Motorola Motopure H12

British soccer star David Beckham is the spokesperson for Motorola's stylish Motopure H12 Bluetooth headset because, according to Motorola, he "knows a thing or two about loud crowds." But he must not use the Motopure while surrounded by hordes of LA Galaxy/Spice Girls enthusiasts--or if he does, he must not care that no one can hear what he's saying. Maybe that's why the expression "Talk to the foot" never became popular.

The good-looking $84 (as of February 15, 2008) Motopure is a petite aluminum bar, about the thickness of a deck of cards and the length of a piece of Trident chewing gum. The subtle blue power light on the front is one of the few that don't suggest that you'll beaming up to the mothership at any moment. The comfortable clear plastic hook held the device to my ear securely--a good thing since the rubber-covered speaker was too big to fit snugly inside my ear.

The button layout is good. A big circular button on the front lets you answer and end calls. Holding it down for a few seconds triggers a redial--a feature that I accidentally invoked several times. Simultaneously pressing the two volume buttons located on the side mutes the sound.

Motorola claims that the Motopure has a talk time between battery charges of 5.5 hours--and based on my use over several days I have no reason to doubt it. The Motopure comes bundled with both desktop and travel AC chargers, but no USB charger.

The Motopure H12 is comfortable to use and was easy to pair with the Motorola Razr2 V9 and Nokia E62 that I used in my testing, but its audio input quality was far worse than that of other headsets I tried at the same time. Though I could hear clearly--even in a crowded bar--people had trouble hearing me whether I was in a noisy environment or alone in my office. A call to directory assistance, where I had to spell out my last name (uh-oh), was hopeless. I also managed to freak out my poor mother, who assumed that her hearing was going bad. Several other call recipients commented either that they heard a lot of interference or that they simply couldn't understand what I was saying.

In the end, you can find a number of better, albeit less stylish, headsets on the market.