SouthWing Neovoice USB Review

Overall Rating

Very comfortable - can be worn for ages
Practical design
Easy to setup
Sound quality
Battery life
Lots of functions
Optional USB/Car charger

None so far

The SouthWing Neovoice USB is the one!! Having researched BT headsets for a while I wasn't happy with any single one. Each seemed to have a bad point to put me off.

What I was looking for:
- Comfort, should be able to wear it for ages
- Long battery life - over 4 hours at least
- Car charging option - just in case
- Price, around £50 or less
- Design - nothing too big or sci-fi and no flimsy ear hooks

Over a few days I read many reviews and did my own tests in the high street. Many of the BT headsets fell down on one of these points so I was struggling. Then I came across the NeoVoice USB at Expansys.co.uk (for around £40 but nearly £80 at other websites). The website is excellent (south-wing.com) which you MUST check out before buying as it lists the phones it will work with (which is probably all of them) - just remember it's the USB version.

The NeoVoice has it all. A decent over the ear design with a pain free in-ear speaker, plus a boom microphone. In plain black (available in silver and red too) it looks plain which is how I wanted it. The battery life seem good so far, around 5 hours in use and plenty in standby. It switches itself off after 4 hours of inactivity.

It boasts all sorts of features like automatic answer (after 2 seconds), auto redial, multiple ring tones, volume control, etc. etc. - not short of features at all. However, the single dial/button control may not be to everyone's liking (press once for X, twice for Y, three times for Z, etc.) - it's a bit quirky to say the least. For simple setup and usage though its fine.

I've found Expansys sell a USB/Car charger kit for about £6 which I will order when required.

BEST OF ALL - I found the NeoVoice on eBay for just £28 !!! And with only £2 p+p it was delivered next day (it's rare these days to find a seller on eBay who isn't ramping up the price of postage).

A highly recommended headset even though I'm not really a heavy phone user. I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences of this headset just for comparison.

Just for the record two others came close; 2nd choice would have been the Jabra BT250 which I tried out for a day. Good on most points except the design and the gel ear things which didn't suit me. 3rd choice was the Motorola HS810 which was a top quality product but with a very short battery life (but can be charged with a Motorola car charger). Also tried it for a couple of days and it was pretty good but I didn't like the slightly flimsy round-the-ear plastic.

Members' Comments onoloonat's Review

• KenMavor on 26th Sep 2004

  Agree entirely about the flimsy round the ear loop. Just broke mine on my Bluetrek G2 and am looking for a headset with a stronger connection to my ear - either the Jabra BT250 or the Neovoice.