Casio's MW600-7BV is from the family of Classic. At the gym or the movies, this casual classic says you know style. The added bonus of a 10-year battery says you’re worry-free.
Well we happen to be one of the lucky souls to get a hands-on with the Sony Ericsson MW600 bluetooth headset. The MW600 is loaded with features with a OLED display, stereo (3.5mm jack), music controls, volume controls, multipoint bluetooth, FM and more. The music quality (testing on our SE W595) is good and if not the best we have ever witnessed on a bluetooth headset. MW600 also connected without any issues to our iMac and the range of the bluetooth connectivity was enough for us to visit our neighbors and comeback without any disruption in playback.
MW600 is roughly as big as a pencil cell and the music ( << >ll >>), power are rugged rubber material whereas the call button that sticks at the bottom of the OLED display is a little glossy and goes well with the shiny screen. At one end you have the power button & the micro-usb charger port whereas on the other end you have the call button, mic and the 3.5mm audio jack. On both sides of the OLED display you have controls, with one side featuring the cool touch sensitive volume scroll (yeah we missed it in the HBH-IS800) and the other side has the music keys. The volume scroll on the side even helps in navigation when required. The design / feature set has certainly evolved from the DS220. The multiple attachments with the earplugs (i.e. different sized earbuds) ensures that you get the best fit in your ears (thats one good habit of SE, which has retained over the years).
Being able to connect a external speaker via the 3.5mm audio jack and inbuilt FM in the bluetooth headset makes this a real multipurpose bluetooth headset. Something you will find yourself using very frequently in a day and not just when driving out. Well, that doesn’t mean that the MW600 doesn’t do calls, it actually makes your handset only a data communicator with caller ID showing up on your bluetooth device itself. Even when using a bluetooth headset, removing the phone from the pocket to see who the caller is, is a frustrating experience (specially for a biker like me). Speaking about bikers, this is one of the few bluetooth headsets that would slip into your helmet without any discomfort and that won’t affect the reception one bit. The only thing that I can expect to be improved here is the quality or rather firmness of the clip. It doesn’t fall off but is pretty loose and even a small hit would knock it off the fabric it attaches to. Rest this thing works like a charm. Even without a manual I was able to get through all the functionality in no time.
We were able to connect the MW600 with the Nokia 6303, E63, iPhone 2G (for calls, stereo) and of-course the auto-pair with the W595 (non Sony Ericsson devices need to use the code ‘0000’ to pair with the MW-600). The battery life looks good (I will need to test a little longer to post figures, will update).