.The unit has a built in battery that lasted for about 12 hours of continuous playtime , an hour more than what the manual claimed. The black glossy polished display showed the battery indicator and beeped intermittently when the battery was low. It took about two hours to fully charge the unit. One disadvantage is that you cannot use the unit while it is being charged, but this wasn't a big deal for me.When used for calling, the other person could hear me very well, without any problems. The device has a bunch of features under the hood, which seem to contribute to the overall great experience. For example, it has some degree of noise cancellation, echo cancellation, whisper mode, SSP, eSCO, etc. It claims to have Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), but I haven't used this feature.Overall, I think this product is great; buy it for simplicity, elegant design and internal features that work without much hassle.
143 of 156 people found the following review helpful.
Not Perfect but Some Cause for Celebration (more cause as of 08/17/12... See Below
By Mark
**********************************************************BIG NOTE: *** New Addendum*** Apple has finally fixed the bluetooth compatability problem in the most current version of MacOs (OSX "Mountain Lion").For the first time, I have had the MW-600 achieve a connection to my iMac and maintain it, in constant or in intermittent use, until the battery on the MW600 runs down. You can now use the MW600 to walk away from your Apple Computer to do the dishes during commercials or get a soft drink and nothing bad will happen.More cause for celebration: the MW600 just bought itself an extra star!***********************************************************This is the full, original review. New notes are in parentheses*The Sony Ericsson MW600s are not perfect, certainly not a panacea, but they function well in multiple roles; offering a stereo bluetooth headset that allows the option of using high-end headphones for improved sound quality and isolation. I voted for them with my own money and, so far, I would be more than happy to buy them again. (I finally destroyed on set after more than year's use--please never ask me how--I bought a new one, in white this time, and I am thinking of buying a second one for dedicated use with my computer for audio and Skype-calls).Before going on to talk about the real, solid reasons for liking them, it is necessary to get other people's reasons for disliking them out of the way. The MW600 has characteristics that some who have reviewed it have called problems. The following things are true about the MW600:1. It is not made of solid titanium.2. It doesn't fit a keyboard's worth of controls onto a two-inch cylinder.3. It offers only partial compatibility with Apple products. (fixed! 08/17/12)4. It is not so simple to set up that a monkey in boxing gloves could do it blindfolded.Now, the good stuff.Physically, the MW600 bluetooth stereo headset is a short, black cylinder with its sides forming a triangle. A clip with a light spring is attached to one angle of it, while the other two angles house controls that let you attach it to devices and control it using a black-and-white, organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) display.Its overall length without headphones is shorter than my pinky and yet it interfaces with many bluetooth-equipped computers, smartphones, and music/movie players with limited compatibility with Apple's iPod Touch and iPad (this has since been improved in later versions of iOS and OSX Mountain Lion. 08/17/12)Unlike it's predecessors, the MW600 has a headphone jack instead of fixed headphones meaning that it can accept any stereo headphones with a standard 3.5mm plug. The headphones that come with it have a short cord and offer very good reproduction for the sort of sound that comes from a portable player, but the fact that you can plug anything you like into them offers you the option of swapping out the units that come with it for better headphones, including audiophile-level units (high-impedence units like Grado SR-60s will work with the MW600, but it doesn't have the oomph to get the best from them, nearly all buds are okay and some are surprising. 08/17/12).For people who need better sound or louder volume this is a definite cause for celebration. It means convenience: it means that users with high-quality, two-part headphones of the kind made by companies like Shure and Denon can integrate them into their telephones via bluetooth for enhanced call-quality; it means that exercise-lovers can use high-end equipment while running on treadmills and it means that someone sitting in a cafe can stand up and stretch without having to disassemble their set-up first.Call quality on the user's end with the MW600 is as good as you can expect when the sound of the caller's voice is sent directly to both the receiver's ears while MW600's microphone seems adequately sensitive and wind-resistant.Of course, nothing is perfect and the MW600 is no exception. The MW600 is not for people who can't be bothered to learn control sequences of simian complexity, or who are too sensitive to put up with the limitations of an interface that runs off of four buttons and a (slightly frustrating) volume slider to control a device that is smaller than the average matchbox.Also, Sony and Apple are not the best of friends and the Sony device's music controls aren't recognized by Apple devices, including computers (this has changed, the MW600 will now connect reliably to an iMac running OSX Mountain Lion 08/17/12). The MW600 will interface with and play output from Apple devices, but the controls on the MW600 only play/pause the iPod Touch/iPad. They will not fast-forward, select, skip or do anything else to the actual music sequence.This means the user of any of Apple's i-devices will have to undergo the ultimate hardship to change tracks or playlists: he will have to reach into his pocket and use the iPod's physical controls, supporting the brutishly heavy machine in his hand for second, after grueling second...At the end of the day, it is hard to call the MW600 a bluetooth device because it goes above and beyond the great majority of bluetooth devices, offering a power and flexibility that makes it better than nearly everything out there, including stereo units like the Motorola Motorokr M9s and single-ear bluetooth units like the various Jawbone devices that can cost nearly twice as much. Even paired with good headphones, their sound is never as good as a metal-to-metal connection's is, but with good headphones, for bluetooth, they're a revelation.Oh, I almost forgot: they threw in an FM radio for free.(addendum 08/15/2010: After several hours of listening to an audiobook on my iPod Touch at work, the iPod touch ran out of power (in part because of the high power demands of using bluetooth). I set it on a charger a substantial distance from where I was standing and I found that I could still keep listening to it using the MW600 with no loss of sound quality. The pause/play function worked fine with me standing where I was with a closed door between myself and my player.)(addendum 09/01/2010: Trying to use this device, sharing it between multiple Apple devices, can cause frustrating connection problems. After connecting it to my computer, iPod Touch and iPad, I soon found it necessary to erase profiles and start over from scratch when connecting. Other companies make bluetooth gear that handles this more easily. Also, the general incompatibility of Sony and Apple bluetooth hardware (mentioned above) can cause problems on the computer side when you attempt multiple pairings with devices of the same type (largely fixed, as of 08/17/12).I still like the things (I've used them to listen to an audiobook playing on an ipod that was charging 30 feet away), but I have to say that I like them less (they're much improved in value by the enhanced Apple-compatability 08/17/12)
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Poor design
battery life is short
