LG Electronics Tone+ HBS-730 Bluetooth Headset (Black)

I own both the 700 and 730 models. I purchased the 700 3 weeks ago and used it extensively. I love the 700. The sound is not stellar, but it isn't totally crappy. The sound lacks depth, like the difference between AM sound and FM sound, though not as extreme. The sound also distorts on the loud end. However, it worked great.

The 730 has a few extra features that make it better, like the voice battery status and other messages. The sound is much better. The sound quality now rivals mid-tier phones that would please the average user who likes bass and mostly clear sound. It's full sound, but not audiophile quality. I am no audiophile and do have mild-medium hearing loss. I hate total flat response, anyway, even if it is "pure." I like good clean sound with a little extra nice, tight bass. Compared to my Bose QC15s, this is not too far off. I'd say this is pretty darn good for BT headphones. This would be worth the upgrade hands down if not for one big flaw.

The range of this is far inferior to the 700 I own. It drops out sound and makes it choppy after 10 feet. With the 700, I can be 2 stories down, 20 feet away, and choppiness is minimal. Not so with 730. Just turning my back to my phone from 10 feet away and sound drops. Knowing the battery life is a little better on the 730s, it makes me wonder if LG didn't simply reduce the BT radio power for more efficiency? I hope not. I was perfectly fine with the battery life of the 700s. That's just speculation, but the radio performance between the two headsets is huge.

What I love about BT headsets is the freedom I have to leave my phone down and do things. With the 700, I had this freedom with OK, but nothing special sound. With the 730, I have great sound with good bass, but can't go more than 5-10 feet without having annoying drops in sound.

Which one to send back?

Update 9 OCT 2012:

I really love the sound improvement over the 700. I find I am using the 730 all the time and have modified my behavior in order to prevent the dropped sound. One thing to note is that these in ear phones are comfortable, but are so because they don't jam all they way in the ear. There is a little more air that gets in. In the office or at home, no issue, sound and bass is great. While driving in the car, I lose a lot of bass and have to turn it up more and stuff them tighter in the ear. It is still a clearer, more open sound.

Based on the few comments left, I will be calling LG to see if my unit is defective.

I also want to note that the color difference where the buds attach is much better. The silver color is less obnoxious. I tend to be more conservative in dress and don't like loud colors that scream, "look at me."

I do wish the wires were a more flexible as the stiffness causes them to stick out. Thankfully, the wires are very thin and most people won't notice them from a distance.

I also wish the magnets were a little stronger. It's easy to knock them out of the holder area.

In spite of these other little points, I still think this is the best BT headset I've ever had. The biggest advantage is that they are "there." With my past headsets, once they are out of the ear, I kept losing them all the time. Not so with these. It's also way better for listening to music, way better. I also like that when it's loud, I can put both buds in and actually hear the conversation I am having.

Update NOV 27 2012:

I ended up keeping both. I'm using the 730 less and just starting going back to the 700 because of the better range. The big reason for this is because the 730 began dropping out in the middle of a longer phone conversation. This was getting very annoying, especially with my 35 minute each way drive to and from work. I'd have to scramble to turn on the speakerphone. All it took was a shut off and turn back on to make it connect, but this is not good. It does this even being fully charged. I wanted to send back the 730, but with my busy schedule, I unfortunately missed the deadline.

With the latest problem, I can't recommend these. Short range for music is one thing it won't matter in certain situations. Drops during calls is a deal killer for me.

I am also finding the magnets to be more of an issue, though more a minor annoyance. I tuck everything in under my collar and fish out the ear buds by pulling on the wire. I'd rather just go to where it is supposed to be seated. This is true of both 700 and 730.

UPDATE 19 FEB 2013:

After several more months of use, I almost exclusively use the 700s while the 730 sits collecting dust. Why? The only major advantage the 730s has, with its range issue, is the sound quality. So, if it's just going to be headphones, I'd rather use good headphones. That's what I've done first with the V-Moda M-100 (which include a mic, a great portable headphone with really good sound) and now the HiFiman HE-500, which gives me awesome premium sound, though no mic and not really portable.

I still use the 700's paired to my phone because it is more reliable. Still, it does drop on me, an issue I'm going to blame on my phone, as it has other quirks that lead me to believe that.

After reading some comments below, those who were in the same boat as me, until LG offers a fix, or a better model, go with the 700s. If sound is really important to you and you are just going to sit in an office, buy yourself a nice in ear buds or headphones with great sound quality and a built in mic. There are a lot of choices that way.

I was asked to try out the LG TONE+ stereo headset. I have the previous version of the LG TONE and enjoyed that one but this one has really nice updates. The first one I noticed was a call clarity has gotten even better. The previous one was good too but this one is exceptional. I also like the fact that when you turn it on there is an automated voice telling you that the power is on and the battery level. This is nice when you are driving and you have it on your neck and flip the switch that you do not have to look to see whether the power is on or off. There is also the capability to have it speak to you your incoming text messages, and voice activated dialing. It is comfortable to wear and I had no problems pairing the Bluetooth to my phone. I use it at the gym when I am exercising and have no problems with it. I can't wear it running however since it bounces around but its perfect for the elliptical and weight training. The ear bubs that were on it were too big for my ears but it comes with three different sizes so it wasn't a problem to switch it out.

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I generally do not review products but I was compelled to write a review about this one mainly because it is such a good headset and yet fails in the basic bluetooth function. I bought one, returned it and bought a second one that I will return soon.

In this review I will analyze the entire product name and you will get a good idea of what to expect. This product is called "LG Electronics Tone+ HBS-730 Bluetooth Headset Retail Packaging Black". Here is my review of each portion of this title (not in order):

Headset: The music and phone sound is REALLY great (even when biking). I struggled a bit with the ear piece sizes as I run, bike, and workout with these on. I finally settled for the smallest size but it still slips out once I start sweating or if it is raining/misting not that big a deal when I am running but REALLY annoying when I am biking. The controls are accessible but not very easy to find when you are biking in the winter with gloves. The fit is pretty comfortable and I don't feel it for the most part. It even hides inside my collar (with a little bulge). When not hidden, it looks like something out of stat trek.

Bluetooth: WOW how could LG MESS this up so badly. The headset cuts out on a regular basis (every few mins). I can't put the phone in the back pocket (think biking, running). I can't hold the phone the "wrong way". I can't walk more than a few feet away from the phone (10 ft). All these were NOT an issue with my MOTOROKR S9-HD.

LG Electronics: I called and talk to the LG customer (twice). They were not very helpful. Both times they insisted that they have NEVER heard of this problem. I even asked them to go and look at all the reviews on Amazon and other sites as well as the note that Amazon had on their site about this product being under review due to excessive returns. But they just asked me to send it into LG at my own expense. I told them "No, I would rather return it for a replacement and then LG can deal with Amazon". But they would not acknowledge that there is a problem and blamed my iphone, HTC phone, and iPad. REALLY bad customer service.

Tone+ HBS-730: I tried my friends HBS-700 and it did NOT have ANY of the problems that this one has. Bluetooth works exactly as you would expect. No problems on bike or run with the HBS-700!

Retail Packaging: Contains headset, 3 sizes of ear buds, power supply, and manual

Black: Yup I can confirm, its black!

After all this I have gone through 2 of them and had to return them. I am tempted to order another one just to see if the same problems persists. If nothing else it may force LG to take some action if they see so many returns from so many customers.

1/3/13 UPDATE: I ended up returning the second one and bought a third one (also from Amazon) and tested it out for a month to see if I could root cause the issues. This one holds the connection better than the other two (but still far worse than my Motorola S9-10 both in terms of distance from phone and placement of the phone).

What I did find is that the problems with connectivity get worse as the battery hits "medium" power. Sometimes it will be connected playing music for 30-40 mins with the phone sitting right in front of me at my desk and then suddenly start skipping and dropping the connection even though I have not moved at all.

The other thing I wanted to comment on is that the ear gels don't really stay in during bike rides or runs. I have tried all three pairs that came with it but no luck.

Unfortunately, I will have to return this set also. I may try the Motorola S11-HD (although it is >2x the price).

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I had the hbs 700 for a couple of months and the blue tooth worked as advertised up to a distance of about 30 feet before it got flaky. I was and am very pleased with it. I got the 730 because of the new features. The sound quality is significantly better but the first day I had it, with the headphones around my neck and my droid razor max on hip, the blue tooth disconnected constantly, only staying connect for 10 or 12 seconds. I wondered if it was the phone so I paired with my nexus 7 and had the same experience. I processed a return with Amazon but while waiting for the new on I continued to use it. I found that if it has line of site to the phone it stays connected. Anything blocking the path including your hand or arm (or turning your head as another review mentions) causes the blue tooth to drop.

Another intertersting development, after using is for 4 or 5 days, the range and stability seems to be improving. It will stay connected now at distances of 8 or 10 feet as long as line of site is not obstructed. I have no idea what causes this and customer support from LG is non-existent at this point. Buy at your own risk.

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I had the LG HBS-700 blue tooth headset and loved it. Unfortunately, I lost it.

The LG HBS-730 is better in every way. I like the white inserts better than the orange. The sound quality is better and the battery life is longer.

Unlike some other reviewers, I have had no problems with the blue tooth. I get good distance with it.

This headset is so comfortable that I have it on most of the day. I just put some relaxing acoustical music on low volume and work away. When a call comes in, I answer it on my headset. The voice quality on phone calls is excellent.

This is the perfect headset for exercise. No wires. This is a great headset. It's literally like having a soundtrack to your life.

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Plantronics M100/R Bluetooth Headset

I thought for a while how best to describe the quality and functionality of the Plantronics M100. In the end, I decided to compare and contrast my last ear piece with the M100. Better yet, what I hated about my old ear piece and love about the M100.

Comfort

-Old Ear Piece: Uncomfortable, no matter how I adjusted it or how many ear tips I tried it just hurt to wear. Hard plastic ear loop and not well designed silicone ear piece cover.

-M100: absolutely the most comfortable ear piece I have ever had. I can't begin to describe how comfortable is sits in your ear and stays in place. Very comfortable flexible ear loop what is easy on and easy off. The internal ear piece cover has is comfortable and has a unique extruding piece that hold the unit in place that does not hurt your ear.

On/Off

-Old ear piece: Has a small hard to reach push button that provides no real way of showing that the unit is turned on.

-M100: It has an honest to goodness slide button. If you see red it's off, if you don't see red it's on. But wait there more, when you turn it on the unit will tell you that it's on and how much talk time you have. When you turn it off the unit will tell you it's turning off!

Connectivity

-Old ear piece: You could not tell if the device was connected to the phone, the blue tooth light would flash but you might have to power it on and off to make sure the unit is connected. As you can imagine that it was very frustrating when a call would come in and the unit would not pick up the phone transmission.

-M100: The unit will tell you it's connected and no matter how long you have not used the unit it will preserve the connection with reduced power usage. I've had zero issues.

Range

-Old ear piece: Roughly about 33 feet. The only issue is that when you exceeded the range you just loose the call with little notice.

-M100: The range is 33 feet however, if you exceed the ranged the unit will tell you that you are "loosing connectivity" and when you walk back it will tell you that you are "regaining connectivity."

Setup

-Old ear piece: some issues setting the unit up the first time with one reset required.

-M100: Very simple to setup. The instruction guide was helpful however; I really don't think you needed it to setup the unit.

Sound/Noise Cancelling

-Old ear piece: The sound reception is always spotty. Most calls the person on the other end would complain about not being able to hear me and for static. Outdoors you might as well not have a call. Any wind what so ever and you could not hear and the person on the other end would not be able to hear.

-M100: Nothing but complements with the sound quality from the various people I have talked with including being able to hear me typing. Outdoors no issues in moderate to heavy winds.

Features Unique to Plantronics M100

-Dual microphone in the unit helps with sound quality and clarity.

-Headset battery meter for iPhone.

-Multiple device connectivity this might not be important to some purchases however, if you are in the same boat as my wife she needs two phones because her company does not allow personal calls on a company cell phone. This makes that situation much nicer. I have not tried connecting the headset with an iPad or other type device yet but it's coming.

-Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and eSCO

Right to it...

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The Pros

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+[Feather Light]:

I have actually had to touch the headset to make sure I still had it on. Very light indeed

+[Comfortable]:

With the feather light weight and fit, this headset can be worn throughout a whole day without issue.

+[Spoken Alerts]:

"Connected", "Lost Connection", "Talk Time, 5hrs", etc... A welcome option for knowing what's going on with your headset, instead of having to decipher what different blinking LEDs mean

+[Easy Pairing]:

Pairing with my Nexus One phone was fast, easy and rock stable. As soon as I go out of range, the headset says so. When I get back in range, it automatically re-pairs and also says so.

+[Excellent Range]: While at home, I like to keep my phone plugged in to charge and just walk around the house with these headsets on, while the phone stays in one location. As long as I'm within the rated range, there's no problem with maintaining the connection. No need to keep the headset and phone within super close range.

+[Wear on Left or Right Ear]:

With the dual-mounting way these headsets are worn on the ear, it makes wearing them on your left or right ear a non-issue.

+[Good Inbound/Outbound Voice]:

With good signal on the phone, the incoming voice quality is on par with using the phone's earpiece directly. Similarly, the outgoing voice when I've called others has been reported to being the same as using the phone's mic.

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The Cons

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-[Needs More Isolation]: The feather light weight and non-invasive earpiece make for excellent comfort, but at the expense of letting in more ambient noise (even with the built-in DSP noise filter). I find myself having to use a finger to press the earpiece closer to my ear to hear better.

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Conclusion

=====================

Easy to use, solid performer. Well recommended.

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I have to say that I almost took a star off my review for the terrible packaging this headset came in. Not only was it ridiculously difficult to remove, I was worried I might break the unit getting it out of the packaging. Egads! Also, what ships in this large package is just the headset unit, the power cable and a pamphlet of docs. All of this would have fit in a box / package 5 times smaller than what it shipped in. Clearly the packaging was meant to stand up vertically and be displayed at ATT or some other retail cell location. All this being said I am not rating this headset based on the docs. (But I wanted to!).

First let me say I am not a bluetooth headset expert, I briefly owned the apple bluetooth headset for the iphone but returned it. I also tried the altec lansing stereo bluetooth headphone / headset to less than stellar results. Since those experiments, I just used the very nice apple headphone with the built in mic and volume controls (the ones you buy separate for the iphone for about $40). I just found those to be very easy and I can listen to music while I work or drive and then also make or take calls easily. Also you don't need to charge them up.

Pros of the M1000R BT Headset:

Small, lightweight design, you barely feel it in your ear.

It uses both a wrap around ear holder or also a new soft rubber "plug". I don't know how to describe it but it works very well. You choose which works better. I liked the plug a lot.

Comes with 3 sizes of the rubber "plug" (ok i need to find out the right word) and it's very comfortable and stays in place. This was well researched and designed.

Call quality is strong, loud, i tested it 10-20 feet away with no problems. I could get used to this.

There is a built in voice that tells you the status, volume level, battery life.... snazzy.

It seems to work flawlessly with the iphone 4 (paired perfectly), all functions worked. You hold the headset button down to activate the iphone's voice dial feature.

Battery life seems strong, says 6 hours, haven't talked enough to know for sure. Charges very fast.

You power it off with a slider rocker, I like that, sometimes you never know if it's on or off with the soft click buttons.

Cons: (not many)

Packaging sucked, yeah I know, move on.

Only comes with a home charger, its nice and small, but would some sort of combo auto charger be a lot to ask?

Pressing the call button sort of squishes your ear, it's a hard press. Maybe it will soften up over time.

There are are 3 buttons on the unit power, call functions, and volume. This is fine but the docs come with a big list of functions that you either single tap or double tap to enable. Many of these are based on the status of your call. If its an active call the taps do different things, it's the call was lost they try to redial or reconnect. It just seems a little complicated considering you are likely to be driving in the car, etc. I dunno, maybe this is the best way to go. The basic functions work fine using the tap to take a call and the volume to adjust.

The voice dial function takes a little getting used to, You hold down the call button for 2 secs, then it bongs at you, but that signal is just telling the iphone to start its voice dial function. So then you wait to hear the iphone's sort of double bong that means you can now give your voice command. It takes some getting used to, I wasn't sure how long to hold the button down for and when to speak. it seems I was always talking too soon or too late.

All in all, a great headset for the $$.

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This is my first Plantronics bluetooth headset & I must say that I'm very pleasantly surprised. I was going to buy one of the other bluetooth headsets (also from Plantronics) but went for M100 as soon as I saw it. I've been using the Motorola H-721 and compared to that its a big leap for me:

Pros:

The speed at which it connects to both my iPhone 3GS & BlackBerry 9700 is awesome. Its instant. I love it for that. Previously, I would have to wait for the 721 to connect to one and then take a while to connect to the other one. But for the M100 its instant and almost simultaneous to both.

It gives a battery meter on my iPhone 3GS (as advertised) which is a great feature, haven't seen or heard anything like it for any other headset.

The voice prompts are great they are generally for power on & off, connected to phone 1 & 2, battery low etc. May not seem much but is a great feature. When you turn it on, there is a voice prompt announcing the battery life in terms of 'remaining talk time' yes! not a percentage but the numbers of hours of talk time remaining....on a full charge it says something over 6 hours of talk time.

The fit with the ear gel is excellent. I was a little suspicious at first, but, within a few minutes (watched the video), I got the hang of it. I don't like using the ear hook at all. Besides, not using the ear hook gives me the freedom to 'change ears' without having to fiddle with the hook. Love this feature a lot. Don't even realize I'm wearing it.

The person on the other end can hear me well. Was able to test it with loud background machinery noise, and it seemed to be doing its job perfectly well as the person on the other side could hear me clearly without any noise in the background. However, I had to strain to hear that person, then pushed the volume up but the voice wasn't as clear as I would like.

Another great feature is when I'm talking on my iPhone, it does not disconnect from the BlackBerry. So when I get a call on my BlackBerry while I'm talking on the iPhone and want to switch from the iPhone to BlackBerry, its instant. Just a click on the call button and the line transfers no more waiting for one call to end and then for the headset to reconnect to the other phone and then take the call. Believe me! this happens a lot to me and on my H-721, I had to wait for the phone to reconnect or I would take the phone call directly and then wait for the caller to transfer to the headset while I spoke directly through the phone.

The form factor is great. Its very thin...the thinest one I've ever used but its not paper. So don't get too excited there :-)

The sliding on-off switch is great. No need to check for the led light. If it shows red on the slider its off simple!!

There is no led blinking light on the front of the headset which I personally prefer. I hate it when people I talk to look at the headset from time to time as the blinking light distracts them. Also there's no blinking from my shirt pocket when its there. Don't know how others feel about it but its a plus for me.

It automatically reconnects to one or both phones if I accidently walk out of my office room wearing the headset. There's a voice announcement in both cases lost connection and reconnecting.

Cons:

To be honest, it doesn't have a lot of down sides. One thing I did note is that the listening voice clarity varies from person to person and therefore (obviously) with the caller's cell phone to cell phone. I did notice that some callers were very clear and for others I had to push up the volume. I've been using the headset at medium volume. So not sure if this is because of my headsets or others' phones/headsets etc. However, I would think that Plantronics can do better in this area so that we can hear the caller's voice more clearly and distinctly.

There's only one volume button which cycles through the different volume levels. Maybe the Company should think about having dedicated up & down volume buttons. But this is really not a big deal. Just a suggestion for future improvement.

All in all, this is an amazing bluetooth and so far I'm very happy with my purchase.

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I have been using this Plantronics m100 for a week now and it is the best bluetooth for the iPhone 4. This headset even generates an icon on the iPhone that shows the remaining charge on the headset as well as giving a voice prompt announcing remaining talk time when turning on the headset. I had tried a Jawbone Icon previous to this, but had to return it as some people could not hear me due to Jawbone not picking up my voice. The jawbone seemed to have trouble with the sensor detecting that I was speaking, unless I held the bottom of the Jawbone against my face.

Previously, I had another Plantronics (925) headset that worked fine with my iPhone 3G and 3GS, but horribly with my iPhone4. Very short range when it worked at all with iPhone 4 and terrible voice quality. At times I could hear the callers but they could not hear me. At other times it would even disconnect when iPnone 4 was in my pocket and earpiece was on the opposite ear! Finally, after I had it a few years (paired with the iPhone 3G and 3GS), it died and would not recharge anymore (ThankYou!). It seems that some bluetooth headsets work better with certain cellular phones than others. The m100 seems made specifically for iPhone 4 and is giving me fantastic range, exceptionally long range if in my line of sight, and excellent sound quality. Pairing is the easiest yet and it seems to stay connected unless I get out of range, when it will warn me that it is disconnecting. It easily and automatically reconnects when back in range with a voice announcement. And....it is even comfortable and exttemely light, and can be worn with an ear hook (included) or just fitted in the ear canal with one of the three included ear gels. I even ordered a second unit for backup!

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