Review: Blueant V12 Bluetooth Headset

Blueant V12

Blueant V12

Blueant V12

Blueant V12 LCD
Weight	16g (0.56oz)
Body Size	59.5mm x 19mm x 14mm (2.34" x 0.74" x 0.55")
Talk Time(1)	11:10
Ear Loop	Over Ear, optional
Left/Right Ear?	Both
LEDs	Backlit LCD, white
Pairings	5
Headset Sound	Good
Mic Sound	Good, noise reduction not very efficient
Included Accessories	A lanyard, replacement ear buds, a small ear loop, a large ear loop, an AC charger, and a manual.
1) hh:mm. Music was piped continually through the headset in both directions, for a worse-case scenario

The V12 LCD is the new vibrating headset from Blueant. It is a mid range headset with some interesting features, not least of which is the LCD screen, something you don't see on a Bluetooth headset every day. A few companies have dabbled in headsets with screens, but overall the fact that you can't see an LCD whilst wearing a headset on your ear renders it mostly useless. This is the case with the Blueant V12 LCD as well, though an included lanyard and decent informational use of the screen does make it somewhat more useful.

As well as the lanyard, the V12 ships with replaceable ear buds, a small and large ear loop, an AC charger, and an instruction manual. Though the headset uses a microUSB charging port, it surprisingly does not have a USB charging cable included, though these are cheap and easy to find. This microUSB connection is also what is used to connect the headset to the lanyard. First impressions were that this would detach without much effort, but it was surprisingly more secure that it first appeared and of the few times we used the lanyard, the headset stayed securely attached. The vibrating alert would be useful for those that use the lanyard and don't have a phone with vibrating alert, but other than this it did seem a little superfluous. Thankfully, the vibration can easily be turned off. Turning off the LCD would probably not have been a bad idea either, if it wasn't for its ability to show various useful pieces of status information about the unit.

The V12 is about as thick as it is wide, making it feel a bit bigger than it actually is when wearing it. The V12 measures 59.5mm x 19mm x 14mm (2.34" x 0.74" x 0.55") and weighs 16g (0.56oz), making it about average weight for a headset of this size. With an LCD and vibrating alert, a bit of extra weight is to be expected, so Blueant have done well to keep it down. The color scheme is a rather lackluster black and silver and the shape is quite uninspiring in comparison to other Blueant headsets like the T8 or X3 Micro with their simple, yet effective teardrop shape.

The battery returned a massive 11:10 (hh:mm) of talk time and Blueant claims the V12 has a standby time of 15 days. A full charge of the V12 from empty to full took just over three hours.

There are three buttons on the V12: a multifunction button located on the back end of the LCD and two volume control buttons located on the bottom of the unit. The volume buttons are small, but very responsive and protrude far enough from the unit to be easy to find and use while wearing the headset.

The headset is quite easy to use and the LCD really enhances the experience. The caller ID not only displays the number calling, but also allows you to scroll through the last 10 numbers used and call them directly from the headset. The LCD also has a display of the battery remaining, shown in 10% intervals, the level of the volume (from 1-10), the connection status, and whether vibrating alert is activated or not. Another feature of the LCD that we found quite clever was the description of the button presses. This means that on a short press of the multifunction button, it will display "Voice dial." On a long press, it first displays "Long Press" then "Redial," and on the longest press it will display "Off" just before the headset powers down. When turning the headset on with a long press of the multifunction button, the LCD display shows "On" then "Connecting" as the headset tries to automatically connect to the last device it was successfully connected to. As well as power on and off, pairing, redial, and voice dial, the multifunction button is also responsible for answering, rejecting, and ending calls.