Cut the cord with $19.99 stereo Bluetooth headset

(Credit: Jabra)

Grumble, grumble. I was going to post about the Asus Eee PC 900a that Best Buy is selling for $299, but fellow CNET blogger Michael Horowitz beat me to it. (Still waiting to learn what Netbooks have to do with "defensive computing," Michael. Ahem.)

Instead, let's revisit the Jabra BT8010, a stereo Bluetooth headset that TigerDirect has on sale for $19.99. I've covered it before: CNET rated it four stars out of five for its convertible design, OLED display, and music-playback features.

During business hours, the BT8010 functions as a fairly standard headset, albeit one with a cool OLED display and jog dial. When you want to get your groove on, you just connect the second earpiece and presto: stereo earbuds. Once you've experienced the joy of walking around with your phone in your pocket and music piping wirelessly into your head, you'll never go back to corded headphones.

Just make sure your phone supports A2DP stereo Bluetooth. Many models do, but for some reason, it's not available on all handsets (cough iPhone cough). And it's pretty much AWOL on MP3 players, which mystifies me because, as I may have mentioned, wireless earbuds are suh-weet.

I have a BT8010, and I'd give it 3.5 stars because the headset is overly susceptible to ambient noise and a little uncomfortable over long stretches. But for $19.99 (plus a reasonable $7 for shipping), it's almost too good to pass up.

[shawn1313]

michael horowitz stole your thunder! that's bogus! well, this story is good too; i've been looking for a bluetooth headset and this might be the one for me...

[gunetguy]

deal appears to be dead. It's showing $29.99. Any idea if it works on a LG VX8300?

[rickbroida]

Whoops! My bad. Just fixed the link. Try again.

[cancerman1013]

Yes, that is what I use it for. It works, especially w/ the voice calls, but as Rick said sometimes callers can't hear me too clear. Also on the LG VX8300 the phone BT s/w is buggy, so sometimes when I play music it doesn't "catch" and plays off the phone speakers. After fiddling with turning the BT on the phone and headset I can usually get it working. I like it b/c you don't look like an idiot talking to yourself since they look like BT rather than other music headphones, plus if you use it for work, it doesn't look like you're goofing off like the impression other music headphones may give. It's amazing how low the price got since I got them!

[murkin]

I just refreshed the page and it still shows $19.99 on my end. As for issues people might have, I think it is likely due to the bluetooth stack on the device your using rather than the headset itself.

[Azguy6ft3]

The price has already been raised to 29.99

[jrktech]

It's still $19.99 for me. Try this link:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4101842&Sku=G33-1176&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=g_kEfAT435U-Y5v3y96ZptH9B5XcOs.VLw

[guymatrin]

Just ordered it.

I've been waiting for the $47.95 price for the BT8010 over at headsetking.com to come down.

No more waiting for this guy. Thanks Rick!

[RyaninAtlanta]

How long does the battery last?

[farokh]

I have been trying to figure out why the screen is necessary when the earbud is attached to a location that, as far as I can tell, you cannot see the information displayed on the screen.

If I understand this correctly, you are supposed to remove the ear-piece to look at the screen to see who is calling before answering a call. Which means you now have to replace the ear-bud, and well, need I say more...

[rickbroida]

Yeah, truth be told, I always thought the screen was kinda pointless, too.

[Manila57]

what about security? wouldn't walking around with bluetooth enabled be susceptible to virus attacks!

<a href="http://www.wazzupmanila.com/about">Manila</a>

[xtianchristian]

Rick, you can stop coughing now about the iphone not having A2DP aka stereo bluetooth cuz i have the 3.0 software and it works great!! So take something else for that Cough! LOL!!