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Motorola Rokr S7-HD review: Motorola Rokr S7-HD

Motorola Rokr S7-HD

Nicole Lee Former Editor
Nicole Lee is a senior associate editor for CNET, covering cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, and all things mobile. She's also a fan of comic books, video games, and of course, shiny gadgets.
Nicole Lee
2 min read

Motorola is no stranger to stereo Bluetooth headsets, like the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones from a couple of years ago. While those headphones are more for active sports, the more recent Motorola Rokr S7-HD is definitely geared more toward audiophiles with its high-definition surround sound. Its compact form factor also means it's highly portable, perfect for a bus or train commuter. Unfortunately, the Rokr S7-HD is hampered by bad fit. The Motorola Rokr S7-HD will cost you $79.99 retail.

5.0

Motorola Rokr S7-HD

The Good

The Motorola Rokr S7-HD is lightweight and compact with good audio quality. We also like the outer circle jog dial controls.

The Bad

The Motorola Rokr S7-HD suffers from terrible fit around the ears, and the call quality is mediocre.

The Bottom Line

The Motorola Rokr S7-HD has decent music quality, but its uncomfortable fit and average call quality keeps us from recommending it.

The Rokr S7-HD consists of two round earpieces connected with a 12.5-inch cable. Each earpiece measures 1.8 inches in diameter and 0.47 inch thick, and is padded with a thin piece of foam. The Rokr S7-HD is meant to be worn with the cable behind the neck, and each earpiece is equipped with a round ear clip for securing the earpiece onto the ear. You put it on by sliding the bottom of the clip above the top of your ear and then rotating the clip so that it fits the shape of your ear.

We had a lot of problems putting on the headset, as the earpieces kept falling off. We also do not recommend using this headset while wearing eyeglasses, as the clip won't fit over the handles. The headset does not feel secure even after we've successfully fitted it; it just has a very loose feel. Of course, this can depend on the size and shape of your ears, but for us, it just wasn't working.

Each earpiece houses a set of controls. The right earpiece has the power switch at the bottom of the rim and a play/pause control in the middle of the earpiece, while the outer circle acts as a music control wheel that you can use to shuttle through tracks. You do so by rotating the wheel forward or backward. To skip tracks, you rotate and then release; to fast-forward or rewind tracks, you rotate and then hold it.

The left earpiece has similar controls, but for different functions. It has the charger jack at the bottom of the rim, a call button in the middle, while the outer circle is the volume control wheel. Though we like the outer circle jog controls, we thought both the play/pause and call buttons felt a bit squishy, and didn't have enough give when pressed.

We paired the Motorola Rokr S7-HD with the Verizon Wireless CDM8950. The music quality was surprisingly good, with decent surround sound and good bass. Still, because the fit of the earpieces were so awkward, we had a hard time getting consistently good music quality. Call quality was just average--callers could tell we were on a headset and said we sounded a bit muffled and crackly at times. On our end, though, we could hear them loud and clear.

The Motorola Rokr S7-HD has a rated talk time of up to 7 hours, a rated music playback time of 7 hours, and a rated standby time of 7 days.