KinivoBTH240 Bluetooth Headphones (Black, On-Ear, Wireless Music, Hands-Free Calling, Built-in Mic, Foldable, Travel Bag)

I bought these headphones for my laptop because I was afraid I'd break the cord on my nice ones. My older bose earphones (IE2) fit so well, I would forget I was wearing them and walk off, pulling the headphones out of my ears or the cord out of the computer. I didn't want to break these, so I decided to look for some wireless ones.I read the reviews on these, and I am glad I purchased the Kinivo brand headphones over some of the others. There are other sellers, but what they are selling are the same as the inferior Kinivo BTH220 headphones. Some of them even have 240 in the name, but they're the same design as the Kinivo BTH 220. The Kinivo BTH240 headphones have better buttons on the right earpiece. They have less travel, and they feel higher quality.Pros:1.)Light- I can wear them all day.2.)Great battery life! I get at least 10 hours of constant music playback. If there isn't constant audio, they last much longer. Basically, you get 10 hours of constant audio playback. If you aren't playing audio but they're still on, they last longer.3.)Excellent sound quality! I have been using Bose IE2 headphones, which I consider relatively good quality. There is NO noticeable decrease in sound quality with these headphones over the Bose ones. The bass is excellent, and they don't sound remotely cheap. I thought for the price, there might be some static hiss like there was with a pair of Sony Bluetooth headphones. There is no background noise whatsoever! I would have to take my Sony headphones off when I wasn't listening to something because the hissing would gradually drive me crazy. These surprisingly are completely silent. The Sony Bluetooth headphones also costed more than twice as much.4.)Design and functionality: These "on-ear" headphones are relatively comfortable. When you are sitting or lying down, they aren't very noticeable. If you try to lean your head on something, they can be uncomfortable. I elaborate on this more in the cons. The headphones themselves look fine. They are plastic, but they're not cheap looking or feeling. All of the buttons (next, previous, volume up/down, and the middle button) work great with my computer and phone. The center "other" button held to turn them on and off, and pressed once to pause/resume audio/video and take calls. All of these buttons are on the right headphone. They are big, and I learned their placement very quickly. They also don't require much force, so you don't have to press very hard and put pressure on your ears. Another design feature that I LOVE is that they charge via MicroUSB! This means I don't have to carry a special cable. The cable for my android phone and tablet also works with my headphones! Sony could learn something in this department! They include a USB cable to charge them from a USB port on a computer. I just use the one for my phone. They are full in a few hours too, so it doesn't hog the charger.5.)Fantastic value! I paid $25 for these headphones with a $5.00 amazon discount coupon. For $25, I wasn't expecting anything close to my Bose in ear headphones. I honestly cannot tell the difference. Obviously the form factor is different, but the level of audio detail is amazing. When comparing my Bose earphones to the old apple ones, I would notice little things in the music I had never heard before. These headphones have as much audio detail as my Bose ones do. If you are familiar with the old apple headphones and thought they were alright, these Bluetooth headphones will be a serious upgrade. For high quality headphone users, these certainly aren't a noticeable downgrade. If I had to guess a price for these just based on sound quality, I would put them in the $75-$100 range. These are seriously on par or better than the Sony Bluetooth headphones that are in that price range. The fact that they cost $25-30 amazes me.Cons:1.) It isn't easy to lay down with these on. If you try to lay on your back, the band that goes around the back of your head gets moved, pushing the headphones forward about a quarter inch. In this position, they are uncomfortable. A pillow minimizes this effect. You also can't lay on your side unless you want the headphones pushing against your ears. Again, a pillow minimizes this.2.)Constantly blinking LED. While in use, they have a bright blue LED that flashes every 7 seconds or so. It is bright enough that I can see the light blink on my shoulder if I'm in the dark. This is a minor annoyance, and can easily be solved with a well placed piece of duct tape, or a permanent marker if you just want to make it less bright.3.) They are relatively loud to people not wearing them. If you are in a quiet room and listening to music, the people around you can also faintly hear the music. It isn't very loud. For comparison, my old apple earbuds are louder when they're taken out of my ears. This is just a minor annoyance because I might want my voice calls to be private. If you're in a car however, a person in the seat next to you can't hear the conversation over the noise of the vehicle.All things considered, these headphones are an unbelievable deal! I wasn't expecting this level quality, both sound and design, in a pair of headphones for under $30. Beware of other companies that are selling a similar product (cough cough SoundBot cough). They say they're the 240 model number, but they actually correspond to the Kinvio BHT220 headphones. The BHT220 headphones had some problems that are fixed in this model (BHT240). They are all made by the same factory, but I haven't seen any of the other nameless brands selling this model of headphone.If you want to chance it with the other nameless brands, fine. As far as I can tell though, they're all selling what is equivalent to the Kinivo BHT240 Bluetooth headphones. If you find another brand with this model of headphones for less than $25, I'd like to know. At the time of writing this review, I can't find this model of headphones from any other brand. Maybe Kinivo is just the first to release them.I will be recommending these to all my friends. I like that I can listen to audiobooks and music almost anywhere in the house. It is a serious convenience that you can't fully appreciate until you've experienced it.UPDATE 2/12/2014:I have been using these wireless headphones for a while, and I absolutely love them. I want to mention another feature I hadn't really acknowledged. They reconnect to my computer super easily! I just turn them on, and they connect within 20 seconds. My computer speakers are muted and the sound is directed through the wireless headphones. I forgot to mention this because it is so seamless. The more I use these headphones, the more I love them.

* I'm currently listening to my music wirelessly from my old Fire tablet; I've streamed from all my devices and Macs.* These are exactly 9 years in service by the end of July 2025.* The black pad substance flaked off the two pads, extremely typical of all brands, so when that began I used a tweezer and pulled it all off in 15 minutes, there is a foam of respectable density revealed.* The headband is not fabric (thankfully) and it's not that weird rubber that gets sticky, it's a flat not glossy gray.* The back stays off my neck, stays right in place, I hardly ever adjust them. Only when I look straight up does the band connect with the skin. So that's a good, durable neck band.* Sound is okay, it is decent sound, they are not junk, BUT BUT these are functional not audiophile.* Charge is micro-usb under a rubber flap which is still doing it's job. ALWAYS TAKE CARE WITH ALL YOUR USB PORTS, TAKE YOUR TIME. It will pay off in longevity of your purchase.* I have an average head to fit.

---+ Review after >6 months of useBOTTOM LINE: the Kinivo BTH240 remains my favorite headset, better than look-alikes such as the SoundBot SB240, or the Jarv Joggerz BT210I depend on a headphone/headset/mike in order to participate in phone meetings. I find that I cannot use earbuds - they hurt my ears, and often cause ear infections. I prefer on-ear headphones. (Or over-the-ear, or around-the-ear.) I used mainly to use wired headphones, but I had pretty good luck with a pair of Kinivo BTH240 bluetooth headphones. When I mislaid them, I decided to do a bit of comparison. I have tried:+ Kinivo BTH240 (29.99$ for a "Limited Edition" bright blue set; the set that I purchased in December cost me 24.99$, which seems to be a typical price.)+ Kinivo BTH220 (13.99$)+ Soundbot SB240 (14.99$)+ Jarv Joggerz BT301 (17.99$)BOTTOM LINE: the Kinivo headsets 240 are best, mainly because they have a greater range of volume - they can be cranked louder than the Soundbot or the Jarv Joggerz.The BTH220 differs from the BTH240 mainly in that the 220 uses a mini-USB connector, while the 240 uses a micro-USB connector. The 220 also has less battery life.One might think that the Kinivo BTH240 and the SoundBot SB240 would be similar - the common number "240" suggests they use the same silicon. Physically, I prefer the Soundbot - it is easier to find the buttons to turn volume iup or down, and/or go forward or back on a podcast. But, more important is that the Kinivo BTH240 can play louder than the Soundbot SB240.Volume matters to me, because I listen to podcasts played from my phone to these headsets, typically while walking in the woods. When walking near a moderately loud road, the Kinivo BTH240 volume can be turned up loud enough so that I can hear, while the Soundbot SB240 is drowned out by the road noise.I do not know if the difference in loudness is due to physical construction, or due to electronics. I suspect both.The Jarv Joggerz BT301 was a hopeful acquisition: the Kinivo and SoundBots all have fairly big bars connecting the earmuffs, which make it difficult to do floor work like stretches and situps. The Joggerz has a much lighter wire that sits closer to the skin. Indeed, the Joggerz can be used to do situps: but overall the Joggerz is almost inaudible at my healthclub with its pounding music. Moreover, the Joggerz controls are much harder to work.So that's it: the Kinivo BTH240 is my preference, the headset that I try to use in the gym or outside. The others I keep as backup, at my office, or in my home office.As for colors: I mainly don't care, but there is some small utility value in having different colors, to make it easier to keep track of which is charged or which belongs in my gymbag.---+ Early review, circa January 2015:Happy so far. Received this Bluetooth headset about a week ago.Works with Android phone (Samsung Galaxy Note 2) and Windows laptop (Lenovo X220). I am able to use voice control for Google Now on my phone as well as listen to podcasts. On the PC I have used it for Dragon Naturally Speaking as well as for Skype.For the record: it is an on-the-ear device, with the link between the earpads behind the neck.Use for exercise: Stays on while I am walking on a treadmill or elliptical, but not running. The behind the neck link is uncomfortable when lying down on a mat for stretching and/or a bench for weights.Suboptimal:This is only a Bluetooth wireless headset. It cannot be used in wired mode, the way many Sony BT headsets can. The wired USB connection seems to be for charging only. (But, you can have the USB plugged in to charge, and use it via BT for sound at the same time.)Although it can Bluetooth pair with more than one device at a time, this is not as good as it should be: it only seems to mean that the pairing configuration is remembered, that you don't have to do a full re-pairing. I.e. it records a pairing, but is not actively connected to more than one device at a time.(By the way, the pairing process for this device is probably insecure: it has no display for you to see a pairing code offered by a host, so it seems to pair promiscuously without whatever Bluetooth hosts are scanning in the vicinity. I think this means that, if you are pairing in a public place, that you are very vulnerable to man in the middle interception and proxying. So I hope the "multiple saved pairings" means that, once you have established a pairing link in a private place, re-connecting in public is not vulnerable, because the host has already shared keys with the headset. But pairing from scratch is vulnerable. Security issues such as this are a concern to me, since I am using the mike to control my phone or PC. An insecure headset with voice control is equivalent to leaving your PC keyboard unlocked - worse, because it is wireless.)Unfortunately, you cannot be connected to more than one device at the same time, and switch easily from device to device: e.g. be connected to all of PC and tablet and cellphone, and hit a button ON THE HEADSET to switch. To switch active devices you have to go to the host - e.g. go to the PC, click Bluetooth on the tray, click Show Bluetooth devices, (wait a while, if you have more than 1 or 2 BT devices, click on the Kinivo BTH240, then click Connect. And AFAICT you have to put the Kinivo into pairing mode. Similar process to switch to Android, although fewer clicks than on a PC.Many Bluetooth headsets have a mode where you can be connected to your PC, and when a call arrives on your cell phone it switches you over. AFAICT this mode is NOT present on the Kinivo BTH240.(I say AFAICT because I vaguely recall such a switchover may have happened when I was first playing with the headset - but I have not been able to reproduce it since then, and I see nothing in the manuals, so I suspect that my vague memory is incorrect.)In any case, I do not want automatic switchover from a PC to an incoming call: first because I may not want to pick up the call, but more importantly because I use this headset for voice control. I want to be able to switch from PC host to cell phone host to tablet host just by touching a button on the headset.Nevertheless, although the Kinivo BTH240 has these problems, so do all or most of the other Bluetooth headsets on the market. I mention them only because they are on my wishlist. I know of no BT headset that has a "switch paired host" button on the headset. (I used to have one that switched between PC and cell phone under voice control, but can no longer find it.)For the price, the Kinivo BTH240 is very good, comparable to headsets that cost hundreds of dollars.