Soyo FreeStyler 600 Bluetooth Headset - A Closer Look
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The Soyo FreeStyler 600 headset, upon close examination, seems to be pretty well manufactured. I've gotten my hands on a few other Bluetooth handsets in the past, and a few of them were a little on the shoddy side. The plastic didn't quite fit right, or wasn't trimmed properly. They were obvious cases of the "build it cheap" philosophy. This isn't the case with the Soyo FreeStyler 600, which is engineered well and a nice little piece of hardware.
As you can see in the above pictures, there are three "buttons" on the headset: the large round button on the face (which powers the device on and off, and is used for a variety of functions) and the smaller volume + and - buttons on the side. The ear piece that wraps around your ear is removable, so you can reverse it to work on either your left or right ear. One thing to note is that the manual says it is already configured for your right ear, and that it can be switched to use on your left. The unit I got (as pictured above) is actually configured for the left ear, and I had to switch it to wear on my right. So either I just don't know how to wear it correctly, or the manual is clearly mistaken.
The charging cord is a retractable USB-type cord. The larger USB end plugs into the bottom of the DC charger, while the smaller mini-USB end plugs into the headset. This implies to me that the headset can be charged from any USB 2.0 source (laptop, desktop PC, etc) but since I could find no reference to this on the packaging, in the manual, or on Soyo's website, I did not test it and cannot attest to it.
The DC charger plugs into a standard 120v outlet, and a red light illuminates to illustrate that it has power. The manual says that the red light will illuminate while the battery is charging, but will extinguish when the battery is fully charged. I allowed it to charge overnight (about 12 hours), and the red light never went out. Even when I plug in the charger without the headset attached, the red light comes on and stays on. I don't know what this means, if anything, except that the manual is not accurate in that respect.
Above is a photo of the charger plugged into the headset. The retractable cable is only about two feet long, fully extended, so it is obviously meant to be close to the outlet itself. If you need more distance so you can have it on a dresser or a desk, you may need to purchase a longer USB to mini USB cable.
Next: Testing and Conclusion >>
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