Motorola H375

A headset has to pass several tests before we recommend it: comfort, sturdiness, and, above all, voice quality and volume on both ends. The Motorola H375 passes one of them—your callers won’t mind its sound quality—but you might struggle to hear them and to keep the headset from falling off your ear.

Design

We have a few issues with the H375’s design: Although we love the deep blue color, the holographic finish reminds us of trading cards we collected as kids. At 2.1 x 0.9 x 0.4 inches, it’s shaped like a thumb, and about as big, too. Its volume controls, located on either side of the headset, are unlabeled. And although the hard, rubber-coated earpiece felt comfortable, the earhooks were much too loose; even a slight shake of the head sent the headset out of place.

To its credit, the H375 is easy to use. The large button on the front is for answering and ending calls, and a separate—and much tinier—power button sits beneath it. While it may seem like a detriment, we like that the small size of the power button makes it almost impossible to press by accident.

Performance

We had no problem pairing the H375 with our LG Decoy. When we placed a call from a noisy bar, our caller could hear us talking but wasn’t able to catch every word that we said. On our end, the volume was so low that we could barely hear our caller. That’s not surprising, since the earpiece fit so loosely. When we placed a call from a bustling, but less noisy, sidewalk, the quality was better, but still not terrific.

On the plus side, the H375’s Bluetooth range is excellent. Although rated for 33 feet, we were able to hear our caller while standing more than 50 feet away from our phone. It also has decent battery life; after weeks of making intermittent phone calls, and occasionally forgetting to turn the headset off when we weren’t using it, the battery was still alive.

Verdict

A headset isn’t much good if both callers aren’t happy with the quality. Thanks to a loose-fitting design, the volume is poor, and you’ll spend too much time yelling, “What did you say?” Because of its long range and battery life, however, the Motorola H375 might be a good choice for people who need mobility within an office. If that’s not you, we suggest you check out the similarly priced Nokia BH-101, which costs $10 less and offers superior voice quality and a better fit.