Absolute Gadget

Review: Invisio G5 Bluetooth headset

Written by Rene Millman Friday, 04 January 2008 07:16

When heard rumours of this headset being used by Swat teams and the like, naturally we at Absolute Gadget got a little excited, maybe a little too overexcited. Danish tech firm Nextlink claim its Invisio G5 Bluetooth headset to be the smallest in the world.

The thing measures just 16mm long with a 13mm diameter tube with a speaker at one end and and a microphone at the other. the earpiece is matt black and quite stylish really, which is a shame as when you shove it in your ear you can hardly see it! It weighs next to nothing (actually about 6g) and pops into the ear and stays there with an innovative rubber spring which its into the inside folds of your ear, rather than coiling something around the outside of your ear. In tests this worked perfectly - the earpiece stayed in regardless of how much we jumped up and down.

The earpiece does have flashing lights (it wouldn't be a bluetooth device without flashing lights), but these too are discreetly tucked away on the inside of the earpiece, away from view.

Also here are the buttons to control the volume (the button to take a call is on the outside).

Making and taking calls is pleasant enough and the call quality is good considering how tiny this thing is.

The talk time is around four hours, so not as long as say other Bluetooth headsets but it does come with a "SmartCharger" which looks uncannily like a Zippo cigarette lighter. When the earpiee is put inside it the charger does its job of charging it up. It has some lights on the outside, which we can't work out what they actually do, perhaps they are contacting aliens or something. Anyway, this means that when plonks inside and recharge from this, talk time goes up to 20 hours. When this wireless charger runs out of steam - you have to plug it in to recharge itself and the earpiece - this takes about three hours to recharge fully.

Overall, if you want a Bluetooth headset that is small and unobtrusive - this could be your best bet. Although at £80 it isn't the cheapest one on the block.

Rating: 8/10