Upside
Many portable music players are tres chic, but no matter how sleek the player, the whole look is always ruined by the jumble of headphone cords that have to snake between the player and your ears. Enter Creative's Digital Wireless Headphones, a new solution than can cut the cords and make your listening experience wire-free.
While wireless headphones are by no means a new product (see our reviews on the Sennheiser RS65 and RS120), their large and clunky transmitters have made them less than portable. Creative's offering has a small transmitter the size of a packet of gum, meaning you can plug it into your portable player of choice, stick it in your bag (or the back of your jeans) and have no wires between the headset and the player. The unit uses Bluetooth (version 1.2) to stream music at 48kHz, and has a stated range of up to 8.5m.
The headset itself is a bulky affair, weighing in at 203 grams. Both the headset and the transmitter take AAA batteries, with the headset having a life expectancy of up to eight hours on one charge. Users can control the volume through the headset, which also features a mute button for quick access.
Downside
The Creative headset is light, but is still quite a large bit of kit that's more akin to stay at home wireless products than portable headphones. So while you're giving up the cords, you're trading it for the DJ look when sporting this Creative unit. An eight hour claimed battery life is certainly not long, but the ability to just swap in fresh AAA batteries is welcome. We'll also have to wait until a proper test to see how the Creative Wireless Headphones deal with interference from other Bluetooth products you may have on you.
Outlook
The Creative Digital Wireless Headphone looks to be a handy solution for those tired of having to untangle their headphone cords every time they want to listen to their portable music player. We'll bring you more details with a full review soon.
2%
1%
