Why You Can Trust CNET Motorola FINITI Bluetooth Headset review: Motorola FINITI Bluetooth Headset
Motorola FINITI Bluetooth Headset
Editors' note, December 9: After further review and comparison with other headsets in its category, we've dropped the Finiti's rating to 8.0.
Motorola FINITI Bluetooth Headset
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
It has been more than a year since Motorola introduced the Endeavor HX1, which is one of a few Bluetooth headsets that can use bone conduction to translate the vibration of the jaw into speech. Now Motorola has come out with its successor, the Motorola Finiti, which debuted this year at CTIA's fall show. The Finiti has the same "stealth" bone conduction mode for extremely noisy situations and Motorola's CrystalTalk noise cancellation technology for everyday use. Other features include A2DP streaming, multipoint, voice prompts, and compatibility with the MotoSpeak app, which reads out incoming texts and lets you dictate a reply.
The Motorola Finiti retails for $129.99, which we think is a fair price for such a great-sounding headset. However, competing headsets like the Aliph Jawbone Icon and the Plantronics Voyager Pro Plus are available for a much lower price. Even though they don't have the Finiti's bone conduction mode, they have additional features (like apps and services) that outmatch the Finiti.
As part of Motorola's Elite series of headsets, the Finiti is designed to catch your eye with its shiny chrome finish. Yet it still looks like a traditional Bluetooth headset, and has a rectangular design similar to the Motorola CommandOne. The measurements are also the same, at 2.13 inches long by 0.73 inch wide by 0.43 inch thick. The sides are covered in a soft rubber material and the overall headset is slightly curved for improved comfort.
There's a slight peak on the front of the Finiti, which houses a couple of the headset's microphones. On the top of the headset is the Micro-USB charging port plus a tiny multipurpose call button. We found it almost too small, as the tiny rubber point is easy to miss. Still, we found it easy enough to press. On the left side is a slider toggle that turns the headset on and off, while the volume rocker is on the right. Also on the right is the "stealth mode" button that activates the aforementioned bone conduction mode.
On the back of the Finiti is an unusual-looking earpiece. Unlike the round earpiece on the CommandOne, the Finiti's earpiece juts out almost like a spout. At the tip is a tiny bubble that acts as the "stealth mode sensor." The entire earpiece is designed to fit snugly in the ear, and you need to have the stealth mode sensor touching your ear canal in order for the bone conduction to work. The Finiti comes with multiple ear fittings--two spring styles (for the left or right ear) and three different-size loop styles. There's also an optional ear hook for stability, but we didn't think it was necessary. Though the earpiece looks a little intimidating at first, we actually found that it fit comfortably and easily in the ear. We admit that having the sensor touch the ear canal felt a little awkward at first, but we got used to it eventually--your mileage may vary.
As we mentioned above, the Finiti has a slew of features that are welcome on higher-end headsets. It has A2DP streaming so you can listen to your music and turn-by-turn navigation directions, multipoint, which lets you connect the headset to two devices simultaneously, and the usual features like last-number redial, call waiting, and voice command support. It also supports voice control, so you can say "answer" to answer a call and "ignore" to ignore one.
Like the CommandOne, the Finiti has a series of voice prompts that inform you of incoming caller ID and headset battery status, and it'll even guide you through pairing the headset. It'll also announce the name of the paired device, which is helpful if you're connecting the headset to more than one phone, and it'll let you know if stealth mode is on or off. If you pair the Finiti with an Apple iPhone, you'll see the headset's battery meter on the upper right corner next to the iPhone's own battery meter.
The Finiti is also compatible with MotoSpeak, Motorola's Android application that can read incoming text messages. It will also let you send a text message reply by dictating with your voice, or you can say "call back" and the phone will automatically call the number of the person who sent the text. We tested the Finiti with the MotoSpeak app on the Motorola Bravo, and it worked as promised, reading out incoming text messages clearly, though in a slightly stilted tone. You can read our review of the Motorola CommandOne for more details about the MotoSpeak app.
We paired the Motorola Finiti with the Motorola Bravo and the Apple iPhone 4. We were overall incredibly impressed with the call quality. On our end, we heard our callers clearly, though we did occasionally detect some background buzz. Voices sounded smooth and natural on the whole.
On their end, callers said call quality was excellent. Thanks to the Finiti's two microphones and the CrystalTalk noise cancellation technology, they said our voice quality was clean and clear with only a hint of distortion. They also reported the occasional background buzz, but it wasn't distracting. Even when we were in a busy restaurant setting, our callers could hear us clearly above the chatter and noise of the environment. When we turned on stealth mode, callers were surprised to note that background noise went away completely, but they could still hear us loud and clear. In fact, callers said we sounded noticeably louder. This is an improvement over the Endeavor HX1's stealth mode, which sounded muffled and garbled at times.
However, callers did note that even though stealth mode made voices louder and clearer, it was at the expense of voice quality, which was less natural and overly processed in stealth mode. Motorola says this is to be expected, however.
The Motorola Finiti has a rated battery life of 5 hours of talk time and 6 days of standby time.