Motorola’s Oasis headset announced: for $80

Posted by admin On September - 28 - 2010

If you don’t actually want to be able to feel that you’ve got a Bluetooth earbud hanging off the side of your head, you might want to take a look at the Motorola Oasis, a new boom-style headset announced today. Though it lacks the HX1′s so-called “stealth mode” that uses bone conduction to practically eliminate every sound other than your voice, the Oasis is still rated for 12mph of wind resistance and uses dual mics to cancel spurious noise. It’ll be available starting October 3 (as an AT&T store exclusive initially) for $79.99, positioning it toward the upper end of the Bluetooth midrange.

We’ve got to admit, this is probably the most comfortable, easy-to-wear Bluetooth headset we’ve used to date. The over-the-ear design guarantees that it’s not going to dislodge or tilt out of your ear at a weird angle (something we’re accustomed to with in-ear units, particularly those that don’t have hoops), and the parts that make contact with your skin are coated in a nice soft-touch material. Moto says that it has a “database of over 500 ears” (not a phrase you hear every day) that it used to help design the Oasis for maximum comfort, and for all intents and purposes, the effort seems to have paid off.

It features voice prompts to assist with pairing and to convey battery information — the same voice and style found on other recent Motorolas — and although it lacks A2DP support, we suspect that very few mono headset users care about that. In addition to volume keys on the rear and a call button atop the short chrome boom, the Oasis has a dedicated mute button in the upper back corner and a micro-USB port protected by a rubber flap toward the bottom. Both the boom and earbud rotate independently, for storage and also to support either left or right ear use. All told, it seems these guys put some serious thought into the Oasis’ design — so if you think you could see yourself in a boom-style Bluetooth headset, you’ll want to check it out.