Motorola H680

Another in the long line of compact and stylish Bluetooth headsets, Motorola's H680 is comfortable and easy to use, but its outgoing voice quality could be improved.

The H680 is a small but sleek looking headset. Its gloss black and chrome design with silver buttons gives it a touch of class and the headset certainly feels well built. Combined with a fairly inconspicuous, plastic ear clip (which can be worn on either ear), the H680 is comfortable to wear for long periods. Motorola includes two different sized ear buds in the sales package, so you should find one of them comfortable for your ear.

Although the H680 doesn't feature Motorola's CrystalTalk technology – seen on the MOTOPURE H12, it still performs reasonably well for incoming sound. It does tend to struggle in noisy environments though, such as a busy city street. Unfortunately, outgoing voice quality is one of the H680's biggest sour points. Our callers complained regularly about fluctuating volume levels and distorted voice.

Thankfully, the H680 is quite easy to use, with just a single call handling button, volume controls and an on/off switch being the only controls on the unit. Turning on the unit automatically puts it into pairing mode (denoted by a steady blue light) and once paired, functions are simple and easy. Press the call handling button to answer a call, hold the volume button to reject an incoming call, and press the call handling button again to end the call. You can also redial your last number by holding down the call button. Additional functions include activating voice dialling (provided this is supported by your phone), transferring a call from the headset to your phone and muting the microphone.

The H680 comes packaged with a matching desktop charger and a convenient plastic charging case. Motorola claims the H680 has a battery life of up to nine hours of talk time and up to 12 days standby time.