Bluedio I4 Multipoint Bluetooth Headset with 3.5mm jack/port
I use a Bluetooth headset since last 1 year or so for attending calls (on iPhone 4S) and since last 6 months while watching TV series on my Nexus 7 2012. The one I was using till now is a cheap Chinese BCK-08 clip type which looks like iPod shuffle. But what I liked about that Bluetooth was that it had this clip so I can just clip the unit on my shirt / tshirt and can use a shorter earphones to be as much wire free as possible. Also it had facility to allow me to put my own earphones since it had the 3.5mm port. But its proprietary charging cable stopped working and buying new was difficult since I wasn’t getting it anywhere. So I decided to buy a new Bluetooth device.
Requirements:
So my requirements for the new Bluetooth were that it has be able to accept any 3.5mm jack earphone. This was very important as I did not want something which has its own set of earbuds which cannot be replaced. Also Clip was very important. Another feature that caught my eye was Multipoint so I was looking for a device with Multipoint as well.
On searching the internet for various options I found named and no-name Chinese brands as well. In named brands, we had Sony, Samsung mostly. Sony had MW600 but it was pretty costly for me and also it is not true multipoint, another was SBH20 and its price was also hovering around 2000 Rs on ebay. Samsung had one but that too was around Rs. 2500.
At one point I was intrigued by the LG HBS Tone 700 and HBS+ 730 which are highly rated but super expensive (4000+ Rs shipped to India) and have their own earphones.
Found It:
I had used Chinese brands before so I was comfortable buying another one. I found this Bluedio I4. I believe Bluedio is one of the better Chinese brands and has been selling BT headsets for quiet many years. Youtube has almost no review on this. There is an unboxing view but it is pretty shoddy and the reviewer I think does not speak anything. Couple more are there but either silent or in some other foreign language.
Packaging:
This is how the bluetooth is packaged. Pretty fancy. It has some sort of hologram sticker with a scratch card at the back which reveals a number. One can put that number on bluedio's website to authenticate the product. Back of the package has a diagram of the unit and what the various buttons and holes are for.
The package contains
1. Main Bluetooth Unit
2. USB charging cable (Nokia thin pin type)
3. Earbuds, shorter than usual
4. Instruction manual in Chinese (Mandarin) and English.
Earbuds:
Just throw them. They are probably the worst I have heard till date. If you have no choice, use them for voice call but strict no no for music. Mine was IEM type but newer packaging has iPhone earpods type with flat noodle type cable, but I bet the sound would be equally bad.
USB Charging Cable:
This is a Nokia Thin Pin type charging cable. Good thing is that if in future you lose this one, you can just get a Nokia charger which should work fine here. No wall charger provided.
Manual:
In English and Chinese. Explains everything properly.
Main Bluetooth Unit:
The main Bluetooth unit is pretty tiny. Pictures online will make it look big. Here is a comparison besides my Sansa Clip+ to show the size.
The front face has the main call receive/hangup button. They call it MF or Multifunction button. Apart from this we have Play/Pause, Fwd/Rwd and Volume + and – buttons. The volume buttons are inverted as in, when you press the back button, the volume increases. This is known issue you will see in reviews on internet as well.
Top part has a 3.5mm jack hole so you can plug in your favorite earphones and the charging port.
Right side has the Mic which has sort of speaker grill over it.
On the back we have the Clip which appears to be sturdy in construction.
Multipoint Connectivity:
It is surprising that this device supports multipoint but neither on the package, nor in the manual there is any mention of the same. But it is written on their website. For people unaware about what multipoint connectivity is, basically it means this BT device can be simultaneously connected (and stay that way) with 2 devices at a time. 2 devices paired at the same time.
This is different from “storing” the device in the Bluetooth memory for easy pairing later on.
Many cheap BT devices do not sport this and if you know your usage, you will find this feature immensely useful.
More details in the next section
My Usage:
I use an iPhone 4S as my primary and only phone and Nexus 7 2012 as a device to watch videos when I am traveling daily in my company bus. I paired this BT device with both iPhone and Nexus and I am simultaneously connected to them due to the multipoint feature.
One nifty little feature I found is that in my iPhone, where the Bluetooth symbol is there on status bar, it indicates the battery remaining/status of this Bluetooth device. Now this is cool J
One important thing to mention is that if you are using iPhone then by default here in control center it will show I4 as the device where the audio is ready to be streamed. Like below it shows I4 on my phone.
But I suggest you tap this I4 and select iPhone instead. This you should do when you are connected to 2 devices at a time (else ignore). Here is why. If I am connected to my Nexus 7 watching my videos and for some reason I pickup my phone and even if I make it wake it or unlock it, the audio on nexus stops immediately and the iphone audio (like unlock sound etc) comes through the device. But if you chose iPhone instead of I4 in the control center (it should show Airplay there once you have done it), the sounds of iPhone does not hamper my viewing on Nexus as now the key press sounds and lock/unlock sounds don’t come to the Bluetooth device.
Most people may say that then it defeats the purpose of Multipoint. I thought the same before.
But the BT device stays connected to Phone still fine and when a call comes, I can hear in my ears as well. It also continues to show the battery status (iOS device only).
Now it is expected that when you are using such 2 devices connected simultaneously, use the MF call button on the Bluetooth to pickup / hang up the call. When you do this, the video on my nexus pauses (I use MX player) and I am connected to the call and once the call disconnects, the video resumes. This is precisely what I wanted.
But be aware that if you accept the call by tapping the button on your phone, the video on other device pauses only momentarily and resumes immediately. And then you need to use the MF button on unit to pause the video. This is sort of bug I feel. So thumb rule is when connected in multipoint mode, use the MF Call button on the unit to accept/hangup calls.
Call Quality:
Call quality is pretty decent. The other party us able to hear me properly and I can hear them too.But my wife says that she feels i am talking through a speaker. But still clearly audible.
Battery Life:
I have not yet extensively tested this but I do get 4-6 Hours of battery life which I feel is pretty good. Charging takes around 2 Hours or so. Also as I mentioned above, in iOS devices, the battery status is shown along with the Bluetooth symbol on status bar.
When the battery is about to get over, it keeps emitting a short beep every 10 seconds or so to notify the user. This is pretty irritating actually. So in essence, just stop using it if battery low warning starts coming. Recharge it right away.
Pricing and where to buy:
I bought this from eBay.in for final price of Rs. 740, listed price including shipping was Rs. 890 but I had a Rs 150 Off coupon (which I bought from freecharge.in for Re. 1). Still any day, you will find this on eBay.in for under Rs. 1000.
Final Words:
This is a great multipoint stereo bluetooth with 3.5mm jack / port for the price. It does not have features like NFC and all and the bundled earphones are pretty bad but the unit by itself is solidly built. The clip and multipoint are its USP along with the 3.5mm port. I am no audiophile so i am ok with music quality when it is streamed through this device (from your phone/laptop etc).
UPDATE: Read about issues while using for phone calls and such below.
I use a Bluetooth headset since last 1 year or so for attending calls (on iPhone 4S) and since last 6 months while watching TV series on my Nexus 7 2012. The one I was using till now is a cheap Chinese BCK-08 clip type which looks like iPod shuffle. But what I liked about that Bluetooth was that it had this clip so I can just clip the unit on my shirt / tshirt and can use a shorter earphones to be as much wire free as possible. Also it had facility to allow me to put my own earphones since it had the 3.5mm port. But its proprietary charging cable stopped working and buying new was difficult since I wasn’t getting it anywhere. So I decided to buy a new Bluetooth device.
Requirements:
So my requirements for the new Bluetooth were that it has be able to accept any 3.5mm jack earphone. This was very important as I did not want something which has its own set of earbuds which cannot be replaced. Also Clip was very important. Another feature that caught my eye was Multipoint so I was looking for a device with Multipoint as well.
On searching the internet for various options I found named and no-name Chinese brands as well. In named brands, we had Sony, Samsung mostly. Sony had MW600 but it was pretty costly for me and also it is not true multipoint, another was SBH20 and its price was also hovering around 2000 Rs on ebay. Samsung had one but that too was around Rs. 2500.
At one point I was intrigued by the LG HBS Tone 700 and HBS+ 730 which are highly rated but super expensive (4000+ Rs shipped to India) and have their own earphones.
Found It:
I had used Chinese brands before so I was comfortable buying another one. I found this Bluedio I4. I believe Bluedio is one of the better Chinese brands and has been selling BT headsets for quiet many years. Youtube has almost no review on this. There is an unboxing view but it is pretty shoddy and the reviewer I think does not speak anything. Couple more are there but either silent or in some other foreign language.
Packaging:
This is how the bluetooth is packaged. Pretty fancy. It has some sort of hologram sticker with a scratch card at the back which reveals a number. One can put that number on bluedio's website to authenticate the product. Back of the package has a diagram of the unit and what the various buttons and holes are for.
The package contains
1. Main Bluetooth Unit
2. USB charging cable (Nokia thin pin type)
3. Earbuds, shorter than usual
4. Instruction manual in Chinese (Mandarin) and English.
Earbuds:
Just throw them. They are probably the worst I have heard till date. If you have no choice, use them for voice call but strict no no for music. Mine was IEM type but newer packaging has iPhone earpods type with flat noodle type cable, but I bet the sound would be equally bad.
USB Charging Cable:
This is a Nokia Thin Pin type charging cable. Good thing is that if in future you lose this one, you can just get a Nokia charger which should work fine here. No wall charger provided.
Manual:
In English and Chinese. Explains everything properly.
Main Bluetooth Unit:
The main Bluetooth unit is pretty tiny. Pictures online will make it look big. Here is a comparison besides my Sansa Clip+ to show the size.
The front face has the main call receive/hangup button. They call it MF or Multifunction button. Apart from this we have Play/Pause, Fwd/Rwd and Volume + and – buttons. The volume buttons are inverted as in, when you press the back button, the volume increases. This is known issue you will see in reviews on internet as well.
Top part has a 3.5mm jack hole so you can plug in your favorite earphones and the charging port.
Right side has the Mic which has sort of speaker grill over it.
On the back we have the Clip which appears to be sturdy in construction.
Multipoint Connectivity:
It is surprising that this device supports multipoint but neither on the package, nor in the manual there is any mention of the same. But it is written on their website. For people unaware about what multipoint connectivity is, basically it means this BT device can be simultaneously connected (and stay that way) with 2 devices at a time. 2 devices paired at the same time.
This is different from “storing” the device in the Bluetooth memory for easy pairing later on.
Many cheap BT devices do not sport this and if you know your usage, you will find this feature immensely useful.
More details in the next section
My Usage:
I use an iPhone 4S as my primary and only phone and Nexus 7 2012 as a device to watch videos when I am traveling daily in my company bus. I paired this BT device with both iPhone and Nexus and I am simultaneously connected to them due to the multipoint feature.
One nifty little feature I found is that in my iPhone, where the Bluetooth symbol is there on status bar, it indicates the battery remaining/status of this Bluetooth device. Now this is cool J
One important thing to mention is that if you are using iPhone then by default here in control center it will show I4 as the device where the audio is ready to be streamed. Like below it shows I4 on my phone.
But I suggest you tap this I4 and select iPhone instead. This you should do when you are connected to 2 devices at a time (else ignore). Here is why. If I am connected to my Nexus 7 watching my videos and for some reason I pickup my phone and even if I make it wake it or unlock it, the audio on nexus stops immediately and the iphone audio (like unlock sound etc) comes through the device. But if you chose iPhone instead of I4 in the control center (it should show Airplay there once you have done it), the sounds of iPhone does not hamper my viewing on Nexus as now the key press sounds and lock/unlock sounds don’t come to the Bluetooth device.
Most people may say that then it defeats the purpose of Multipoint. I thought the same before.
But the BT device stays connected to Phone still fine and when a call comes, I can hear in my ears as well. It also continues to show the battery status (iOS device only).
Now it is expected that when you are using such 2 devices connected simultaneously, use the MF call button on the Bluetooth to pickup / hang up the call. When you do this, the video on my nexus pauses (I use MX player) and I am connected to the call and once the call disconnects, the video resumes. This is precisely what I wanted.
But be aware that if you accept the call by tapping the button on your phone, the video on other device pauses only momentarily and resumes immediately. And then you need to use the MF button on unit to pause the video. This is sort of bug I feel. So thumb rule is when connected in multipoint mode, use the MF Call button on the unit to accept/hangup calls.
Call Quality:
Call quality is pretty decent. The other party us able to hear me properly and I can hear them too.But my wife says that she feels i am talking through a speaker. But still clearly audible.
Battery Life:
I have not yet extensively tested this but I do get 4-6 Hours of battery life which I feel is pretty good. Charging takes around 2 Hours or so. Also as I mentioned above, in iOS devices, the battery status is shown along with the Bluetooth symbol on status bar.
When the battery is about to get over, it keeps emitting a short beep every 10 seconds or so to notify the user. This is pretty irritating actually. So in essence, just stop using it if battery low warning starts coming. Recharge it right away.
Pricing and where to buy:
I bought this from eBay.in for final price of Rs. 740, listed price including shipping was Rs. 890 but I had a Rs 150 Off coupon (which I bought from freecharge.in for Re. 1). Still any day, you will find this on eBay.in for under Rs. 1000.
Final Words:
This is a great multipoint stereo bluetooth with 3.5mm jack / port for the price. It does not have features like NFC and all and the bundled earphones are pretty bad but the unit by itself is solidly built. The clip and multipoint are its USP along with the 3.5mm port. I am no audiophile so i am ok with music quality when it is streamed through this device (from your phone/laptop etc).
UPDATE: Read about issues while using for phone calls and such below.
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