Disappointment

I purchased the Samsung WEP200 bluetooth headset to make my life easier and safer, but instead I found myself spending a lot of time making sure the thing would be effective even for the basics.

I purchased the headset from an auction site and upon opening the box was actually pleasantly surprised. It feels durable, looks good and is even a little bit smaller than I expected. It comes with a handy little case that doubles as a charger. This is a nice feature because I found that the headset was so small it was easy to lose track of. When transporting it, I tended to use the case/charger. The downside being that I frequently ended up leaving the case in the car while I got out of it with the headset in my ear... and when I needed to charge it, the charger was downstairs. Oh well.

I didn't find it very comfortable to wear, but this is a personal thing and by changing the ear-piece-cover I was able to at least get it comfortable enough to use. I never felt confident that it was secure in my ear. The no-ear-hook design is sweet, but I just don't have the ears for it.

It paired easily with my Samsung T619 phone (and when I replaced the phone, it paired easily with the Katalyst as well). The one-button operation took a little bit of getting used to but was fairly intuitive. The problems I had were mostly with functionality.

First, it was frequently difficult to get a lot of volume out of the speaker. With the volume maxed out, it was difficult to hear even when there was no background noise and when I had a good connection.

Speaking of connection issues, though my phone had no trouble finding the headset, the range was abysmal. My wife has a Motorola headset and I had no problem with hers and I had the same problem with the WEP200 and my new phone. It's possible the problem is my headset and the model in general. I couldn't even put my phone in my pocket with the headset in my ear. It didn't disconnect, but the sound quality became so degraded it was unusable. My car has a cell phone holder in the center console, and even that was too obstructed/far away (literally about 3 feet from my ear with a thin plastic barrier in the way).

Lastly, the microphone is super sensitive. It would pick up conversations that were occurring directly behind me and 50 feet away if it was otherwise quiet in the environment. I rarely made a call that didn't result in my switching back to the handset. I haven't used the bluetooth in months. Since I mainly bought it for use in the car and it doesn't work there, it was a failure for me.