Get Better Gear!

Premier Sponsors

Other World Computing

TechRestore

Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Physical Graffiti

    • 10 out of 10
    • Led Zeppelin
    • This album bears every flavor of genius from the five records that came before. It is, I believe, the band's finest. With Physical Graffiti, Zep came raging back to their musical home territory -- har
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

    • 8 out of 10
    • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
    • When I first got hooked to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the only place I could get their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was through the band's Web site. I listened to the two tracks a

  • Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

    • 8 out of 10
    • Arctic Monkeys
    • Get on your dancing shoes
      You sexy little swine

      -Arctic

  • Jagged Little Pill (Acoustic)

    • 6 out of 10
    • Alanis Morissette
    • Ten years after the original release, comes the traditional celebratory acoustic re-recording. The album has held up remarkably well. While it is not as meaningful to me as it was when I was sixteen,
  • Machine Gun Etiquette

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Damned
    • Punk rock is mostly associated with three chords and a bad attitude, but the Damned were one of the few bands of the era bent on bringing musicianship and a good sense of humor to the scene. And while

Reader Specials

Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!

In-Depth Review

Hands-Free Mic & Earbuds for iPhone

The Hands-Free Mic & Earbuds for iPhone by Newer Technology is a decent replacement for the stock iPhone headset included with every iPhone. With a list price 33% lower than the Apple iPhone Stereo Headset (the stock headset's "real" name), it's almost a no-brainer if you need to replace your iPhone headset, or even if you just prefer black over white.

The Hands-Free Mic & Earbuds offers pretty much the same feature set as the Apple iPhone Stereo Headset -- both offer hands free talking and listening and a button to play/pause music and answer/end calls. The Hands-Free Mic & Earbuds include a little clamp so you can attach the cable to your shirt, which is a feature I happen to like.

The earphones are more comfortable than the Apple headset, with slightly brighter midrange and high-frequency response and noticeably better bass response. They're not super fabulous but they are at least a notch above the Apple headset for both music and voice. Furthermore, since they sit more snugly in your ear, they do a better job of rejecting external noise than the Apple headset.

The one area where the Apple headset has this one beat is the quality of its microphone. The Apple microphone was noticeably clearer, although not by a huge margin.

P.S. To test microphone quality I created a set of short audio recordings using five different headsets (and the iPhone alone without a headset). If you'd like to hear them, you'll find them here.

The Bottom Line

There's nothing exceptional about the Hands-Free Mic & Earbuds, but they are in almost every way an improvement over the stock Apple iPhone headset. If you need a replacement or desire an inexpensive upgrade, they can't be beat for the price.

Just The Facts

Pros:Better than the Apple iPhone Stereo Headset in almost every way.

Cons:Earphone quality, while better than Apple's, still isn't great.

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me  Forgot your password?

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.