This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.
We’ll get to the point at which it all goes south for this headset later — first, the good stuff.
Out of the box, the BT160AS is simple to pair — once your phone is in discovery mode, just press and hold the power button for a reasonable amount of time and it’s paired. Fit and comfort likewise aren’t much of an issue, as the unit is fairly light, fits comfortably behind the ears and generally stays put. The set allows for a small degree of adjustment where the earpiece posts will slide along the flexible band for a more customized fit, though they worked fine for me without adjustment. Sony also includes three sets of color-coded eartips.
Whether the headset will appease style fanatics is debatable. I think most BT headsets in general make the wearer look as if they’re escapees from a Klingon penal colony; the Sonys are no worse or better in this respect, except to perhaps suggest escape from a somewhat more upscale Klingon penal colony.
Thanks to logical, smartly designed controls, piloting the device is a breeze. The right housing is the unit’s nerve center and is home to an easy-to-access, recessed power button, a toggle switch on the right housing’s aft end that controls music and a rubberized call button on the underside. All the controls seem to work without fuss, and a pair of colored LEDs on the top make it simple to see power status and battery levels.
Sound quality from tunes is decent to good for a BT headset, and includes the bias toward higher frequencies characteristic of Sony’s earbuds — although bass is present in enough quantity as welll. The highs can be subject to a little harshness at times though. And while these won’t compare with, say, Sony’s $100 Still, sound quality is better than good enough for casual listening.
Battery life is better than average. Sony claims seven hours of use, and that sounds about right; the headset always seemed ready to romp. One small downside: Charging is accomplished through a standard Sony charger rather than a mini- or Micro-USB cable. Reception from my iPhone was a little spotty, and the headset’s BT radio seems to have a slightly more tenuous grasp than most other BT headsets I’ve used.
The unit is also unusual in that it’s splashproof, making it suitable for using with workouts worry-free. Apart from a little difficulty negotiating helmet straps, I didn’t have any issues with the headset on bicycle rides; but them I don’t often have a problem with sweat and electronics while on the bike (perhaps I’m not riding hard enough).
So what’s the problem? In a nutshell: the microphone. While I could hear callers just fine, parties on the other end were invariably unhappy. It seems that the slightest amount of background noise made speech from my side unintelligible. And I mean the slightest — there were very few instances where I could conduct any sort of conversation with this headset without frustration setting in almost immediately. Talking inside a relatively quiet coffee shop? Nope. Stepping outside? Not if there was anyone in the vicinity talking, or a car driving by, or a little wind. Conversations when alone in a sealed room were fine, but that’s just about it.
Those considering using these more-or-less solely for music will probably come away pleased; conversationalists should look elsewhere.
