Why You Can Trust CNET Technocel T50 Bluetooth headset review: Technocel T50 Bluetooth headset
The Technocel T50 is a comfortable and affordable headset that comes with 50 different design faceplates. Read our review to see if it has decent sound quality, too.
When we saw the Jabra BT160 a few months ago, one of the features that made it different from other boomless headsets was its array of 33 different faceplates. Technocel may have taken a page from Jabra's book, because they have come up with the T50 headset, which comes with a whopping array of 50 faceplates as well as 50 adhesive crystals to bedazzle your headset even further. It retails for about $39.99, which we find very affordable as well.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
If not for its interchangeable faceplates, the T50 is pretty boring in the design department. It has a blocky, rectangular shape, and, at 2.28x 0.92x 0.55 inches and 0.52 ounces, its glossy black plastic shell is a little bulkier than most boomless headsets. On the front, there's a small but tactile multifunction button as well as the volume rocker. On the top is the charger jack, while the earbud and flexible ear loop are on the back. The earbud comes with a rubberized cover for additional comfort, and we especially loved the ear loop, one of the most flexible ones we've seen to date. It's flexible up to 360 degrees and can be bent and twisted for maximum comfort. The headset did feel comfortable when worn in the ear, though it did take us a while to get the right fit. It also didn't feel terribly secure, and the earbud popped out of our ear a few times.
On the front is where you can switch out the different designs. All you need to do is pop off the plastic faceplate cover, swap it out for one of the aforementioned 50 faceplates and then replace the cover. You can also bling it up more with the included 50 adhesive crystals. Technocel supplies you with an additional plastic faceplate in case you want to have different crystal designs on each one.
We tested the Technocel T50 with the T-Mobile Sidekick 3, and the pairing process was easy. Sound quality was really good on either end, and we liked how it was loud and clear. Features of the headset are fairly basic and include answering and rejecting calls, last number redial, voice dialing support, call mute, and the ability to transfer calls from the headset to the phone and vice versa. The rated talk time is 8 hours, and the rated standby time is 6.25 days.
