Being on the road with a laptop has been a bit of a nightmare in the past. A nightmare of cords, chargers and fiddly bits of equipment. Newton Peripherals has previously attacked this problem with its tiny Bluetooth enabled mouse, but now the company has turned its attention to headsets, producing a tiny device that weighs 9 grams, is about a third the size of a credit-card, and so thin – at 5 mm - that it can be stored and charged inside a laptop’s express card slot.
Batteries!
The big challenge with all portable products is battery life. There is not much point having a portable headset when it goes flat just as you are taking a call.
The MoGo talk, with a talk time of four hours, charges and stores right on your laptop using your PC Card or ExpressCard/54 slot.
The folding earpiece lays completely flat and doesn’t get in your way while it is charging up.
With a standby time of over one week, you know that you can take a long break from the mobile office and it will be there ready when it's time to get back to work!
By the way, Newton peripherals will be releasing integrated mobile phone versions of my go talk for the iPhone and Blackberry, so you can charge it up right on the back of your iPhone.
What about the sound quality and comfort?
Headsets can be uncomfortable to wear and produce less than quality sound.
The first thing you notice is that there are no earbuds and earloop, and no uncomfortable mini speaker. MoGo Talk has a flexible thin rubber ear tip that conforms to the shape of your ear, creating a seal that blocks out noise (although it doesn't feature active noise cancellation found in some high-end headsets). The bonus I really like, holds the MoGo Talk in place. No more headsets falling off your ear at just the wrong moment.
We haven't yet put it through its paces, but in terms of sound quality, Jamie Lendino over at PCMag.com was impressed: "The logo talks earpiece sounded surprisingly full, and voice calls were crisp and clear in both directions. “
And if you're one of those people who like to go for a wander while you're having that intense phone conversation, it has a range of 33 feet.
You can pre-order for about USD$99 and it should be shipping in early August.