The BlueAnt Z9i Bluetooth Headset is a fairly new to product to hit Canada. I’ve benn using this for the past week and impressed with the sound quality and more importantly the comfort. My main concern with Bluetooth headsets is a number of factors ranging from comfort, sound quality and battery life.
The BlueAnt Z9i was the winner of the CES 2007 Innovations Design and Engineering Award so it kinda informs you of the power and respect it has within the industry. Inside the package you will get the headset, an extra earbud in case you have a smaller ear, an extra earhook (plastic), USB charger and AC charger. In addition, the standard materials for operating the device effectively.
The benefits of the BlueAnt Z9i is that it is easy to use. First and foremost, the dimensions are 41 x 17.5 x 11.2 mm and it weighs in at only 11 grams so you’ll barely feel this on your ear. Remember this Bluetooth is really comfortable so you will most likely go to bed with it and wake up the next morning and see it’s on your ear. With that said, the earhook can be made custom to fit your ear as it can be bent to fit perfectly around your size and comfort level.
The Z9i has a range of 33 feet, a better range than other Bluetooth headsets we’ve reviewed that only had a 25 foot range. One of the concerns that I have is the charge time as it’s about 2 hours to get a full charge. You can charge this with either the USB connection, or the AC adapter. However, the estimated talk time I received was an average of 5 hours.
There are only 3 buttons: Mutli-function button (on/off, answer/hang-up, and voice isolation), Volume up button and volume down button. It’s unique feature is the “dual microphone with voice isolation and noise reduction”… this allows you have standard & max settings. Standard is for normal surroundings… Max could be for those times when you are surrounded by tons of noise and need to drown out what’s around you. When you change the standard and max settings the headset informs you via a message in your ear. It worked well for me.
The average price of this comes in around $130 Canadian and is available in Black and Red.
