Windows Phone Thoughts: Nextlink Bluespoon A|X Reviewed

Thoughts (Pros and Cons)
Lets do the pros first, as there are many. Range of the device is fantastic. I was able to walk at least 50 feet away from the device before it started breaking up. And I must say that the battery life is great. The talk time is well over 3 hours in my experience. Furthermore, charging did not require that much time at all (just about 1 hour). The device is light, and very easy to carry. I use it often when I am biking to work. The headset, once in my ear, stayed there quite securely and due to the flexible nature of the headset, I believe it will fit in most sized ears. ;-) Finally, once in your ear, you do not look like the Borg. It fits there quite snugly and unlike most other bluetooth headsets, is quite inconspicuous. Now you may count this as a con since people may really think you have gone mad and started talking to yourself when walking down the street. :-)


Figure 3: The Bluespoon A|X in the ear of a model, off of Nextlink's site.

Regarding the downsides of this headset, well, the smallness of the headset turned out to be as much of a con as it is a pro. When putting it in my pocket, I had to be gentle because I always felt that I might end up breaking the headset. Also, because I have fairly large fingers, I often ended up hitting the wrong key with unexpected results, especially when I hung up on someone when simply trying to raise the volume on the headset. But perhaps the biggest con of getting this tiny little unit is that I didn't find it very easy to put in my ear and take out. So after hanging up on a call, I would always debate over whether I should take it out of my ear or risk fumbling with the device when trying to quickly answer the phone. Since voice from a phone call is immediately sent to the headset, no matter where you pick up the call (phone or headset), you had better have the headset in your ear in order to talk. And for me, the process of putting the headset in my ear always seems to be a two handed task. Again, this may be due to my large fingers.

Conclusions
So overall, I really like the device. It is very easy to pocket, very easy to carry, very easy to use. The only problem for me, and this would apply only to the big-fingered people like me is that because it is so small, sometimes I end up hitting more than one key at a time. In my opinion, it is definitely worth the money. If you are in the market for a bluetooth headset, I seriously think this is the top one to get right now (even though Jabra has a new headset that they claim is about as small as the Bluespoon A|X. Trust me, I have seen it and it is nowhere as small or as light or as ergonomic).

Suhit Gupta is a Program Manager with Microsoft's MSN Local Search group. He recently moved to Seattle from New York after finishing his education at Columbia University. Suhit is an avid photographer and enjoys astronomy tremendously.