Aizen
FlyBy Bluetooth Headset review
Noise cancelling and long battery life
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The Aizen FlyBy headset
looks attractive without being ostentatious, and is
convenient to use, although uncomfortable if worn for
extended periods.
Part
of our series on Bluetooth - more articles listed on
the right.
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Bluetooth headsets are becoming
more affordable and more practical.
The Aizen FlyBy headset has a
good (but not quite perfect) solution to battery charging, plus
excellent battery life and good underlying sound quality.
Easy to use and reasonably
easy to wear, this is a unit worth considering if you're looking
for a Bluetooth headset.
What you Get
The FlyBy7 is nicely
packaged in an easy to open display box.
Inside is the headset
itself, the charger brick, and the connecting cable to connect
the headset to the charger brick.
There is also a small sized
16 page well written user manual, a separate sheet with a Quick
Installation Guide on one side and wearing instructions on the
other side.
Feature Chart
Use this information to
quickly understand the capabilities of the unit and to compare
with other units.
|
Feature Comment |
|
Cost |
est US
retail about $50 |
|
Ergonomics |
|
Easy to put
on and take off |
It takes
a bit of time to adjust the unit to the
dimensions of your ear, but this is not
difficult to do - there's only one thing to
adjust in or out, and once the unit has been
adjusted, it is then easy to put on and take off
your ear. |
|
Easy to use
the control buttons |
There is one
main button called the Talk Button, plus two
small buttons for volume up and volume down.
The layout is such that it is easy to reach and
press these buttons. |
|
Comfortable
to wear |
Not very.
Rather than being a design that hangs off the
ear, it is a design that sticks into the ear and
stays in place by wedging itself between your
ear canal and an outer fold of your ear. |
|
Can you use
with glasses |
Yes.
Because this fits in the ear rather than over
the ear, glasses don't interfere at all. |
|
Can use with
either ear |
Yes |
|
Securely
mounted on ear |
You have to
compromise between comfort and security. A
comfortable fit isn't as secure as an
uncomfortable one. |
|
How to carry |
This is a
weakness of the unit. If it isn't in your
ear, there is no carry pouch or carry loop to
hang it around your neck. Fortunately, the
headset is fairly robust so there shouldn't be
too much of a problem if it is simply in your
pocket while not being used. |
|
Weight |
Light - 0.5
oz |
|
Ease of Use |
|
Commands
intuitive and easy to remember |
We've yet to
see any BT headset that is 100% intuitive to
use. This one is also a bit difficult to
remember how to activate the different
functions, but certainly no worse than any other
unit. Bottom line - don't lose the manual,
and/or download a pdf of it off the
manufacturer's website. |
|
Volume
adjustable |
Yes - this
is easy and good, with two separate buttons, one
on the top side (when worn on the right ear) for
volume up, and the other on the bottom side for
volume down. The buttons aren't labeled,
but it is fairly obvious which is which when you
use them, and intuitive if the headset is in
your right ear. |
|
How fast
does it turn on |
It takes
about seven seconds to turn on. |
|
Manual |
Well written
in perfect English |
|
Support |
Will depend
on US retailers |
|
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 10
hours talk or one week standby claimed.
This is a good battery life. |
|
Low battery
indicator/signal |
Red light
flashes. No audible signal. |
|
Battery type |
Lithium
polymer, 140 mAh |
|
Replaceable
battery? |
No |
|
Battery
charging method/time |
The charger
is halfway to perfection. Better than
many, but still not 100% perfect. A brick
charger terminates in a USB port. A USB
cable then connects to the USB port at one end
using a regular USB full size (type A)
connector, and to the headset at the other end,
but, alas, rather using a mini (type B) USB
connector at the headset end, it uses a
proprietary connector.
However, as long as you have the cable, it can
be plugged not just into the charger brick, but
also into a computer USB port or any other power
source that ends with a USB 5 volt standard
output. This can save you having to carry
one more charger with you when traveling. |
|
Multi-voltage charger |
Yes |
|
Charger
weight/size |
2.6 oz
Typical size for
a small brick chargers |
|
Other
charging methods |
Connect it
via the supplied cable to any other device with
a powered USB port, eg your laptop. |
|
How many
pairings can be stored |
The unit can
store up to eight different pairing profiles. |
|
Headset and
hands-free profiles? |
Yes, both |
|
Audio
profile for computers |
No |
|
Bluetooth
compatibility |
Version 1.2 |
|
Power/range |
Class 2
10 meters (33 ft) claimed range |
|
Effective
range |
More than
adequate. Can reach up two floors
vertically and some distance horizontally. |
|
Warranty |
Depends on
retailer/distributor policies, but probably will
be for one year. |
|
Free return |
Retailer
policies will vary |
|
Noise
cancelling/DSP |
Yes, claimed via a
special patented design (using a single
microphone rather than dual microphones or DSP) |
|
Sound
quality |
Poor.
When using the headset, the voice from the other
person (on a regular phone) was okay. But
the person at the other end heard my voice as
muffled and quieter than normal, and with some
digital distortion as well. |
|
Capabilities |
|
Turning on
and off |
Easy.
Simply press the Talk button until it switches
on (about a seven second press) or off (about a
three second press). In each case, a
confirmation tone tells you when you've
successfully turned the unit on or off. |
|
Auto connect |
Yes |
|
Voice tag
support |
Yes, easy to
use (simply press the Talk button in standby
mode and say the name after a very faint quiet beep
that you'd likely not hear in a noisy
environment) |
|
Last number
redial |
Yes, but
only when using Hands-Free, not Headset profile
phones. To
activate, press the volume down button for three
seconds, you'll hear a tone, then release it. |
|
Transfer
call to/from phone |
The easiest
way to transfer to the headset is simply to turn
the headset on. It takes about seven
seconds for the headset to turn on, and about as
long again for it to automatically take over the
call.
The easiest
way to transfer back to the phone is simply to
turn the headset off.
Alternatively, pressing the 'Volume Up' button
swaps the call between phone and headset too. |
|
Call
waiting/Three way calling |
Apparently
not supported |
|
Call reject |
Only in
Hands-Free not Headset mode. Press the
Talk button for three (but no more than five or
else you run the risk of activating the
Bluetooth pairing function) seconds. |
|
Call
answer/end |
Yes - press
the Talk button to end a call. |
|
Mute |
Yes.
Press both volume keys simultaneously to toggle
the mute on and off. This is easier to do
than it sounds due to the volume keys being on
opposite sides of the unit. |
|
Subjective |
|
Attractive
design |
Yes |
|
Flashing
indicators on standby |
Yes, a green
light flashes once every three seconds while
switched on.
Some might consider this objectionable,
particularly at night, but at least it is easy
to tell if the unit is switched on or not. |
|
Size |
Average but
not obtrusive |
|
Summary |
|
This unit
has a good feature set in a convenient small
package, and at a fair price. The sound
quality is an important negative.
And, unfortunately - at least by my personal
standards - it is not very comfortable to wear
for long periods of time. |
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Using the Aizen FlyBy Headset
Perhaps the most important -
and most variable - attribute of any Bluetooth headset is the
ease and comfort of wearing it.
The FlyBy headset needs to
be adjusted for best fit by sliding one piece in or out to get
the geometry best suited for your ear shape. In theory,
this should be simple. In practice - not quite so simple.
I spent a considerable amount of time adjusting the setting in a
bit, and out a bit, until reaching what I thought to be an
acceptable compromise between comfort and secure fit.
Once the headset has been
adjusted it seems fairly easy to fit onto (into) one's ear and
to remove.
The comfort level is such
that one probably would not want to wear the unit for a long
time, other than while talking.
As for using it, everything
could be done by touch just by reaching up to the headset while
in your ear with just one hand.
A well written manual and
separate guide on how to fit the headset to one's ear quickly
had me getting all these things optimized, and starting to use
the phone.
Pairing the headset with a
phone was easy, but regrettably the headset doesn't use a
sensible name to describe itself in the phone's table of
Bluetooth connections. Instead, it refers to itself as
simply 'Headset[063D]'. If you only have one headset, this
probably doesn't matter, but if you have more than one, there's
no easy way to remember that this entry refers to the Aizen
FlyBy headset.
Sound quality wasn't nearly as good
as hoped for. From my end of a conversation, using the
headset, the other person sounded acceptably clear, but there
was more background hiss than I'd hear through the phone
directly.
From the other side, there
was more hiss apparent, and my voice sounded muddy and muffled.
There was also some digitization distortion, and generally
quality was markedly inferior to what one would expect or hope
for.
[Note - the manufacturer
has promised to send a better sample headset, claiming a more
comfortable fit and better sound quality. This was
expected in Dec 05 and has yet to be received. We will
revise this review if/when it is received.]
Connecting with phones
Initial pairing was easily
done.
Using the unit was simple.
The unit automatically connects when it is switched on and
within range of a paired phone (and of course automatically
disconnected when out of range). This makes operation
fairly foolproof.
The battery life is claimed
to be very generous. We haven't rigorously tested this,
but casual analysis suggests battery life is close to that
claimed.
Summary
Aizen's FlyBy unit has some
good features and promises a lot. But it is weakened by
very poor sound quality and a comfort level that doesn't
encourage lengthy wearing of the headset.
We wanted to like this unit,
and we do like some parts of it. But, overall, the minuses
outweigh the pluses, and it isn't going to replace our regular
corded headset.
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Originally published
9 Dec 2005, 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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