Review: V-Moda's Vibe Duo Apple iPhone headset

I'm a big fan of Bluetooth, but not Bluetooth headsets. I know, it's probably a bit goofy, but I can't help think that it's a bad idea to have a wireless electronic device hooked over your ear and beaming random electrical waves into your skull.

Some modern phones have no options - either you use Bluetooth for a headset or you hold the phone itself up to your head - but fortunately the Apple iPhone has a very sophisticated headphone jack that actually lets you plug in a wired headset.

Even better? The little white headphones included with your Apple iPhone actually is a basic headset too, with a tiny microphone on the wire about 10" below the right earbud. It's magic, really, because the tiny bump that's the mic is also a switch that, by pressing, you can answer or hang up phone calls too. Very slick bit of engineering and I expect that a majority of iPhone owners are clueless it's more than just a headset!

However, in actual use, friends and colleagues would frequently complain to me that I was "faint" or that they couldn't really hear me clearly. So on the positive side, the iPhone comes with a free corded headset (which makes it unique in the cellphone biz as far as I know), but on the negative side, it's really not that good a headset.

Enter V-Moda and its first-to-market V-Moda Vibe Duo headset, in "nero" color scheme:

As you can see, the first thing that attracted me was that it's a very cool looking unit with the heavy use of chrome and the "industrial" look. Not much like the design of the Apple iPhone itself, but still.. I liked that it was quite explicitly not yet another little white earbud device

Even better, it sounds terrific when I listen to music on the headphones and when I use it to make phone calls? No one has a clue I'm using a hands-free wired headset, which is particularly convenient when I'm driving or even walking around.

At $99, it's not a cheap replacement for an otherwise free wired headset/headphone unit that's included by Apple, but in my experience, it's sheer dynamite, a great upgrade and well worth the money if you aren't too thrilled about the electrical fields and choices made available through Bluetooth.