[charlesn]

Plantronics touts the Discovery 640 as "The ultimate bluetooth headset." And that just might be true at the moment. By way of comparison, I have owned the original Bluespoon analog, and more recently the Bluespoon AX. Yes, I have a thing for small, bleeding edge BT headsets. How does the 640 measure up?

Pros:

Works flawlessly with Verizon and the 7250. My AX was plagued with echo problems. I also had occasional hand-off issues with the AX, where a call just wouldn't go through to the headset--nothing like that with the 640.

Better sound quality than the AX. I can hear conversations clearly, even in noisy environments. While the AX is good, it lacks the clarity of the 640. The difference is not subtle. Not sure about voice quality on the other end of the call.

Better ergonomics than the AX. I don't feel that Bluespoon has ever gotten their buttons quite right. The 640 is even a bit lighter, too. Size is a toss-up--the 640 is a little longer but also narrower than the AX. I wonder if the length of the 640--which puts the mic further away from the ear piece--is helpful in preventing echo.

The 640 ear gels work surprisingly well. Even though the medium gel is just a bit small for me, it stays put comfortably in my ear, even while walking briskly, without requiring the included ear hook. I never had an issue with the Bluespoon soft spring system, but it did take some getting used to, whereas the 640 gels are a snap.

Cons

Too many parts with the 640: the headset, the headset carrying tube, the charging adapter and the AC power adapter. With a BB, you need all four to recharge the 640, and you know you're bound to forget one of them when you're traveling.

The claim of "extended talk time up to 15 hours" with a AAA battery is misleading. Here's the deal: the spec is 5 hours of talk time on a charge. There's an included AAA charging adapter for the 640 that allows you to recharge the unit twice on a single AAA battery. So 5+5+5=15. But that's not the same as 15 hours of continuous talk time--you still have to recharge the unit every 5 hours, much the same as plugging it into a wall. And you can't use the 640 while the AAA charger is attached to it. So the AAA charger doesn't mean 15 hours of talk time any more than an AC Wall charger means "unlimited" talk time. Instead, think of the AAA feature as a "wireless charger" which, quite honestly, is very cool and useful to have.

Compatible with Bluetooth 1.2 and lower. How do you release a Bluetooth device in very late 2005 and NOT support the imminent BT 2.0?

[jmejonesnovo]

640 goes in and out with my new 8700 I just ditched it for the Jabra upgraded BT500 which is marvelous.

[rcg]

Charlesn>

Too many parts - Definitely lots of charging options but it's no more cumbersome than any othe headset to charge. You could consider the carry tube and charger as one unit since the carry tube is not required to operate the headset and could be left with the charger. Here is what we are doing... Using the motorola adapter on the tube with this cable so you can charger the BB and headset at the same time http://store.bizshopr.com/motch706.html This means one charger for both. It is a shame that they didn't include a mUSB since many phones are moving that way.

The specs on the box says "up to 5 hours of talk time, increasing to 15 hours with AAA Charger" - I never got that it was trying to imply it was 15hrs continuous. Good clarification about the AAA charger.

http://store.bizshopr.com/pladis640.html

[rcg]

jmejonesnovo>

The 640 is working on my 8700 without issue - Did you set the headset to be trusted?

[jmejonesnovo]

rcg:

Yes sir.

[rcg]

You must have had a bad 640... we have several users with the 640 and the 7290, 8700 and 7520 Blackberrys working well.

[lenemery]

pros: sounds very clear to the person you're talking to. as good or better than using w/o bt. volume to the user is excellent. better than any of the 6 bt higher end headsets i've owned over the last year.

works great w LG 8100 also.

extremely light and comfortable.

con: seems somewhat more prone to echo of the user of the 640. not obvious why and when.

biggest con: so light and small that you want to use the clip on holder. but if you clip the holder to the insider of your pants pocket, the darn headset pops out of the holder when your sitting in a car seat. and yes, all those adapters are useless for 7250 or for most of the verizon bt phones.

[patrick]

I was VERY DISAPPOINTED with this device. The reception to the listener was consisitently poor - I even left myself a message to verify. Thinking the unit was bad, I got a replacement and the same situation held true. I ordered a nXZEN Plus 5500 today.

[whsbuss]

Anyone try the Explorer 320 w/BB 7130e?

[lenemery]

while it works fine w my 7250, it often breaks bt connection w lg 8100. plantronics tech explained that particularly w the lg8100, moto v70, and the treo 650 this Discovery cannot maintain the bt link because those phones have "unusually small bt antenna's". effectively the 640 gets it's ultra lite size/wt by cutting down on it's antenna and power, as do those phones. don't know if that's accurate, but it explains the symptoms.

[AlbertoM]

There is a thread on the 8700 forum discussing the 640 and the 8700. In my case, they will disconnect (and connect0 for no apparent reason. One user changed from the Insight Icon Theme to the Dimension Icon Theme and his problems have gone away. I was using the Dimension Icon and was having all the problems. I switched to Insight then back to Dimension and while I still have the cutting in and out, the connection appears to be more robust and it happens considerably less often.

OTOH, another thread talks about a bad BT radio on the 8700, causing problems with connecting with his BMW, so I have tried connection with my AX and it appears more solid than the 640, but I still have to test longer.

Any and all ideas are welcomed. I would hate to return and exchange either the 640 or the 8700 without a better idea of what is going on. the 640 is a great piece of equipment.

[rcg]

I have an 8700 and use it with my IHF1000 car kit and the ^$) and have had zero issues. In fact it has been one of the better BT combos I have yet tried. My expectations are quite high since I sell all of these products and tried them all too. In the past I changed carriers just to get better performing handsets.

It looks like we may be in for another round of Bluetooth nonsense... seems there are inconsistant results even with the same products.

[rcg]

Originally Posted by lenemery

while it works fine w my 7250, it often breaks bt connection w lg 8100. plantronics tech explained that particularly w the lg8100, moto v70, and the treo 650 this Discovery cannot maintain the bt link because those phones have "unusually small bt antenna's". effectively the 640 gets it's ultra lite size/wt by cutting down on it's antenna and power, as do those phones. don't know if that's accurate, but it explains the symptoms.

I think that is partially true but really doesn't address the issue fully. Bluetooth is a standard that describes a wireless transmission technology - it does not describe what a device does once it's received nor what software the device has to manage the various profiles. The TREO 650 for example has one of the worst implementations of BT I have run accross. It's compatibility with a variety of BT compliant devices is quite poor. We went though this recently with the first round of BB devices that were BT enabled. In the case of the 650 I could and did hold it at point blank range with several hansfree devices and could not maintain connectivity - on the flip side the Parrot car kits and Palm's own headset worked fine... I'm sure those devices did not have unusually LARGE BT antenna's