Why You Can Trust CNET Motorola Oasis Bluetooth Headset review: Motorola Oasis Bluetooth Headset
Motorola Oasis Bluetooth Headset
While Motorola has made plenty of popular Bluetooth headsets over the years--the Motorola H700 and the Motorola HX1 for example--they're not always known for their superior comfort. The newly released Motorola Oasis, however, puts comfort at the forefront of its design. Aside from that, though, the Oasis' features are not terribly exciting, and the sound quality isn't as great as that of its competitors. The Motorola Oasis is decently priced at $79.99 retail, but as it is not much better than the Voyager Pro Plus, we recommend spending the extra $20 for that instead.
Motorola Oasis Bluetooth Headset
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The Motorola Oasis looks like a more stylish version of the Plantronics Voyager Pro. It has that same battery-behind-the-ear design, but it's far smaller at 1.97 inches long by 1.65 inches wide by 0.47 inch thick. The black-and-chrome finish gives it a more modern edge, and we like the flexibility of the soft rubber ear hook. The Oasis even has a rotating ear piece as well. The boom mic is not quite the same as the one on the Plantronics, though; the one on the Oasis has a magnetized hinge so it locks into place whether you have it folded in or out.
On the top of the headset is a sliding power switch; the mute and volume buttons are along the back. We like having the dedicated power switch, as it's easier to turn the headset on and off. The mute and volume buttons are rubberized, so they can feel a bit hard to press. It's also not terribly convenient to be reaching behind your ear when changing the volume. Right underneath the volume rocker is the microUSB charging port.
The Oasis is indeed a very comfortable headset, but it does take a bit of time to get it to fit right. First we had to place the battery housing firmly behind the ear; the headset would fall off otherwise. Then we had to press the earpiece so that it would nestle just so in the ear. The entire process shouldn't take more than a few seconds, but it's certainly not a pick-up-and-go sort of experience. The Oasis comes with a couple of different-size ear gel covers, and we highly recommend trying all of them out to find the one that fits you. Surprisingly, you can wear the headset while wearing glasses, as there is a bit of a gap between the hook and the ear, but it can feel a bit tight at times.
Features of the Oasis include the usual answering, ending, and rejecting calls, last number redial, voice-dialing support, call mute, and multipoint, which lets you connect up to two different devices simultaneously. It also has voice alerts that let you know the pairing status of the headset, its battery level, and whether or not you've muted the call. If you've paired the headset with more than one phone, the headset will also tell you whether Phone One or Phone Two is ringing. However, the Oasis does not have A2DP streaming. Though it's only a mono headset, many higher-end headsets have A2DP functionality these days, and it can't quite compete with them if it doesn't have this feature.
We paired the Motorola Oasis with the Apple iPhone 3G. Call quality was pretty good, but not quite at the level we expected. On our end, our callers sounded great--clear, loud, and natural. There was a bit of hiss, but it wasn't distracting. On the other end, however, callers said our voice sounded very harsh; as if it had gone through a digital synthesizer.
As for noise cancellation, we were pleased for the most part. We tested it out in a moving car and at a busy cafe during lunch hour and the headset did a good job of blocking out environmental noise--our callers could still hear what we were saying. Yet, it wasn't perfect. When we tested the headset in front of a desk fan to check out the wind noise reduction, our voice became increasingly fuzzy, and callers couldn't quite make out all of our words.
The Motorola Oasis has a rated talk time of 6 hours and a standby time of 7 days.