Mpow Magneto Bluetooth Headset Review
I was sent a free review sample of this bluetooth headset to review, below are my impressions, for those looking to pick up a nice and pretty unique headset.
UNBOXING, INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
The Magneto comes in a nice and slim box, the entire front of the box doubles as a flap that is held closed by a magnet. Swinging it open reveals the Magneto very tightly nestled inside of a velvet covered plastic holder that has been precision cut to fit the headset. Removing that reveals the included accessories, which are:
MicroUSB Cable
Small and Large Sized Eartips (Medium sized tips are already pre-mounted on the headset)
Small, Medium, and Large Rubber Ear Stabilizers
Manual Card
I was disappointed to see a lack of a carrying pouch or case of some sort among the accessories. Moreso because the Magneto headset itself is stunningly finished, with a very nice circular polished metal finish on its front face. I would hate to see it get scratched, so I do wish a carrying pouch had been included.
The headset itself is surprisingly large, much more so than I anticipated initially. It's also rather heavy, which isn't necessarily the best "feature" for an earphone to have. However as I discovered later, this wasn't really an issue.
The control pod is nicely made, with a full rubber coating, and 3 very clicky buttons.
CHARGING, BLUETOOTH PAIRING
The right earpiece contains a small rubber flap on top of the earpiece, which you flip open to reveal a microUSB port. The Magneto already comes pre-charged, however, it's still a good idea to top it off. A full charge takes 2 hours, which gives a playback time of 8 hours, and 175 hours of standby time.
To pair the headset, simply turn on bluetooth on your device, and hold down the central button on the Magneto's control pod. You'll hear a "Power On" prompt...continue to hold down the central button, and do not let it go. After 7 seconds, you'll hear another prompt say "Pairing", and a light will begin blinking orange, after which, you should see "Mpow Magneto" show up on your device. I didn't need a password, however if you do need to enter one, simply enter "0000". I found pairing to be effortless and very easy. The bluetooth spec is bluetooth 4.1.
Note that you can pair the Magneto with up to two devices. To pair a second device, make sure your first device's bluetooth is turned off, and then follow the pairing instructions again for the 2nd device. I was able to pair a 2nd device no problem.
PHYSICAL COMFORT
As mentioned, the Magneto is a rather bulky earphone, and there's no getting around the fact that it will stick out quite a bit in your ears. However, thanks to the inclusion of the rubber stabilizers, the Magneto's weight surprisingly disappeared, once in the ears. The 3 included tip sizes are all very nice and soft, and I had no issues using the Magneto for over an hour or longer. You can also wear the Magneto with the wire dangling below your chin, or behind your neck, to get the wire out of the way.
OPERATION
Once you've connected your device, to play music, press the central button on the control pod to play or pause the music. Next song is activated by long pressing the '-' button, and previous song is activated by long pressing the '+' button. Volume up and down involves short pressing the '=' and '-' buttons. There are no operations that allow you to fast forward or reverse through a song, you can only skip songs.
For phone calls, simply press the central button on the control pod to answer a call, and press the central button again to end the call. You can also hold down the central button as a call comes in, until you hear a "toot toot" prompt, to reject a call. Voice dialing is possible by holding down the central button and the '+' button simultaneously. Lastly, holding down the '+' and '-' button simultaneously will mute the microphone during a call.
The Magneto also has another very cool feature, from which it draws its name. The earpieces both have magnets embedded within them, and if you simply stick them together, your music will automatically pause (or your call will automatically end). Pulling the earpieces apart will play music again, or allow you to automatically answer an incoming call. My only concern with this feature is possibly scratching the nice metal finishing on the housings.
SOUND QUALITY
And here we have the most important part of any earphone: audio quality. I do consider myself an audio enthusiast, and this was my first time ever trying a bluetooth earphone, mostly because I've always assumed they just simply didn't sound as good as wired earphones.
At first listen, I was surprised at how clear the midrange to treble sounded. The treble didn't sound harsh or bright at all, and the midrange was smooth. As one might expect however with fairly inexpensive, sealed tip earphones, the bass can become rather overpowering at times. Strangely enough, I found this to be somewhat source material and volume related, rather than simply a permanent aspect of the Magneto. At lower volume levels, and when listening to more acoustic, instrumental material, the bass came across as defined and tight, without too much bloat. It was mostly midbass oriented however, and the bass doesn't get very deep. If I played tracks with more exciting basslines however, the bass could quickly get very boomy and overpowering, especially if the volume is turned up.
I also found that the Magneto tended to do instrumental music better than vocals, as vocals had a strangely laid back property, as if the singer were singing from a great distance from everything else. A bit jarring at first, but something that I got used to the more I listened to the Magneto.
CONCLUSION
I found the Magneto to be a very nicely made bluetooth headset, and was surprised by how good it sounded for a bluetooth earphone. Especially cool was its magnetic play/pause feature that has been built into the earpieces. At low to medium volumes, it has a very balanced sound, but the bass can get a bit overwhelming if you crank up the volume.
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