Cardo
S-640 Bluetooth Headset review
A new approach to BT headset design
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Here's an innovative
idea that is actually not innovative at all. A
Bluetooth headset that is more (and less) than just a thing in your
ear.
As you can see, this
unit has an earpiece the same as a regular corded headset,
and a clip on control unit that you'd clip to your shirt.
Many people will find this preferable to some of the more
inane (and ugly) single piece Bluetooth headsets.
Part
of our series on Bluetooth - more articles listed on
the right.
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I've always quietly laughed at
people with Bluetooth headsets stuck in their ears, even when
they're not on a call. It looks somewhere between
pretentious and stupid. It is also semi-dysfunctional -
you're blocking your normal hearing in that ear, and it is
seldom comfortable for extended periods.
The Cardo S-640 offers a better
approach to how you carry your BT headset when not on a call.
With a list price of $65, and a
street price of $35 on
Amazon , this is a mid-priced headset.
What you Get
The Cardo S-640 Bluetooth
headset comes sensibly packaged in an easy open plastic display
box.
Inside is the headset unit
itself, a multi-voltage (100 - 240V) charger, two earpiece foam
pieces, a folded sheet of safety instructions and warranty
registration form, and a user guide.
The unit comes with a
non-transferable one year warranty that requires you to first
send in a registration form.
The unit lists for $64.99,
and can be found for less at the usual sorts of electronics
resellers such as
Amazon  (where it is currently $35).
Feature Chart
Use this information to
quickly understand the capabilities of the unit and to compare
with other units.
Feature Comment |
Cost |
List price
$64.99.
Purchased from
Amazon for $35,
Apr 08 |
Ergonomics |
Easy to put
on and take off |
Completely
easy, because it is just a simple ear bud that
slips into your ear, like an iPod ear bud.
And of course, totally simple to take off again,
too. |
Easy to use
the control buttons |
Here was a
major opportunity, but unfortunately wasted by
Cardo.
With a much
greater amount of surface area on the control
box, one could have hoped Cardo might have used
the area wisely by adding more buttons and
indicators to simply the operation of the unit,
but - alas - this is not so, indeed Cardo ended
up with fewer controls on their unit than most
other units.
The control
box has a single button to control volume - each
push of the button steps the volume through a
series of louder and quieter settings.
There is also the typical multi-colored flashing
LED.
The
'control' button is actually on the earpiece,
and pressing this for varying amounts of time
causes it to do various different things.
Along with
every other BT headset reviewed to date, Cardo
gets a zero score for its control buttons. |
Comfortable
to wear |
The earpiece
is reasonably comfortable to wear, but not much
more so than some of the single piece all-in-one
earpiece headsets.
On the other hand, because it is so easy to put
on and take off the earpiece, the comfort issue
is limited to how comfortable it is while in
use; you don't need to torture yourself
unnecessarily by wearing it all the time.
Although the earpiece is lightweight and small,
I didn't find it quite as comfortable as I'd
hoped. It is rigid rather than soft, and
slightly larger than ideal for my ear (but might
be perfect for yours of course).
The unit came with two foam covers to put over
the earpiece. Actually fitting the cover
onto the earpiece was very difficult, and once
it was done, didn't really seem to make much of
a difference to the comfort level. |
Can you use
with glasses |
Yes, the
small size of the earpiece doesn't interfere
with glasses at all. |
Can use with
either ear |
Yes, and
with no need to change anything over from one
side to the other. |
Securely
mounted on ear |
Yes.
The light weight of the earpiece makes it easy
to fit securely into one's ear, and the main
control box is securely clipped to one's shirt
without in any way threatening to damage the
fabric. |
How to carry |
The Cardo
S-640 takes a different approach to Bluetooth
headset design by mimicking elements of a
traditional corded headset, with a simple
earpiece and a wire running down to a small
control box that you clip to your shirt.
When you
don't have the earpiece in your ear, you could
hang it on the clip, or perhaps stuff the
earpiece in a shirt pocket, or take the entire
unit and shove it in a pocket.
One comment about this. At one point I was
wearing the headset, with the control unit
clipped to my shirt and the earpiece dangling
loose. I was also carrying a laptop bag
with a strap slung diagonally from the bag over
my opposite shoulder. The strap interfered
with the control unit, and came close to
knocking it off my shirt. So be careful if
you're in a similar situation. |
Weight |
The
perceived weight of the earpiece alone is about
0.1 ounces.
This is light, and because there are no levered parts that can increase the feeling of ungainly
weight, it is very easy to wear on the ear.
The
total weight of the unit with control box is
0.6 oz, but this is a fairly meaningless number
compared to the perceived weight of the earpiece
alone. |
Ease of Use |
Commands
intuitive and easy to remember |
The commands
on this unit are at least as bad as on other
units, and perhaps even worse than some.
They are
absolutely not intuitive - but decide for
yourself as you read the details of how to do
things, below. |
Volume
adjustable |
Yes.
But rather than the typical approach of having
two buttons, one for 'Volume Up' and the other
for 'Volume Down', this headset has a single
button that you push repeatedly, with each push
rotating through a series of four different
volume levels.
This is not as convenient a method of setting
volume as on units with two volume controls. |
How fast
does it turn on |
It takes
about three seconds to turn on and about
another five seconds to complete synching up with a
phone and to then take the call from the phone. |
Manual |
A helpful and well written 16 page (page size
4¾" by 4¾") black and white user guide (in English
only) is
provided with the unit, and the same guide can also be
downloaded from
Cardo's website.
The printed version of the guide was revision
level 3, the PDF on the website was revision 11,
but I didn't spot any major differences in
content. |
Support |
Via
email,
website (very rudimentary),
and (800) number - (800)488-0363. Support
hours are 8.30am - 5pm, Mon-Fri, EST.
A test call to support involved almost 9 minutes
of wait on hold, before a helpful American man
took the call and sensibly answered my
questions. |
Pairing
password printed on device |
No (it is
0000 so in an emergency you have a good chance
of guessing what it is!) |
Features |
Battery life |
Up to 6
hours of talk or 150 hours of standby time
claimed. These
timings are about normal compared to other units
on sale in April 2008. |
Low battery
indicator/signal |
When the
battery gets low, the headset makes a beep every
minute, and the LED flashes red. |
Battery type |
Lithium
polymer. |
Replaceable
battery? |
No.
As with other headsets, the chances are by the time the battery has died,
you'll probably have bought a new headset. |
Battery
charging method/time |
Another
disappointing design that - for no good reason
other than stupidity - doesn't use a standard
USB type connector between the power supply and
the unit.
Charging time is about 3 hours.
A red
light on the control/battery box goes on when charging and
changes to blue when
fully charged. |
Multi-voltage charger |
Yes. |
Charger
weight/size |
2.0 oz.
A small brick charger. |
Other
charging methods |
None. |
How many
pairings can be stored |
Unknown.
The manual
mysteriously says it can store multiple
pairings, but doesn't say how many, and Cardo's
support people didn't know, either. |
Headset and
hands-free profiles? |
Both
profiles are supported. Also supports A2DP
(Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) and AVRCP
(Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) profiles. |
Audio
profile for computers |
A2DP. |
Bluetooth
compatibility |
Version 1.2 |
Power/range |
It says it
is a Class 2, but it is claimed to have a 33'
range, which would suggest a Class 3 type
device. |
Effective
range |
The unit
claims the standard 33' (10m) range, and was
still working reasonably well at a 50' distance
(with no obstructions between the phone and
handset) depending on if my body was between the
phone and headset or not. Best results of
course were when my body wasn't in the path
between phone and headset. |
Warranty |
The warranty
is a generous one year warranty. |
Free return |
Retailer
policies will vary. |
Noise
cancelling/DSP |
None claimed. |
Sound
quality |
Sound
quality was reasonably good.
When using
the headset, I sounded somewhat muffled and
quieter to the person at the other end of the
call. Here is a
sample recording of me using both the
headset and an iPhone so you can hear the
difference for yourself.
The sound of
the other person's voice was the same volume
(after adjusting the volume to the third of the
four levels, ie one less than maximum) but also
very slightly muffled (almost as good a quality
as direct through the cell phone). |
Capabilities |
Turning on
and off |
Turning on
is simple - press the control button on the
earpiece and wait until the LED flashes blue -
this takes about two seconds.
Turning off
is also simple - press the control button for
about three seconds until the LED flashes red
once. |
Auto connect |
Yes. |
Voice tag
support |
Supported
(if also supported on the phone, of course).
Briefly tap the control button, then say the
name of the person you wish to call. |
Last number
redial |
Yes (in the
Handsfree profile only).
Double press the call control button for a last
number redial. |
Transfer
call to/from phone |
This works
with the Handsfree profile only, and is somewhat
complicated.
To transfer
a call back to the mobile phone from the
handset, you simultaneously press and hold both
the Volume button on the control box and the
control button on the earpiece for several
seconds until the call switches back to the
phone.
And to
transfer a call from the phone to the headset,
no, you don't do the same thing. Instead
you briefly tap the control button on the
earpiece. |
Call
waiting/Three way calling |
Not
supported.
You would need to use cell phone controls to use
these features, through the cell phone, rather
than through the headset. |
Call reject |
This works
with the Handsfree profile only.
Simultaneously press and hold the Volume button
on the control box and the control button on the
earpiece until the call is rejected. |
Call
answer/end |
Yes.
Generally you will have your headset off rather
than on. So, to answer a call, you could
first turn
it on, then, once the headset was on and paired, press the button briefly to answer
the call. This however can take a long
time - too long for some callers - so it is
better to answer the call on the handset then
transfer it once the headset has switched on and
paired.
If the
unit is already on, a short press of the control button
will answer an incoming call.
To end a call, a short press of the control button is
again needed.
The unit signals incoming calls with a ringing
beep sound, in addition to any ringing sound
from the phone. The built in ringer can be
switched off (and on again) by two (and three)
second pushes of the volume button when you are
not on a call. |
Mute |
Yes.
Press and hold the volume button for about two
seconds until the LED starts to flash red.
As long as the LED is flashing red, the call is
muted. To
unmute, press and hold the volume button for
three seconds until the LED flashes blue. |
Subjective |
Attractive
design |
A different
approach to design, with a simple 'normal' type
ear piece and a separate control box/battery
box/microphone that is clip mounted to your
shirt. |
Flashing
indicators on standby |
Yes,
a blue light flashes once every
five or so seconds
while the unit is on standby.
This blue light is fairly muted in brightness,
but can't be turned off. |
Size |
The earpiece component is much smaller than
other units.
Overall, the unit is perhaps slightly larger
than average, but it is not valid to compare the
two part design of this with the one piece
design of most other BT headsets. |
Summary |
This is an interestingly
different design of headset that offers average
performance and an average feature set. With a list price of $65 and a street price of
$35 (Apr 08 - from
Amazon ) it is
only slightly higher priced that
entry level headsets such as the
Jabra BT125, which
sells through Amazon for $20 - $25. |
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Using the Cardo S-640 Headset
When it comes to actually
using the headset, its novel design featuring the split unit
with separate earpiece and control unit really don't make much
difference to the user experience, because you're still reaching
up and pressing the button on the earpiece to do everything.
It would have been much
nicer to have the control button on the control unit, which is a
larger sized unit, easier to hold, and which doesn't involve
jamming the earpiece further into your ear each time you press
the button.
Most of the commands are
impossibly difficult to remember and use, but the simple on,
off, answer and hangup commands are all easy enough to remember
- they all involve pressing the same button, but for varying
lengths of time.
Maybe I was just pressing
the button for the wrong lengths of time, but I had problems
using the unit, with it sometimes not answering calls, or being
off when I thought it was on.
The 13.5" of cord connecting
the earpiece to the control box is a good length - not too short
as to limit where you have the control box, and not too long as
to get tangled up when not in use.
It seems moderately
important to keep the control box high up on your shirt and
close to your mouth - much extra distance seems to result in a
rapid deterioration in sound quality for the person at the other
end of the call.
Connecting with phones
Easy. Once you've
paired the unit with a phone, any time you turn the unit on, it
will quickly look for and connect with your phone if the phone is also
on and in range. This is convenient and
simple.
The unit paired effortlessly
to a Motorola Razr V3, a Blackberry 8800, and an Apple iPhone.
Summary
The Cardo S-640 looks
different to other Bluetooth headsets, and is perhaps more
discreet in appearance and use.
But Cardo overlooked the
opportunity to add more user friendly controls to the separate
control box part of the combined unit, and the net result is yet
another 'me too' hard to understand headset.
It has a current (Apr 08)
street price of about $35 through
Amazon .
This puts it in the middle price bracket. In terms of
sound quality, it is also in the middle of the range of products
- not excellent sound, but probably acceptable for most
purposes.
Should you spend $35 for
this headset when you can get a perfectly good headset (eg the Jabra BT125) for
slightly less? The Cardo offers no
extra features that you'd eagerly pay a premium for, merely a difference design and appearance.
Another question to ask
yourself if whether you should spend $35 on this headset when
you can get another Cardo unit - the
S-800 - for almost the same price, and with vastly better
sound quality. Most people will probably opt for the sound
quality of the S-800 rather than the innovative design of the
S-640.
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Originally published
18 Apr 2008, last update
21 Jul 2020
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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