Why You Can Trust CNET Samsung SBH-600 stereo Bluetooth headset review: Samsung SBH-600 stereo Bluetooth headset
Samsung SBH-600 stereo Bluetooth headset
Samsung is no stranger to stereo Bluetooth headsets, with the SBH500 and the sporty SBH700 debuting a few years ago. But the SBH600, its most recent model, is possibly its best yet. The soft padded SBH600 is comfortable to wear and has excellent sound quality thanks to hi-fi audio fidelity and noise-reducing technology. Though it's not quite meant for sport activities because of its size, the SBH600 is an excellent headset if you care about fit and performance. The Samsung SBH600 retails for $149.99, but you can get it for around $100 online if you shop around.
Samsung SBH-600 stereo Bluetooth headset
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The Samsung SBH600 looks like a pair of over-the-ear full-size headphones, except just a bit smaller. Measuring about 6 inches wide by 7.5 inches tall by 1.2 inches thick and weighing about 6.5 ounces, these headphones are for serious audio listening either at home or on the bus, but definitely not in the gym because of its size. It has an adjustable padded headband and two smallish ear cups that sit on the outside of the ear. Both ear cups are padded in a soft cushy material. Also, the two ear cups can fold inward so that the entire headphone lies flat, which makes for easier portability.
The headphones feel nice and snug around our ears and are definitely one of the most comfortable stereo Bluetooth headphones we've tried. Though the SBH600 doesn't have any active noise cancellation, it reduces ambient noise quite a bit when you have the ear cups securely sitting on your ears.
A small power toggle is on the front of the left ear cup while the multifunction call button is toward the back. At the bottom of the left ear cup are the volume rocker and a 3.5-millimeter headset jack. The jack is useful when you want to listen to tunes on a player that doesn't have stereo Bluetooth. As for the right ear cup, it has a sound mode toggle on the front (Normal, Wide, and Bass), and the Play/Pause/Stop button toward the back. At the bottom of the right ear cup are the track shuttle keys and the charger jack. The multifunction call button and Play/Pause button are both just a tad thin and slippery for our tastes, but they're at least raised above the surface and easy to find by feel. We especially like the feel of the volume rocker and track shuttle keys, as they're very tactile and easy to access.
When you first power the SBH600 on, it'll automatically go into pairing mode. We paired ours with the Samsung Trance, which has stereo Bluetooth enabled. It also supports AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile), which means we could manage the music player using the headphone's controls. To our surprise, because both the Trance and the SBH600 are Samsung products, the devices paired automatically without us having to enter in a PIN code. Usually you would have to enter a four-digit PIN (like 0000).
We were very impressed with the audio quality. The SBH600 promises high fidelity audio, and it delivers. We were pleased with the bass booster and widening surround sound modes too--in fact, we would recommend using the bass booster most of the time to bring out the rich and full sound of your tunes.
Call quality, on the other hand, was a mixed bag. Though we could hear our callers loud and clear, callers said that we sounded on the soft side, even when we were in a quiet environment. In a noisier environment like on a busy city sidewalk, they had to strain to hear us and we had to raise our voice a bit more. We could still carry on a conversation, but it wasn't ideal.
Other features of the SBH600 include the typical capabilities to answer, end, and reject a call; last number redial; voice command support where available; placing a call on hold ;and transfer a call from the phone to the headset and vice versa.
The Samsung SBH600 has a rated battery life of 11 hours talk time, 11 hours music playback, and 12.5 days standby time.