Philips Bluetooth Stereo Headset SHB6100

Philips is probably one of the last brand names that would come to mind when you think about wireless, mobile or Bluetooth technology, but that could be set to change if Philips get thier way as they are now moving in to the Bluetooth headset market.

There are currently 4 products in the range, each of them offering Bluetooth wireless connectivity and offering music as well as voice call capability.

Philips kindly sent us their Bluetooth Stereo Headset SHB6100 “Neckband for phone and mp3 player” to have a look at and in the video below you can see me unboxing and having a look at them.

What I like about this headset is that it comes with a Bluetooth ‘dongle’ that you can plug into almost any audio device to make it Bluetooth capable.

You can see the full PDF specification HERE.

Oh, and that elastic thing that I didn’t know about in the video was actually a ‘Wrap around pouch’ for ‘Extra portability’ – The mp3 dongle comes with a wrap around pouch to tie your mp3 player and the mp3 dongle into a tight bundle.

The audio quality of the headphones is really quite good, with very little hiss or other noise that I have experienced with other bluetooth headsets. The large (32mm) speakers give a good base response that you don’t tend to get from in-ear heaphones. They are also quite comfortable to wear as the ear-pieces are filled with a soft gel. Despite having a built in Bluetooth receiver and battery they are not much heavier than a normal set of headphones.

As I metioned above, the headphones can be used for stereo audio playback OR as a headset for making/receiving calls. This is an either or situation though as you have to set up two different Bluetooth profiles – one for stereo and one as a headset profile. You cannot have one profile for both jobs. However, in practice you can use the Philips Switchstream. With SwitchStream you will hear a ring tone in the headset when you are receiving a call on your Bluetooth enabled phone. You can then pick up the call from your headset and return to your music after ending the call. I wasn’t able to get this working when using the headphones with my laptop and receiving calls through Skype.

Pairing the headphones with the included Bluetooth dongle could not be simpler and is a matter of a few button presses. I did try this out with my MP3 player and it works quite well.

When using the headphone with my laptop I was able to use the buttons on the headphones to skip between tracks, play and pause etc. but this was not something that I was able to do when using the headphones with my Windows Mobile device.

Overall I like these headphones, definitely worth considering if you are looking for Bluetooth stereo!

As with all of our videos, there is a higher res version available to download HERE.

Posted by: Matt

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